The differences between school and public libraries

I don't mean to pick on the woman who commented on my earlier post about Gossip Girl, but her response did make me think--what are the differences between school and public libraries? Should there be any?

Certainly, when I start building the teen collection for Darien, I won't be collecting 15,000 adult nonfiction titles to support the curriculum--there's no curriculum to support. And I won't be worried about collaboration with teachers (although I will be reaching out to the schools). I won't have a reference section.

But what will stay the same? I'll still want to create research guides. I'll still want to teach teenagers how to use the library and support their homework and research needs. I'll still have databases and web guides and I'll still educate kids on how to safely use the internet.

I'll buy more YA lit, for sure, and more graphic novels--because they don't seem to circulate here, for some reason. But the kind of literature I'll buy will be the same. I'll still buy high-interest fiction, lots of series books, and see what the teens want. I'll still have DVDs for them to borrow, and fun magazines to browse like Teen Vogue and People and Vibe and ESPN. Fortunately, I won't have to let them login with my username in order to circumvent the Facebook and YouTube blocks, and that will be nice.

Another nice thing will be the ability to let kids wear hats inside, use their cell phones, and eat...

Despite these little differences, I think we should approach both areas of librarianship--school and public--with the same philosophy. I know my point of view is unique because I don't work at a public school, but having been in this field for three years now, I think I would have the same attitude about services to teens either way. I want to give them the books they want to read. I know it's harder to fight parents in public schools and that principals are afraid of lawsuits; I know that budgets are smaller (although, mine's not that great compared to some big public school systems) and that librarians have to make more choices about the books they buy. I know that the attitude of the community can very much influence the philosophy of the school.

So, maybe I'm being idealistic. Maybe, if I worked at a school where I didn't feel supported, was constantly being audited by conservative parents (and yes, our parents are pretty conservative), and where I felt like my last $20 would be better spent on a history book than the latest Clique book, I would feel like schools and public libraries are inherently different. But I'm not sure I would work there very long--either I'd get fired for standing by a book or I'd quit because I was sick of it. I took a class on school library management this fall and I have to say, the picture that is often painted of school libraries is pretty grim. I'm not sure why anyone would go into the field after hearing horror stories about filtering, banned books, restricted budgets, angry parents, and fixed schedules. If we want to recruit energetic new librarians into the profession, shouldn't we be looking at why school libraries are the way they are? Today's library school students want to use social networking sites and read Gossip Girl. They're not going to work in schools--they're going to work in public libraries.

I admit that I'm feeling some guilt over leaving a school for a public library. I'm not trying to say that I'm perfect at my job, but I do think that schools need librarians who treat their libraries like teen rooms--places where students can feel safe and comfortable to be themselves. There are tons of people who want to go into teen services and shake things up, but not as many who want to go into schools and show people how librarianship has changed.

Providing teenagers with popular paperbacks isn't being an irresponsible school librarian; it doesn't take away from the fact that you're also supporting them in the classroom. We shouldn't be, as a parent once said to me, "providing them with a choice between broccoli and carrots instead of a choice between broccoli and cake." If we want students to keep coming into the library after their teacher makes them--if we want them to be lifelong library users--we have to give them the cake.

Gossip Girl

I think that reading Gossip Girl was what made me want to be a teen librarian. I just devoured them. I wished that something that engaging and AWESOME had been around when I was a teenager...of course, there wasn't much YA lit when I was in middle and high school, so I pretty much just skipped ahead to the adult books. I think some kids still do this, but there are so many more appealing titles now to entice even mature readers.

Anyway, I haven't read the whole series, because I had to stop at some point to read some other books. But I'm now fully addicted to the tv series on the CW. I love some of the elements of the series that they've put in, but I also love that it's become its own entity. Unfortunately, I hate the characters of Dan and Vanessa, and I loved them both in the books. I adore Blaire and Serena, though--and in the books, I was less attached to them. Meg Cabot wrote in her blog about being annoyed that the TV version had turned the story into a morality play--especially when it comes to Serena, who certainly is nowhere near as reformed in the books as she is on the show--and while I see her point, I think that the show does need one character who is the story's moral compass. In the books, I think it was Dan. In the show, I think it's Serena. Dan comes across as sanctimonious and whiny in the TV version, if you ask me.

I know that the girls at my school are eating up the show--and checking out the books more than usual. I think it hits all the right notes, and it's SO satisfying.

