Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE — On a typical Friday night, many teens can be found at the movies, a friend’s house, a fast food restaurant or even the mall. However, on April 29, more than 50 high-schoolers found a less conventional place to hang out … the Mark and Emily Turner Memorial Library.
RISKY BUSINESS — Playing the board game “Risk” at the recent Mark and Emily Turner Expansion Expo: Teen Night at the Library are, from left: Josh Jones, Dustin Drabek, Alex Hemphill and Thomas Burnham. The event offered library explorations, hands-on activities, presentations and discussions, all designed to invite teens to learn more about library offerings, to help library staff learn what motivates teens make greater use of the library, and to help teens make the case for teen-specific needs in the library expansion plans.
When Mary Barton Akeley Smith donated $1 million to the local library expansion project, a group of teens from Presque Isle High School’s new Community Service Initiative (CSI: PI) wanted to ensure that their peers would be served in the expansion.
The resulting “Mark and Emily Turner Expansion Expo: Teen Night at the Library” was held from 6-9 p.m. and offered library explorations, hands-on activities, presentations and discussions, all designed to invite teens to learn more about library offerings, to help library staff learn what motivates teens make greater use of the library, and to help teens make the case for teen-specific needs in the library expansion plans.
“This is an introduction to a concept that could live on beyond this … encouraging teens to come to the library not only to check out books, but to hang out,” said Paul Elish, a senior at PIHS. “We have kids playing a Wii, for example. Not many people realize there’s a Wii at the library. There are also e-readers so teens can try a Kindle, an iPad or a Nook. One of our major themes is the fact that technology’s role in the library is increasing to the point where it’s uncertain what libraries will look like in the near future.
“Whether you believe that the libraries of the past are becoming obsolete or you believe that they’re simply evolving,” he said, “it’s important to explore the library’s role in the community.”
Elish spearheaded the event with the help of his junior year English teacher Jennifer Bourassa. The two were selected as 2010 Bezos Scholars at the Aspen Institute; among only 12 public high school juniors and 12 educators from across the nation to receive the honor.
Elish and Bourassa received an all-expenses paid scholarship to attend the Aspen Ideas Festival (AIF) in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. While there, they took part in all AIF offerings, and also received scholars-only time with world leaders, global thinkers and acclaimed creative artists. 2010 scholars shared meals and private conversations with Sandra Day O’Connor, Sir Ken Robinson, Nicholas Kristof, Tom Friedman, Sylvia Earle and the founders of twitter, KABOOM and IDEO, among many other notables.
Following their time in Aspen, the student/educator scholar teams returned home, inspired by their experiences at AIF, to create Local Ideas Festivals in their schools and communities. The scholars are encouraged to create festivals based on their passions and issues of relevance in their school and communities. The “Mark and Emily Turner Expansion Expo: Teen Night at the Library” was Elish’s and Bourassa’s Local Ideas Festival.
“Our extended ideas festival is embodied by the creation of this Community Service Initiative (CSI), which is a student group devoted to community service,” said Elish. “We call ourselves, CSI: PI. Our goal is to give community service a greater presence in the high school and establish a strong relationship between the CSI and local service organizations.”
Dianna Leighton, youth librarian, expressed an interest in partnering with the student organization.
“I was really interested and excited by the idea that there was a student group that was getting involved in community service activities. That’s something that I’m personally invested in, so to be able to combine that interest with my title as youth librarian just seemed to be the perfect fit,” she said. “I know in groups like that, sometimes it’s hard to get community organizations engaged, so I figured I would take the first step and reach out to them.
“My goal today — and any day — is that teens feel that the library is a safe, accessible and friendly place to be,” Leighton said. “That’s going to vary from patron to patron, but that was my goal with our Teen Night … welcome teenagers who maybe have never been here or haven’t been here since they were toddlers or only come in for specific services or materials to realize the full scope that we offer. I think we did that.”
Recognizing that 50-60 teens participated in the event, Leighton said “there is a need for this in the community.”
“With the success of this night, can I commit to anything right now, no, but is it something that I will consider in the future that maybe we should have more after-hours events just for teenagers as a way to make them feel comfortable, absolutely,” she said. “With the expansion, we’re looking to gather feedback throughout the community, but especially with our teen and young adult demographic to see what they need. I would like to see more teens and young adults come into the library, so this is a good start.”
Elish said he was nervous that people wouldn’t show up to the event.
“I was worried about turnout,” he said, “but I’m pleased with the number of teens that attended. It’s a Friday night and this is a library and the primary function of a library is to allow people to check out books which isn’t exactly considered a Friday night activity, but that’s really the point … the fact that there are other things you can do here, too.”
Among the featured activities at the Teen Night included a creative writing workshop with New Brunswick author Wendy Koenig, board games, a book review presentation, a technology showcase and a creation station where students could help decorate the teen section of the library. There was also music, pizza, soda and cookies.
“The library isn’t normally open on Friday nights and there usually isn’t food and music … almost like a lounge party … so it’s different than the normal environment that you encounter at the library,” Elish said, “but yet people are here and they are exploring and that’s what counts.
“Based on this experience, do teen nights at a library work? I would say, ‘Yes,’” he said. “Is this the perfect model, I’m really not sure. But it’s a good starting place to find out.”
CSI: PI has been involved in a number of activities throughout the school year.
“Back in January, we helped institute paper recycling at the high school, and in February we did the Rice Bowl where people were playing games on Freerice.com where the more answers you got right, the more food was donated to the World Food Program through the United Nations,” said Elish.
“After the Japanese earthquake, we participated in Origami for Japan. For every origami crane that we sent the Bezos Family Foundation, they donated $2 to Architecture for Humanity,” he said. “The library expansion project and how teens can benefit from that is just another example of what we can do to help our community.”
GARRETT KIDNEY, a freshman at Presque Isle High School, tries out a Kindle at the Mark and Emily Turner Memorial Library. The library recently teamed up with the school’s new Community Service Initiative to offer a Teen Night to showcase what the library has to offer, to help library staff learn what motivates teens make greater use of the library, and to help teens make the case for teen-specific needs in the library expansion plans. More than 50 high-schoolers attended the event.
MORE THAN 50 HIGH-SCHOOLERS attended the April 29 Teen Night at the Mark and Emily Turner Memorial Library. Among the featured activities included a creative writing workshop with New Brunswick author Wendy Koenig, board games, a book review presentation, a technology showcase and a creation station where students could help decorate the teen section of the library. There was also music, pizza, soda and cookies. The event sought to showcase the various aspects of the library to the teen demographic and find out what motivates them to use the library more.
