Vale of Glamorgan Library and Information Service

Project Aim and Objectives

The aim of the project is to put in place a scheme aimed at young people aged 11 -14 years who are too old to continue participating in the Summer Reading Challenge. The scheme encourages them to continue using the library as well as attracting other young people to use the library.The scheme also builds on and ties in with our Offer to Schools, a wider initiative to encourage use of the library services by local teachers and pupils, and to keep this challenging age group engaged and interested in relevant library services.

The main objectives of the scheme are to:

  • Attract young people who do not necessarily have an interest in reading.
  • Improve reading, writing and ICT skills.
  • Encourage the sharing of information and opinions.
  • Help develop critical thinking.
  • Promoting enjoyment of the library facilities.
  • Further develop a positive interaction between library staff and young people.
  • Showcase the range of resources and activities offered by the library.
  • Increase confidence in library use.

Project Description

The TeenQuest is an incentive based scheme. Participants need to complete 5 tasks. Each task encouragesyoung people to make use of different services and resources on offer to them in our libraries. The 5 tasks are:

  • Read a book.
  • Write a review of a book and then post it online (on Stories from the Web).
  • Watch a DVD and fill in a review card to rate or recommend it.
  • Complete a quiz using our online resources.
  • Play a game on Wii – Fit or online.

For each task completed the participant received a free DVD loan. If they complete all tasks they are entered into a raffle to win an iPod Touch and iPod Shuffle.All material produced for TeenQuest is bilingual. Stories from the Web (SFTW) created a special password so that all reviews submitted for Task 2 would appear together on the website’s gallery. We also came to an agreement with SFTW that participants could submit reviews in Welsh for the duration of the scheme as long as we agreed to act as moderators for any Welsh material received, so that a member of our staff would check and ensure the review met with SFTW’s editorial policy.

Background

The idea came from front line staff who identified the need to keep the interest of children who had enjoyed the reading challenge but were now too old to participate. Our experience from a previous project to encourage the use of the Youth Area in Barry Library had also clearly shown a need for purposeful activities to engage young people’s interest. We decided to pilot TeenQuest at two of our libraries, Barry, our largest library and Cowbridge, a medium sized community library.We intend to use the evaluation and experiences gained from the pilot to successfully roll out and embed the scheme in all our libraries.

Timescale

We launched the scheme during Children’s Book Week 2011 and then ran it during the autumn term.

Design of the Marketing Material

A company based in Cardiff, Design Stage, created the bilingual logos and promotional material for TeenQuest. This included:

  • An A4 Poster and an A5 flyer.
  • Aweb page header, several letterheads and a logo.
  • A membership card, an A6 DVD rating card and an A6 evaluation card.

With the help of library staff, Design Stage created material with a distinctive colour scheme, look and feel that would be particularly attractive and eye-catching to young people and could be used again if the trial proved successful. Examples of some of this material can be seen in the appendix.

Marketing Activities

A variety of methods were used to promote TeenQuest:

  • The promotional material was used to create displays in both Barry and CowbridgeLibraries.
  • Posters and flyers were distributed to all schools in Barry and Cowbridge.
  • Posters and flyers were also sent to leisure centres, the council’s education department, the youth service, the Civic Offices and other relevant public places.
  • An e-mail with an attached poster was sent to the Head Teachers of local schools. A similar e-mail was distributed to all English teachers and school library staff via the Curriculum Development Advisor for Literacy. These e-mails introduced and explained how TeenQuest worked and also offered the schools a visit from a member of the library staff to explain the scheme directly to the relevant pupils, or alternatively invited the schools to visit the library with a class to hear more about the scheme.
  • Staff visited local schools and the Vale Governors' meeting to promote TeenQuest.
  • Class visits were arranged with two local schools. During the visit the pupils were introduced to the library, then joined TeenQuest and completed Task 4, the online quiz.
  • TeenQuest was highlighted as one of the main news items on the library service’s website and also featured prominently as a news item on the main Council homepage during the scheme’s launch
  • A press release was drawn up by the Council’s Communications Co-ordinator and sent to all local newspapers.
  • Word of mouth: Staff in the participating libraries encouraged youngsters to take part and offered to help them if they were struggling with any of the tasks.
  • Reminder letters were sent in December to everyone who had signed up for TeenQuest to encourage them to complete the Quest during the Christmas holidays.
  • Activities to promote TeenQuest were tied in with our Offer to Schools, a promotional campaign to increase use of libraries by school pupils

Budget Breakdown

We received £500 from CyMAL Marketing grants and allocated the balance (£750) from our revenue budget. This was spent as follows:

Design and printing of promotional material and various cards £1006,

Prizes (An iPod Touch and 2 iPod Shuffles) £215.85.

Reminder Letters £22.08

Total£1243.93

Evaluation

We used the Inspiring Learning Framework to evaluate the project. Feedback was gained from an evaluation card included as part of the TeenQuest pack. A total of 68 young people joined TeenQuestand 11 young people successfully completed all the tasks. All participants who completed the evaluation card said they would continue to use the library after they finish TeenQuest and 90% said they felt they had learnt something new through TeenQuest.

Examples of comments from the evaluation cards:

“I learnt more about the library”

Cowbridge Evaluation Card

“I learnt an easy way to use Homework Help on the website”

Cowbridge Evaluation Card

“I learnt that you can have fun and be rewarded”

Barry Evaluation Card

TeenQuest was particularly well receivedbyteachers and staff from theCouncil’s education department. We were able to use TeenQuest to show schools what resources, especially online resources, we have in libraries and give them some ideas about how we can help engage young people in out of school activities. The school visits were a successful way for us to work in partnership and develop positive relations with these schools. TeenQuest also tied in very well with our Offer to Schools, a promotional campaign to increase use of libraries by school pupils

Examples of comments from local teachers:

“I think this competition is a great idea to promote the library and its resources”

Teacher, Barry Comprehensive.

“The pupils all enjoyed themselves and now know where the library is and have a better idea of what your library has to offer”

Athrawes, Ysgol Bro Morgannwg

Feedback from our frontline staff suggested that although the young people had enjoyed TeenQuest, some of them had struggled with parts of the online quiz. However Task 2, posting the review on Stories from the Web, had proved surprisingly popular with some young people,even using the TeenQuest password to post poems and stories as well as their reviews. This feedback will be used as part of a formal review of the scheme to decide if and how TeenQuest needs to be changed or adapted for a successful roll out to the rest of the library service.

Sustainability and Future Development

TeenQuest has successfully raised the profile of the library service in local schools and our community in general. It has played a vital role in our wider campaign to promote our services to schools and their pupils. Teachers, local councillors, library staff and participants have all been very enthusiastic and positive about the scheme and we feel that there is a great deal of potential for it to be rolled out and successfully embedded throughout our library service.We will hold a formal review of the evaluation and feedback from the scheme to determine how best to adapt or change the different elements of the scheme for us to achieve this.

Information about the TeenQuest initiative has been shared with other library services in South East Wales as part of Focus on Reading discussions and there is active interest from other services in it. It will be showcased at a Sharing Good Practice event in the region and considered for roll-out to other interested services during 2012.

Katherine Owen

Senior Librarian

CountyLibrary, Barry
Appendix

Examples of Marketing Material

A5 Flyer

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Logo and Header for Website, the quiz and letters:

Examples of TeenQuest Material

Examples of TeenQuest webpages

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