A blog dedicated to following news and exploring strategies for serving youth in libraries.

Monday, November 12, 2012

The Time Crunch


Now that your library has it's brand new teen section (we hope!) how do you make time to reach your patrons outside of your programs or advisory interviews?  Our friends from England have put together a comprehensive list of all the little things you can do to up the ante on awareness for your collection.

Spend Time in Your Teen Section
Don't hover like a creepy vulture and swoop down on visitors to your teen section, but make sure you spend some time there interacting with the clientele.  Ask them questions, figure out if there is anything that you are currently lacking.

Outreach
Spend some time visiting other institutions like schools in your area or youth clubs.  Present current programs  and use the youth population as a sounding board for ideas.  Dedicate some time to booktalks; it can be at your local middle and high schools, at a local coffee shop hangout, or even a bookstore.

Partner Up
Most local councils will have some connections to youth clubs and other services that can help with your outreach goal if you yourself do not have enough time to do so.  Make sure they know what you can offer the youth of your community.

Quality before Quantity
Rather than stretching yourself thin over many small (perhaps inferior) programs, make sure that the programs you DO put on are fun and well attended.  Again, making sure that your programs are successful by talking to teens that attend them.

These last few are pretty self-explanatory.

Support Your Teens

Apply for Money and Grants

Keep Records of Everything!

Hopefully, if you follow these guidelines you will find yourself completing more tasks with better results without having to use time that you do not have.  Keep in mind though, to save time you need to spend some time.  It doesn't only apply to money!



Source
http://yalibraryuk.org/2012/04/02/on-a-shoestring-reaching-teens-in-a-few-hours-every-week-or-how-to-use-time-effectively-when-you-dont-have-any/

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