By Rachel Malay and Kate Wise
Having three librarians in the family means that when we get together, we talk a lot of shop. In our family, we have: Vicki Wise, director at Clearwater Public Library; Rachel Malay, youth services director/administrative assistant at The Port Library in Beloit; and Kate Wise, public library fan currently working as an academic librarian at Cloud County Community College. Vicki was faced with executing a teen summer library program on no budget and had concerns about making a teen program relevant.
Kate and Rachel were anxious to see what could be done with Cloud Computing applications, as these applications are free to use. The aspect of Cloud Computing that made an online teen library program workable for two libraries and three locations was freedom from location restrictions. Inspiration for how to connect with the teens came from the Vlogbrothers, two nerdfighters communicating via YouTube and a Ning group (www.youtube.com/vlogbrothers). Potential for the library realm was intriguing.
This year’s teen program seemed especially easy to translate to an online format. Kate offered to be a liaison/representative for the Clearwater Public Library, working with Kathy Berry, library assistant coordinating children’s programming at the Clearwater Public Library. Kate, Vicki, and Rachel met to discuss broad goals and makeup of the program. Kate and Rachel set up a Google account to help with planning and collaboration. Google Docs were instrumental in collecting and organizing our ideas and documents. Once we had the groundwork of what we wanted to accomplish in place, Rachel and Kate started a Google site. This Google site became the framework for the program.
In order to maintain a level of security for the participants, registration with an email address and parent signature was required. Teens visited their respective libraries to sign up in person. Although anyone can view the TSLP website, only the administrators (those with the password) can add content to the site. We also used a Gmail account as our contact with participants; once a teen had registered, we sent a welcome email with a link to the TSLP website, and accepted all contest and other submissions by email (tslp2009@gmail.com).
The bulk of the work planning and setting up the TSLP website had been completed before the start of the program. We organized the site, and set up a basic format for each week – this took about 8-10 hours of dedicated work time for the overall setup. Each week had a theme based on the ideas in the Collaborative Teen Summer Library Program Manual. The six theme areas were Literature, Drama, Visual Arts, Music, Technology and Politics. Prior to a theme’s week, the web pages associated with the week were only accessible through the buried site index. We revealed each weekly theme and activities by providing a link from the homepage of the website and in the site’s sidebar.
Also, we filmed and edited a video to introduce each week’s theme and activities. The purpose of this was to have a “face” for the program, and to provide a more clear way to communicate themes and activities. We hoped putting a personality with the website would encourage more participation. Each week’s video required about three to four hours to produce, depending on the length of the video. Our videos were an average of two and one-half to three and one-half minutes long each and highlighted what activities and contests were available that week. These videos were posted to a YouTube account connected to the Google account, and embedded in the TSLP website.
To encourage continued participation, we featured theme-based activities and contests each week. We wanted to reach teens with all levels of Internet access; this required a little more creativity and research when planning activities and contests, but added a great deal of variety to the offerings. Included were links to more passive websites such as JacksonPollock.org or Pundit Kitchen, sites encouraging participation such as Xtranormals or Playlist.com, as well as ideas for activities not based on computers. Each week also featured a contest. As with the activities, we tried to vary the contests between computer and technology based, and submissions that could be completed without access to a computer. All activities and contests were, however, submitted by e-mail.
Books are still a major component of libraries so, in addition to activities and contests, we encouraged teens to tell us what they were reading. Rachel also picked out several personal favorite intermediate and young adult titles available at the Port Library, while Kate picked titles available at the Clearwater Public Library. We then wrote a quick review for each and made these reviews available online via a link appearing on each week’s theme page, as well as in the sidebar.
Each week we checked the Gmail account for submissions and feedback. As soon as an e-mail was received we sent a response acknowledging the teen’s hard work, comment, or creativity. Contest submissions or other creative content was posted on the corresponding weekly theme page at the bottom, below any examples we had provided. Although we planned to send out prizes weekly, in reality we made one big trip to the post office in June and another in July. At the end of the program we sent out a questionnaire to everyone who had registered or participated, including all librarians. The survey consisted of three short, open-ended questions asking what the teens liked or hated about the website, and about the activities and contests.
Kate and Rachel have joked that this year’s program was more of a great experiment than an actual summer library program. To quote a famous movie, we “have much to learn, [as] young padawan[s].” Nonetheless, we were anxious to receive feedback in order to improve upon the program in preparation for next year. Feedback from the teens has been expectedly difficult to obtain. What we have heard has been vaguely positive. However, improvement includes initial and consistent successful communication. After the end-of-summer surveys were sent out, several respondents said they were unable to find or access the TSLP2009 website; several teens said they didn’t receive the welcome email, although Gmail reported no technical problems. Some of the teens thought the activities/contests were too involved or too time consuming for summer. Next year we hope to encourage more active participation and submissions, but will explore options to achieve this at a later date. And, one teen reported that they would have preferred a more colorful website theme.
Positive feedback included comments on the booklist; the teens appreciated a personal review of books they could get at their library. For small libraries, this is a valid point – not all small libraries will have immediate access to every book on a national teen reading list. Navigation was another positive aspect – most teens that accessed the site found it easy to navigate. Overall, the teens enjoyed the efforts of the librarians to be innovative and creative with the summer program. Everyone who gave feedback agreed they would try the program again if offered next summer.
As program creators and site facilitators, we are far more critical of ourselves than the teens were. One thing we’d like to change for next summer is the time frame of the site creation. We’d also like to have the site completely built before summer begins, and reveal sections as needed. Although the basic framework was in place, we left some aspects of the website unfilled until very close to the deadline. Kate and Rachel found it difficult some weeks to meet to make the videos. It wasn’t until the last week that file sharing sites were employed to help create videos out of footage shot in separate locations. To reduce frustration for librarians and teens, we want to collect phone numbers from participants to make contact with teens and ensure that they can access the site and have no prohibitive problems with the program. Finally, the next incarnation of this program would benefit from a site counter on the website to monitor non-interactive use.
There are several successes from the program on which to build. A difference in this program from other summer programs offered by the participating libraries is an open sign-up through the summer. Many teens are loath to commit to any activity until that activity has proven worthwhile. Waiting to participate in a program does not show an overall lack of commitment or interest. Teens are bombarded with stimulation and activity options; they will want to wait and see if an activity is worth their time and if their friends will sign up before they will commit. The video introductions were popular, as were the variety and number of activities. Prizes are an important and popular motivation. The easiest and most cost-effective prizes for a long-distance program are gift certificates. Also, we found Google sites fit our needs. We will probably use them next summer, as well as the method of gradually revealing the site as the program progresses.
What prompted both Kate and Rachel to create this sort of program was the novelty of doing a program online and the creative opportunities the format presented. Both had a pre-existing interest in technology but realized teens today take the technology used for granted. This program offered an opportunity to meet teens on their own level. In summary, we had a lot of fun with the program. While we realize there are a lot of shortcomings to correct, we are excited to try again next summer with the direction that this summer’s feedback and reflection provided.
replacing the use of the US Postal Service to exchange and loan books between libraries. 
