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Engaging Teens at the Library

We had such a wonderful time doing a pre-conference workshop and an interactive panel at Internet Librarian this week.

Here’s my team of teen panelists and sharers:

• Stephen Abram, Coordinator
• Susan Considine, Fayetteville PL
• Justin Hoenke, Portland (Maine) PL
• Patrick Sweeney, San Mateo County (CA) PL
• Brian Pichman, Mokena (IL) PL
• Dave Hesse, Mokena (IL) PL
• Terri Fredericka, InfOhio
Here are their presentations but you really had to be there!  We plan to repeat the workshop at Computers in Libraries in DC in April:

 

One aspect of the workshop was that we brought a lot of hands on stuff. There was some gesture computing software to play with. A slate table arrived late but was demoed in the exhibits afterwards. There was laser tag which we had great fun with that night. There were Sifteo cubes and a cool ball you could program with your iPhone, iPad or Android. We also had some advanced Lego robotics (chomping alligator) and Lego design software and Sue Considine talked about her team of trained Lego competitors, the first in New York with too many teens signing up – Success! All attendees at Internet Librarian got to play with them at Gaming Night on Sunday. Laser Armed Librarians – truly scary! 😉

All were tied to great library programming for kids and teens.

As soon as Susan Considine’s inspirational video about the FabLab makerspace and teen activities at Fayetteville Public Library is available, I’ll post a link to that too. 3d printing is soooo cool and prepares teens to discover careers in everything from engineering to design.

Highlight: Many were impressed with the virtual tour of Mokena Public Library on Google. Check it out for yourself here:

Google Virtual Tour

https://www.google.com/maps?q=mokena+library&ll=41.534539,-87.891569&spn=0.006578,0.016512&sll=41.534541,-87.891673&layer=c&cid=3032706493320299617&panoid=YzIJsSHY1q17d2euS5Fjmw&cbp=13,173.53,,0,0&hq=mokena+library&t=m&z=17&cbll=41.534549,-87.891558

As far as we know this is the FIRST Inside a building tour by Google for a library!

This workshop was as inspirational for the presenters as it was for the attendees. We hope to repeat it at Computers in Libraries in DC in April.  Watch for it!

You can do this stuff too and connect teens to the library, reading, social life, community friends, and homework help.

Stephen

 

 

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Posted on: October 26, 2012, 1:53 pm Category: Uncategorized

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