Blogging beyond the library world is what I hope is happening during and after this conference. I just posted an entry on the Telegram's Westminster blog at http://www.telegram.com/westminster to try to bring one library issue to my limited, but growing, readership. If this type of blog is something that interests you, librarians or anyone in Worcester County can still capture blogspace on the Worcester Telegram site by signing up to be a blogger. (Yes, it is a volunteer position.)
Thank you to Susan Caulfield for her entry about social networking, which I copied to my Town's blog.
Showing posts with label millennials. Show all posts
Showing posts with label millennials. Show all posts
Friday, May 4, 2007
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Millenials suggest ways to improve libraries
Since my fellow bloggers have already done a nice job of describing 'Meet the Millennials' with Stephen Abram, I thought I'd just share the teens' responses to the last question from the audience. That question was "What can we do for you?"
Some of their ideas:
Every single panel member was incredibly poised and well-spoken. If you're reading, panelists, thank you!
Some of their ideas:
- Expand collections for a wider selection of books for their age range
- Have more digital e-books (not audio books, but digital texts)
- More interaction with people in libraries; less focus on technology
- Brighter colors, more attractive and vibrant-looking facilities
- Designated spaces for teens to hang out
Every single panel member was incredibly poised and well-spoken. If you're reading, panelists, thank you!
Meet the Millenials (facilitated by Stephen Abram)
Besides the inexplicable fact that these 12-17 year-olds are listening to the very same bands that my peers were listening to when we were in high school (Bon Jovi, Pink Floyd, Queen, etc.) it was great to hear exactly what they think of libraries and life in general.
If you work with teens, or if you don't, you need to spend time listening to kids their age. There are too many stereotypes about teens being the troubled group in our libraries, but when you ask them questions about their lives in general, they are articulate, clear, and know exactly what they want.
When this particular group of teens answered that most of them did NOT have myspace or facebook accounts, people were surprised, and Stephen mentioned that he is used to working with older teens, assuming that it is an age difference. However, when I was in library school a few years ago, I recall this same issue coming up and believing that there is a big difference between the "normal" mainstream image of a teen in urban settings and the teens who live in small towns and rural environments.
Living in southern VT and working in western MA, I see a huge difference in both the interests of teens and the access they have to information and trends. They tend to be far behind their urban counterparts. This is not a bad thing, but it means that we all need to pay attention to our own communities, rather than assuming that all teens are alike, that they all want exactly the same thing, that they all listen to the same music, watch the same movies, wear the same clothes or read the same books. Thanks to big business and the corporatization of America, there certainly is the tendency for that to happen, but the information reaches different communities at different times, and that affects how the people who live there see the world.
Just think - one teen in this session said the closest Barnes & Noble is an hour's drive from his house. I'll bet his public library is closer.
But my favorite quote from one of the teens was (in talking about doing research for school projects) "...Books help because you can’t publish a book with false information."
If you work with teens, or if you don't, you need to spend time listening to kids their age. There are too many stereotypes about teens being the troubled group in our libraries, but when you ask them questions about their lives in general, they are articulate, clear, and know exactly what they want.
When this particular group of teens answered that most of them did NOT have myspace or facebook accounts, people were surprised, and Stephen mentioned that he is used to working with older teens, assuming that it is an age difference. However, when I was in library school a few years ago, I recall this same issue coming up and believing that there is a big difference between the "normal" mainstream image of a teen in urban settings and the teens who live in small towns and rural environments.
Living in southern VT and working in western MA, I see a huge difference in both the interests of teens and the access they have to information and trends. They tend to be far behind their urban counterparts. This is not a bad thing, but it means that we all need to pay attention to our own communities, rather than assuming that all teens are alike, that they all want exactly the same thing, that they all listen to the same music, watch the same movies, wear the same clothes or read the same books. Thanks to big business and the corporatization of America, there certainly is the tendency for that to happen, but the information reaches different communities at different times, and that affects how the people who live there see the world.
Just think - one teen in this session said the closest Barnes & Noble is an hour's drive from his house. I'll bet his public library is closer.
But my favorite quote from one of the teens was (in talking about doing research for school projects) "...Books help because you can’t publish a book with false information."
