YSS Webinar - Teen Volunteers and TAG

WLA’s Youth Services Section Presents:

Growing Community Leaders through Teen Advisory Groups and Volunteering

Talking with teens, hearing their opinions, and watching them grow can be one of the most rewarding experiences. But it can sometimes be difficult to harness that teenage energy into an experience that works to give them some ownership of what happens in the library. Join four librarians who have successfully wrangled their teens into either advisory boards or volunteers, which in turn has resulted in amazing things like a teen created podcast and teen representation at library board meetings.  They’ll share ideas on how to recruit, balance the workload, and keep things organized.

Speakers:

Valerie Spooner has been the Youth Services Librarian at the Rusk County Community Library in Ladysmith since 2014. She is a department of one and does everything from collection development to programming and everything in between. When she started working at the library, she was kind of afraid of teens and now teen events are one of her favorite things to do.

Caitlin Schaffer is the Youth Services Librarian at the Oconomowoc Public Library. She is in charge of all services for ages 0-18, but has a particular passion for serving teens. Her teen volunteers describe her as clever, empathetic, enthusiastic, artful, relatable, and creative, but mostly she's just busy. 

Taylor Wilcox works as the Teen Librarian at the Waupaca Public Library. In 2021 she and her teens at the time rebranded their library's old teen volunteer group. As a result, they gained a huge upswing in participation and community involvement. It's Taylor's hope to give teens in her community a chance to grow as leaders and offer them leadership opportunities through their time spent as library volunteers.

Emily Sanders is the Assistant Director/Youth Services Librarian at Barrett Memorial Library in Williams Bay. If she's not struggling with a knitting project, she's got her nose in a book. She is passionate about finding new ways that the library can provide exciting experiences to her community and loves talking about all things library!

Teen Webinar Presenters

The YSS Board is looking for library staff serving TEENS to share their knowledge during two upcoming webinars. 

April: Teen Programming

• have a recurring teen program that works for you?  Share how it got started, how you sustain it, etc. 
• panel presentation with 3-4 speakers, plan on 10-15 minutes with time for questions

May: TAG and Teen Volunteer groups

• share how TAG and/or teen volunteer groups work at your library!
• panel presentation with 3-4 speakers, plan on 10-15 minutes with time for questions

Please email Claire Parrish, claireparrish@ricelakegov.org by Friday, March 3 if interested in sharing your success. We all know that teens can be a tricky group to bring into the library and hope that this webinar series will empower and energize staff to keep doing the important work of serving this age group!

Thanks for considering,

YSS Board 

Programming Idea Bonanza

From Teen Services Underground 11/11/21

So many great ideas are coming through the pipelines for great programs for teens and children that you can do virtually or in person. Here are just a few we saw recently!

• Join WI's own Katherine Schoofs for a Passive and Drop-in Programs webinar (sponsored by the IFLS Library System) on Tuesday, December 9 at 2pm. Program description:  "Does the idea of coming up with a passive program make you feel like a disgruntled pelican? Do you have "ew, drop-ins" embroidered on a throw pillow? Let's turn those negative thoughts on their head with a passive program buffet! Help yourself to whatever elements you like! Tips on collaboration? Sure thing! Passive programs in the time of COVID? Help yourself! By the end of this webinar, you'll be positively bedeviled with ideas, etc." Those who know Aram Public Library's (Delevan) Katherine knows she brings humor, enthusiasm and great creativity to her workshops and webinars. Stop here to register! Thanks to Kim Niesing, Youth Services Consultant at Monarch Library System for the heads-up!

TEEN/TWEEN PROGRAMMING IDEAS

• Teen Services Underground agent SandraRosa shares her journey with her teen advisory board through the pandemic. The TAB teens came up with some great ideas for passive and virtual programs. SandraRose describes the programs and shares plenty of links to the resources the teens created. Those programs are ready for YOU! Check out her post here.

• On the same day as the above post, agent Jessica Hillbun Schwartz shared her very successful charades program they do in person. Her fun ideas might spark you to try this program. Read about it here!

• And still Teen Services Underground keeps pumping out great ideas (they are on your feeds, yes? Agent Jess Gafkowitz shares a ton of grab-and-go DIY craft kit ideas to delight and engage your teens. Stop here to get the deets.