The Developmental Assets

Looking at the developmental assets is a way of taking the focus off of what publishers want to sell, communities want to censor, and my personal sensibilities and refocusing on the needs of teen. Below I have considered some of the ways that librarians can take action to provide for the continued growth of teens' developmental assets. This is a list in progress. As I continue in my career, I will come back to this list and challenge myself to think more critically about how to serve YAs.

• Family Support | Family life provides high levels of love and support.

Learn the names of teens in the library. Give them individual attention. Remember their likes and dislikes and validate them. Celebrate their victories in the library.

• Positive Family Communication | Young person and her or his parent(s) communicate positively, and young person is willing to seek advice and counsel from parents.

Make an effort to learn what music teens listen to and what the hottest shows are. Be honest with them about who you are and let them be honest as well.

• Other Adult Relationships | Young person receives support from three or more nonparent adults.

Perhaps the library could sponsor a teen family night where adults in the teens life can help with researching colleges and planning for the future. If teens show up without adults, librarians can assist teens.

• Caring Neighborhood | Young person experiences caring neighbors.
  Let community members come in to talk to teens about fun neighborhood activities.
  
• Caring School Climate | School provides a caring, encouraging environment.
  Also keep in communication with your contacts at schools
  

EMPOWERMENT

• Community Values Youth | Young person perceives that adults in the community value youth.
  Make teens aware of high school internships at museums and other cool workplaces in the area. Let them volunteer.
• Youth as Resources | Young people are given useful roles in the community.
  Recommend reading that shows young people making a difference and inspiring others. Show them how they can help others if they are interested.
  
• Service to Others | Young person serves in the community one hour or more per week.
  Same
  
• Safety | Young person feels safe at home, school, and in the neighborhood.

Take action to protect teens in accordance with the policy of your library.

BOUNDARIES AND EXPECTATIONS

• Family Boundaries | Family has clear rules and consequences and monitors the young person’s whereabouts.
  Recommend books that illustrate the contrast between a family with clear rules and family situations that are less than desirable.
  
• School Boundaries | School provides clear rules and consequences.
  
  
• Neighborhood Boundaries | Neighbors take responsibility for monitoring young people’s behavior.
  

Make sure all librarians are ready to serve young people.

• Adult Role Models | Parent(s) and other adults model positive, responsible behavior.
  
  
  
• Positive Peer Influence | Young person's best friends model responsible behavior.
  
  
• High Expectations | Both parent(s) and teachers encourage the young person to do well.

CONSTRUCTIVE USE OF TIME

• Creative Activities | Young person spends three or more hours per week in lessons or practice in music, theater, or other arts.
• Youth Programs | Young person spends three or more hours per week in sports, clubs, or organizations at school and/or in community organizations.

Provide a sports program at the library.

• Religious Community | Young person spends one hour or more per week in activities in a religious institution.
  
  
• Time at Home | Young person is out with friends "with nothing special to do" two or fewer nights per week.
  
  

INTERNAL ASSETS

COMMITMENT TO LEARNING Achievement Motivation | Young person is motivated to do well in school. School Engagement | Young person is actively engaged in learning. Homework | Young person reports doing at least one hour of homework every school day. After I knew a teen fairly well, I would ask them about their homework. Bonding to School | Young person cares about her or his school. I have no idea. Reading for Pleasure | Young person reads for pleasure three or more hours per week. Bribe teens. Give away books and gift certificates. Give them really great books to read. POSITIVE VALUES Caring | Young Person places high value on helping other people. Equality and Social Justice | Young person places high value on promoting equality and reducing hunger and poverty. \ Integrity | Young person acts on convictions and stands up for her or his beliefs. Responsibility | Young person accepts and takes personal responsibility. Restraint | Young person believes it is important not to be sexually active or to use alcohol or other drugs. SOCIAL COMPETENCIES Planning and Decision Making | Young person knows how to plan ahead and make choices. Interpersonal Competence | Young person has empathy, sensitivity, and friendship skills. Recommend books that illustrate skills. Cultural Competence | Young person has knowledge of and comfort with people of different cultural/racial/ethnic backgrounds. Resistance Skills | Young person can resist negative peer pressure and dangerous situations. Peaceful Conflict Resolution | Young person seeks to resolve conflict nonviolently. POSITIVE IDENTITY Personal Power | Young person feels he or she has control over "things that happen to me." Self-Esteem | Young person reports having a high self-esteem. Sense of Purpose | Young person reports that "my life has a purpose." Make available a diverse array of literature that is devoted to religion and philosophy that is attractive to teens. Positive View of Personal Future | Young person is optimistic about her or his personal future. Recommend books about fiances and careers.

