REACHING TEENS THROUGH BRANCH PARTNERINGTeaming Up To Attract Local Teens

Sara Morse

Suzanne Robinson

DeAnza Williams

HISTORY OF THE MEMORIAL FOUNDATION GRANT TO NPL In 2007, one of the library’s community partners

had a conversation with NPL’s Library Director and Foundation Executive Director. They expressed a wish to do something for the Madison area libraries and requested a proposal.

After assessing NPL’s needs, current trends & the community partner’s focus areas, a proposal was crafted. This proposal was enthusiastically received by the Memorial Foundation, and the Gallatin Road Corridor Afterschool Initiative was born.

From June 2005-June 2007, the three Gallatin Pike Branches saw: a 52% increase in teen circulation, a 47% increase in YA materials checked out from these

locations by all age groups

PURPOSE OF GRANT

The Gallatin Pike Memorial Foundation Grant was designed to give area teens the opportunity to engage in constructive afterschool activities that enhance academic and social skills at the East, Inglewood, and Madison Branches.

Madison

Inglewood

East

EAST

One of the two remaining Carnegie Libraries in Nashville, East opened in May 1919.

Across the street from East Literature Magnet School, which serves grades 5-12, East sees a lot of teens afterschool. It is located in a gentrifying neighborhood, serving populations of senior citizens, twenty- and thirty-somethings, and stay-at-home moms.

INGLEWOOD

Inglewood Branch Library was built in the early 1970s as a result of a community petition.

While the sole school in walking distance from the branch is currently under renovation and the branch sees little teen traffic, Inglewood continues to serve a thriving homeschool population of 3-12 year olds.

MADISON

The original Madison Library was built in 1977 and served the community for more than 20 years. A new building opened in August of 2000.

Madison serves a very diverse population and we are one of the few library branches that has a dedicated teen room.

GRANT COMPONENTS

The two year grant included funds for:

Collections

Programming

Tutoring

Teen room Renovation at Madison

HOW WE APPROACHED THE GRANT

Organized a team with the branches involved

Team includes:4 Branch Managers (2 are Area Managers)1 Young Adult Librarian

Held regular meetings to discuss collections or programming or both as needed

Area Managers were tasked with facilitating either the Programming or the Collections

COLLECTIONS We ordered:

Two rounds of test prep books

Professional development materials

Several small orders of fiction and nonfiction

Large manga, comic, and graphic novel order

Movies and music

Videogame pilot project PS2 Xbox 360 Wii

VIDEOGAME SURVEY – GAMING PLATFORMS

DSPlaystation 3

PS2Wii

Xbox 360

VIDEOGAME SURVEY – PREFERRED GENRES

Action; 13% Driving;

21%

Educa-tional; 6%Music; 12%Party; 11%

RPG; 7%

Simulation; 11%

Sports; 14%

Strategy; 6%

VIDEOGAME ORDER

Madison had 75 games on the final order list, 25 in each format

Inglewood and East ordered a combined 81 titles

PROGRAMMING

All locations combined, we offered more than 320 programs over the life of the grant with over 2,409 teens in attendance

Diverse program offerings included educational, gaming, technology, music, craft and college prep programs

Branches chose to use the programming funds in different ways: East had several big programs, Inglewood focused on summer reading programs, and Madison had many smaller programs. We all worked together on our major programs

MAJOR PROGRAMS

Gallacon: Animanga Festival Graphic Art Contest Art Workshop Cosplay Contest Gallacon Finale

Author Visit with L. Divine

Upcoming partner programs

GALLACON: THE ANIMANGA FESTIVAL

Fall Break 2009 – 3 programs in one week

Graphic Art Contest

Art Workshop with cartoonist James Barry at East

Cosplay Contest and Anime Trivia at Inglewood

Gallacon Finale with Origami, Candy Sushi Making, Anime Screening, Gaming, and Graphic Art Contest Awards Ceremony at Madison

THE GRAPHIC ART CONTEST We accepted submissions from artists 12-18 for:

Best Comic Book Page (a sequential story told in multiple panels)

Best Fan Art (a copies image of a previously created character)

Best Original Character (created by the artist – not a copy) Prizes were awarded in two age groups: 12 to 14 and

15 to 18 Entries were judged on originality, creativity, and style

EAST: ART WORKSHOP WITH JAMES BARRY

James L. Barry led the workshop. He illustrated part of the Warriors manga series, and he is Nashville native who agreed to lead the workshop for a small honorarium – just enough to cover the plane ticket

The workshop drew over 30 teens Door prizes were donated by Jerry’s

Art-a-rama

INGLEWOOD: COSPLAY CONTEST Prizes were donated by Performance Studios, a local

costume shop Current and former staff with YA experience

volunteered to judge Entries were judged on detail, effort, and

presentation

MADISON: GALLACON FINALE

Local origami wiz volunteered his expertise for Origami Workshop

•Local art school students judged Graphic Art Contest

•Library’s T.O.T.A.L. teens came to help out with registration and crowd control

MADISON: GALLACON FINALE

Lots of Japanese snacks from a local international market

Gaming in the teen room Naruto on TV Cart DDR on Kiosk, with pads

borrowed from another branch

MADISON: GALLACON FINALE

Candy sushi making in the story room

Anime Screening from Operation Anime– Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle Rated TV PG

