Teen Advisory Board Lock-In, Round Two

Last summer, when my library district's teen department put together our first all-TAB lock-in--an after-hours event for members of the various branches' Teen Advisory Boards--we had an inkling that it would go over well. And it did; these library-loving teens were psyched to have an exclusive library experience just for them and their peers. So of course we realized we'd need to offer the program again this summer. Which we did, last weekend.

Once again, we had two requirements for teens who wanted to attend our after-hours (although not overnight) lock-in: 1) they needed to be an active member of on of the branch Teen Advisory Boards; and 2) they needed a permission slip signed by a parent or guardian. We also asked that teens bring to the library a non-perishable food item to donate to a local food pantry, although that part was optional. Lest you think our teens are slackers, let me tell you our stats: our 74 attending teens donated a total of 115 food items.

Those 74 teens enjoyed a packed schedule of activity options, and they had plenty of time to socialize with like-minded teens who frequent different branch libraries than theirs. Here's the schedule we put together for the teens:

6:30 - 7:30 p.m.: Check teens in, Go over ground rules, Have dinner
     Two of our teen services staff members took on the task of checking in all 74 teens as they arrived, checking their names against our permission slip records. Kids mingled until the pizzas showed up, at which point a long but polite line formed and everyone chowed down. After dinner, another staff member made staff introductions, shared the night's schedule, and went over ground rules (basically, be nice and don't go in off-limit areas).

TARDIS and BMO creation in progress

7:30 - 9:00 p.m.: Activity Stations
     We had a number of activity stations going on simultaneously, and the teens could move from activity to activity as they so desired:
     1) Crafts: I printed out Doctor Who and Adventure Time papercrafts and had scissors & tape available
     2) Adventure Time Marathon
     3) Videogaming: Word on the street is that a few teen boys got really into a dance game
     4) Games: Some teen services staff prepared two different games: Minute to Win It challenges, and also a music game requested by the various branches' Music Clubs. Prizes included galleys and left over summer reading prize books.

9:00 - 9:15 p.m.: Egg Hunt--in the dark!
     Between the library closing at 6 and teens arriving at 6:30, a few staff members and I hid over 200 plastic eggs stuffed with candy throughout the stacks. We figured out how many eggs each teen could get in the first go-round, then announced that it was a free-for-all for the leftovers. Have you tried hunting eggs in the dark? Not as easy as you might think.

9:15 - 10:15 p.m.: All TAB Meeting
     It's really important to these kids that they get the chance to share feedback with one another and find new ideas to bring back to their individual branches, which makes this all-TAB meeting a vital part of our lock-in. The head teen services librarian made up an agenda of topics for individual branch TABs to discuss, and after 20 minutes the disparate TABs reunited to share their ideas and thoughts with one another. I know my branch's TAB always returns to their next meeting with many ideas for changes and additions to how they do things. (Note: I was one of two staff members present at the lock-in who are not the person directly in charge of teen programming at our branches; while our colleagues facilitated the TAB meeting, we cleaned up.)

10:15 - 10:30 p.m.: Late Night Check-out
     Teens all but demanded we have the check-out computers on and ready to go so they could check out books at the lock-in. We hold the lock-in at the branch with the largest young adult section, so many of the teens are in awe at the plethora of reading options in front of them. Our 74 teens checked out 99 items in that 15-minute stretch of time.

That's one way to carry
another weapon...

10:30 - 11:45 p.m.: Glow-in-the-Dark Capture the Flag
     Long story short: there would have been a riot had we not played glow-in-the-dark capture the flag. I explained the rules and took our group photo before staff split the TABs into two teams (keeping whole branches together). Both teams asked for about 15 minutes of team strategizing before the game officially began. As with last year, one team's home base was the children's wing, the other team's area was the adult wing, and the neutral zone was the lobby and check-out area in between. Staff were armed with Nerf guns and crossbows, and any teen hit by our ammo had to go immediately to jail. Let me stress this point: teens get really into this game. They have complicated attack plans, evasive maneuvers, spies... it can get really involved. This year, both teams hid their flags so well (ahem--kind of cheated, albeit equally) that it took the full 60 minutes of gameplay to have a winner. Intense.