Diversity in the Library

After reading the chapter 5 in Sex, Brains, and Video Games: A Librarian’ Guide to the Twenty-first Century, I realized more fully the complexities of serving the needs of diverse communities with in the library. Before this article, I knew to check the census, and to partner communities organizes to aid in serving a diverse community. I also knew that making materials available that addressed issues and reflected the interests of particular groups in a community would be some of the library services. I take it for granted that New York is probably the most diverse place in the world as a whole.

I learned many things from the article. I learned that placement on the shelf and catalog can hinder access to materials that service minorities. While I had read about books being hidden by librarians in this manner, I hadn't thought about all obstacles to equal library service that are thoughtlessly erected by librarians. Books for non-English speakers need to be very easy to find because it is very hard for a non-English speaker to request the materials he or she needs in person or on the computer. Also up-to-date age appropriate easy reading in English should also be placed near the non-English books. Good collection development practices in this area will also service to increase circulation.

Many immigrants come from countries that do not have public library systems. I have been told by Ellen Loughran that many do not understand that they are supposed to bring library books back to the library. Making sure there is a policy in place to forgive fines in situations like this, especially for children, is important to keeping patrons coming to the library and thereby improving literacy. Also I learned from chapter 5 that serving diverse communities does not mean making a poster depicting that group and hanging it in the library. While it now seems obvious that some members of particular communities would find a poster like this offensive, I had never considered that possibility. Serving diverse communities requires careful research and a sensitive approach.

Some ways to serve diverse communities:
1. Make appropriate reading materials accessible
2. Provide information on free English classes
3. Host free English classes when possible
4. Choose GLBT reading material for bibliographies
5. Incorporate themes in programming and exhibitions that reflect the community
6. Cultural themed story hours
7. Learn how to access translated material on the internet.
8. Keep a list of web addresses for News materials from around the world.
9. Employees when possible from the communities they serve
10. Give free language classes to employees will to learn Spanish, Creole etc.

What book would I recommend to a ....

What book would I recommend to a ....

Shy 12 year old who is not a big reader (boy)
Harry Potter
Brewer, Heather. The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod: Eighth Grade Bites. Penguin Group/ Dutton, $16.95 ISBN13: 978-0-5254-7-8119.
Velez, Ivan. Dead High Yearbook. 2007.
Death Note
Rot But & Bottom Gas
Our Dumb World: The Onion's Atlas of the Planet Earth, 73rd Edition

Classics...
I would recommend Hemingway to reluctant readers. Hemingway novels are short, especially Old Man and the Sea, and the sentences are short. I would also suggest Grimm's Fairy tales and tall tales, and mythology. Short tales are very satisfying to read, and before they know it they will have read a very long book.

Shy 12 year old who is not a big reader (girl)
Gothic and Lolita
Class Pictures
Higher Power of Lucky
Dramacon
Tears for Water By Alicia Keys

Classic: I would recommend the same classics for a boy or a girl, but I would particularly recommend Jane Austin to the girls. I did not like Jane Austin, but I know a lot of girls that loved her writing. For a reluctant reader, I would try to find it in large print as long as the large print did not say large print on the spine! I would also recommend films adapted from classic literature. Later, she might want to come back to the book.

14 year old avid reader (boy)
American Born Chinese
Someday this pain will be useful to you.
A long way ago memories of a boy soldier
Bad boy Walter Dean Myers
Grace After Midnight (Depending of the individual.)

I decided on these books after reading Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You, and reading the reviews for the others on Yalsa, School Library Journal and Publishers Weekly.

(girl)
The White Darkness, by Geraldine McCaughrean,
How to make books
Twilight
Grace After Midnight (Depending of the individual.)
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Boys and Girls older teens...
Okay maybe this is a little old school, but I love John Updike. He has so many books and collections of short stories that are about the transition periods in life.
For the 17 18 set, I would recommend John Barth, Beat Literature, and any classics they didn't have to read for school. Dostoevsky anything, the Awakening, Howard's End, any thing by Oscar Wilde. If it is not assigned for school all people in the world should read, listen to or watch the move of all Shakespeare plays, or better yet, keep a list of Shakespeare plays that are currently running in the NYC area for kids and parents to refer to.

