Saving Big with Your Library
You may have heard that there are some problems with today’s economy, those same problems are affecting the very teen patrons that you serve. This is a great time to remind your teens about the value of your library and your teen services program . . .
Today’s unemployment rate hovers somewhere around 9%. That means 2 important things: a lot of teens are living in a household where a parent is dealing with unemployment and many teens are having a hard time trying to find jobs themselves. Everywhere you look belts are tightening and teens and their families are trying to find creative ways to save money and stretch budgets. And your library has some great tools to help them . . .
Financial Aid and Scholarships – make sure your teens know that you have a wide variety of resources to help them find and apply for financial aid, including free Internet access. Put the information together in easy to navigate ways: create a web page, a handout, a display. Just make sure they know where to go and find it easy to use.
Do It Yourself – Highlight areas of your nonfiction that will appeal to teens and help them meet these new needs. Craft books can help fulfill gift needs, room redecorating, and more. Some teens may be looking to find out how they can repair their car. There are a wide variety of craft books that help you make your own soaps and lotions, re purpose out of date clothing and even show you how to decorate on a dime. Pull out your best resources and put these books on display.
Things that teens can do to save (or make) money using library information: Make their own gifts, redecorate their room, find recipes for low cost snacks, fix their car, make their own spa materials, re purpose old clothes, make crafts out of recycled materials, sell things and make money on e-bay, create a blog or webpage and sell handmade items, apply for financial aid and scholarships, find a penpal, find volunteer or intern opportunities . . .
Remember when coming up with programming plans that you can create programs around these themes and reinforce your message.
Homework Help – Chances are your library has access to a wide variety of databases that can help teens excel on school projects, papers and daily assignments. Highlight these resources and tell teens how they can help.
Reading Rocks, But Books Cost Money – Whether it be to fulfill a school assignment or read the newest installment of The Pretty Little Liars, teens need access to a wide variety of books. If a teen bought every single book they had to read for school, it would cost teens (and their families) 1,000s of dollars. In fact, just buying 4 books a month for school assignments would add up to over $1,200 in the course of a year. Remind teens that you can save their pocketbook!
Try Before You Buy – Whether it be books, music or movies nothing is worse than spending your hard earned cash on something only to find out that you hate it! Remind teens that they can try before they buy and determine whether or not they like something before they shell out their bucks.
The Digital Book Revolution (and Audio Books, too) – This year the e-reader has really taken off. From the Kindle to the iPad, there are a wide variety of ways that teens and their families can now choose downloadable books. In fact, they can download audio books to a wide range of audio devices as well as digital books. Make sure teens know how you can hook them up.
Let Me Entertain You – You’ve got teen programs, right? Going to a movie today can cost you around $20.00, and that’s not even with popcorn and soda. Video games cost on average anywhere from $20.00 on up. You want the latest movie on DVD? Again, $20.00 bare minimum. Remind your teens that you provide a wide variety of entertainment options, whether it be attending the latest library program or putting together their own low cost party. They can check out a DVD, put together a low cost party menu, find some fun games to share and voila’ – best party ever at little cost to them.
Have game nights (both board and video games) and give teens fun opportunities to hang with friends and play with resources they don’t have. With the right programming and the right message, your teen area and programs can become a destination hot spot.
Tech Me Up, Scotty – Teens love technology and they want access to a wide variety of tools. Keep your library technology up to date and make sure teens know what you have. Make sure you have teen friendly Internet access policies. Let teens know about new resources ASAP. Incorporate learning how to use these resources into your library programming: have programs where teens learn how to create blogs and webpages, manipulate photoshop editing software, make movies, learn powerpoint and more. Keep them up to date on things like Google Chrome and Google +.
Calculate the Cost – Libraries everywhere are helping their users understand how much a library can save them by using library savings calculators. This is a great tool to help punctuate your message: put an actual number on it. For example, in the graphic at the top of the page I calculated how much it would cost to buy copies of some of the most popular teen series plus an additional 4 books a month for school. Create a visual to convey your message – infographics rock and are effective. Take a moment and send out a calculator on your webpage or FB page (or both). There is a tangible financial benefit to using your library, make sure your teens get the message.
Make a plan to communicate your message:
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Put together an infographic that works for you and your community. Include the cost of school materials, entertainment, and technology..
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Put the graphic on display in your teen area and share it digitally via your various communication channels.
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Put together a display of your various non fiction materials and communicate how they can save you money.
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Put together a program where teens can make crafts for the upcoming holiday season and walk out with physical products they can use as gifts. Or ask a community member to do a financial planning talk, which I recommend by following up with some type of hands on activity.
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Repeat your message multiple times and in multiple formats.
Filed under: Marketing, Teen Issues
About Karen Jensen, MLS
Karen Jensen has been a Teen Services Librarian for almost 30 years. She created TLT in 2011 and is the co-editor of The Whole Library Handbook: Teen Services with Heather Booth (ALA Editions, 2014).
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