11:45 - 11:55 p.m.: Door Prize Drawing, Gathering of personal belongings
     As each teen entered the lock-in, they added their names to a drawing basket. About a dozen teens were randomly selected as winners in the drawing, and they could choose from a variety of Barnes and Noble gift cards and signed hardback books. Can I tell you how excited it made me to see how excited teens were to win any of these items?

12:00 a.m.: Teens picked up
     All of the teens were picked up by their appointed rides by 12:15 a.m., with library staff monitoring the pick-up process. At that point, all that was left for we staff members was to finish tidying up, put stray items in the lost and found, take out the trash, and lock up.

I am really thrilled with how this second annual All-TAB Lock-in went. The teens had fun, made new friends, and experienced the library in a way that pretty much no one else gets to do. Sure, there's a good amount of planning and staff time that goes into putting on the event, but the teens' sense of ownership in the library after attending hushes any questions of whether it's worth it. Oh, it's worth it.

YA Friday: Why I work with teen volunteers

Lately I've been thinking about why, specifically, I dedicate work time and energy to working with teen volunteers. Ask many a library person and you'll hear that teens don't always have the best image in the library: they can be loud, unprofessional, unreliable, late, unmotivated. And I can see how that reputation can turn some libraries off from working with teen volunteers, even when they have tasks that could be aided by volunteer hands.

Me, though? I think it's worth it. And not just because teen volunteers can do the cutting, stickering, and scanning that aren't high on staff's list of priorities. No, I work with teen volunteers for other reasons.

Why I Work with Teen Volunteers

1. Teens need to see that their communities value them. And the library absolutely does value teens. We value the passion they bring to the things they care about. We value their dedication to their friends, families, and beliefs. We value their input about what they like to read, watch, and do. And we value the contributions they are able and willing to make to an organization they believe in.
2. Teens need a chance to develop their work ethic and skills. So you think teens are late, loud, and unprofessional? How can they learn to act otherwise in an appropriate environment if we always ask them to leave the library? I am a firm believer that teens need mentoring, even informally, to see that they are worthy of respect and recognition for their work.
3. Teens need to feel that what they do is important. I remember being a teenager with stacks of homework assignments and other tasks that seemed pointless; who were they going to help, really? It is entirely within the power of the library to give teens meaningful work, and to allow them to see the positive impact their work has.
4. Lots of teens need service hours for school, clubs, and applications. And while I recognize that not every teen who submits a volunteer application is gung-ho about the library, I strive to give them the benefit of the doubt. Sure, maybe they're just volunteering because they need so many hours for NHS; but hopefully they can have some positive interactions with adults and other teens in the process.

And one of the biggest reasons I work with teen volunteers is...


5. Teens can be tireless advocates for the library. If teens care about something, they will talk about it--to their friends, their families, their acquaintances. I've seen volunteers telling anyone who will listen about the books they "must read." I've had volunteers offer to put signs on their lockers--even wear a sandwich board sign at school--to promote programs and author visits they care about. I've overheard some of my volunteers talking about summer reading at local restaurants, and they don't even realize I'm there. If teens love the library, feel it is a place of value, they will spread that message far better and to more diverse populations than our traditional marketing can do.

Teens really are a vital part of the operation of my library. It may take some work and time on the part of staff, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

~~*~~

Do you work with teen volunteers in your library? Why?

YA Friday: Teen Volunteers in the Library

I've talked before about using teen volunteers to support our annual summer reading program. Now, for a bit of a change, let's talk about using teen volunteers during the academic year. Because that whole shebang is a horse of a different color.

When I started my position at my branch in August 2011, I took on the responsibilities of the volunteer coordinator as well as the children's librarian. That fall, I had a volunteer corps of about 7 teens, totaling an average of 10 hours of help each week. Fast forward to today, when I have a group of 11 volunteers putting in 17 hours each week. That's seventeen hours each week when volunteers show up at my library in order to help us get things done. They come to me looking for their tasks. And I increasingly don't have much for them to do.