If this doesn't seem like suitable for the teen in question, perhaps

The Rose the Grew from Concrete Tupac

Poetry by such authors as Robert Lowell, John Ashbery.
For reluctant readers I would recommend pertaining to their hobbies. Cookbooks, craft books, college prep materials, magazines and other might be among some of the books I would recommend.

Collection Development

Here I want to jot down some of what I learned in class about collection development and my thoughts.

Noting all the reviewers-who you agree with and who you do not well help with a librarian build a solid collection. Researching a little about each reviewer and reading about their library system will help the librarian decide if the information she/he is reading is rely able. Buying known authors is a good idea and simply reading the last line of the Kirkus reviews is key to selecting material. That the review sources are free and online is very good news. If I had a very tight budget and enough time I would also try and read the first chapter of the book before I order it. I would also look at NYPLs lists as well as BPLs recommends and other award winners.

I never read middle school books that I can recall. I read the diary of Anne Frank (kinda) when I was in school. I liked Judy Bloom in 4th and 5th grade. I don't think that teens really like middle school books either besides the classics depending on the kid. I think of middle school books as having to be too safe to be interesting to normal teenagers. Harry Potter and other fantasy, horror-like goosebumps and biographies are the first kinds of books that come to mind. Buying books for a middle school library is a difficult job. Books that would be a shoe in: All Creatures Great and Small, Anne of Green Gables, other classics, tame Graphic novels and Manga, Art Books and the rest age appropriate Dewey. You mentioned looking at Chelsea House and Ocra Soundings for nonfiction, but that generally nonfiction for middle schoolers is expensive and hard to find. You also mentioned basing most of the collection development around the curriculum.

Knowing that I would be throwing away any science books that were not written in the last five years would make me think twice before building a large print collection of science books. I would spend the money that would have gone to science books on computers and databases. Luckily you never have to throw out philosophy or Folklore and classic literature.

Trash Talk

What is teenage "Trash Talk"? It is a way of coping with the very intense feeling that teenagers feel; it is their hormones, some of it is done right evil. Teens trash talk about topics they don't understand. Teens don't understand romantic love yet- not in the way they hopefully one day will, and so talk as filthily as possible about the topic to appear as if they understand it. Being extreme elicits a response. Teen are probably looking to find out if others are feeling the same as they and use trash talk as a means to find this out. Trash talking probably helps them feel less alone. Teens can join the "We All Hate Betty Club" and have a sense of belonging.

I can remember being on the phone all night with friends talking about feelings. A YA librarian, can show teens that there are a lot of clubs to join that are more empowering than the "We Hate Betty Club." - that they are not alone and that their feeling with definitely change. Therefore, it is a good idea to not write anything that on myspace or facebook that you doesn't depict the amazing person you are.

I have been thinking a lot lately that more needs to be done to get teens using the library. We need the kids who are hanging around on the corners talking trash to come in. Partnering with social services like the Queens Library seems like a good start. Although those kids were already in the library.

Teens need to be kept busy. They get bored so quickly and boredom leads to trash talk and to trouble and depression. While completing my community profile assignment, I learned how many more programs there are for children than their are for teens. Why is this? I think Lauren had a good point when she was talking about gentrification in NYC. The new people in NYC neighborhoods are the young people with young children who advocate for their children. The parents of teens are usually parents with less money, influence, and time. Also, many adults like children, but do not like teens. Therefore, there is less programing.

Perhaps teens are bored because they actually don't have anything to do, but sit around and feel depressed and gossip about one another. We have to give them fun things to do! Perhaps they don't know what is expected from them or what to expect from themselves. Good point from Peggy!

I bet a lot of parents could use support groups in the area of trash talk, the Internet and their fears. Doing a program about these issues for parents of teens might be very beneficial.

Brooklyn Public Library "Talk to Teens"

Two weeks ago, I went to the Brooklyn Public Library to set up a time with the YA library to talk to teens about reading. I spoke with the YA Librarian Molly who explained some of the teen programs that take place during the summer and explained the best times for me to come by. The teen time, the program Molly suggested I attend, is scheduled on Tuesday from 4-5 for ages 13-18yrs. or grades 7 to 12. Other weekly programs for teens included: Reading is Fundamental (RIF) where teens can earn free books and Knitting for Kids and Teens presented from 4-5 on Thursdays for 9-18 yrs.

