I Found It On The Internet: Coming of Age Online

Harris, Frances Jacobson. I found it on the Internet: coming of age online. Chicago: American Library Association, 2011. Print.

“I Found it on the Internet” is about the trials of libraries when dealing with youth who have no idea the things that a library can offer to them. While some use it for reading, for most the library is just a place to hang out after school or where their teachers make them go for research help even though a quick Google search could yield the same results. This is why teen programming is important. There was a library in New Jersey that closed during the couple of hours after school in order to avoid the middle school audience all together because they were ill equipped to deal with them. Education seems to be the best way of coping though, as the Queens library in New York found when instead of hiring security guards, they employed youth counselors instead. The counselors provided programming and ways to get the teens involved so that the library saw a surge in circulation and a dramatic decrease in police visits. Another instance in which education worked to help the library deal with teenage patrons was when a school librarian showed an old film on how research texts were indexed. The students got to make fun of the out-of-date language and fashion, but when asked questions they proved to have decided that human indexing was much more accurate than machine. The students then got the chance to index some reference texts themselves so that they could see how hard the process was and the experience was very worthwhile to them. They realized how much more accurate print references could be and the library because “useful” in their eyes once again.

This shows how severely programming can have an effect on an audience, but it also seems to be used for libraries that are already occupied by teens. I would like to read further into this book, if I had more time, to see if they suggest ways to bring teens to the library for those that have an absence of middle school and high school attendees.