Meet the Millenials -- facilitated by Stephen Abram
Meet the Millenials – Facilitated by Stephen Abram
2/3 girls, 1/3 guys, ranging in age from 12 to 16, all from the local Junior & Senior High Schools.
Music
The classics are back, in a large way, and most of these kids are finding out about this stuff online.
Creating techno on computer & textures/layers stuff in SecondLife
MySpace or IM?
Kids are still talking to kids in person
"Scrapbooking, except on computer"
AIM, in person, on the phone
Jabber, IRC (personal server), AIM
Use AIM for homework
Planning Saturday night
Gotta be in advance, but friends plan late
As it comes along, last-minute
Phone, IM, yelling across the street
Homework
"If the internet is down, I go to the library"
Savvy – understands that you need to double-check information
Yahoo, Ask (preview function like Snap), Google
Different search engines bring up different websites
Don't like Wikipedia because it changes ... "the words that were supposed to be there"
Anything you want to find is there – but sometimes they don't provide a quick summary
Too much dialogue and not enough information
Sparknotes – not instead of reading but to get more out of the book
Google as a fact-checker
They're still using books, don't give up on it yet
Books can be faster
Citation/Plagiarism
The kids mostly told us what we wanted to hear, but I think they were telling most of the truth – which was that they're citing things and not just copying and pasting.
Automated citation sites:
KnightCite -- http://www.calvin.edu/library/knightcite/
Son of Citation Machine -- http://citationmachine.net/
Checking multiple sources
[I really wanted to see some more urban kids on this kind of panel. I know why they aren't here, but I'm sure we'd be hearing some different answers from city kids.]
Last book you read for fun
Maximum Ride, first & second books
Princess Frog, Secret Language of Girls
Hardy Boys
Hidden Life of Otto Frank
Enchantment: Life of Audrey
Dispatches from the Edge
Virtual Light
Pillars of the Earth
"can't remember" – They just don't get it : how Washington is still compromising your safety, and what you can do about it, David Hunt
Shade's Children
Where do they get it?: Friends & family, library (public & school)
Talk about the library
Southbridge – very organized,
Junior high library – stickers for organization, quiet & easier to think
Senior high library – the books are ancient and there's no selection
They go, but sometimes it's not as much fun as they'd like.
**Kids can tell when an institution puts money into the books; they are paying attention to this stuff**
A few of them were overdue in a serious way, so they can't check out books. No fines for kids, perhaps?
Lots of kids buy their books, the ones who blow through books get them from the libraries
Where do you get your books?
Barnes & Noble
Amazon
Libraries
[The Second Lifer kid does steampunk avatars; I'm so excited!]
Gaming
PS2, Xbox, GameCubes, Wii (Prince of Persia, Twilight Princess, Zelda)
Desktops -- WOW ("my dad plays and he's at level 35"),
"Second Life is more of a metagame"
NetStorm, "Evercrack"
Call of Duty 1 & 2, Medal Storm
Star Wars MMORPG
Sports games & racing games (girls & boys)
Still playing PS1 games
Nintendo DS (virtual pet games), SuperMarioBrothers
GameBoy (car games)
Sims (its the creation that's the fun)
2-week lifespan on games [here's a perfect lending opportunity!]
Solitaire on the computer
SuperSmashBrothers Melee
"I have to be active" -- so she likes games that get her up and moving
Better off, the same or worse off than your parents?
Dealing with being without your parents
Not necessarily better off, but you want to be in a better place
Wants to have her own business in interior design
Depends on what your parents do: dad's a prosthestist & mom works at UMass Medical Center
It won't matter: I just want to do the things that matter to me, "I want to be happy"
Geography: wanting to stay near parents
"Whatever, as long as I'm not homeless"
Make a lot of money, hopefully doing what I want to be doing
"Population is going too fast, so there won't be enough jobs for people. I'm hoping I can just work."
[It took to the end of the one and a half-hour session to get to the poop joke.]
Politics
Lots of votes for not being part of any party because they're all flawed
More important to see what ideas help us, makes our country better -- "It doesn't matter who comes up with it, or how much it's going to cost, just how much it's going to help us."
