Where’s a YA Librarian When You Need One?

Serving Teens through Readers' Advisory for the Library Generalist

Heather Booth                                          Michael Cox

teenreadersadvisor@gmail.com        michael.cox@pueblolibrary.org

A presentation at the Public Library Association Annual Conference, Minneapolis 3/27/2008

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High quality YA service is high quality library service

• Public libraries uniquely provide an opportunity for teens to interact with books on their terms, on their time, in their own way

• Leads to future reading and scholastic success

• Safe risk taking: trying on ideas that may be different or uncomfortable or just “grown up” in a safe space – whether it’s a sensitive issue such as sexuality, or something like reading about war or terrorism, or simply imaginative exploration

But do teens even want to read for fun?

In a word, YES!

• A recent SmartGirl survey indicated that a strong majority of teens would read for fun if they had more time - we can help save them time by doing our best to help them find recreational reading material that will really appeal to them when they visit the library.
• Just look at the statistics -- circulation of teen materials jumps during school break periods (summer and spring vacation)

Resources

Booth, Heather. Serving Teens Through Readers’ Advisory. ALA Editions, 2007

Booth, Heather. “RA for YA: Tailoring the readers advisory interview to the needs of young adult patrons.” Public libraries 44.1 (Jan-Feb 2005): p33(4).

Mahood, Kristine. A Passion For Print: Promoting Books and Reading to Teens. Libraries Unlimited, 2006

Ross, Catherine Sheldrick. Reading Matters: What the Research Reveals About Reading, Libraries, and Community. Libraries Unlimited, 2005

Videos

 Source file:Teen RA Interview-titles.wmv 

Source file: RA4YA-ByProxy.wmv