Resources - Teen Behavior in the Library

Image by Cyn Yoder from Pixabay

A recent blog post by Leah Langby in IFLS Library System's Keeping Up with Kids blog had some great resources to help staff navigate teen behavior in libraries. Thanks for sharing Leah!

To read this helpful post, please stop here. [Teen Behavior in the Library. Langby, Leah. Keeping Up with Kids blog. June 27, 2025.]

Tips for Non-Children's Folks Working the Children's Desk

With summer coming up, many youth department staff are reaching out to their co-workers in other departments to give a hand by covering the desk during heavier program times or to help with unexpected illness or other surprises. 

A recent ALSC blog post by Christine Herman gives some great tips to share with this wonderful co-workers to help them feel comfortable working with kids if they don't regularly interact with them. 

Christine writes: "You never signed up to work with kids, you never expected to work with kids… and yet, here you are, covering the Children’s Department. This is a pretty common scenario, and it can be frustrating for people who worry they’re out of their depth or those who just feel rusty or out of place. Even for people who have had children of their own, suddenly dealing with strangers’ children can be an alarming experience!"

Please stop here to find all her practical tips for interacting successfully with kids. [Top Tips for Working with Kids (When You Don't Usually Work with Kids. Herman, Christine. ASLC blog. May 5, 2024.]

Tot Meltdown - Library to the Rescue!

In a recent ALSC blog post, Raina Tuakoi shared an idea that her library has implemented to help toddlers and their caregivers  when an unexpected upset occurs.

Raina writes: "The toddler meltdown! We’ve all seen it in the library whether it is in storytime, in the stacks, or at the checkout stations. How can children’s librarians assist little patrons and their adult caregiver in a time of need like this but in a subtle and gentle way? Calming kits! Children’s librarian, Elizabeth Bartholomew and I explored different options of what could be included in calming kits and drew inspiration from elements that we’ve seen on social media, at other libraries, and of course on Pinterest. We wanted to come up with something simple and helpful that young children and adult caregivers could utilize anywhere, not just at the library."

Click here to see what the kits contain and how they are working out. [Calming Kits for Toddlers and Caregivers. Tuakoi, Raina. ALSC blog. November 26, 2023.]

Constructive Destruction Programs for Teens

In a recent Teen Librarian Toolbox post, Austin Ferraro shared their library's success in refocusing middle-schoolers who gathered at the library and often created chaos.

Austin writes: "In late 2021 we started to see some real challenges with how our teens and our non-teen-staff were interacting. The massive amount of unfocused energy our middle schoolers especially bring into the library space and the larger clumps they tend to travel in on Fridays were intimidating to some of our staff, and even in the Teen Center there were behavior struggles. We were also fighting a losing battle against the remnants of straws, Takis bags, and anything else they could get their hands on to destroy while they were hanging out from becoming Teen Center decor. Despite our best efforts, monitoring clean-up for waves of middle schoolers coming and going from a room full of at least forty of them at a time with that much unstructured energy was not feasible – banning food and drinks long term isn’t an option for us either."

The solutions - genius! They can be easily adopted at any library.  Stop here to read about how they made lemonade out of lemons with their unfocused teens. [Programming with Constructive Destruction. Ferraro, Austin. Teen Librarian Toolbox. School Library Journal. March 17, 2022]

WI Parents Conference

 

Leah Langby, Youth Services Consultant at IFLS shared this important information from her networks in the IFLS Keeping Up with Kids blog. 

This free, virtual conference sponsored by University of WI Extension Services is for WI parents. She writes: "I got a note from the fabulous Yia Lor (UW Madison Extension–Eau Claire County) asking for help promoting a really awesome-sounding, free, virtual conference for parents, Raising Wisconsin’s Children.  It is designed for parents and caregivers, and as such is not developed for continuing education credit for professionals."

Stop here to read the full blog post with suggested language you can use to share with your families in promoting this conference to parents in your community!

Free Ryan Dowd Training Webinars for WI Public Libraries

Ryan Dowd

Kim Niesing, Youth Services Consultant at Monarch Library System writes in one of her recent weekly emails to youth services librarians:

"This week, I want to highlight the free Ryan Dowd trainings available to you. These trainings have been so eye-opening and practical for me, and I highly recommend them. You may remember that through the Department of Public Instruction, all Wisconsin public libraries have free access to Ryan Dowd's trainings through the end of 2021. 

What are these trainings?