My first book challenge was over Gossip Girl. A 6th grader brought it home, and her mom contacted me about it. The ensuing conversation was really hard for me, because I understood the mother's point of view (her daughter was only 11 at the time), but my own convictions couldn't allow me to agree that the book shouldn't be in the library. Ultimately, the mom dropped the challenge. When I told Robin about it, he secretly emailed Cecily Von Ziegesar to tell her what had happened. I got an email from her that made. my. year. I won't reprint it in its entirety because I feel like that's a violation of her privacy, but the part that got especially got me was this:

I'm eternally grateful for your bravery and commitment. You have my full support, and without question the support of the entire library community--librarians love Gossip Girl!

It's soooo easy to bash Gossip Girl. Hey, my fellow school librarians do it all the time on LM_NET (which I just shouldn't read...it gives me heartburn). But go ahead and apply those 40 developmental assets and see what you come up with. Sure, on first glance, it might seem like these books--and even the show, to a lesser extent--are about rich teenagers with no morals and no consequences. But that's the lazy way out. Whether girls are reading it because of the breathless drama or the fact that they feel emotionally connected to one or more of the characters, the fact is that they ARE reading about teens who think, feel, and act much the same way that they do--just, maybe, with better shoes.

Of course, deciphering all this means actually READING the books...which I doubt many of the dissenters have done.

Regardless, I will always love Gossip Girl, and I will always have the utmost respect for the series' creator...and it's pretty cool to have her email in my address book!

teen pregnancy

I haven't seen Juno, but quick question: why is it okay--and kind of cute, judging by the previews--for the teenage girl in that movie to have a baby, but not okay for Jamie Lynn? People are calling for Nickelodeon to sever ties with her or else risk losing their audience. So it's okay in a movie--which we can walk away from with a good feeling and then forget--but not in real life, which reminds us that yes, 16-year-olds are having sex, and no, they don't necessarily know how to prevent pregnancy. (Or want to, in some cases.)

Holyoke, where I lived for a few years during grad school, has the highest teen parent rate in the state. Teen moms are a reality. Yeah, we've got to educate kids on how not to get pregnant...but we also have to help them once they do. It's not my job to tell a kid what choice to make, only to arm her with information.

online predators vs. cyberbullies

We hear a lot about online predators and how they're a growing menace. While there have been a few sensational (and very sad) cyberbullying cases in the news lately, the topic just doesn't get as much press.

According to what I found out in my research for LIS406, publicized statistics show that 1 in 5 children are approached online by a sexual predator. This is the number that gets thrown around constantly by those who want to scare parents about social networking sites. Where does this number come from, and what does it mean?

Thanks to Benjamin Radford, I found that this stat originated in 2001 (red flag--6 years ago), when the Department of Justice conducted a report surveying teens about sexual solicitation online. The results were as follows:

• Almost one in five (19 percent) of the young Internet users surveyed received an unwanted sexual solicitation in the past year. Okay, that's bad, but break down that number a little further and you discover that...
  
• Five percent of the surveyed youth received a distressing sexual solicitation (i.e., the solicitation made them feel very or extremely upset or afraid).
• Three percent of the youth received an aggressive solicitation involving offline contact or attempts or requests for offline contact.
• None of the solicitations led to an actual sexual contact or assault.
• Adults (age 18 and older) made 24 percent of all solicitations and 34 percent of aggressive solicitations.
• Juveniles made 48 percent of all solicitations and 48 percent of aggressive solicitations.

While these numbers are still troubling, the fact is that a very small percentage of online youh received distressing or aggressive sexual solicitation, and nearly half of any kind of sexual interaction was initiated by another teen (this doesn't make it okay, but it does make it a different story than a child being solicited by an adult, in my book).

In other positive news, I found the following news item via Scott McLeod's blog:

Children less likely to encounter online predators

In contrast, 32% of teenagers who use the internet say that they have been the target of cyberbullying—"a range of annoying and potentially menacing online activities, such as receiving threatening messages; having their private emails or text messages forwarded without consent; having an embarrassing picture posted without permission; or having rumors about them spread online" (Social Networking Websites and Teens: An Overview. Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2007).

To me, this is the scarier issue. The web makes it easier to bully because it's easier to be anonymous. Bullying is an issue IRL, for sure, but parents and educators most likely have no idea when cyberbullying is happening. Are we teaching kids how to handle this? Are we talking to parents about it in the same way that we scare the crap out of them with all this sexual predator talk? Ultimately, the topic is brought up as a reason to block kids' internet access or take away their ability to use social networking sites. Which does nothing--they just use a proxy and hop right back on there, unarmed with any knowledge of what to do if they DO get solicited or bullied.