Teen users of public libraries:
Jennifer Morales
LIS 598
Journal of Professional Reflection
Winter Quarter 08
Teen users of public libraries:
One the first day of LIS 598, a course called The Thoughtful Professional,” we jumped right into contentious issues in public librarianship. Although I’ve not yet worked as a public librarian, I can imagine how this could is one of the more challenging venues in which to work, simply from the varied nature of “public” users. One of these is the issue of children and teen users and how some libraries view the community is taking advantage of the library as a public space to dump their kids off. (Does this really happen?)
We discussed whether the library should be designated for certain uses and what types of enforcement is appropriate in this setting after reading “Lock the Library! Rowdy Students are taking over.” This article depicts young adult (middle school/high school) students as being a bane to both the library and a community in general. Last year, I had my first interview with the Seattle Public Libraries for a student librarian position, and I actually blew the interview when they asked me they wanted someone that could “handle” the West Seattle branch high school kids. I found it interesting that they ended up hiring a young, male student librarian for that position (I’m a petite, mid-thirties person).
There was a lot of heated discussion in class about what a professional is supposed to do about the “problem” of teen users, yet most of the students in the room did not seem to be parents, as I was. I was sort of cringing inwardly during this discussion because I’m one of those parents that let their middle-school age child go to the Seattle Public Library alone since we live less than two blocks away from the Capitol Hill Branch Library and my son reads more books than I do. He’s the kind of kid that reads 900-page high-school level books and then will re-read that same book a six months later for entertainment (he’s 12). Ironically, after class that very day I was getting panicky because I had not been able to reach my son all afternoon (thinking he was at home on the phone blocking my inbound call) although in actuality, he locked himself out of the house after school because he forgot his keys, cell phone (and wallet) and nobody but myself was expected to be home until later in the evening. I had not been able to reach him because he had left his cell phone at home. As I came home from the University District on the bus, it started to snow. He finally called me from an unknown number, the reference desk at the Capitol Hill Library. I asked him what he’d been doing for the last 4 hours and he said “Sitting in a chair at the library, I read 5 books.”
