Multimedia - LS 5013-20 - Competency #7

tsl.state.tx.us

ci.santa-ana.ca.us
and
hammond.lib.in.us

Motivating teens to get involved with public libraries is a passion found on the world wide web, but not so much in my home county.

Teens are the lost age group serviced at public libraries. Infants to elementary students flock to libraries with their parents and caregivers, both for story times and school projects. Adults visit libraries to check out the latest science fiction novel, to borrow a book on CD to listen to in their cars, to research job opportunities and perhaps to study for that online course they're taking.

But teens, what draws them to the library? Computers, the internet, video games, hot teen novels, mangas, podcasts, art - anything that would make a teen want to visit their library. There teens are in a safe place, communicating, creating, sharing their knowledge. Why not allow them to run the teen section, promote it, share it?

The images I chose to post are those displaying teen involvement in libraries and ideas to tempt them in.

Here's a video created by teens to promote the teen corner at the Skokie Public Library in Illinois. I found it very entertaining:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozzHcdgl4qU&feature=related

Enjoy!

Database - LS 5013-20 - Competency #6

Our task this week was to conduct four different searches, each from a different database, and to provide a hit for each search performed.

My first search was a Building Block search through the database Academic Search Complete from the vendor EBSCO Host. I was successful in this search in that I was quick to correctly connect my Boolean search operators and correctly choose the operative terms from my search query, "I'd like to find ways to get teens more involved in public libraries, hence their communities." I chose to search in English only, in the entire text for these terms, and applied related words (or searched for synonyms) as well. The fifty-first hit in my search out of three hundred twenty-seven results was an appropriate match for my query.

Feinberg, S. & Keller, J. R. (2010, April). Designing space for children and teens in libraries and public places. American Libraries, 2010, 41(4), 34-37. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete, EBSCO Host. Retrieved from http://online.twu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_22_1

My second search was a Successive Fractions search through the database Library Lit from the vendor Wilson Web. In this search I used truncation on my three terms to include plurals and other word endings. I also asked these terms to be found anywhere in the text of the items searched. I received three thousand nine hundred and eighteen results and found a relevant article in the seventh hit.

Peowski, L. (2010, Winter). Where are all the teens?: Engaging and empowering them online. Young Adult Library Services, 2010, 8(2), 26-8. Retrieved from Library Lit, Wilson Web. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2089/hww/results/external_link_maincontentframe.jhtml?_DARGS=/hww/results/results_common.jhtml.42

Citation Pearl Growing was my third search through the database Project Muse. I did not find a vendor for Project Muse. In this search I chose two of my terms connected with the Boolean operator AND in singular form. I chose for the search to be in all fields with text. One thousand forty-nine results emerged from my search. The second hit had listed under its subject headings, "Libraries and teenagers -- United States -- History -- 20th Century". This subject I chose to snowball with and received a list of fifty related subjects. The first subject, matching my original subject heading choice, had only one article listed, which did satisfy my original query.

Agosto, D.E., Paone, K.L., Ipock, G.S. (2007, Fall). The female-friendly public library: Gender differences in adolescents' uses and perceptions of U.S. public libraries. Library Trends, 56(2), 387-401. Retrieved from Project Muse. Retrieved from http://online.twu.edu/webapps
/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_22_1

I had saved the final search, Specific Facet First, for the end, being concerned I would not be able to find an appropriately matched item for my query since my most specific term, teen, has very broad connotations. I used the database WorldCat through the vendor First Search. The first terms I used, "teen AND teenager AND teens", I searched for in keywords in the English language and ranked them by relevance. This was successful in finding three hundred and thirty results. The term I deemed as the next most Specific Facet First was "involvement", which retrieved twelve hundred results. I then tried the term "library", which retrieved two hundred fifty six thousand eight hundred and ninety results. There were no hits matching my query. I will list the first hit from "teen AND teenager AND teens".

Burns, J. (2010). Teenology: The art of raising great teenagers. Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House.

Focusing on my resulting hits, I would choose either the Successive Fractions or the Building Block models to perform searches in the future. I do not feel comfortable conducting a Specific Facet First search nor do I feel it is precise enough to locate desired information unless the term is awfully explicit.

(Apologies for the formatting of the above book and articles - I cannot find a tab or ruler choice.)

Search Strategies - LS 5013-20 Part of Competency #5

My task was to research my blog topic, libraries and teens, through ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) with the following search strategies. I found my results interesting and thought I would share them on this blog.

I began with the Building Block search strategy and had a horrible time placing my parentheses correctly and the or's and and's in the proper spaces. I came up with no search results from this task.

I next used the search strategy Specific Facet First and found within ERIC many results for my three keywords of teens, avoid and library. Teens had 2,085 results, avoid had 6,334 results and library had 53,754 results. I chose to carry on to the next search strategy.

Successive Fractions began with my highest result keyword, library, onto which I added avoid, then teen*(to, I hope, ask for truncations of teen), resulting in one, yes only one, result. I took this result and reviewed its descriptor list.

