Will Zoom Be The Death of Me?

by Linda Jerome, Teen Librarian, La Crosse Public Library

Honestly, some days it sure feels like it might, but that being said, virtual programming has also stretched me in ways that I would have never imagined. Is it sometimes painful? Yes. Am I still grateful? Yep. Prior to this year, I hadn’t done any virtual programming—zero, zip, nada. So when it was determined that we wouldn’t being doing any in-person programming for the rest of 2020, I was, in a word, shook. I’ve been working with teens for over twenty years and now here’s a whole new challenge and I had nothing but questions…how does this work? Will teens want to do virtual programs? How do we promote virtual programs? Does my face really look like that? And while virtual programming is far from perfect (especially for teens who don’t have the tools to access virtual programming) we felt that some programming for teens was better than no programming for teens and so started to learn everything I could. And that’s one of my lessons from this past year: sometimes you just gotta jump. Make those mistakes, feel stupid, rinse, repeat. It reminded me that learning new things is HARD and that it takes time (sometimes a lot of time) for things to start to feel easier. Being uncomfortable is OKAY and it will NOT kill me (I’m pretty sure this is true).

Another thing I (re) learned this year was about authenticity. When I first started virtual programs, the camera made me feel like I had to put on some sort of performance for teens, like I had to only show my best side at all times. Not that teens expected that from me but I expected that from myself and that kind of pressure was not only unhelpful but unnecessary. I had to remind myself that being authentic with teens is really the only way to connect with them, to build those relationships, no matter if we are in the same room or on Zoom. And with this new format, that meant admitting when I didn’t know how to do something or not being able to figure when something wasn’t working the way I though it should. And when I did that, I started to enjoy virtual programs almost as much as I did in-person programs because while the format was different, the connection was still the same.

Now that I’ve been doing virtual programming for six months it has given me a new way of thinking about programming. Once we’re back to doing in-person programs, how can we use virtual formats to include more teens? In the future we will be using more of a hybrid approach to programs, meaning we’ll either livestream and/or record our programs for teens who can’t make it to the library but still want to participate. As you already know, teens are incredibly busy humans and so being able to provide them with another option to participate in our programs is THRILLING! And to be honest, I probably wouldn’t have ever considered doing this if it hadn’t been for the events of the past year. So, yes, this year has been terrible in so many ways, but there have also been a few “silver lining” moments and I don’t know about you, but I’m going to hang onto those for dear life.