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.