Participatory Service
To me, participatory service models are the core of modern librarianship. The entire trajectory of library services has been on the path of becoming more and more participatory since its inception, though particularly so in the past 20 to 30 years, with the proliferation of digital tools and more democratic public conversations through social media.
Teen Services
The Children’s Section looms large in the American library, but teen services are an often overlooked aspect of library service. Many library workers are actively hostile to teen presence in libraries, equating it with unruly behavior and decreased adult library use (Casey & Stephens, 2008). And many American adults will freely express that the last time they were in a library was when they were a small child, and partially for good reason; our services for children are robust, educational, and often quite excellent. Storytime, summer reading, picture books—these are all invaluable aspects of library services. However, these same services can leave teens feeling overlooked and caught in the middle.
In my experience, teens do not appreciate being lumped in with the smaller kids, and doing so will drive them away from the library entirely. Similarly, many younger teens do not yet feel comfortable in the adult spaces of their public library either. They are still unsure how to navigate the world of adult fiction, and they are often hard-pressed to find services that match their needs. If teens’ only two options are storytime in the children’s section on miniature chairs, or dodging adults’ dirty looks in the pin-drop quiet of the Adult Fiction stacks, they will often choose to spend their afternoons someplace else.
This is where participatory services can come in. Teen users can and should have an active voice in their local libraries. In Shareable in 2019, Casey O’Brien profiles the teen section of the San Francisco public library. This space is very similar to the Philadelphia Field Teen Center that I currently work in, so it was exciting to see the model being used across the country. O’Brien writes that the “space is loud, full of kids eating and talking,” (2019). Our space is the same. This is because the space is directed by teens and what they want from the library. The walls are lined with manga because that is what circulates, and it’s what they ask for. There is a keyboard piano available for public use, and every day two or three or ten teens sit down and either practice what they already know, or just play around. There is a TV with a PlayStation and Nintendo Switch and we run video game days twice a week, because that is what they ask for. There is a table covered in thick butcher’s paper with a box of markers on top, and every day teens draw on it, share notes, and otherwise leave their physical mark on the space. Just last month, a teen came in and asked for help creating a poster for his prom-posal for his girlfriend (also a regular user), so that’s what we spent the afternoon doing. Because of this openness to traditionally non-library activities and alternative book formats, we are able to maintain a robust base of teen regulars who see us as a safe space. We are striving to “meet people where they are–not where [we] want them to be,” (Schnieder, 2006).
Guest to Host
I found the observation quoted in The Heart of Librarianship that “participation occurs when someone welcomed as a guest feels as though they have become a host” to be particularly true and moving (Stephens, 2016). In any form of youth services, part of the magic is watching the older kids welcome the younger kids in to the space. Our teen workers are particularly adept at doing this, assisting with programs and chatting with shy new users. But we notice it with non-employed teen patrons too; our most comfortable teen users are eager to share this place with others, explaining things like our Summer Reading program rules and which manga series they should try. When users can participate in that way, and thus shape how new users perceive the library, they really are co-creating the space. Watching our teens take up this kind of participatory service invitation is incredibly rewarding and special.
References
Casey, M. & Stephens, M. (2008, May 15). Embracing service to teens. Tame the Web. https://tametheweb.com/2008/05/15/embracing-service-to-teens/
O’Brien, C. (2019, June 24). How San Francisco’s public libraries are embracing their changing role. Shareable. https://www.shareable.net/how-san-francisco-public-libraries-are-embracing-their-changing-role/
Stephens, M. (2016). The Heart of Librarianship. ALA Editions: An Imprint of the American Library Association.
Schneider, K. G. (2006). The user is not broken: a meme masquerading as a manifesto. Free Range Librarian. https://freerangelibrarian.com/2006/06/03/the-user-is-not-broken-a-meme-masquerading-as-a-manifesto/
