Developing Multimedia and Digital Resource Collections for Teens

Instructor: Francisca Goldsmith

Developing Multimedia and Digital Resource Collections for Teens

For your community's teens to see the library as a vital resource for their practical and intellectual lives, you must offer both traditional and technologically emerging materials that are accessible, engaging, appropriate, and responsive to their immediate interests and concerns. If you're ready to create a 21st century teen collection, this course will teach you how to:

• Address the seemingly bottomless pits of need in teen-oriented topical areas like popular music and college application guidance;
• Get fast, free expert help in areas of teen interest that are beyond your ability to judge for quality and cost-effectiveness; and
• Position the library and its resources where teens are most likely to access them.

Workshop Description: This all-day, hands-on workshop will provide library staff who must create library collections for teens with resources for analyzing what's available for the teen audience in multimedia and digital formats. Through individual and group exercises you will learn more about selecting, evaluating, deselecting, and marketing these materials to both traditional library users and underserved teens. Participants will learn practical, useful tips that can be applied immediately to the task of creating a collection that teens will want to access.

Preliminary Course Outline:

• Elements of the 21st Century Teen Collection
  • Print and multimedia resources
  • How adolescent development affects teens' information needs
  • Delivering information to teens
• Creating Strong Collections
  • Understanding teen interests, informational needs, and concerns
  • Selecting and balancing an articulated collection
  • Monitoring the emergence of new media
  • Reevaluating and broadening collections in response to user feedback
• Building and Promoting Teen Collections
  • Finding sufficient resources for high-demand areas
  • Adjusting traditional collection methods to address teen concerns
  • Promoting digital resources
• Connecting with Expert Helpers
  • How to get fast, free online help when you're collecting in unfamiliar areas
  • Getting realistic guidance from teen users
• Reaching Teens Outside the Traditional Library
  • Learning from others who serve teens
  • Building an accessible digital resource collection for underserved teens

Who Should Attend: Anyone in a California library with an interest in building and maintaining collections that teens need, want, and deserve; those who recognize that teens who can't find anything appropriate to them in the library's collections are less likely to understand the library as a resource with a mission to serve all.

Prerequisites: Students should be comfortable using a PC with a mouse and navigating Internet sites and directories, and should be familiar with the rudiments of general collection development tasks, including selection, evaluation, weeding, and marketing.

Please Note: There is a $75.00 fee for this workshop. Infopeople does not provide parking passes, lunch or refreshments.

Check-in: 8:30 to 9 AM Instruction: 9 AM to 4:30 PM