Displays and Marketing

At the Meeting @ Otis this morning, we talked a lot about different programs, especially about programs around BREAKING DAWN and the second Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movie, coming out August 8th.

And also a little bit about Teen Read Week, since it also had the vampire theme

Marketing:

1. We talked about social networking and if teens were paying attention to our pages, and the results were mixed.
2. We talked about handing out business cards that highlighted one program and passed those around to certain teens who were told to spread them around. This worked out well. (Also mentioned that one could do the same with social networking sites just as advertisement)
3. We talked about flyers and invitations to the schools not producing high numbers at programs and alternatives to this problem
4. Maybe use radio as a tool for PSAs
5. We also chatted about how to read the upper elementary grades, and doing programs for them to start guiding them towards the teen areas.

Displays:

1. Mobiles that can hang from the ceiling with the program title, the date, and a sample (if craft program), you could hang this above a book display on a certain topic
2. Book covers, information, or pictures surrounding windows
3. Screensavers displaying new books: create a powerpoint page and then save it as a .jpeg and then upload it.  It’s easy if you take the book cover from Barnes and Noble and maybe a description.
4. Quotes, pictures, and odds and ends from magazines that teens bring in to make a collage

~ jennifer

New Podcast @ Otis

I’ve been a little lost since the discontinuation of the ADV preview DVDs that came regularly in the mail. I based my Anime Club around those and when they stopped, I was lost. I know a little about graphic novels, but not enough to run a club on my own. And then I got the brilliant idea to have an Anime Club podcast. So far, we’ve talked about it at the meetings (we meet every month) and now, we have 2 podcasts that just appeared on our website. I’m really excited about this beginning and I only hope that it continues…

Additional YART Meeting

A few months ago, I volunteered to host the Capital Region YART May meeting at Otis Library.

We’ll be meeting Wednesday May 14th at 9:30 - 12ish, where we will be talking

Marketing to Teens: displays and more

Let me know if you’d like to attend. For those of you who can’t make it, I’ll post some of the things we talked about.

The photo above is just one example of displays that I do with a poster of a book and then I print out similar book cover titles and post them around the poster. Mainly I do this to liven the walls of the room, which are extremely white but also because I really like them and it’s a conversation starter with teens here.

Stuck at Prom

Check out this cool contest. What an amazing bunch of prom dresses/suits - all made from duct tape!

L. Williams

Meg Cabot News

Seen on her website, Meg Cabot announces that her book JINX has been optioned and the script is currently being written for a ABC family movie event by Karen Glass, one of the producers behind The Princess Diaries and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

There’s nothing linking this on IMDB yet, but the project seems like a go. For those of you who haven’t read the book, it’s about a girl who moves in to live her her aunt and uncle and their children and trouble follows her everywhere she goes, thus the nickname JINX.

March ECYA Minutes

The Eastern Connecticut Young Adult Roundtable met on Friday March 14, 2008 from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Mansfield Public Library. The meeting’s main topic was what we are considering doing for the Young Adults this year during our Summer Reading Program. Librarians discussed ideas. They included a “Raw Food” night, Edible Books (Mystic Noank, example 1, example 2, ), anything to do with cooking, and of course prizes, prizes, prizes. Discussions about prizes centered around raising funds from friends of your library, local sponsors, savings bonds from banks, car dealerships, anywhere really that would be willing to donate. The important thing to keep in mind is NOW is the time to start soliciting businesses for their donations. Ideas included either having one big prize at the end of the summer, possibly an iPod or Nintendo DS, or a weekly drawing where one or two small prizes are won each week with something a bit bigger at the end. The discussion of how to submit names into the drawing included them earning a chance to put their name in by volunteering to help with a program at the library or by each book read or both. Someone even suggested it would be great to let the teens do their own program for the younger children at the library. They could simply be featured as Guest Readers at your story times. Whenever possible, try to discover exactly what it is your teens would like to win and see if it is possible to accommodate their wishes. This can be done through your teen advisory board or simple questionnaires left out - if you could win a prize what would you wish it to be?

Included in our discussion was the very handy fact that the words Raffle and Bingo are not to be used at our programs so find a creative way to get around that!

For those choosing the collaborative theme of Metamorphosis @Your Library, there was discussion on focusing on “Change Your Inside, Change Your Outside” and having someone to come in and offer Yoga. I mentioned that I had read Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher and had been in contact with him about his book and I am including the information for that below. This would also be a great tie in due to changing your inside. See more information here.

There was discussion about each library possibly buying a copy of this book and then letting one another take turns using these copies so that we would have enough multiple copies to go around as we,very sadly, learned that the WLSC book budget was cut. (UPDATE: Canterbury is donating 3 copies, so we’re 4 copies closer to a set!).

Linda also mentioned Google Reader which can alert you to new blogs so that it would be easier and more time efficient for us to not lose too much time with blogging.

Our next meeting will be on the theme of Graphic Novels. It will be held on May 9, 2008 from 10:00-12:00 at the Thompson Public Library. Claudette

Teen Services Wikis

Here are a couple of YA Services wikis you might want to check out (and/or add to!).

The YALSA Wiki has information on YALSA News, Advocacy, Conferences and Meetings, General Resources, Technology, Young Adult Literature & Teen Reading, and Youth Participation.
And then there’s the Teen Librarian Wiki. ~ lw

Summer Reading Links

Whys and wherefores:
Beth Gallaway’s Power Point presentation “All Reading is Good Reading: Teen Summer Reading Programs“.
Metamorphosis:
Here’s the PSA for “Metamorphosis @ Your Library” on YouTube.
Ideas:
Something to check out. I like this idea of a summer reading graphic novel. I haven’t spent enough time with this to completely figure it out, but take a look “Lost in Jamestown Graphic Novel.”
Teen program ideas from Rosemary Honnold.
Lots of ideas here: California Library Association workshops (check the videos).
Teen Summer Reading Programs (other than Metamorphosis):
Milpitas Teen Library Services (CA) “Read to Do Your Own Thing“; Schaumberg Township (IL) District Library, “Teenagers’ Guide to the Galaxy“
Programming Ideas:
At the Young Adult Professional’s Page; YALSA’s Professional Development page on Programming.
Craft ideas:
“Library Latino Style” from CA
Other:
How to write a press release.

This is not about summer reading programs - just teen programs in general. What do you think of this?

L Williams

Teen Library Websites

Check out Jennifer’s article on Teen Library Websites at the Alternative Teen Services Blog!

See y’all at the Mansfield Public Library on Friday at 1:00.

Podcasting Workshop at WLSC!

We’re not far away! Not many have signed up and I hate for all you Eastern Connecticut people to miss this Audio Editing & Podcasting Workshop - it’s the only time it will be held at WLSC (March 27th from 9-4). Please check it out!

Topics covered include: what software and hardware is needed, steps for creating & publishing a podcast, hands on time recording & editing audio with Audacity, importing music to enhance your audio (copyright free of course!), ideas for podcasting in the library.
The instructor is Polly-Alida Farrington, President of PA Farrington Associates, a consulting firm specializing in internet training and website development. Before forming her own training and consulting firm in 1997, Polly was a librarian at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for 17 years, working in Reference, Government Documents, ILL and Automation. She is a graduate of State University of New York at Albany.