Using the descriptor list, I followed the search strategy Citation Pearl Growing, or Snowballing, and chose two of the descriptors: Library role and Student Attitudes. These two descriptors combined resulted in 105 results, of which I found a helpful book at the eighth choice. There may be more in this listing, but I chose to stop at number eight and complete this task.

If I used these search strategies more often I know I would be faster at finding my desired result, but, since this is the first time I have attempted to search these ways, I feel thirty minutes falls into the "well done" category. I will improve!

Tagging/Indexing - LS 5013-20 Competency #5

I have chosen two books which deal with pulling teens into the library to tag in LibraryThing.com . I located them through Amazon.com by searching for books with the keywords Teens AND Libraries, using the Boolean operative AND.

The first book, Teen Programs with Punch: A Month-by-Month Guide (Libraries Unlimited Professional Guides for Young Adult Librarians Series) by Valerie A. Ott (Paperback - June 30, 2006), provides many interesting topic and get-together ideas to draw teens into the library. The second book, Library Programs for Teens: Mystery Theater (Voya Guides) by Karen J. Siwak (Paperback - Apr. 16, 2010), is an interesting approach to draw teens back into the library to interact and learn. This book could also be useful when used in a classroom learning environment.

The tags I've added to these books are teens, teen interests, teen advocacy and teens in libraries.

Other tags associated with Teen Programs with Punch: carnegie library of pittsburgh (1) library programming (1) new04/09 (1) non-fiction (1) professional development (1) teen (1) young adult

http://www.librarything.com/work/2654330/book/62435202
http://www.librarything.com/work/9913381/book/62435173

RSS Feed - LS 5013-20 Competency #4

Well, I've located an RSS feed that I was able to post to my blog, but my disappointment lies in the fact that I did not discover a working feed from a public library in my home state of Nevada! (If a reader knows of one, please post it here - I'd love to read it!) I will, once employed in the library field, begin an RSS feed from that library, preferably one devoted to information for teens. Sure, I understand Nevada is a rural state, but there are a lot of technically savvy individuals in residence here whom I believe would love to open the minds of our future employees and assist them in gaining knowledge so they can create amazing things and enrich our state!

Podcasts - LS 5013-20 Competency #3

After viewing a plethora of podcasts, or at least attempting to view them, I have found one both from a public library and about anime. This podcast is posted on the Cheshire Public Library's website and is published by teens. Here is the website and description of their site:

http://www.cheshirelib.org/teens/cplpodcast.htm

The Cheshire Public Library Podcast

is a teen-driven cultural magazine

featuring teen writers, musicians, reviewers, commentators, and more.

These podcasts may contain comments about anime books interspersed with regular book reviews and author interviews. There is also an anime club on the same library website, yet there are no podcasts posted here.

It was difficult to find podcasts created around teen anime in public libraries. Many of the podcasts I had found were either abandoned a few years before or not focused on teen anime.

I did end up finding one other site with podcasts focused on anime that is not adult based. It is called NC Rowan County Anime Group. One man is reviewing mangas/animes and suggesting what ages they would be appropriate for. Here's that website:

http://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=254958191371&share_id=106164419433214&comments=1#s106164419433214

This library links their podcasts through their Facebook account. Very tech savvy.

In searching for podcasts on my library type and topic, I was disheartened to only find podcasts based out of the east and none in the west. I'm not sure what this says about the west's libraries, but this has given me the impetus to search for more west coast based public library podcasts in general.

The search engines I used to locate these podcasts were both Google, where I searched for public library AND anime podcasts, and podcastalley.com, a site I used from our teaching assistant's blog he had posted on our discussion board. Truthfully, I found Google more helpful and focused than podcast alley. The search engine was also faster and more reliable.

On a side note, my view of podcasts is one of videos or audios, or both, with comments by interested parties on the topic of choice. I'm going to attempt to link one to my blog. Wish me luck!

My topic area of interest

I've only recently come to realize I have not been specific in my topic area of interest in public libraries. My decision has been to pursue researching Mangas/Graphic Novels and young adult/teen interest in these novels. I've found another blog I'd like to post:

http://littleteenlibrarian.blogspot.com

The Little Teen Librarian posts reviews and discussions about graphic novels, adding summaries, thoughts as to what age young adult would enjoy it and other tidbits of information. Here's a quick view of a review of Pride of Baghdad:

"Thoughts: Pride of Baghdad is based on the true story of lions in Iraq who are freed after bombings. Unfortunately, I do not know the extent of their freedom except what is on the back of the book. The lions converse about varying aspects of human society, creating a commentary about society’s good and bad sides as well as its morals. One scene in particular that stands out is the discussion about eating an already dead human. They each present a reason why or why not, and one lion’s view is changed because of this. The dialog between the lions often leaves the reader forgetting they are lions but the beautifully done art work will show that they are obviously lions. Colors are used in the illustrations to evoke peace, destruction, and fear as needed in the various scenes. Be prepared though, for a heart wrenching ending that will make sensitive readers cry.
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Will Teens Like It? Probably high school teens.
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Things to be aware of: sex, blood, violence"

A short, concise representation of a librarian's view of a graphic novel, opinions included. I see this as a helpful tool when researching which mangas would be appropriate for certain age groups.