Are you Nobody too? There’s a pair of us. (part 2)

As people in a helping profession, it can be hard to approach a new relationship with the idea that we need help.  If that is part of what is holding you back, take the global view and see if you can’t get more motivated by the thought that a partnership will help someone else.

Start close to home.  Very close to home.

The easiest and most important place to find a partnership is in your own library.  Yes, you may be the only teen librarian, but think about the overlap that you have with Children’s or Adult services.  Perhaps you could recruit someone from each of those departments to create a Teen Services Committee, much like you might have a staff development or technology committee drawn from all areas of the library.  Teens are a service population that demands more than one person can provide in any community unless the teen librarian is staffing the desk every hour the library is open, and even if that’s the case, it doesn’t mean that the teen librarian should be the only one tasked with their service.  Frequently in my presentations about Readers’ Advisory, I point out that it would be a horrible breach of service for someone to tell an octogenarian, “Oh, the senior citizen librarian isn’t here today, but here’s her card,” or “Um, I don’t really work much with old people, let me go get Joe.”  Help create in your library a culture of teen friendliness by finding staff that are willing to have a monthly discussion with you about how your library can do things better for teens, how new policies are working out for them, which services from each person’s respective department are underutilized by teens, and how to promote them.  Chances are you’ll uncover a secret YA reader in there somewhere.

Start closer to your actual home.

Think about your commute – do you pass any libraries before you get to work?  Leave half an hour early for your 1:00 shift some day, stop in, and see if you can meet a teen librarian.  Take your business card, pull the “I was just in the neighborhood” line, and just see how it goes!  You can also pick up the phone and make a call.  And yes, you could send an email, but if you do, please please remember that you’re trying to forge a friendship and partnership here, not sell yourself to the Board or get your foot in the door as a booktalker at the school down the street.  Be friendly.  Plead a little.  Suggest a time to meet, then do it!

Shout it from the virtual mountaintops

How many libraries are near enough that you send patrons there to pick up items?  You should probably know if any of those libraries have a teen librarian, and it would be even better if you knew that person’s name.  You don’t need to be on a board or have a position in any kind of regional organization to call a meeting.  Send out a broadcast email to the teen librarians within a short drive, suggest a central location or offer your own meeting room, throw out a Doodle poll and get a meetup together.  It really can be that easy.  You don’t need an organization or a system or an acronym to be the one to get a bunch of librarians together, you just need a few chairs.  Your first meeting can be just that – meet one another, exchange contact information, go around the room and ask what everyone is reading, have some cookies and make a plan to meet again soon.  My guess though, is that more than a few people will have a question or an idea that will generate enough conversation to fill at least an hour.

Hello? Hellooooo?

Are you in a rural location, or is your region one with a dearth of teen librarians?  I urge you to try to find some face to face meetings, even if you can only do this quarterly or twice a year.  Reach out virtually to those librarians who are nearest you, or who share your interest.  Start a Google Hangout, have a Skype chat, or start or join a Twitter chat.  Over the last few years I’ve been doing a lot more craft programs than ever, so I created a Pinterest board to swap ideas.  As the followers and contributors list grew, I started a Facebook page for discussing how we’d use the pinned ideas.  The page has grown into a place that people have asked about popular nonfiction, brainstormed program names, gotten suggestions on handling behavior issues, and more.  Sure you could join either of these projects, but are there topics that really drive you?  Look around online and see who is doing exciting things.  Follow them on Twitter.  Subscribe to their blog.  Send them an email and see what they have to say about your idea or predicament.  Is there someone whose posts on a listserv really jive with how you see the library landscape?  Or maybe someone who seems completely different than you.  Send them a note.  Open a conversation.

I had a casual conversation several years ago with someone running for YALSA Board.  She asked if YALSA seemed cliquey.  “Without a doubt!” I answered.  But in hindsight, I don’t think I was right.  It just seemed like everyone knew each other, and they didn’t know me, and despite my ease at conversing with whichever stranger comes to the desk about whatever topic they bring up on a daily basis, making actual connections with people that are going to last longer than three minutes is hard for me.  At my core, though I no longer balk at the idea of speaking in public, talking to strangers, or blabbing on the Internet, like many in our field, I am a shy person.  Are you one too?

So there’s a pair of us.  Advertise!  

Once  you find someone else you can talk with about teen library issues, don’t stop.  Bring others into the conversation.  Now you’re the one who’s helping forge connections.  See how that works?  Cool, huh?  Continue to reach out.  Use the different circles you are a part of to broaden your search and scope.

Following my own advice

My presence on this blog is another example of reaching out.  I needed help on a writing project – the kind of help that Karen seemed perfect to provide.  I reached out to her, knowing her only through this blog and YALSA-BK conversations.  We chatted on the phone, decided to work together on that project, and now I get to talk with all of you too.

I encourage you to use the comment section to share your successes at collaboration and connection with others in the teen librarianship or teen advocacy community.  What works for you?  How did you get started?  Any tips or suggestions?  Do you have some thoughts or ideas that you’d like to bounce off of someone?  We’re all in this together, so let’s talk.

A note from Karen: Networking is good.  And it doesn’t just have to be with librarians.  You can also network with the organizations in your area who work with teens to learn more about local programs and services, share local insights, share success stories, and train each others in areas of expertise.  There is tremendous value in knowing the people from your local Boys and girls Club as well as your fellow teen librarians.  I wrote about it in VOYA:https://www.teenlibrariantoolbox.com/2011/10/asset-builders-coalition-support.html.  I have also participated in regional teen book review groups that met quarterly and shared book reviews. I highly recommend it.  Online is nice, but it is nice to get out of the building and share a cuppa with your peers.  Rotate libraries so you see what other libraries are doing with their space and graphics and then you can steal their ideas.  I mean borrow.  You can borrow their ideas. Silly me.

Running a Local/Regional Group:

• Determine your focus: book reviews, programming, all areas
• Pick a regular meeting time to avoid confusion: The second Monday of each month, every 3rd month
• Have a coordinator: This person will collect email addresses and create a distribution list, create an agenda, and send out reminders prior to the meeting and recap notes following the meeting
• Rotation is Key: Rotate libraries so that the same people aren’t always driving, you are visiting new library to get new ideas, and you are sharing the burden of set-up, providing food, and clean up.
• Have food: Everyone likes food, not just teens.
• Keep it light and informal, but set some ground rules: confidentiality, no gossip, honest but positively focused