"I can't tell the difference."
"Colbert Report" and "The Daily Show" are the #1 & #2 shows for millenials.
About half YouTube watchers
Is the world going to be a better place?
Darfur - there's no stopping it
Environment - global warming
"One good thing about being a pessimist: you're always right or pleasantly surprised."
People are going to be just fighting to survive
They hear the information from parents, email newsletters, news, school
Fire In the Sky - Heinlein
Normal dinner conversation
Daily lives / scheduling
What did you learn in school?
What's going on in the world and what your opinion is about it.
Sports
Current events
How many kids actually have family dinners? Once or twice a week, almost every day, once every few months, holidays,
If we got rid of overdues, would you use it?
"You'd never get your books back"
It might be good to have it like Netflix: no fines, but you can't get the next one until you return the first one
More time to get through a book so you can actually finish it.
If there's a book you want, someone else might still have it and then you can't get it.
What about paying fines with credit cards? Research
Phones
Every single one of them has a phone
What can we do for you?
Can you increase the diversity of books?
More scifi
Wider selection of movies
Electronic books - text-based, not audio
Less technology, more human interaction
Historical novels
Cafe ("my mom told me to say this")
Brighter colors
Age-appropriate sections
2/3 girls, 1/3 guys, ranging in age from 12 to 16, all from the local Junior & Senior High Schools.
Music
The classics are back, in a large way, and most of these kids are finding out about this stuff online.
Creating techno on computer & textures/layers stuff in SecondLife
MySpace or IM?
Kids are still talking to kids in person
"Scrapbooking, except on computer"
AIM, in person, on the phone
Jabber, IRC (personal server), AIM
Use AIM for homework
Planning Saturday night
Gotta be in advance, but friends plan late
As it comes along, last-minute
Phone, IM, yelling across the street
Homework
"If the internet is down, I go to the library"
Savvy – understands that you need to double-check information
Yahoo, Ask (preview function like Snap), Google
Different search engines bring up different websites
Don't like Wikipedia because it changes ... "the words that were supposed to be there"
Anything you want to find is there – but sometimes they don't provide a quick summary
Too much dialogue and not enough information
Sparknotes – not instead of reading but to get more out of the book
Google as a fact-checker
They're still using books, don't give up on it yet
Books can be faster
Citation/Plagiarism
The kids mostly told us what we wanted to hear, but I think they were telling most of the truth – which was that they're citing things and not just copying and pasting.
Automated citation sites:
KnightCite -- http://www.calvin.edu/library/knightcite/
Son of Citation Machine -- http://citationmachine.net/
Checking multiple sources
- They do it. They rely on multiple sources – 'whatever ends up in the most places is obviously the right information.'
- They eventually go to the library, if they can't determine validity themselves.
- Not looking at the details, but the main points to compare sites. [Hmm, that could be a bit unnerving.]
- .edu or .gov means an educational/governmental institution and they're more reliable
- Names you recognize – NYT, Boston Globe, TimesforKids.com, cia.gov, Enchanted Learning, "organizations you heard of"
- Use an odd number of sites so you don't have a split vote
[I really wanted to see some more urban kids on this kind of panel. I know why they aren't here, but I'm sure we'd be hearing some different answers from city kids.]
Last book you read for fun
Maximum Ride, first & second books
Princess Frog, Secret Language of Girls
Hardy Boys
Hidden Life of Otto Frank
Enchantment: Life of Audrey
Dispatches from the Edge
Virtual Light
Pillars of the Earth
"can't remember" – They just don't get it : how Washington is still compromising your safety, and what you can do about it, David Hunt
Shade's Children
Where do they get it?: Friends & family, library (public & school)
Talk about the library
Southbridge – very organized,
Junior high library – stickers for organization, quiet & easier to think
Senior high library – the books are ancient and there's no selection
They go, but sometimes it's not as much fun as they'd like.
**Kids can tell when an institution puts money into the books; they are paying attention to this stuff**
A few of them were overdue in a serious way, so they can't check out books. No fines for kids, perhaps?
Lots of kids buy their books, the ones who blow through books get them from the libraries
Where do you get your books?
