April 4, 2001
Teens take on advisory role at District Library
Teen board gets the word out on room for teen-agers
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Teen Room, what Teen Room?
If this is your response to hearing there is a Teen Room at the Traverse Area District Library, you are not alone. A little known fact about the library is that it includes a room just for teens, with shelves of books and magazines geared to young adults, tucked next to the Sight and Sound room on the first floor (really).
Area teens on the library's Teen Advisory Board are determined to get the word out about the Teen Room, plus the many other possibilities for fun and education they plan to make available for youth at the library.
"We hope to make the Teen Room more well-known," said Ann Marie Niemi, a ninth-grader at Traverse City St. Francis High School and a member of the board since January. "I never knew it was there and it has teen books, fiction and magazines."
With library statistics showing 40 percent of their users are teens, reaching out and offering programs that will interest them is critical. The board is working closely with Youth Services Librarians to make the library more friendly to teens. This will provide a missing link between library's extensive programs available for children and adults, board members said.
"The library has a lot of really unique programs for younger children but it seems like there is not much for teens," said Emily Cooney, a tenth-grade student at Traverse City Central High School and a member of the board since the beginning.
Librarians from the Youth Services division formed the Teen Advisory Board in September to seek out advice and ideas from area teens about programs or activities they wanted. Librarian Christopher Spears spoke to members of the National Junior Honor Society at Traverse City East Junior High School last spring to drum up support and members for the board.
Spears believes the board is important because he sees how often teens are unwelcome in the community and that they do not have many places to hang out. Many of these teens grew up coming to library programs so bringing them back seemed like a natural thing to do.
"One of the comments I've had come out of teens' mouths is that they go into stores and adults watch them closely," Spears said. "Teens are very much aware of what adults think of them."
Having teens on the board generate the ideas and help manage any programs they create will empower them and draw more teens to participate.
"Teens are really disempowered in our society, I think; they are expected to have a lot of accomplishments without being given as much responsibility as they can handle," Spears added.
The board includes 17 teens who attend at least occasionally, with a core of eight who attend regularly. The teens have brainstormed a number of ideas they would like to work on, including a teen reading club in the summer, a vocational bulletin board, talent night, art contest, poetry reading, adopt-a-grandparent and reading books at nursing homes.
Two successful programs so far have been a Christmas book drive, which netted more than 800 books for distribution to needy youngsters, and making Valentine's Day cards for residents of area nursing homes.
"The teens have come up with better ideas that I would have," Spears said. "I've been very impressed."
Board members are gearing up for their first fund-raiser, a car wash scheduled for April 14 at the library. They plan to use the money from the car wash to spiff up the Teen Room.
"We want make it more teen friendly, it's kind of boring right now," Cooney said. "Maybe we will buy some T-shirts, too."
The Teen Advisory Board meets two Sunday afternoons a month and is open to teens in the area. For more information, call the Traverse Area District Library at 932-8500.