While I was speaking to Molly I noticed the presents of a teenagers sulking and conspicuous and I do not mean that in the pejorative sense. After discussing what teens do and some of what they may like, I was very happy to be with the real teens even for this first short time. The boys walked slow and sort of shuffled along while holding up their pants. They wanted to know about the monthly Manga Mania Club that takes place on the last Friday on the month from 4-6 for ages 10-18yrs. It was not taking place that night. That night was chess night. These teens were not interested in chess. (I remember loving chess. :)

I came back that Tuesday with Molly's permission to talk to teens about their reading habits and their other hobbies. Getting to the teen space is at Brooklyn Public Library's Central Branch is rather awkward. I had to go back through security, guess at which door to take, walk up a spooky stair case and guess again which door to enter. While I understand the libraries are working within, for the most part, extremely limited budgets, a sign posting on the doors would have been a help to promote the program and help others locate the area. The teen space was made up of a wood that was stained with a yellowish brown 1970's varnish. The shelves were staked with arts and crafts supplies, board games and nicknack's. There were board games such as Connect Four and Life. Also two television sets on rolling metal carts, one connected to a Wii and one to a PlayStation, were causally placed at either side of the room. The library assistant or Librarian, I wasn't sure which, was signing karaoke to a Madonna song. She definitely had talent. She introduced my to Nyomi 13 and Chris 12, but going into the 7th grade and therefore counted at a teen according to Brooklyn Public Library.

Nyomi acted about 5 years older than Chris. She was reluctant to talk to me until after I explained my homework assignment fully. I told her that I was studying to be a librarian and that if I were to be any good at my job I have to know what teens like to read. She first thought that I was going to ask her to think or write or something equally silly, but then decided she was doing the rest of the world a favor, and I wouldn't take up much of her time. Chris was shy and didn't say very much. Here is what we talked about:

INTERVIEW CHRIS 12

What do you read?

Chris: I like fantasy.

What kind of fantasy?

CHRIS: I don't know. hehehe

What authors do you like?

CHRIS: I read Harry Potter. I am now on the Goblet of Fire.

That is great. Do you read newspapers, magazines or anything else.

CHRIS: I don't know. hehehe

Do you read the Times, the Post, the Daily News.

CHRIS: I don't know. I don't pay any attention to what paper I read. I just pick up whatever is laying around and read it.

Oh, cool.

How often do you read?

CHRIS: I read all day long.

Really. (I find out later that his video game system at home is broken. He is reading Harry Potter and it is summer, so I believe he could be reading all day long.

What do you think reading means?

CHRIS: I don't know. hehehe. It is a break from boredom. I like to read before I go to bed.

What do you like to do when your not reading?

CHRIS: Ummm... I don't know... (as soon as we are done the interview he gets up to play Dance, Dance Revolution.)

Are you going on vacation this summer?

CHRIS: Yeah, I am going down to North Carolina to see my cousins. I really like to travel.

Do you swim?

CHRIS: Yeah, I like to go swimming. (He smiles.)

Where do you go swimming?

CHRIS: I like to go to the beach, Coney Island. I go with my brother and my mom. I also like to come to the library when I am not reading. (We both laugh at the irony. I think it is great that a teens think of that highly of the Brooklyn Public Central Library.)

What books out of all these would you read? (I have laid out before him all of titles we are reading for class plus Hugo Caberet and The Power of Lucky.)

(He looked through these books periodically for some time while we were talking. He first was drawn to the Avatars book. I can see that now that it might have been hard for him to look through all of the book. I think I brought too many and that the choices might be overwhelming. Also I had all the books sitting flat, so they may have been difficult to see.)

CHRIS: I like this one. (He points to the Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian.)

I like that one too. Why do you pick that one?

CHRIS: I don't know. I like this part. (He points to the blurb on the inside jacket.)

Thanks so much for helping me with this Chris. You have been great.

CHRIS: Okay.

NYOMI 13

Nyomi has been watching us from across the table. I don't know her at all. I have no idea what to expect. Nyomi is one cool character. I later find out that she is a volunteer at the library, but I can see it all over her face- she runs this place. She watches as I right done her name and corrects my spelling of it. "That is NYOMI" "Okay, thanks" I tell her.

Thanks for doing this by the way. What do you read?

NYOMI: I like gossip books.

Like what?

(Here are the titles and authors she likes:

Shepard, S. (2006). Pretty little liars. New York: HarperTempest. Series

Books about relationships.

Real life stories.

Godbersen, A., & Ottens, E. (2007). Deluxe. Haarlem: Gottmer.

How often do you read?

