Learn Create Share @ your library this Teen Tech Week™
By Stephanie Kuenn, Communications Specialist, YALSA
At thousands of libraries across the United States, teens can log onto computers to complete research for homework or use software to make videos about their favorite books. Libraries offer free access to technology for learning or for fun in a safe environment. In a world where communication is instant and technology changes rapidly, developing solid information literacy skills is more important than ever. Librarians and libraries play an important role in fostering those skills for teens.
Teen Tech Week™, a national initiative sponsored by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) and held March 7-13, highlights the technology available to teens at libraries and that librarians are qualified, trusted information professionals who provide guidance and instruction to teens and their families. The purpose of Teen Tech Week is to ensure that teens are competent and ethical users of technology, especially the nonprint resources offered through libraries, such as DVDs, databases, audiobooks, online homework help, video games, and more.
Today's teens are growing up in a shifting technological landscape, one in which new social networks have emerged, online video and photo sharing has become popularized, and information is easier to disseminate through blogs, wikis, and page builders. These new forms of content require new approaches to research and information literacy. Teens need to know that a library can be a trusted resource for accessing information in emerging formats, and that librarians are experts who can help them develop their information literacy skills to better use electronic resources effectively and efficiently.
Libraries and librarians spread this message by offering programs and services that connect teens with technology in the library. Through special events and programs held during Teen Tech Week, librarians will encourage teens to use the library's nonprint resources such as computers, audiobooks, databases, DVDs, online homework help, tabletop and video games, and CDs.
The 2010 Teen Tech Week theme — Learn Create Share @ your library — fosters teen creativity and positions the library as a physical and virtual place for safe exploration of the many types of technology available at libraries, including DVDs, music, gaming, video production, online homework help, social networking, tech workshops, audiobooks and more.
Want to learn more? Contact the youth librarian at your public library or the school librarian at your school library media center and ask what the library has planned for Teen Tech Week 2010.
Tips for Parents
- Concerned about social networking and what your teens are putting online? Talk to your librarian and see if your library has plans to offer a social networking seminar, where teens can learn how to use sites like Facebook and Twitter while staying safe.
- Librarians want teens to be safe online. That is why libraries have policies in place that govern Internet use and why they offer information and hands-on sessions for parents and young people about staying safe online.
- It is common for libraries to have DVDs, audiobooks, music CDs and other electronic items available for teens and their parents to borrow. During tough economic times, libraries provide free access to technology that entertains, and many Americans are currently taking advantage of this access.
- Libraries have extensive Web sites and online resources, such as databases, that allow patrons to use the library 24/7. Ask your librarian about databases that your teens can use or if they offer online homework help — and remember, these services are usually free.
- More than 77% of parents recognize that the Web is crucial to learning and 91% agree that it helps their kids explore things they’re passionate about, according to a July 2006 survey in School Library Journal. Talk to your librarian about technology at the library that can engage your teens and how the library can help them learn.
- Looking for volunteer opportunities for your teens? Check at the library! Many libraries offer volunteer programs that allow tech-savvy teens to help the less-than-computer-literate in their community. Hennepin County Library in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has a program called the Teen Tech Squad, in which teens are paid to lead technology workshops for library users. At the Queens Library in New York City, teens volunteer for the “Tech Buddies” program and are matched with a senior citizen who would like to learn more about technology.