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September 19, 2009
The Tween Center
Lately, I’ve been thinking that my philosophy of librarianship could best be summed up, “Embrace your inner nerd.” I want every child who walks in the doors to find something of interest in the Children’s Room, but, what’s more, I want children to know that this is the place where we love books and thinking and art and creativity and logic and problem-solving. This is the place where you can go to figure out the world or get a little respite when figuring out the world is wearing you out.
Since I started at WPL, we’ve been very successful at addressing the needs of young children, our largest base of users. Most small children cannot read on their own. They need to explore their world through movement and activity, they need a world where words are becoming accessible, and they need adults to read to them. We have encouraged this through a lot of things: a strong preschool collection, lots of storytimes, a puppet theater and puppets, a block table, magnetic words and letters, and places in the children’s room where adults and children can sit together and read.
Several years ago now, I started thinking more about how to retain users and focus on keeping those kids as they got older and started learning how to read. It’s a thing we’ve talked about a lot as a department, and it’s led us to do a lot of things. We’ve done more school-aged programs, we started Library Club, and we’ve worked on strengthening the collections that appeal to children in this age group (chapter books are a no-brainer, but also nonfiction, paperbacks, comics, and videogames). Finally, we decided that what we needed was a place where the older kids could sit and talk and read and not be bothered by the small children running around, a place where older kids could feel free to work on the attention spans and contemplation that will serve them for the rest of their lives.
So we took this space:
And turned it into this space:
We still have to fill in the holes in the walls and repaint, but this is the general idea. I’ve written about steps in the process: getting the diner booth was big, as was redoing the way we store magazines. Basically, we’ve created a space where kids can sit and work together as well as spaces where they can sit and read on their own. We’ve put the comics on shelving that is worthy of their awesomeness, and we’ve got the magazines out where kids can see them. We’ve given people a lot more incentive to walk through our nonfiction aisles. This view used to show you a bare wall with skeletal putty-colored metal shelving:
I can tell you from watching people that some were interested in going toward the putty-colored metal shelving, but a LOT more are interested in those beautiful books on that beautiful warm wood shelving. I like to call it the milk in the back of the grocery store. This idea of using furniture and the arrangement of physical space as a marketing tool is one I find fascinating, and our changes have been effective so far, at least as far as I can tell. Older kids are using the space. Some hang out back there and talk with their friends, but many sit back there reading. I've seen kids sit back there for hours, and I frequently find piles of books, comics, and magazines back there. It’s very satisfying.
Now that this is almost done, I’m thinking more about how to increase awareness of the depth of some of our collections, those books that are there and are great that older kids would love if only they knew they existed. That’s a stickier, more time-consuming problem, so I think for a bit I’m just going to spend some time enjoying this step in the right direction.
Posted by adrienne at September 19, 2009 11:17 AM
Comments
This is really very nice.I can't believe how the time goes by.You are doubtless watching many of your first WPL patrons growing.The wood shelves really do add warmth and a sense of serenity:-) Nice work!
Posted by: momster at September 19, 2009 11:51 AM
Thanks, Mom! Yes, it's been seven and a half years now, so some of those kids who were small when I started are quite big. It's been fun growing with them.
Posted by: adrienne at September 19, 2009 12:46 PM
Adrienne, it's beautiful! I love that shelving and all the face-outs.
Posted by: Abby at September 19, 2009 03:53 PM
Thanks, Abby! I'm always trying to get more covers looking at people. I didn't mention it above, but it's also worth noting that the shelves smell awesome, even better than new-car-smell.
Posted by: adrienne at September 19, 2009 09:49 PM
This is fabulous. I bet it's very validating to find those stacks of books and comics back there that tweens have obviously been reading. You go.
Posted by: Jules at September 21, 2009 09:16 AM
I LOVE that bowl chair. I don't think my bum would fit in it, but still! Embracing my inner nerd sounds like fun.
Posted by: tanita at September 21, 2009 09:18 AM
Jules, It so is!
Tanita, Those chairs are more accommodating than they look. They're comfortable, too.
Posted by: adrienne at September 21, 2009 03:47 PM
Oh, this is great. Lucky, lucky tweens.
I wish you could see the teen room at the Lake Hills Library. It's sound-proof, for starters.
Posted by: Saints and Spinners at September 22, 2009 10:55 PM
Thanks, Farida! We could use some more sound-proofing at Webster. We're in a space that used to be a department store in a strip mall, so it's all one big room, and the sound carries. We have been able to move things around to make it a little better, but the quiet people are always wanting more quiet space.
Posted by: adrienne at September 23, 2009 09:08 AM
How about a space in that area to offer kid to kid recommendations? You could start by mentioning it at Library Club (which already comments on books & stuff they like) and you could open it up if a kid is really excited about a particular topic...like cryptozoology or something. Ooops, did my inner nerd not stay caged? Seriously...everything is awesome at WPL!
-Xandi
Posted by: Xandi at September 23, 2009 03:45 PM
More good thinking there, Xandi. :) You let that nerd flag fly.
Posted by: adrienne at September 24, 2009 07:47 AM