Making the Case

This section contains information about project evaluation, articles and case studies about the Transforming Teen Services frameworks and putting them into practice, and research behind the frameworks. There is also information and resources for getting your administration and other stakeholders on board with doing these trainings and incorporating these frameworks into your teen services approach.

Impact on Individual staff:

• Develop knowledge about how to work with teens including research-based connected learning (CL) approach and teen growth and development

• Develop/strengthen a positive mindset about teen interactions

• Engage in discussions about issues of equity impacting their community and teens, and learn how to have those discussions in their workplace

• Develop understanding and confidence about facilitating computational thinking opportunities in ways that are aligned with connected learning (CL) and YALSA teen services competencies

• Articulate how their services for teens connect to the concepts of connected learning (CL) and youth development

Impact on libraries through trained staff:

• Trained staff share knowledge and build library capacity to serve teens

• More attention to the importance of teen services

• Develop a bridge between children and adult services to foster a lifelong library habit through meaningful teen services programs

• More teens attending teen services programs designed around their interests and future opportunities

The overarching objectives of the Transforming Teen Services: A Train the Trainer Approach (T3) project are to build capacity for teen services in public libraries and increase attention to the importance of teen services at local and state levels through the development of a training model and a national cohort of trained staff from public libraries and state library agencies. The project was proposed for three years (July 2018 through June 2021) but continued on through a no-cost extension to March 2023.

Evaluation of the T3 project included documentation of planned and emergent activities and monitoring progress on the project goals. Primary evaluation questions were structured to yield formative information about progress and offer insights related to IMLS focal areas of interest.

Project evaluation was conducted by Caitlin Martin, CKmartin Consulting. Find project evaluation documents linked below.