Pretty Little Liars Program

Ever since Pretty Little Liars premiered in 2010, I was hooked. With all of its mysterious twists and turns, it was hard not to be. This show has dominated ABC family & is still holding on strong in its 6th season. 

What I love most about it is that it is based off of Sara Shepard's book series. 

With this popularity and my own love for the show, I decided to turn this into a library program. Since the TV show is rated TV- 14, the target audience for this program was high schoolers. 

For my program, I wanted something laid back. I decided to do a countdown to the top three fan rated "scariest episodes."  I picked these episodes based off: 

17 Magazine's The 10 Scariest Episodes of Pretty Little Liars

1. The Pilot - (Season 1, Episode 1)

I chose this one to appeal to kids who may have not seen the show. I also wanted to watch this one to allow participants to look for clues about who the mysterious "A" is. 

2. If These Dolls Could Talk (Season 2, Episode 24). 

This episode was just super creepy. It had lots of weird little dolls, and a creepy boy in it. The teens really like this one just for its thrill factor. 

3. Now You Seen Me, Now You Don't (Season 4, Episode 12) 

The teens picked this one for its thrill factor. It is a crossover episode between the show Pretty Little Liars and its spin off series called Ravenswood. 

This program was very easy & the teens really enjoyed it. It was fun to discuss their theories on who they thought "A" was. They got so into their conversation they didn't want to leave. Which is saying something because this was a drop in 3 hour program and they stayed the whole time. 

The only prep I had to do for this program was make popcorn. 

I also set out some fun little activities for them to do while they talked & watched the episodes. 

Some of the things I set out were: 

Adult Coloring Sheets 

Friendship bracelet supplies and tutorials

I chose to do this activity based off of the bracelets that appeared in the show. 

....and finally, I just set out some foamy play dough.

This was my first program of the summer, and right during finals. Many found this to be therapeutic to take a break to color and play with play dough. I think I was on track with planning it like this. 

What I Learned 

I had more boys show up to this program then girls which really surprised me. 

Although I didn't have many show up for program, I did feel like it was successful. I was able to help a few teens who were stressed with finals and that was a library win for me. 

I feel like my biggest pitfall was that  I did not advertise it well. One of the teens told me it was an amazing program, but the library does a terrible job at advertising. 

Even though it stung a little, I felt like he was right with this comment. I think next time I will advertise it as a final study break & try and reach out to more social media outlets.

I am going to try this program again with the TV show Supernatural around Halloween. I am hoping to advertise it better, but I am a little disappointed that it didn't go better before. 

How does your library advertise to teens? 

Until next time, 

Pamela

Spring Break & Passive Programming

As Easter approaches, many school are on their spring break. Suddenly, your department is full of kids. What do you do?  

I recently asked myself this question. My answer was programming. 

Since spring break  is so busy, I decided to do a low prep program. That was the easy part. Deciding on what to do was another thing. 

After much contemplation, I decided to do a Lego program. 

All I did for this program was:  I placed out Legos for the kids to play with and I put in The Lego Movie. Easy enough, right?  I thought I was in for quiet evening with low attendance. 

 As I open my door to let the kids into the program, I quickly realize I had made a terrible mistake. Not only was their a pack of children waiting to get into my program, but there was a reporter who was at the very back asking to interview me. 

Reporter man, say what? I was so caught off guard. (Plus it had to be the day I had no make up on and my hair was a mess! Do they have a super power to find you on those days?) 

I quickly got my kids going on the movie and the Legos. I slowly went back to address the reporter. 

 It was late. My manager wasn't there, and I didn't know what to do. After the person in charge said it was okay to do the interview, I was on my own. 

As an aspiring librarian, I am learning that you really have to expect the unexpected. 

This was not the first time I had a reporter show up to my program, but last time my manager was there to do the interview for me. Last time when she did the interview for me, she gave me some tips. (Ms. S. is just that cool). 

When doing a TV interview she told me: 

1. When asked a question, rephrase the question 

2. Speak loudly, clearly, and slowly

3. Remember who you are representing. Since it is the library, always connect the questions to library & its values. 

When the camera and the lights turned on me, did I remember this? No.... 

Although it did not go the best, it was a learning experience. The reporter was there to cover on activities that kids could do over spring break. It was a lovely way to spotlight the library and my program. 

I was happy with how well I did in the few minutes notice I had. The only downer part of the interview was how quiet I was on camera.

I just have a quiet princess voice. I guess that is the story with most librarians, right? Maybe I will do a better job next time.  My inner princess of information voice shall conquer! 

After the reporter left, I got the opportunity to sit with kids that participated in the program, play with Legos, and watched The Lego Movie. It was sweet to watch the kids pretend to be Emmett and create all different kinds of incredible things. 

After the program, my Lego book displayed was completely cleaned out and I was showered with thank yous from parents. They really appreciated that the library offered free programs and activities for the kids to do over spring break. 

Even though it was not the quiet night I was expecting, it did go well. It reminds me that we need to make an extra effort to provide things for kids to do over breaks.

It also reminded me that the programming we do doesn't have to be extravagant. Sometimes we just need to provide a place for people to go. 

 If you do not have time to do a program for tweens, you may try to put out some passive programs. Sometimes the most successful programming can be passive programming. 

Some ideas maybe: 

1. Origami- place out some paper and some how to origami books 

2. Create a scavenger hunt for your library for your kids to complete throughout the week. 

3. Trivia- print out some trivia questions and see if the kids can answer them. I like to use pop culture, but you can do whatever is best for your patron base. 

4. Set out some board games, and let the kids play. We have a checker game that we have set out in our children's department, and it get used quit a bit. I enjoy watching families play, and I especially like to see the different rules the kids make up to play it. 

5. Set out coloring sheets. If your library doesn't aprove of coloring sheets, you may 

have them create their own bookmark instead. You can create a simple blank box on the computer, print it out on card stock, set out crayons, and enjoy seeing the bookmarks that kids create. 

6. Play a seek and find game- place a character like "Where is Waldo" in the library and have your kids try and find it. 

When your library is full of kids, I hope these passive program ideas will come in handy for you. More importantly, I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe week. I am happy that we officially made it to spring! 

For the next blog, I am working on more reviews for middle grade books. For my Missourians, I will also start to post discussion questions and program ideas for our Mark Twain state award nominees. Be on the lookout for that. 

Until next time, 

Pamela