Teen Services Fundamentals

Teen-centric library service is rooted in the practice of connectedness. Whether you're working to build stronger relationships with the teens in your community, creating a welcoming, safe haven for the teens that you're already seeing in the library, or supporting information literacy and learning- each interaction with a teen patron is an opportunity to connect and engage.

During this course, librarian Christina Fuller-Gregory will provide you with practical, actionable, and timely applications for moving beyond simply welcoming teens into the library to developing best practices to ensure that the teens you serve view the library as a trusted resource, where they feel seen, respected, and valued.

Course participants can expect to learn:

• What it looks like to authentically engage teens
• Why strong collections drive connections and engagement
• How to approach teen services through an equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) lens
• Why information literacy is important and how you can strengthen these skills in the teens you serve

Course Description: This four-week course will include two optional 60-minute meetings during the course:

• March 12, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. (pacific time)
• March 26, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. (pacific time)

In addition to the two meeting sessions, the instructor will provide weekly readings, practical assignments, and discussion forums for the sharing of ideas and experiences. The instructor will also provide essential resources, and useful tips and techniques that can be applied in your library.

Course Outline: When you log in to the Infopeople online learning site, you will see weekly modules with these topics:

• Week 1: Adolescent Development and the Library
  • How teens are different from children and adults
  • Tips for positive interactions with teens
  • Developmental Assets and their implications for libraries
  • Serving teens from diverse backgrounds and with special needs
• Week 2: Materials Selection and Readers' Advisory
  • What teens read, watch, and listen to
  • Selection sources and collection development
  • Readers' advisory resources
  • Booktalking with teens
• Week 3: Reference and Online Resources
  • Information-seeking behavior and reference interviews with teens
  • Information literacy skills
  • Homework help and online resources
  • The library's online visibility to teens
• Week 4: Legal Issues and Advocacy
  • Access, privacy, and copyright
  • Computers, Internet access, and filtering
  • Handling challenges to materials
  • Advocating for teens

Time Required: To complete this course, you can expect to spend 2½ hours per week, for a total of 10 course hours. Each week's module contains various options for assignments, discussions, or online meetings. You can choose the options most relevant to your work and interests. Although you can work on each module at your own pace, at any hour of the day or night, it is recommended that you complete each week's work within that week to stay in sync with other learners.

Who Should Take This Course: Any library staff members who provide services to teens, especially new teen librarians or other staff who are relatively new to serving adolescents. This course is particularly valuable for support staff whose work includes teen services responsibilities.

Library Support Staff Certification (LSSC): This course, in combination with Infopeople's Children's Services Fundamentals course (offered annually), is approved as covering the Youth Services competencies for the LSSC program.

Do you work in a rural or tribal library? If so, you may be eligible for a course fee waiver for this course. This Infopeople course has up to five no-cost seats allocated for rural or tribal libraries. Fill out a fee waiver request, and if a no-cost seat is available you will be notified via email.

Keywords: teen, youth, services, advsiory, RA, booktalk