2012: Planning Ahead

The end of the year is a busy time of year.  Hopefully you are working on putting together some good end of the year reports to share with your administration, staff and community showing how your teen services is helping everyone in the community.  Remember to show it, not say it: include pictures from programs and think infographics instead of static charts and graphs.  Here are some fun (and well designed) examples for you to look at.  And you will want to check out this infographic on the anatomy of a librarian. 

The other big task you will probably be thinking about is planning for the year 2012. Wait, 2012! How did that happen?  I am going to ignore the big elephant in the room that is summer reading programming for the moment and just highlight some other events that you may want to look into.

January

Make New Year’s Resolutions
Make a resolution with your teens to read more!  Set a personal goal for yourself, say 24 teen books for the year (that’s 2 a month). Totally doable.  Then, send out book reviews on your webpage, Twitter account or Facebook page.  As your teens to do the same.

21 through 24: ALA Midwinter
John Green is going to be at Midwinter.  I am going to be at Midwinter (look for me and say hi).  The Printz Award winner is going to be announced at Midwinter.  It’s always fun to meet with other teen librarians and to find out what others are thinking, reading, doing and more.  So sign up today to go.  (And no, I do not work for ALA.)

February

Library Lovers Month
Valentine’s Day

Invite teens in for V day crafts, or hold an anti-valentine’s day party with absolutely nothing being loved theme.  Put up a huge display and invite teens to tell you why they love their library.

March

4 through 10: Teen Tech Week
This year’s theme is Geek Out @ Your Library.  You can do gaming or set up a Teen Tech Lab and invite teens to Pimp their Facebook page, create Infographics of their lives (kind of a biography in infographic form), or learn some other technology skill.  Better yet, invite teens to come in and make book trailers or commercials for the library using a digital camera.

23: Hunger Games movie release
Without a doubt this movie should be BIG – so you’ll want to have a party before hand.  My previous blog post outlining activities is linked above.  Entertainment Weekly.com has a Hunger Games central that you will want to keep watching for movie stills, trivia and more to share with your teens.  Don’t forget to visit Hunger Games net for additional information.

April

National Poetry Month
26: Poem in Your Pocket Day

You can hold a poetry contest or poetry slam.  You can do some poetry writing.  And don’t forget on the 26th to put a poem in your pocket.  You can create your own magnetic poetry kits but cutting words out of discarded magazines and gluing them to magnet strips bought at craft stores.

May

5: Free Comic Book Day
The best thing I ever did for Free Comic Book Day (apart from giving away the free comic books of course) was hire a caricature artist who sat in the teen area for a couple of hours that day and drew caricatures of the teens.  It was a fun, laid back activity that kept the teen area hopping.  I recommend it.

What are some other events you are looking forward to in the first half of 2012?

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