Christina
Dufour
LSC
535, Children and Youth Services
Lauren
Mandel
Part 1, 2, & 3
art 3 Due December 9, 2013
Part 2 Due
October 25, 2013
Part 1
revised after September 27, 2013
· What youth services are:
To discuss what Youth Services are, we must first define who the
“youth” are within a library. Based on previous experience within
libraries, youth can be defined as “children in a community from ages 0 to 12
or 14” (Fasick & Holt, 2013, p. 6). This group is classified within
the same age for public libraries, school libraries, and special libraries.
They encompass pre-schoolers, young school-goers, and, in some cases,
young adults. As a result, a youth services librarian may maintain items
such as “boardbooks, picture books, books for beginning readers, chapter books,
graphic novels, nonfiction and reference books, foreign-language books, historical
children’s books, parenting and teacher books for adults, and…other learning
materials” (Fasick & Holt, 2013, p. 13). In addition to materials,
youth services also require programming and social activities. These are
typically events put on by the youth services librarian and other staff. The events seek to engage several
opportunities children may not normally have. They may seek to engage any
of several social types- parent and child interaction, child to child
interaction, outside of school education, and recreational activity. As
for programming, the library may host a book club, a movie or game night,
homework help, author visits, and more.
· Why youth services are important to librarianship and society at
large?
Youth services are important to society at large because the
youth eventually turn into adults and adults into elderly people. By
making a positive impact on a child, the librarian may be able to influence his
or her later decision to return to the library. The librarian has the
opportunity to convince him or her the library is a valuable resource. In his or her adult years, this could be very
important to the future of the library.
By using that opportunity, the librarian has taken a chance to gather
the users of the future that will, in turn, use and fund the library. Positive interactions and positive
influences, while making an impression on a child’s library visit, are
key. At a young age, he or she may not
realize what a great resource the library is, but he or she can remember it as
a place of enjoyment. On a similar note, the librarian may be creating a
positive atmosphere or fun event that the child may not have had the chance to
do outside of the library. In some cases, children bring parents or guardians
with them who may look around the library and decide to come back in the
future. These parents or guardians could also take up an interest in the
library, volunteer or join the Friends of the Library (or a library
equivalent).
· Yourself as a youth services librarian
As a librarian, I feel I have much to learn about the younger
patrons. Some aspects, such as which programs work and which ones do not,
will be learned on the job. But I do know that I want to be the librarian
who creates a space for children to go where they feel safe, valued, and
engaged. To be there for the youth and to offer a wide variety of
services is a start. I hope to be able to offer programs that engage
(socially and mentally) each age group as appropriate without neglecting one.
However, it’s not all about the children, their parents or guardians have
to be accounted for: I hope to create a space where they want to learn
together and can be creative. By job
standards, this could be considered as spreading ones’ self too thin. All I mean is that by offering activities
that allow parents’ involvement, regardless of whether they go or not, the
librarian is fostering that sense of community and providing more time for the
family to spend together. In listening
and having chances for adults and children to give feedback, there is a lot of
opportunity for positive outcomes. Lastly, while there is typically one
staff member in charge of the children's area, I would like to give the staff
at my library the chance to be involved. There are department heads for a
reason, but there may something that other staff members observe that I might
oversee. Ultimately, the aim is for a positive experience that makes the
youth want to use their library both now and in the future.
Part II: My Personal Philosophy of
Managing Youth Services
· What
is a manager?
A
manager, according to Merriam-Webster, is someone “who is in charge of a
business, department…someone who directs…performance” ( Merriam-Webster, 2013,
para 1). F. John Reh of about.com
defines a manager a little more clearly.
He says a manager is “a person who helps others… get more done. A manager helps others
get more done by:
- motivating them
- providing directions
- making sure they are working together toward a common goal
- removing roadblocks and
- providing feedback” (Reh, 2013, para 1).
How does this relate to the library? Within the children’s department, the manager
is likely the chief of staff for this department. This simply means that they are the one in
charge of collection development, programming, and services. The manager in the children’s department must
get everyone to see their vision because it is what will meet the mission
statement (or goal) of the children’s department. This means motivation as well as direction. To do this, there has to be
communication.
· How
you see yourself as a manager?
As
a manager, I want my staff to feel empowered and driven. If I am out of the office or on vacation, I
want my co-workers in my department to feel that they can complete their
tasks. That being said, I want those I
manage to feel comfortable coming to me with questions or concerns. Part of directing people requires constant
involvement. A manager cannot simply
hire someone and expect them to never have doubts. I would rather someone on my team ask me a
question (after having searched for a solution first) than to blindly go
ahead. This is also not to say that I do
not wish my team to have their own ideas.
Part of what keeps a library fresh is its ability to adapt to change as
well as the unified vision of its goal. As
a manager, my ideal is to be a strong, but relatable force.
· What
do you see as the particular challenges to managing youth services?
The first challenge I see
in managing youth services is that those hired in the children’s department are
coming in from different experiences; and some will be able to read children’s
needs better than others. Part of being
a manager includes being able to know your staff’s strengths and
limitations. In other words, to observe how well the new staff
are adjusting to children’s services, as it will also take time to adjust to a
new library. Respectively, you must also
be able to gauge how senior staff are responding to new changes. Secondly, we have to make the time to work
with these young patrons. All departments
in a library can get busy, but it is important to find the time to give
children instruction and to present yourself as approachable. This brings us into another possible
challenge of youth services- time and planning.
Renee Valliancourt points out that
“Often librarians- especially YA librarians and media
specialists, who are responsible for providing direct service to patrons as
well as managing their department or media center- have trouble finding the
time to plan. Without planning, there is
no way to determine where you are going or how to tell when you have gotten
there” (Valliancourt, 2002, p.91).
This is why it is important to make sure you
and your team are on the same page.
Because there is a crunch for time, you and your staff will be most
likely to utilize your time if the tasks are delineated. Valliancourt suggests that the department
creates a series of measurable goals and objectives. While this too can take time, it gives the
team something tangible.
Part 3: Summarize your views of youth
services librarianship into ONE sentence. This is your brand/tagline.
"I
want to be a strong, relatable force that creates a positive experience in
which the child/teen finds themselves wanting to come back for more."- Me
Works Cited:
Fasick, A.M., & Holt, L.E. (2013). Managing children’s
services in libraries. Santa
Barbara, CA:
ABC-CLIO.
Manager. (n.d.). In Merriam-Webster
online. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/manager
Reh, F.J. (2013). What is a manger? About.com.
http://management.about.com/od/begintomanage/a/whatismanager.htm
Strong,
S. (2004). Sights, sounds, and silence in library reference service to
children. Public
Libraries, 43(6), 313-314.
Vaillancourt,
R. J. (2002). Managing administrative duties: Paperwork and planning. In R.
J.
Vaillancourt,
Managing young adult services: A self-help manual (pp. 91-100). New
York,
NY: Neal-Schuman.