NYOMI: I read everyday. I usually read at night before I go to bed. I am reading two books now. One in the Little Liars series and one of the Gossip Girl books.

What do you think reading means?

NYOMI: I don't know. I just love to do it because it interests me. Reading means using your imagination.

What do you do when you are not reading?

NYOMI: When I am not reading I babysit my brother.

That doesn't sound like too much fun. What I meant to say is what do you do for fun?

NYOMI: I like to knit. I can knit while I read.

Really I can't do that! I like to knit, but I keep making the same scarf over and other again.

NYOMI: I also like to make bears. One of the children's librarians taught us how to knit and make bears. Let me show you. (She goes to get a bag.) We are all doing different things. Some of us are making scarves with ribbing and some of us are creating images using different patterns we have downloaded from the internet. This person has made a cat, and this person is doing a special kind of ribbing. See knit, pearl, pearl, knit.

Oh, that is all pretty terrific. You guys are pretty good already. You are inspiring me to keep it up.

What else do you do when you are not reading?

NYOMI: I like to travel. I am going to visit my aunt in Virginia, and I going swimming at my cousin's house in New Jersey. In 19 days I will be going to Disney World.

What? That is awesome. (Yes, I am being totally genuine here. I am impressed with Nyomi's very cool summer.) Do you play video games?

NYOMI: Yes, I like to play Halo 3, Assassins 3 and Guitar Hero.

What do you play Halo 3 and Assassins 3 on? (She looks at me like I must have been asleep for the last year.)

NYOMI: You can play Halo 3 and Assassins 3 on an XBox, a lot of the games came be played on any system?

Oh really, I had no idea....Out of the books in front of you, which one would you read?

NYOMI: I would read these?

Lockhart, E. (2008). The disreputable history of Frankie Landau-Banks: a novel. New York: Hyperion.

Cameron, P. (2007). Someday this pain will be useful to you. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Blank, J. (2007). Almost home. New York: Hyperion.

Why did you chose those books?

NYOMI: Someday This Pain will be Useful to You- I really liked the cover and the title.
Lockhart was recommend by a friend, and I will always try a book recommend by a friend.
Almost Home looks like it is a really life story.

As I was finishing up and packing up my things the teens were relieved to get back to playing hanging out and having fun. They had a lot of younger kids in the program during teen time because of the lower program turnouts that happen over the summer. They didn't seem to mind with the video games and free orange juice and animal crackers. The program looked well under control, but the teens children and teens seemed carefree.

Also, I talked to my niece on the phone and asked her some of the same questions?
Katie-16

What do you read?

Katie: I like to read magazines.

Which ones?

Katie: I have a subscription to Teen Vogue.

What else?

Katie: I liked Sloppy First Second Helping by Megan Mccafferty

What do you do when you are not reading?

Katie: I go on MySpace. Watch TV. Go Camping. Play softball.

I read her a list of books and described each one to her. Of those she explained which one she liked.

She would read:

The Absolutely true story of a part time Indian.
The Disreputable History
Almost Home
Tyrell

Teens really read!

Harry Potter has gotten everyone reading, teens in particular, and YA literature is so engaging and profound, everyone is continuing to read. I remember reading Beat lit, and non-fiction as a teenager, but I was deprived of decent contemporary fiction. I read a lot of plays and short stories in late high school/early college.
Other material I loved to read as a teenager:
Anything Oscar Wilde
John Barth
Virginia Wolfe assignment
Once and future King assignment
TC Boyle
Jane Austin
James Joyce
Mark Twain

However, the teens I meet with at the Brooklyn Public Library seemed to love reading and do it all the time although they might have been exaggerating to try and impress me. I think teens are so much more literate today than ever for a couple of reasons 1) they are always reading and writing and reading very quickly and coding and decoding text through a varity of electronic and print platforms , 2) they are also youtube video editors and producers making them more effective visual and oral communicators.

It is common knowledge that teens have to be more academically competitive than in the past, especially girls going into college. This drive to get into the best schools is a theme throughout YA lit. The article we read about teen readers last week cited research that teens that read for pleasure do better academically. I would think that many librarians and parents have already guessed that. That many adults understand the importance of reading for fun, not as true when I was growing up hence a lack of YA focused lit, will help teens perform better. Teens now know how much fun it is to read.

Also, I like what you said Jack about the Library as place at the Bronx Library Center. The library is a place where serendipitous learning can occur along side serendipitous fun. It seems that with the explosion of YA lit that there now really is a book for every reader.