Real-World Teen Services

There are plenty of resources about teen services that focus on YA readers’ advisory and programming ideas. But the basics of day-to-day service to teens in the library setting, a discipline requiring specific skills, is all too often glossed over in professional literature. As a result many LIS grads begin serving teens armed with an incomplete understanding of why their job is both important and unique, and what they need to know from day one. This compromises their effectiveness as both young adult librarians and advocates for teen services. In this down-to-earth book, former Library Journal Mover & Shaker Velásquez explores real-world challenges and obstacles to teen service that often present themselves, offering solutions and guidance for both new YA librarians and those wanting to freshen up their approach. Offering fresh ways of thinking about the role of the teen services librarian and how it fits into the organizational structure, Velásquez:

• Combines field-tested approaches with current research to tackle common teen library service issues such as truancy, curfews, programming philosophy and mission, privacy, and organizational resistance, whether subtle or overt
• Addresses each topic from the perspective of working with teens, family members, fellow colleagues, and community stakeholders
• Presents realistic strategies to help shift a library’s culture towards one that embraces teens and teen services
• Shows how to get the most out of a library’s teen space, discussing factors like location, age restrictions, time of day restrictions, and staffing, plus suggestions for using the shelf-space of the YA collection as a starting point

This book goes beyond the “what” and “how” of teen services to get to the “why,” ensuring that both new and experienced practitioners will understand the ways teens want to use public space, discover and create information, and interact with peers and adults.