The student Maelynn likes practical activities
MAELYNN: I simply paint a canvas or do, like, some bracelets, which is really great for me. And then, they have, as, video games, which is great because I love playing Mario Kart.
Ki sung: Adam, 14, likes to make online content, after finishing his task or course.
Adam: I just recorded the game sometimes with my voice and it’s a lot of fun because I am quite good in that, but the games that I like to play make me happy.
MAELYNN: As if I never heard anyone say how Oh, we are going to hang out in the library. It’s like, Oh, I’m going to hang out in the mixture, but not many people know about the mixture.
Ki sung: The mixture has its own entry on the second floor of the library. Inside there is everything you can imagine to encourage creativity. There is a room with 3-D printers, sewing machines, mannequins and cabinets full of art supplies.
There are two soundproof rooms with instruments where teenagers can make music quality recordings, podcasts or make green screen videos. There are tables to play games such as Dungeons and Dragons, a “carpet garden” living room to cool or move through the phones; Corners with seats for large and small groups; A row or computers to play video games; And, of course, shelves full of manga.
While I am there, I see the teenagers occupying each section of the mixture that performs activities or simply hanging out
In today’s episode of the Mindshift podcast, he will listen to how three libraries have transformed their services to create third spaces, which are Neinder Home or School, where adolescents can flourish. Stay with us.
Ki sung: To understand the mixture in San Francisco, you must go back in time until 2009 in Chicago.
Ki sung: That was when Chicago’s public libraries embarked on a bold plan through a program called Youmedia. It was part of a broader initiative called Digital media and learning. Yousedia was designed to provide students access to technology and digital media, while in a safe environment with trusted adult mentors. Remember, this was in an era in which there were Feer computers with Wi -Fi at home for children, so having these services in libraries made a lot of sense.
The idea was to rely on technology and build a bridge between letting teenagers do what they want, and make sure adolescents are in a positive environment. And it was a really new idea at that time.
To teach digital media skills, educators tested a structured curriculum similar to school, but discovered that this was not very popular among young people.
Then they implemented workshops that adolescents could explore at their own rhythm.
Eric Brown, who helped carry out research on the impact of Yousedia, explained how the staff get adolescents to get involved with technology, duration of a 2013 seminar:
Eric Brown: They are not forcing it by the throat. It is a good place that gives you the option. You can chase it or you can simply relax. And pursue it when you are ready. And that is the spirit of adolescents who go to you.
Ki sung: The Yousedia model was so successful that the Chicago Public Library System expanded it to 29 Locations of branches.
Other library systems throughout the country soon followed their example.
But teenagers will always keep you alert. So, being attentive to what they need is something that always focus on librarians. And in New York, they saw that one of those needs recently arose. Here is Siva Ramakrishnan, Director of Young Adult Services in the New York Public Library.
Siva Ramakrishnan: Pandemia really likes to relieve the need for spaces where adolescents can build a community again.
Siva Ramakrishnan: After all that isolation, you know, it was so difficult and strange and for many adolescents as traumatic time, right? And so on NYPL, we have done several things.
Siva Ramakrishnan: So, one is that we have really invested in our spaces. This is a child, you know, a historical trend in libraries throughout the country is that there is no space that is really reserved for adolescents, right? Only historical can be a general children’s area and that tends to bias, quite young and adorable, right? But then there is an adult area, right? And that tends to be very calm with adults who are in a deep approach, right?
Siva Ramakrishnan: So we have really committed ourselves at work in recent years to carve spaces in our libraries that are for teenagers.
Ki sung: The important thing is that the library is not just a space, but sacrifices programming. And in the adolescent centers of the New York Public Library, which are located in several branches of the entire city, they focus on Programs that teach civic commitment, university and professional preparation together with great things such as how to execute a 3D printer or facilitate a forbidden reading club, or how to organize fashion design training camps.
Siva Ramakrishnan: In fact, we see a ton or adolescents in our libraries. NYPL has more than 90 libraries in the neighborhood. And like the last school year in summer, we saw almost 120,000 teenagers who chose after a super day at school to come to the library to their local branch and participate in a program after school.
Ki sung: Critics of the spaces for adolescents who focus on other things that are not literacy can be encouraged because there is a really fascinating advantage over adolescents in New York. According to Ramakrishnan, they not only come to the library, these tens read more.
Doreen: HMM, there are so many different types of media that we consume now.
Ki sung: That is Doreen, a student ambassador of the New York Public Library whose work is Tutor Kids.
Doreen: I think people perceive reading only as books or physical books. I know many people who read the lessons of their children or I personally, I have a heavy book bag. I take my iPad and discard a PDF from my book or my textbook and read there.
Music
Ki sung: It turns out that the bee in a library can help facilitation reading, even if its original reason to present is not related.
Ki sung: Back in San Francisco in the mixture, the Ambassador of the Shane Macias Student Library considers its current relationship with reading.
Shane: Just as I reviewed books and homework books that were there, they become free. I read them at home.
Ki sung: The mixture really reinvented what a library could be for its community. But when it began about a decade ago, the concept behind a space for teenagers was also contrary to a traditional understanding of libraries as a place that houses books.
Eric Hannan: Some people were against this project in the community and expressed concern, as it sounds like a recreation center and a nursery center for adolescents.
Ki sung: That is Eric Hannan, a librarian who helped start the mixture.
Eric Hannan: And I have worked in the libraries 35 years, that is not what the libraries are supposed to do, but often ends up being part of their work that has what we use to call Latchkey children in the library after school or wall of the wall, making the world of the rent of Worent Worent Worent Worent Worent Worent Worent Worent Worent Worent Worent Worent. Then they will be there anyway, so we could good children or attend to that.
Ki sung: To serve adolescents, the library received information from them. A Youth Warning Board (Bay) weighed and designed the San Francisco space around the idea of Homago (Ho-Mah-G-G), an acronum to hang out, play, Geek. This board got the last word on specific aspects of space As preferences of furniture, programming and even advocated a bath dedicated in the mixture. For Shane, a space designed for teenagers conforms to the bill.
Shane: I would say that having space like this is very important because I, in school and other libraries I went, was caught with adults or young children, which was uncomfortable, but it’s like, so. Uncomfortable. It’s just an annoying child why teenagers do not have many places to go. As, obviously, we can cool in the park or return home, but sometimes we may want more, I would say.
Ki sung: It turns out that, as more libraries act as community centers for adolescents, they meet the needs that schools, among other institutions, cannot serve.
Eric Hannan: The library has an important role to play to help adolescents in particular to adapt to stress, stressors in life, whether political or, you know, biological covid or simply development. They are simply going through a unique moment that is very short in their life, six or seven years. And there are many libraries that can do to help relieve part of pain.
Ki sung: The mental change team includes me, Ki Sung, Nimah Gobir, Marlena Jackson-Democz and Marnette Federis. Our editor is Chris Hambrick. Seth Samuel is our sound designer. Jen Chien is our director of Podcasts. Katie Sprenger is Podcast Operations Manager and Ethan Toom Lindsey is our chief editor. We receive additional support from Maha Sanad.
Mindshift is partly supported by the generosity of the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation and KQED members. “
Some members of the Podcast Kqed team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. San Francisco Norte de California local.
