When working in youth services, you have to wear many hats.
I especially feel like this is true when you are working with tweens. Tweens
are on such a wide spectrum with their interests and sometimes it can be a
little overwhelming.
In general , I feel
like this vast interests may come from different levels of maturity.
They can be interested in anything from Pokémon to
Game of Thrones. I have been struggling with this. Which led me to
question:
How can you
confidently deal with this wide range of interests and wear different library
hats with a smile?
As I have pondered
this question, I think I have finally come up with an answer!
1.
Do programs for a
different age that you are not used to.
If you have followed
my blog in the past, you know how I feel about collaboration. If you work with different ages, you will start to feel comfortable with the many hats you have to wear in the library.
I am so grateful to
work with such a wonderful library team.
I was able to cover a
program for Ms. V. this past week.
I didn’t think much
of it. I enjoy working with the teens, but it really taught me a lot.
For this program that
I covered for her in particular, there were a lot of young teens (12-14 years
old) that came. Since I was covering for
Ms. V, I didn't come up with my own activities. I just followed what she had
out.
Unfortunately, more
kids came then we expected. They didn't like the activities we had. Which ended
up being both good and bad. What we
ended up doing instead was just talking and doing a few crafts. As I got to talking with them, they told me
about their daily middle school struggles.
My favorite quote of
the night came from a 7th grade boy. A girl tried to hug him, and he
looks over at me and goes, “See, this is what I have to deal with! Seventh graders!”
Being that he was in
seventh grade, this made me laugh & it really summed up this awkward time
for kids for me. Which made me learn
several things.
A. When working with tweens, it is important
to spend time with teens.
The time I spent talking to these teens during this program
were priceless. They were so much fun, and they taught me a lot about the
trends going on.
As a general rule, I
have found that tweens want to be older and do what teens are doing. It is a
good idea to be aware of these teen trends and popular books, because your tweens will be.
After this program, I started to talk to tweens that came up
to the reference desk. I found that they liked the things that I had discussed
with the teens. I feel like this makes me more aware of what is going on with
them and hopefully made me a better tween librarian. Seeing this trend I also realized:
B.
Even
being in the same grade, same class, and same age doesn't guarantee that they
will like the same things or be on the maturity level.
I know this sounds very simplistic, but I found that
I am really guilty of generalizing what kids will like based off of a certain
age. For example, since I mainly work with tweens, I mainly read middle grade
novels. Why? Because that is what my tweens generally read.
But what about the
tweens who read on higher reading levels? Or the tween who enjoys nonfiction or
picture books?
If I only read middle
grade novels, I wouldn't be able to serve them as well.
This was validation
for me that I need to expand what I am reading.
I know for sure that I need to make an extra effort to
do more teen programs. My goal is to try and do one every season, but I don’t
think I could ever be able to read everything that teens and tweens are
interested in.
This in turn, made me
feel really overwhelmed. How can you know everything? I got home and reflected on this, and
realized how silly I was being. I didn't need to know everything or watch all
of the shows the kids suggested. I have a team to help me!
2.
Use your
coworkers as a resource
If you just work alone, you will become very frustrated very quickly.
It is okay not to know everything. You don’t need to be a
fan of every fandom the kids are. Chances are someone that you work with likes
that fandom. No worries!
I need to use my coworkers as a resource. We all read different
things, and have different interests. I need to be aware of what my coworkers
specialties are in and use them as a resource to better serve patrons.
For example, I
majored in history in college. (My emphasis is in WWII)
I also got a minor in
Library Science ,and I love to do research. If you give me a question, I will
search until I find the answer.
I am one of those
weird librarians who loves those, “I am looking for a book, but I can’t
remember anything about it” questions.
I would love to get more of these questions, and I am sure
that some of my coworkers may toss questions like these at me happily.
To me this really shows that
I need to make a reference sheet of what my coworkers specialties and
interests are. That way it is a resource for help with reference questions
& with programming.
Conclusion
In my pursuit to join the library field, I am learning so
much. I am finding that we all wear different hats, but we all specialize in
something different. It is important to have collaboration, interaction with your
tweens and teens, and to be open to trying new things. As this summer goes on, I am going to try to dabble in helping with different ages. I think that if you box yourself into a certain age range, you will miss out on so much.
Maybe by the end of the summer I will earn my super cape! How is your summer reading going?
-Pamela
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