You see, in our library, volunteers help with small tasks that are not at the core of any staff person's job description. Our regular volunteers do any and all of the following:

• Alphabetize carts of returned items
• Prepare items reserved by customers to go on our reserve shelves
• Prepare craft components for programs
• Withdraw items that have been weeded by staff
• Cut scrap paper
• Help set up the program room for events
• Pull items on lists prepared by staff
• Check in books that were recently used in programs
• Stock materials displays
• Assist with special one-time projects as directed

Now let me ask you a question: would your library (considering it is medium-sized like mine with an average of 5 programs per week) have seventeen hours worth of these tasks each and every week? I think you can start to see my problem: I have lots of volunteers, and not enough tasks to keep them all occupied.

That's why I'm reorganizing how we work with our teen volunteers. We're shutting down volunteer operations for the weeks of Christmas and New Year's. Then, when volunteers start to come around again the second week of January, a new schedule will kick into place. Volunteers will have one shift every other week instead of weekly. Ta-da!

I know that modification doesn't seem huge, but it will cut in half our weekly job of frantically organizing volunteer tasks. The demands on staff will be fewer as we have reduced weekly volunteer traffic. Also, by reducing the ratio of volunteer hours to volunteer tasks, we'll be able to give each of our volunteers more substantial and meaningful work. Whereas under our current schedule the weekly Friday afternoon volunteer always gets stuck helping us wrap our reserves, in the new schedule she'll get more variety in her assignments. It's a win-win for everyone.

Or at least I hope. I'm interested to hear what volunteers have to say about the overall reduction in their volunteer hours; after all, some of them volunteer in order to fulfill service requirements for honor societies and youth groups, and spreading out their shifts means it will take longer to reach a volunteer hour goal. I am trying to take that concern into consideration, however, by providing opportunities for interested volunteers to earn extra hours. Many of our children's programs throughout the year benefit from having a few volunteers in the room to help things run smoothly; I have started sharing these program volunteer requests on our library's volunteer Facebook page and at Teen Advisory Board meetings. Additionally, volunteers are welcome to work as much as they want during our summer reading program. Thus, if a teen needs 30 hours of volunteer service, he or she can get those hours no problem with a bit of planning.

I'm looking forward to debuting this new volunteer scheduling in January--I think it will really make for more enjoyable interactions for both volunteers and library staff. I'll be sure to report back.

In the meantime, do you have volunteer tips, tricks, or stories to share? Sound off in the comments.

YA Friday: TAB Lock-In

We have a really strong Teen Advisory Board at my branch. At any given meeting, it's no surprise to have upwards of 25 teens in attendance. They are enthusiastic, dedicated, and thoughtful--and they love the library. Turns out that several other branches in our district also have great TABs, too, and these various TAB members wanted to meet--somewhere cool, doing something epic. Thus the all-TAB lock-in was born.

We had quite a crowd show up!

Our all-TAB lock-in took place last Friday evening from 6 p.m. to midnight at a recently rebuilt large branch--complete with a children's wing and an adult services wing, a layout whose importance will be more apparent later. We had two requirements of teens who wanted to participate: 1) that they be an active member of their branch's TAB; and 2) that they have a permission slip signed by a parent/guardian (to legally protect the library and to ensure parents knew when to pick up their teens) and the participating teen (to acknowledge a behavior standard). Not huge requirements, and very reasonable for encouraging teens to attend an event unlike anything we'd ever hosted.

We had 62 teens show up. 62! Better than we had been hoping for! With 9 library staffers working the event, that made for a decent teen-to-adult ratio. At 6 p.m. we locked the doors, and for six moderately-scheduled hours, teens had the run of the lower floor of the library. Here's a break-down of our lock-in:

6:00 - 6:15 p.m.: Checking in teens

     Verifying permission slips, accepting a canned good for donation to a local food pantry as "payment" for participation (we weren't firm on the canned good, as some teens forgot theirs). All teens got a name tag that also listed the branch library where they are involved in a TAB.

6:15 - 6:30 p.m.: Ground rules and Ice breaker game

     Ground rules included establishing off-limits areas of the library building, not doing anything that would be destructive to the library, and maintaining a baseline of respect for all fellow TAB members. We also explained the schedule for the night.