Barnes & Noble
Amazon
Libraries
[The Second Lifer kid does steampunk avatars; I'm so excited!]
Gaming
PS2, Xbox, GameCubes, Wii (Prince of Persia, Twilight Princess, Zelda)
Desktops -- WOW ("my dad plays and he's at level 35"),
"Second Life is more of a metagame"
NetStorm, "Evercrack"
Call of Duty 1 & 2, Medal Storm
Star Wars MMORPG
Sports games & racing games (girls & boys)
Still playing PS1 games
Nintendo DS (virtual pet games), SuperMarioBrothers
GameBoy (car games)
Sims (its the creation that's the fun)
2-week lifespan on games [here's a perfect lending opportunity!]
Solitaire on the computer
SuperSmashBrothers Melee
"I have to be active" -- so she likes games that get her up and moving
Better off, the same or worse off than your parents?
Dealing with being without your parents
Not necessarily better off, but you want to be in a better place
Wants to have her own business in interior design
Depends on what your parents do: dad's a prosthestist & mom works at UMass Medical Center
It won't matter: I just want to do the things that matter to me, "I want to be happy"
Geography: wanting to stay near parents
"Whatever, as long as I'm not homeless"
Make a lot of money, hopefully doing what I want to be doing
"Population is going too fast, so there won't be enough jobs for people. I'm hoping I can just work."
[It took to the end of the one and a half-hour session to get to the poop joke.]
Politics
Lots of votes for not being part of any party because they're all flawed
More important to see what ideas help us, makes our country better -- "It doesn't matter who comes up with it, or how much it's going to cost, just how much it's going to help us."
"I can't tell the difference."
"Colbert Report" and "The Daily Show" are the #1 & #2 shows for millenials.
About half YouTube watchers
Is the world going to be a better place?
Darfur - there's no stopping it
Environment - global warming
"One good thing about being a pessimist: you're always right or pleasantly surprised."
People are going to be just fighting to survive
They hear the information from parents, email newsletters, news, school
Fire In the Sky - Heinlein
Normal dinner conversation
Daily lives / scheduling
What did you learn in school?
What's going on in the world and what your opinion is about it.
Sports
Current events
How many kids actually have family dinners? Once or twice a week, almost every day, once every few months, holidays,
If we got rid of overdues, would you use it?
"You'd never get your books back"
It might be good to have it like Netflix: no fines, but you can't get the next one until you return the first one
More time to get through a book so you can actually finish it.
If there's a book you want, someone else might still have it and then you can't get it.
What about paying fines with credit cards? Research
Phones
Every single one of them has a phone
What can we do for you?
Can you increase the diversity of books?
More scifi
Wider selection of movies
Electronic books - text-based, not audio
Less technology, more human interaction
Historical novels
Cafe ("my mom told me to say this")
Brighter colors
Age-appropriate sections
Stephen Abram Interviews Millennials: Teens Talk About Libraries
Funny how all the teens that Stephen Abram interviews seem to love books as much as computers.
"I shouldn't go to bookstores. Everything looks good. Even the one's with hardcovers still look good."
"A book only lasts me a day. I use the school library, but I can't remember when I last went to the public library."
"I can't pass up a bookstore."
"I use Amazon.com, check out the back and front of the cover and read a chapter."
"My public library is very organized: They separate the romance from the other books."
"I go to the library because its quiet, to get a encyclopedia, "
"In the school library at my senior high, everything is new, lots of computers, but the books are old, paperbacks that are yellowing. People don't go there for the books"
"I don't go very much to the public library because I go "overdue" way too often."
"The last time I went to the library, my mother made me go."
Listening to the babel about how these teens use technology and do research surpasses most of the workshops at library conferences in the early years. Let's face it. We can't teach this generation much about doing research on the Internet.
These teens are actively learning, actively playing everyday. Actively looking toward the future.
Talking about playing games and researching on the Internet, the conversation was really lively and interactive...the conversations about using the library seemed a bit patronizing. One of the participants even stumbled over the word: "microfiche" She was a library employee.
Perhaps the attendees of this panel aren't the ones we need to serve. Those that have to compete with this group might be our target audience.
