So again it's my leisure reading that spurs a post...but I cannot resist! The February 2007 edition of School Library Journal has many (the Beatles cover art gave it away) great articles dealing with YA issues, but the most striking for me were those presenting arguments for why teens do not view the library as an inviting place. The editorial by Brian Kenney addressed a New Jersey public library's decision to close their libraries during the hours of 2:45-5 PM to "shut out" unruly teen attendance, while a column titled "Teenage Riot" by Paula Brehm Heeger discussed the startling results of teens reporting that a major reason they fail to use the library is because they cannot afford their overdue fines.
Both of these articles stunned me and prompted a feeling of age discrimination at work...teens who view the library as a social place to gather with friends are being shut out for being "disruptive", and others who view the library as a resource for borrowing materials and then (like most people of ANY age) who fail to return the materials exactly on time are fined and cannot pay the fines back so lose their library privileges are also shut out...well last time I checked teens were typically social so "talking with friends" should not be considered "disruptive or unruly behavior" and teens that attend school don't have a lot of free time to hold down high paying jobs so it would make sense that $1/day fines would add up quickly into unpayable debts!
I agree with the arguments of facilitating responsibility in both of these instances, and feel that the suggestions for paying back fines through volunteer opportunities (reading to children, shelving books, etc.) is perhaps feasible-but we have to create an environment that welcomes teens and then keeps them coming back and these two articles spoke to the counter productivity inherent in these issues. If we want teens to come to the library, we need to make a place that is truly inviting for them to come and then when they do, we need to be realistic about our and their expectations for the responsible return of materials.
My public library has "fine free cards" for children, I do not know what the age range is for a card holder to constitute as a "child" but I do know that in the beginning this really annoyed me...why should I be scrambling around, counting books, consulting my endless lists and docking my children's TV time for misplaced library books to instill the "responsibility of borrowing and then returning" when there is no consequence? I learned quickly in my own home that the "NetFlix" operation proves much happier, more efficient, less nagging results! If my children could not find or simply part with one of their books/videos-they could not take out one in exchange...Although my one gripe about this policy is that the due date listed in the online catalog can never be trusted, in the age of ILL I feel much less guilty holding onto the cassette version of Pippi Longstocking for 7 weeks because I know there is yet another out there longing to be borrowed!
This is the type of compromise we could be making with teens to encourage them to come in, have fun, borrow, come back (maybe without having remembered the last thing they borrowed-but that is OK), we want to keep them coming! Fining young adults to the point where their cards are blocked from borrowing does not seem like a solution, because then we never see them OR the late item ever again...but that is my opinion, I'd love to hear from those who work in libraries and can attest to the financial impact of having a "NetFlix"ish operation...
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I can't remember if I mentioned in class that NYPL has amnesty for teens. When librarians visit schools they bring in amnesty cards which students can bring to a library to have their card cleared. It's a great idea.
The Maplewood, NJ thing was really pretty amazing. It caused an uproar in a lot of places and was front page of The New York Times. My thought is that there is a lot of history at that library in how the staff and teens have interacted. I bet staff have not received any good teen sensitivity training and teens are ready to cause trouble because of the way they are treated by staff. (This is what I've inferred by reading and talking to various people.)
And, I firmly believe that if we treat teens poorly during their teen years then those teens should not return to the library when they are adults. The library doesn't deserve their attention or business.
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