     For our ice breaker, everyone sat in a tight circle with me starting in the middle. I introduced myself and said a fact about myself. At that point all other people in the circle about whom that fact is also true stood up, too--and then everyone standing had to scramble to find the seat of another standing person not located immediately next to them. The one person left standing after all the seats have been filled starts the process over again (introduction, fact, SCRAMBLE). This game is a great way to get energy up, start to introduce people by name, and demonstrate that we all have a lot in common.

6:30 - 7:00 p.m.: Dinner!

     Say what you will about Little Caesars, but those $5 hot-n-ready pizzas are crazy cost-effective when you're buying 22 of them. We also had a variety of chips, cookies, and sodas/water. A snack table stayed up throughout most of the evening, too, for grazers.

7:00 - 10:00 p.m.: Activity stations

     We had four activity stations going on simultaneously:

     1) Crafts: Shrinky dinks and friendship bracelets. Oh, my, did they love the shrinky dinks.

     2) Buffy Marathon

     3) Videogaming: We had two Wiis and an Xbox set up with a variety of games.

     4) Games: Our traditional games station offered three separate games, each of which took an hour. From 7 to 8 p.m. was a Book Cake Walk--essentially your standard school fun fair cake walk, except the walking squares showed YA book titles and the prizes were ARCs. From 8 to 9 p.m. was Book Bingo; all squares on the bingo cards were YA book titles, and bingos earned entries in a drawing for a $20 gas station gift card. Then from 9 to 10 p.m. was Minute to Win It, a variety of crazy and exciting one-minute competitive games; winners again earned entries in the gift card drawing.

10:00 - 11:00 p.m.: All-TAB Meeting

     TAB members are used to having meetings. For some of them, TAB meetings make up the bulk of their library participation. This All-TAB Meeting provided an opportunity for the TABs from all of the different branches to brainstorm and idea-share. What activities did they hear about that they want to try at their own branches? What would they recommend other branches try? Do they want to collaborate across TABs, and if so, how? We had a back-up plan in case the meeting fizzled and only took twenty minutes, but the teens were happy to spend the full hour talking about what their TAB does, what they enjoy, and what they want to accomplish. If you every doubt the capacity of teenagers to care about issues and make plans to address them, you should attend a library TAB meeting.

     Note: Two staff members who helped with the lock-in are not in charge of their branches' TABs; thus during the meeting they cleaned up stations to prepare for the final game.

11:00 - 11:50 p.m.: Glow-in-the-Dark Capture the Flag

Why, yes, that is me creeping with a Nerf gun.

     Remember how I mentioned the library layout--a children's wing and an adult wing with a central foyer--would come into play in this lock-in? Glow-in-the-Dark Capture the Flag is when that happened. We split the TABs into two roughly-equally teams--individual branches stayed together and combined with others--and assigned each a wing. All participants got glow sticks, and each team had a large glow stick flag to hide and defend. We explained the rules we would be using: if you're tagged on the other team's territory, you go to their jail; stay in jail until "jailbreak" is announced over the PA; the foyer is neutral territory; no carrying your flag around except to change its hiding location; and, my favorite, if you are hit by a dart from a staff member's Nerf gun, you go to jail (regardless of what team you're on!). After a few questions, we turned off all the lights on the lower floor (safety lights remained on for a bit of visibility without ruining the whole glow-in-the-dark aspect). Let the games begin!

     One team was definitely more coordinated than the other, so the first game ended after ten minutes. We started a second game, which lasted fifteen minutes. At that point we had the teams switch sides--would that affect the outcome? We didn't get a chance to definitively answer that question, as we had to call the game at 11:50 to wrap things up. The team that had won twice got to enter their members' names in the gift card drawing. Everyone said they had a lot of fun playing Capture the Flag.

11:50 - 11:55 p.m.: Group photo and Prize drawing

     It was surprisingly easy to get all of the teens in a mass to take their group photo. They were then centrally located to hear the drawing winner announced. Excitement all around!

12:00 a.m.: Teens picked up

     All the teens were picked up by their parents by 12:10 a.m., which means staff got to finish cleaning up quickly and were on their own ways home by 12:30. A successful end to a busy night.

Everything went very smoothly--even surprisingly so for a first-time big event. Since I was staffing the craft area near a phone, I updated folks about the schedule every hour via the PA system. Library staff mainly stayed around their activity areas, leaving teens free to go from place to place as they pleased. As far as I could tell, we had no behavioral issues. Everyone got along, no one tried to get into off-limits areas of the library... It was a rousing success, and a great way to top off the summer.

