Teens Are From Mars

"My guess is not much" wasn't the response I was hoping for when I asked Laurence Steinberg, a psychology professor at Philadelphia's Temple University and an expert on adolescence, to speculate on the importance of libraries to today's Internet-loving teens.

Even if you disagree with Steinberg's assessment, don't dismiss it too quickly. Let's face it, library services for teens are often less than stellar. Although some libraries offer young adults wonderful programs and vibrant, inviting spaces, even the American Library Association admits that adolescents tend to be an "underserved" group.

What can we do to make libraries more meaningful to them? For starters, we can pay attention to researchers like Steinberg, who have observed a wide range of adolescent behaviors. Steinberg insists that it's essential for librarians to find out what teens want and make it available to them—and that means that we need to get to know kids in our communities. Steinberg also encourages libraries to market themselves to young adults, since few know what we have to offer.

Of course, to serve teens well, librarians need to create more programs and services that meet the developmental needs of adolescents. And that's exactly what the youth-development movement is striving to do. The movement, which began informally in the 1980s, recognizes that it takes many people, resources, opportunities, and services to foster happy, healthy, and successful young people. One of the best resources for librarians wanting to learn more about this approach is the National Youth Development Information Center (www.nydic.org/nydic), which is the Web site of the National Collaboration for Youth (NCFY), a coalition of more than 40 national, nonprofit youth organizations. The site features the latest news about young people, access to free publications and reports, and programming ideas for youth workers. It also includes links to valuable research, such as a study by the National Research Council on how after-school programs can benefit kids and the Harvard Family Research Project's assessments of programs for young people.

Another valuable online resource for librarians is the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development's 1994 landmark report, "Great Transitions: Preparing Adolescents for a New Century" (an executive summary and an abridged version of the report are available at www.carnegie.org/sub/pubs/reports/great_transitions/gr_intro.html). The study examines the serious risks facing today's young people and what educational institutions, businesses, the media, and other professional organizations can do to provide teens and their families with the support they need.

You'll also want to visit the Web site of the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago. The research and development center specializes in putting vital studies about children and young adults into the hands of policy makers, and many of its reports are available for free online. A particular must-read is "The Public Libraries as Partners in Youth Development Initiative" (www.chapinhall.org/article_abstract_new.asp?ar=1261&L2=62&L3=106), an interim report which describes the progress of nine public library projects in "serving teens in underserved communities." Chapin Hall will sponsor a conference November 8 and 9 called "Adolescence and the Transition to Adulthood: Rethinking Public Policy for a New Century." The first-of-its-kind gathering will bring together researchers, policy makers, practitioners, and, yes, librarians to discuss recent studies about young adults and evaluate how well programs and services are supporting the needs of young people. Go to www.chapinhall.org to register online for this important gathering.