In the winter issue of YALS Jessica Schneider and and Erica Gauquier discuss how they brought Minecraft to teens at the Darien Library in Connecticut. Their article highlights the ways in which library staff and teens can work together to build programs and to support a wide-range of teen interests and needs through technology.
What is Minecraft? As Erica and Jessica describe it in their article:
Minecraft is a like a virtual and ongoing game of legos. Players mine for necessary materials in order to thrive in the game. You simply move blocks and build upon them gathering supplies as you go. As a player gets better and gains wood from trees, wool from sheep, meat from pigs, and diamonds from the earth, the possibilities for gathering new materials and resources becomes greater. The game can get even more complicated if you are so inclined, allowing players to create their own modifications (mods)- which leads to learning essential programming skills.
In the winter 2013 Teens & Tech issue of YALS, Lana Adlawan writes about the Preserving Our Present project at the Sacramento Public Library. This project gives teens in the community the chance to learn about their history by researching the lives of those who grew up and live in their neighborhood. The project website includes a host of multimedia that documents the work of teens that participated in the project. Below you’ll find two examples:
The winter issue of YALS includes an article on the YALSA Forum on Teens and Libraries. At the time of the issue’s publication the summit, discussed in the article, was just taking place. The summit brought together a group of people from inside and outside of libraries to consider the future of libraries. Participants included library administrators, library staff working directly with teens, educators, publishers, members of the technology community, teen advocates, youth development experts, and more. (You can see the full list of participants.) It was an amazing group who spent two full days thinking about the world of teens and how libraries, and other youth serving organizations, can support those needs.
In the winter 2013 issue of YALS, Alida Hanson talks about the value of connecting with stakeholders to help them understand the importance of using social media in services to teens (particularly in school libraries). There are several resources YALS readers might find useful when investigating how to make these stakeholder connections: