Get teens in the library

• Ask them!
  • Be prepared to write down names, phone numbers, and email addresses
  • Approach teens and offer them comment cards.
  • Approach teens and ask for suggestions for materials. We can't buy everything, but find a way to say "YES!"
  • Hand teens flyers and ask if they'd be interested.
    
    
• Post flyers and sign up sheets! where teens will see them. Make sure all staff members know to whom to give the sign up sheets or refer an interested teen!
  • at the teen computers
  • next to the water fountain
  • in YA books
  • in bathrooms
  • at YA book shelves
  • under flap of photocopy machine
  • on teens' tables
    
    
• Make a display in the YA area! Including...
  
  • photos or collage of things the group has done or things the group can do
  • sign up sheets
  • reprints of newspaper coverage
  • who to ask for more information
  • web site address of TAG
  • email address of advisor
  • dates of future meeting
  • survey for teens to fill out
  • future projects and programs
  • books reflecting positive teen images
    
    
• Add meetings to the library's events calender!
  
  
• Add articles in the library's newsletter!
  
  
• Advertise the TAG
  • on computers that use screen savers!
  • on library produced teen reading lists!
    
    
• Announce that the TAG is accepting new members at all teen programs. Alternately, you could take a sign in sheet and send out invitations to join.
  
  
• Invite former volunteers from children's summer reading program join the TAG!
  
  
• Invite all participants in the teen summer reading program!
  

Get teens outside the library

• Contact school and community agencies to see if they would nominate someone to serve and/or post flyers about the group.
  • 4-H
  • Boys and Girls Club
  • Boy Scouts
  • Church youth groups
  • Girl Scouts
  • Home schooling organizations
  • Junior division of coin or stamp collecting clubs
  • Junior high and high school librarians and guidance counselors (public and parochial)
  • Salvation Army
  • YMCA
    
    
• Make school and agency visits so you become a familiar face.
  
  
• Send out press releases and public service announcements. This gets the parents who would like their children to join.
  
  
• Request TAG articles in schools' newspapers!
  
  
• Post information on the library's web site!
  
  
• Participate at volunteer fairs or activities fairs at the local high school or elsewhere
  
  
• Attend junior or senior high school orientations to promote services including the TAG
  
  
• Enlist enthusiastic recruiters! When the group does something in the community, take along sign up sheets! Also try to arrange local press coverage so teens and their parents can see what the TAG really does!

Contact Before the First Meeting

• Schedule time to meet with interested teens! Be prepared to offer food :)
  • Phone calls: Teens are hard to catch at home! Beware lost messages!
  • Letters: Mail merge database can change frequently! Beware postal costs!
  • Postcards: Can't attach agenda! Beware carpal tunnel syndrome!
  • Email: Speak their language! Attach the agenda! Set up a YA listserv in your address book!
    
    
• Set the agenda and send it out early!
  
  
• Send a reminder e-mail!

The Meeting

• Feed them!
  
  
• Consider background music to fill uncomfortable silences. Alternate the DJ!
  
  
• Introductions are important! The book Recreation Handbook for Camp, Conference, and Community by Roger E. Barrows has some terrific ice breaker suggestions.
  
  
• Flexible Agendas are a must! Leave with room for tangents.
  
  
• Doing is better than talking! Don't fall into the rut of over-talking about issues unless that's what the TAG members want! Try to have a project ready no matter how small.
  
  
• Laugh!
  
  
• Prepare ground rules and a mission statement. That could be the project for the first meeting. Ask the teens what they would like to do.

Projects for the Group

Encourage participation. Try a brainstorming session. Every group is different.

• Write a mystery to perform for children!
• Dramatize some children's stories and perform them!
  • Where Do You Get Your Ideas?
    • Fractured Fairy Tales
    • Readers Theatre
• Make items to sell to benefit local charities or families in need!
• Help with the library's large projects! Mailing projects or assembly line work is perfect.
• Rearrange or shift books/furniture (be sure they're physically able and willing)
• Create displays!
• Gather data from surveys
• Design or update a library web page
• Discuss books, movies, theater, anything!
• Improve an existing program with a brainstorming session
• Make props for dramatizations and mysteries
• Create a mock game show programs for children (take inspiration from Trivial Pursuit, Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy)
• Choose paperbacks, CDs, DVDs to purchase
• Develop a list of TV shows, musicians and/or authors teens would enjoy
• Choose posters
• Brain-storm display ideas
• Create bookmarks and posters using the teens as models and a catchy phrase (e.g. "Normal Teens Read" in Normal, IL)
• Write & Produce television commercials for the library
• Write & Record PSAs for the library
• Suggest pathfinder needs for homework and read alike lists for leisure reading
• Brain-storm topical programming for teens
• Write book reviews to be used in the library
• Create a teen library newsletter
• Design or fine tune a teen summer reading program
• Give library tours
• Read stories to children at holiday or community festivals
• Decorate or redecorate the YA area
• Greet, usher, and hand out refreshments at children's or adults' programs

Follow up and maintain the group

• If the teens make suggestions, act on them. Then show them how they made a difference. For instance, if they suggested posters for the library, show them which were chosen and ask for help putting them on display.
• The meetings will be a great place for the teens to ask reference questions. Get back to them as soon as possible.
• Remember their reading interests and tote along books that may strike their fancies.
• Invite them to bring friends to the meetings.
• Have meetings regularly.
• Create a flexible atmosphere where teens can miss meetings, arrive late, and stop coming. If they stop coming to the meetings, still greet them with a smile the next time you see them in the library or elsewhere.
• Learn participants' names and use them when you see members in and out of the library!
  
  

Prepared by Lisa Matte for The Elusive YAs: Getting Teens to Use the Library presented at Mid-York Library System headqarters in Utica, NY on March 14, 2001.

Updated by Lisa Matte for Even for the Faint of Heart: Getting Teens to Participate in a Teen Advisory Group presented at Jervis Public Library in Rome, NY on November 7, 2001.

Print and distribute for educational use is allowed as long as the author's name remains on the document.

Return to TAGs

Return to Young Adult Home Page

Updated 5/21/10 by KDV