Yet, despite their prowess in finding information and using it, they are still concerned about their future. They are not sure whether things will be better for them than their parents.
"The world may be getting worse."
How do they get their political information: Utube, comedy shows, etc. Dinner conversation usually isn't: "How about that Bush Mom?"
Among some of these best and the brightest from seemingly typical American families, who seem to embrace their computers, Amazon.com, bookstores, and gaming more than their libraries at this stage of their lives, there was a haunting statement: "I will vote when I'm older."
Questions:
Librarian: And if there were no overdues? "We just won't return them. But they do like the idea of the "return one, then get one" policy of video stores.
"I shouldn't go to bookstores. Everything looks good. Even the one's with hardcovers still look good."
"A book only lasts me a day. I use the school library, but I can't remember when I last went to the public library."
"I can't pass up a bookstore."
"I use Amazon.com, check out the back and front of the cover and read a chapter."
"My public library is very organized: They separate the romance from the other books."
"I go to the library because its quiet, to get a encyclopedia, "
"In the school library at my senior high, everything is new, lots of computers, but the books are old, paperbacks that are yellowing. People don't go there for the books"
"I don't go very much to the public library because I go "overdue" way too often."
"The last time I went to the library, my mother made me go."
Listening to the babel about how these teens use technology and do research surpasses most of the workshops at library conferences in the early years. Let's face it. We can't teach this generation much about doing research on the Internet.
These teens are actively learning, actively playing everyday. Actively looking toward the future.
Talking about playing games and researching on the Internet, the conversation was really lively and interactive...the conversations about using the library seemed a bit patronizing. One of the participants even stumbled over the word: "microfiche" She was a library employee.
Perhaps the attendees of this panel aren't the ones we need to serve. Those that have to compete with this group might be our target audience.
Yet, despite their prowess in finding information and using it, they are still concerned about their future. They are not sure whether things will be better for them than their parents.
"The world may be getting worse."
How do they get their political information: Utube, comedy shows, etc. Dinner conversation usually isn't: "How about that Bush Mom?"
Among some of these best and the brightest from seemingly typical American families, who seem to embrace their computers, Amazon.com, bookstores, and gaming more than their libraries at this stage of their lives, there was a haunting statement: "I will vote when I'm older."
Questions:
Librarian: And if there were no overdues? "We just won't return them. But they do like the idea of the "return one, then get one" policy of video stores.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Conference Session Schedule Change!
forwarded from Michael Colford, Conference Committee:
I just wanted to let you all know about a major schedule change for the Massachusetts Library Association Annual Conference on Wednesday, May 2, 2007. Please adjust your personal schedules accordingly if you will be attending the conference on Wednesday.
Technoschism: Reorganizing and Restructuring Libraries for the Real Future will now take place on Wednesday, May 2, 11:00 a.m., as a second keynote address. Vice President of Innovation for Sirsi/Dynix, Stephen Abram, will discuss our changing demographics and newest innovations in social networking, tagging, portals, and persona development, as well as the three emerging trends in the environment: technology, community focus and teamwork
Meeting the Millennials is a new program meeting in Cheshire/Danforth at 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 2. Stephen Abram, will interview a group of 10 - 15 teens about their attitudes about life and libraries. Come hear first-hand how the next generation to hit adulthood deals with the world and their quest for information.
I just wanted to let you all know about a major schedule change for the Massachusetts Library Association Annual Conference on Wednesday, May 2, 2007. Please adjust your personal schedules accordingly if you will be attending the conference on Wednesday.
Technoschism: Reorganizing and Restructuring Libraries for the Real Future will now take place on Wednesday, May 2, 11:00 a.m., as a second keynote address. Vice President of Innovation for Sirsi/Dynix, Stephen Abram, will discuss our changing demographics and newest innovations in social networking, tagging, portals, and persona development, as well as the three emerging trends in the environment: technology, community focus and teamwork
Meeting the Millennials is a new program meeting in Cheshire/Danforth at 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 2. Stephen Abram, will interview a group of 10 - 15 teens about their attitudes about life and libraries. Come hear first-hand how the next generation to hit adulthood deals with the world and their quest for information.
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