Professional Development Activity 4: Interview a Youth Services Librarian and give a desription and reflection of the interview - PART 2 THE REFLECTION

I formulated questions from issues and ideas that had come up for me during working through subject content and readings on library services for young adults.

I was interested in the ability of a librarian to be successful in the role of Youth Officer/Librarian and what were the components aided that success.

 I was also interested in the importance of a designated youth space to successful events and the attitudes of other library staff to young adults in the library, as in were there negative attitudes towards youth meeting in the library after school, using computers for gaming and personal social networking. I wanted to learn about the importance of Outreach in the community in high schools and other institutions. One of the things that particularly caught my eye was that Justin had great success with his marketing and promotion of events and programs because of his ability to tap in to teen vibe through personal artwork and drawing, so I formulated questions to assess how significant it had been in establishing rapport with his demographic.

My impression had been that having a special space just for youth to hold events and meet was at one point the big trend. But as Justin asserted having a flexible space that catered for all types of events is equally valid as long as it is welcoming. “When young people have the impression that the whole of a library is a welcoming space, then they are on their way o attaching ownership and positive values to the space” (Derr & Rhodes, 2010 p 2).

When asking about the importance of staff attitudes towards young people in providing relevant services, Justin made an important point that as people working not only in information, but also in customer service, stereotyping youth or any other group is bad practice. “It cannot be the responsibility of just the YA staff to be the representative staff....all staff who have a service role need to be on board” (Derr & Rhodes, 2010, p 4).

Most of the readings emphasise the difficulty in getting teens involved as they are so unpredictable and it is hard to know what they want to do (Macchion & Savic, 2011, p 4). Justin’s focus was on the social aspect of all his events, even HSC lock in and his ability to market his events contribute to success by giving a human face to the library institution, and having a personal touch that kids so that can talk to him about his art. “Promotion: build it and they will come” (Shay, 2011, p 2).

Youth services as a whole are completely different demographic to my 0-5 year olds and is one big knowledge gap however Justin’s balanced approach to library services as a whole and providing good service according to all library users and needs was refreshing and inspiring. It was an absolute given that keeping up with latest technology trends were an essential part of Justin’s work as Youth Officer, but as he pointed out, it is now important for any professional working in the information sector.

References:

Derr, L., & Rhodes, A. The Public Library as Urban Youth Space: Redefining

                Public Libraries through services and Space for Young People for

               Uber Experience. Australian Public Libraries and Information Services

              23(3).

Macchion, F., & Savic, N. (2011). Youth: An Exchange of Ideas for Public Libraries.

                Australian Public Libraries and Information Services. 24 (1).

Shay, C. (2011). The Twilight Zone: Bringing Youth into Libraries (2011).

                Australian Public Libraries and information Services. 24(1).