Get Connected with Teens and Technology

By

RoseMary Honnold

Press n’ Play @ your library, YALSA's third annual

Teen Tech Week will be observed in public and school libraries March 8-14, 2009.

Today’s teens of the Millennial Generation are digital natives born into a technological world. Wired and connected, they can’t imagine life without computers, Internet, video games, iPods, and cell phones. Multitasking, switching among several tasks at once via technology, is common behavior for teens and most young adults. They can be seen in your library listening to music while uploading photos and creating content in MySpace and Facebook while answering IMs, watching videos, playing games, and surfing for more!

Teens will continue to use new technology as they choose higher education and enter careers. Many will choose the Internet to gain education and enter a virtual workplace, and some will be using the tech skills they learned in their teen years to develop even faster, tinier, more efficient ways for everyone to accomplish their work.

As a result, the definition of literacy for teens has changed. YALSA held a Midwinter Institute in 2006 which focused on teens and technology. Anthony Bernier, faculty member at the San Jose State University School of Library and Information Science in San Jose, California, pointed out in his opening speech that Young Adult Librarians must embrace the new technology and understand its impact on teen literacy. Evaluating information is even more critical when so much information is available from so many sources.

Always ready to embrace the newest electronics and practically ignoring owner’s manuals in favor of clicking to see what happens, teens have no fear of technology. They also often have no initial guidance in using and sometimes abusing the technology to its fullest capacity. Their daring presents a constant challenge to game and communications gadget developers to refine and update their products, including filters and anti-virus programs.

The parent, librarian, and teacher generations are scrambling to keep up with how teens use technology, hoping to guide them to safe use and reliable content now. The Baby Boomer and leading edge Generation X adults are digital immigrants with teens and young adults dragging us into the future with new ways of finding and delivering information, entertainment, and news.

Teens are also contributors to the Internet, part of the Web 2.0 phase of Internet development where virtually everyone is an author contributing to the collective intelligence through platforms like wikis and blogs and through social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook.

Libraries are slowly following suit with a Library 2.0 movement towards user centered services. Important elements of Library 2.0 are communicating and sharing information with patrons and involving them in the creation and modification of all library services, to provide what the patron needs and wants, a more inclusive technological version of advisory boards and focus groups. “Library 2.0 Services to Teens - Best Practices” is a wiki site listing libraries using the new tools to reach teens: Blogs, Flickr, MySpace and Facebook, Podcasts, RSS, and Vodcasts. These social networking tools have given libraries a new way to get connected with their teen audiences. Teen Tech Week is an opportunity to initiate a step in this direction in your library, by getting connected with your teens via one of these tools. Libraries can now provide information to teens and all patrons anytime and wherever they want and in turn receive input from teens about the services and materials they need and want. Libraries will never be the same, they will be better with the contributions of the people they are serving.

Resources:

Braun, Linda W. “Teens and Technology: An Overview of YALSA's Midwinter Institute.” Young Adult Library Services; Spring 2006, Vol. 4 Issue 3, Special section p4-5, 2p

Honnold, RoseMary for the Young Adult Library Services Association. 2007. Get Connected: Tech Programs for Teens. New York: Neal-Schuman.

“Library 2.0 Services to Teens - Best Practices” (Accessed February 24, 2009)

"Teen Tech Week," American Library Association, October 24, 2008.
(Accessed February 24, 2009)

Resources to Support 2009 Teen Tech Week

The 2009 Teen Tech Week is coming up March 8 -14, 2009. For those of you who are planning on offering special programming during Teen Tech Week this year, YALSA and the State Library of Ohio offer a number of resources. We hope you will participate in the 2009 Teen Tech Week. Last year the following Ohio libraries participated in this event:

* Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County, Mount Vernon, Ohio

* Elyria Public Library, Elyria, Ohio

* Cuyahoga County Public Library

We have posted information on the 2009 Teen Tech Week on WebJunction Ohio at:

Three of your colleagues, Julia Boxler,Cuyahoga County Public Library, Mary Hoeffgen, Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County, and Becky O’Neal, Westerville Public Library, have posted information on their plans for the 2009 TTW. To see these documents go to the above link and click on the “documents’ tab. If you are planning special programming during this year’s Teen Tech Week, we would encourage you to submit a document or start a discussion on WebJunction Ohio about it.

Another way to share information about your program is on the State Library of Ohio Facebook page:

Finally, just to get you started here’s a link to some Teen Tech Week Resource Guides that will help you get started:

For more information on the 2009 Teen Tech Week contact Ruth Metcalf, Library Consultant, State Library of Ohio,

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