These trainings help library staff understand and serve individuals facing homelessness but also individuals who come from disadvantaged homes as well as difficult patron interactions with all kinds of people. If you do not see much homelessness in your libraries, I still highly recommend listening to Ryan's webinars. 

What can I learn?

• There is a "core training." (I think it's four hours.) The 1-hour webinars will reference principles taught in this core training. I really recommend it, but it's not essential to understanding the webinars.
• There are 1-hour webinars covering topics such as:
• Getting hit on by customers
• Unattended children: How to talk to parents about their children's behavior
  
• Backup: How to backup a co-worker during crisis
• Homeless children and libraries

How do I access the trainings?
Visit this link here. https://my.nicheacademy.com/dpi-wi-staff  You will need to create an account; use your work email address when creating the account. 

When are the trainings?

There is a new live webinar each month. The webinars are recorded and available for on-demand viewing at the above link. 

How do I stay informed?

To get weekly emails with tips on patron interactions, sign up here. To get the links to upcoming live webinars, sign up here. Note--Ryan requests that people do not forward links to his upcoming webinars, so if you want that information, you need to sign up for the emails yourself. "

Get Smart!

If you are like me, learning new ways and being inspired by my peers is what I love best in my library practice.

The Spring 2015 (well in WI, spring also includes a healthy dose of winter) schedule of UW-Madison's Continuing Education courses is out and it is filled with youth services folks from WI (and many YSS members!) presenting online courses with content of value to everyone working with kids-  whether you work in Wisconsin or not!

Here, for your edification, in calendar order are some great learning choices! Registration is open now; costs are reasonable and learning potential is unlimited!

Power Children's Programming - on a Budget
January 26-March 5
Strategic thinking and savvy tips combine with crowd-sourced ideas from students to make programming ideas and planning a snap. Everyone wins. Disclosure - taught be me!

Connecting Teens with the Best in New Teen Lit
February 10-March 21
Ruhama Kordatzky-Bahr returns with her powerful and friendly window into the world of recent teen books. Always a worthwhile course - with the bonus of gaining chops in booktalking!

Exploring South Asia through Children's and YA
February 23-March 20
Wisconsin's own Svetha Hetzler and the dynamic Rachel Weiss (THE founder and tireless advocate of the new South Asia Book Award) open up a world of books that feature children from a part of our world that we all need to discover. Global power!

Child Development, Library Space and Behavior: Set Up Your Library for Success
You've read her blog, you've heard her present at workshops and conferences, now get some direct peer-to-peer learning from our colleague Sara Bryce (aka S. Bryce Kozla; aka PLSanders). She breaks down spaces, behaviors and gives brilliant tips on making library use by kids a forever win-win.

Getting from No to Yes in Waupaca

Thanks to Sue Abrahamson from Waupaca (and Past-Chair of YSS) for this guest post.

Our teen group, SLAG (Student Library Advisory Group) sells candy bars at the front circulation desk.  They do pretty well with it, too!

Often times when parents are checking out with small children, that candy basket can be problematic, as you can imagine.  Mom or Dad says, "No." and the kids are gearing up for a meltdown.  We, as a staff, talked about how to turn that "No" into a "Yes" and came up with this solution:  We asked the Friends of the Library to fund a roll of 1000 stickers, imprinted with "I visited the Waupaca Public Library today!"  Now when a pout starts, our circulation person breaks out a sticker for a smile.  

One circulation clerk said if you add the phrase "If mom or dad say it's okay" that make the parent the good guy again and everyone goes away happy.  One parent even said, "Thank you for noticing we were on the cusp of disaster!"

Sue says they set aside time at the end of every staff meeting to share information and ideas related to The Wakanheza Project--this time, brainstorming simple ways to change the environment have really made a difference, and the teens still get to sell their candy!

Navigating stormy behavior

The end of the summer is a great time to reflect, and prepare for the fresh start the school year can provide.  Did anyone have a rough summer?  Behavior issues in the children's room can be exhausting and  it can be hard to figure out the best way to approach them.  Two of our colleagues from LaCrosse have written insightful blog posts about managing discipline in the library.

Former teacher and current youth services librarian Sara Bryce has a hilarious and smart post about effectively and positively dealing with unacceptable behavior.  I've never seen charts that are both so funny and so useful!  

Marge Loch Wouters follows up her co-worker's insights with some of her own --reminding people that it is not only reasonable, but also important, to deal with challenging behavior head-on, with tips for what to ignore and when to intervene.

Read these for inspiration if the thought of another kid jumping from chair to chair makes you feel defeated!