New Books

As Youth Services Manager, I'm responsible for both the kiddos and the teens. It's easy to work with the kids; they are always in my room. However, the teens are just too cool to come down to visit me. Plus, their collection of materials is upstairs sandwiched between the large print and the westerns in the adult area. How can I get them to come to the library?

I took the advice of a friend, who also is a librarian, and put a white board in their area to find out what they wanted. For the teens who use the library, they jotted a few items down. This week PCPL will host our first annual water balloon* fight. It's a BYOB (bring your own balloons) event; wet sponges will be easier to clean up. Teen Brick Club started because they asked for it. A group of 12 kids come in to build Lego-scapes. It's very cool. With these initiatives I'm hoping they will tell their friends how the library is changing in a positive way.

And now for the juicy part . . . I have books for them!! After reviewing my budget, I noticed that very little was spent on YA non-fiction this year. This changed in a matter of days, two to be exact. I spent nearly 75% of my budget on books other than graphic novels. Let me take that back, I bought a few graphic novels because they are a very valid form of literature; however, not all teens want to read it. Nor do they want to read Manga. Again, it's not that these are not valid forms of reading materials, it's just that there are so many more options for teens to read. Topics like fashion, with Coco Chanel's biography, or Jimmy Choo, might help to get the teens' creative juices flowing. Who knows, perhaps PCPL can create a program or two on these ideas.

I also stocked up on fiction books that our library lacked. Diverse authors and stories are making their way into the YA collection. Woo hoo!!