Door prizesdonated by Ingram

AUTHOR VISIT WITH L. DIVINE April 2010 at East Teens at East had previously used an L. Divine book for

a page to the stage program Librarian at Pearl-Cohn High School wanted her teens to

participate, but transportation was an issue Main Library’s technology specialists helped us Skype

Ms. Divine’s presentation to Hadley Park, another branch library within walking distance of Pearl-Cohn

30 teens at East, 22 at Hadley Park

UPCOMING PROGRAMS FOR 2011

Teen Iron Chef at Inglewood

Poetry Slam at East

Fun Fair at Madison

Expansion of videogame pilot project

Creating your own cell phone ring tone with Zig Wajler

PROGRAMMING AT EAST

Spoken Word: A Tribute to Black History Conducted by the local chapter of Youth Speaks

Beyond the Truth Conducted by the local chapter of Youth Speaks

Page to the Stage – a joint effort with a local theater company Teens took a section from Drama High by L.

Divine and performed it on stage

PROGRAMMING AT INGLEWOOD

Purchased a one year movie license for ongoing movie programs

Connecting Literacy Music and Technology program with Zig Wajler

Ongoing programming featuring T.O.T.A.L.

PROGRAMMING AT MADISON

Mondays – Gaming on the Kiosk

Tuesdays – Traditional Teen Programs

Wednesdays – Educational programs SAT/ACT practice Tests on 1st Wednesday Artist’s Space on 2nd Wednesday Teen Writer’s Workshop on 3rd Wednesday Anime and Manga Club on 4th Wednesday

PROGRAMS OFFERED AND ATTENDANCE BY FISCAL YEAR - MADISON

FY0708 FY0809 FY0910 FY1011Programs offered 20 38 148 109

Attendance 199 261 1223 753

FY0708 FY0809 FY0910 FY10110

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

20 38

148109

199261

1223

753

Programs offeredAttendance

EQUIPMENT FOR PROGRAMS

Special equipment purchased with grant funds include: A Flip video camera An iPod and docking station A Meridian kiosk for video gaming Spinners to house manga collection Electrical outlets Fatboy soft seating

HOMEWORK TUTORING

The grant funded two part-time homework tutors for East and Madison

Diverse group of tutors over the last three years - they have been undergraduate and graduate students and a college instructor turned master gardener

Tutoring is offered afterschool (between 3 and 7 pm) and on weekends as needed

HOMEWORK TUTORING AT EAST

Fiscal Year 0809

Fiscal Year 0910

Fiscal Year 1011

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

360

540

435

10 15 15

Estimated number of tutoring ses-sionsAverage number of sessions per week

HOMEWORK TUTORING AT MADISON

Fiscal Year 0809

Fiscal Year 0910

Fall 100

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

65

77

98

1.25 1.48 2.88

Number of tutoring sessions

Average number of sessions per week

HOMEWORK TUTORING SESSIONS BY AGE GROUP AT MADISON

1%

30%

48%

21%

CollegeHigh SchoolMiddle SchoolElementary

HOMEWORK TUTORING SESSIONS BY SUBJECT AT MADISON

50%

20%

15%

13% 2%

MathSocial StudiesLanguage ArtsScienceOther

PREVENT SUMMER BRAIN DRAIN

During the summer of 2009, the homework tutors at Madison created the Prevent Summer Brain Drain program series

The eleven week series yielded a total of 33 educational summer programs, attended by 285 students

Weekly themes included: Creative Writing Agriculture Math Cultural Arts Creative Arts Retro-Tech

TEEN ROOM RENOVATION AT MADISON

Planning period: November 2008 – June 2009

Teen Focus Group: April 21st, 2009

Renovation: August 6th through 25th, 2009

MADISON’S TEEN ROOM BEFORE THE RENOVATION

Dark

Poor line of sight

Always adults using the computers

FIRST RENOVATION PROPOSAL

RENOVATION FOCUS GROUP / PIZZA PARTY

We used Kimberly Bolan’s Teen Spaces: The Step-by-Step

Library Makeover, 2nd ed.

Teens viewed Flickr sets from benchmark library teen centers and gave feedback about what they liked and didn’t like

We typed up the teens’ responses and sent them to the architect and interior designer

PROPOSAL AFTER TEEN INPUT

THE NEW TEEN ROOM

NOT-SO-GRAND OPENING

The Teen Room opened on August 25th, 2009 with a small “not-so-Grand Opening” party.

We had the official Grand Opening Celebration two weeks later.

PARTNERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES Partner within your region

Share ideas

Partner with other libraries Teen-Programs-in-a-Box

Partner with schools Limitless Libraries

Partner with community groups Night Out Against Crime

Partner with your teens! Focus groups and program ideas

PARTNERSHIP BASICS

Communicating– in person, by phone, by email

Being open to everyone’s ideas

Sharing – ideas, tools, research, materials

Dividing the workload and volunteering for various tasks

Give your partner(s) lots of credit!

QUESTIONS?

This presentation will be available on slideshare

www.slideshare.net/

Feel free to contact us with any questions you may have: Suzanne Robinson, Manager

Inglewood Branch Librarysuzanne.robinson@nashville.gov

Sara Morse, YA LibrarianMadison Area Librarysara.morse@nashville.gov