Utah State Library Youth Services

It’s still the middle of the summer, but the annual Letters About Literature writing contest is coming soon! The Utah Center for the Book duties are now being led by the Utah Humanities Council. The Utah State Library is coordinating activities for Letters About Literature in Utah.

We are fortunate to have the Salt Lake Community College Community Writing Center as a partner this year. They will host a two-day workshop to help youth in 4th-12th grades to develop a reflective, personal letter to any author that explains how that author’s book inspired a change in the student’s life. The workshop will take place on October 8 and 15, 1-3 pm both days. Register by contacting the Community Writing Center at 801-957-2192.

Information packets should be available in early September and contest entries are due by January 6, 2012.

More information will be posted when it is available!

I attended a workshop while I was at ALA titled “Trends in YA Services: Using Mobile Devices to Serve Teens” which I thought was excellent. There were four speakers from libraries in New York and Texas, as well as two teens from the New Orleans area who were giving their feedback about services libraries are providing.

The gist of the program was that while access to computers remains spotty across socio-economic backgrounds, practically every teen has access to a mobile devices. One of the teens mentioned that the iPad is the “most desired” devices for every teen. The Nassau County Library (New York state) has developed a teen reads app that was clean and simple, but still useful.

It got me thinking that this is probably the best way libraries could reach out to teens. Creating useful apps and resources that will be used by teens outside of the library, but will still connect teens with libraries. However, as I’ve seen mentioned several times recently (at ALA and in other online content I’ve read), libraries don’t seem to be embracing the app. This is a challenge we should embrace and figure out.