Competency 9: Internet

The Texas State Library site for young adult library services is a great resource for service, collection and program information for teens. I choose to present this website on my blog because it has many great ideas for youth librarians who either need new ideas or to breath fresh air into tried ones. The site can be found with the link below: http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ld/projects/ya/

This site is relevant to my topic based on its Young Adult library themes. In order to entice and inspire young people to be active members of the library while also inspiring them to read, the youth librarian must be equipped with vast and varying ideas to accomplish this goal.

I located this site using Clusty.com.

Competency 8: Research Visual/Multimedia

The chart below shows the percentage of teens, ages 13-17, who participated in various leisure activities on the day prior. The Gallup survey found that 90% of teens watched television while only 33% read a book. The complete findings can be found at: http://www.frankwbaker.com/teenleisurehabits.htm

This chart is relevant to my blog topic because it demonstrates the lack of activity in teens' daily lives. In order to help promote leisurly reading and participation (outside of school hours) in the library or other community organizations, new programs and ways to entice teens must be provided.

Competency 7: Image

The following image was retreived by a Google Image search for Young Adult Library Services. I chose this image to represent my topic as an example of a possible activity to get youth involved in the library and reading. This Teen Library Challenge was created for the Crawfordsville District Public Library (CDPL) in Crawfordsville, IN. The originally published image can be found on the CDPL Young Adult blog: http://www.cdpl.lib.in.us/blog-ya/

Competency 6: Browsing Search Strategy

I chose to search for young adult library trends by browsing ProjectMuse. First, I narrowed the search by discipline (i.e., Cultural Studes, Language and Linguistics, Library Science and Publishing, Literature). I then entered my search terms of Young adults and public libraries. The search returned 326 results that covered a variety of material related to youth in the public library. I found an article, Developing Children’s Interest in Reading, particularly appropriate, while others, such as "The books were just the props": Public Libraries and Contested Space in the Cape Flats Townships in the 1980s, were not. This method, even though my search only included a limited number of items to browse, is time-consuming and unpredictable. My search was semi-directed and exploratory; if I required more specific information, this search strategy would not be my first choice.

Competency 6: Citation Pearl Growing Search

The Citation Pearl Growing search was helpful in finding many articles relevant to my area of interest in the Academic Search Complete database. By searching the results and adding thesaurus terms as well as terms from the citations originally found, I was able to increase the number of results from fifty to two-hundred and twenty-six. I think this search strategy would work well in the beginning stages of research to help find different aspects of a topic. This is a good search for expanding the results for a broader perspective.

Competency 6: Most Specific Facet First

I used the Most Specific Facet First search in JStor to find articles about youth participation in public libraries. I chose after-school and extracurricular as my most specific facets. Then, I chose program*, involvement or participation, followed by public librar*, and, finally, youth, young adult, teen or adolescen* as my following next most specific facets. I agree with our textbook readings that this type of search is not novice-friendly. It is difficult to determine which facet of my search is the most specific. As my search continued, my hits became more relevant, so I do deem it a successful search. I found many articles related to my topic.

Competency 6: Building Block Search Strategy

I used a building block search in ERIC to find information on the topic of Young Adulg Library Participation. The search yielded many results, some of which were not relevant to my search. I began by searching for (Young Adult or Teen or Youth or YA) and (library or community) and (participation or involvement or interest). Using the term community in the query produced too many irrelevant items. I then changed hat portion of the query to simply librar*. This yielded many more appropriate results. The article I chose to highlight addresses marketing schemes geared toward involving youth in their library.