Teens are already asking when we'll do a lock-in again. The plan for right now is for our district to make the all-TAB lock-in an annual event--with the knowledge that excitement and participation will continue to grow. If you're looking to reward your hard-working teens with a fun, special activity, I highly suggest you give a lock-in some thought--especially now that you've got a program plan.

Summer Reading Volunteers: The 2012 Wrap-Up

Hey, you guys! It's time now to officially close out the summer reading volunteers experience for 2012 with some appreciation, some reflection, and the final stats.

Having ravaged the sandwich and chips spread,
the teens commenced with movie-watching.

As a thanks for all of our teen volunteers' hard work and hours spent at the library over the summer, the library hosts an informal appreciation party between the end of SRP and the beginning of school. The 2012 Teen Summer Reading Volunteer Appreciation Party was a lot of fun. Teens enjoyed a spread of sub sandwiches, chips, cookies, and drinks. After some brief mingling time, we drew names for prizes; winners chose from our stash of Own the Night swag and ARCs (really good ARCs, folks). Then we popped in a movie (The Goonies!!!) and relaxed for the evening. Groups of volunteers would chat for a bit before returning their attention to the movie, so the whole event had a chill, social feel. Teens enjoyed the throwback movie and the chance to just hang out before homework kicks in again. Consensus was that the evening really made them feel--guess--appreciated. (Don't they just have the best sense of humor?)

I spent my quiet time during the movie reflecting on the whole experience of mixing teen volunteers with the behemoth that is summer reading. What I learned:

• Training: I cannot emphasize enough how integral training is to empowering summer reading volunteers to perform well. (See earlier post.) Also, make cheat sheets with key program details and plaster them all over the summer reading desk. Staff also find these cheat sheets useful.
• Scheduling: Teens will enthusiastically show up for their first shift. After that, most of them will show up most of the time approximately when they are scheduled to volunteer. If they know they can't make a shift, they may or may not call you ahead of time to let you know. This is true regardless of how much you stress punctuality. Thus it is very important to have all library staff trained on the program so that anyone can effectively fill these sudden program table voids.
• More teens (and their parents) will ask to volunteer once they see other teens volunteering: This sort of contagious enthusiasm is great, but at a certain point the costs of training and scheduling a new volunteer outweigh what that volunteer can contribute during the summer reading program. My cutoff for new volunteers was two weeks into the program.
• Discipline: At some point, you'll encounter a behavioral issue. If you're lucky, it will be a teen playing on a phone instead of reading during downtime. If you're less lucky, it will be a teen loudly using language unbecoming of a library representative (use your imagination). Regardless of the issue, I do two things: 1) calmly acknowledge the issue and why it is problematic; 2) state that volunteers are expected to act professionally and that said issue will not be tolerated again. That's it. No yelling, no blaming, nada. Teens are smart, and they are usually far more embarrassed about their problem behavior than I am angry about it. One brief, serious warning and they are good at self-policing.

All of my volunteers worked hard to enthusiastically engage kids and teens in the 2012 Summer Reading Program. I'm glad I have plenty of notes and experience from this year, which was very successful, and I will use them to inform how I utilize volunteers in summer 2013.

Final Summer Reading Program 2012 stats:

• Total program registrations (children and teens): 3592
• Total program completions (children and teens): 1549 -- 43% of registrations
• Total volunteer hours worked: 454
• Number of volunteers helping with summer reading: 36

P.S. Did you catch my Goonies reference right at the beginning of the post? That's dedication to a theme.

Summer Reading Volunteers: We're Halfway Through the Program!

It's official: we're halfway done with our summer reading programs at my library. That means we've drawn the names of the winners of the Cardinals tickets drawing (an incentive for signing up in the first month), and we've started making serious dents in our boxes of prizes. And while we haven't seen the onslaught of families running to the summer reading station that we did that first week, we have had a steady stream of enthusiastic kids coming to claim their prizes and talk about what they've been reading. Participation is high, and there have been lots of people in the library. Which means we might have had total chaos if not for our summer reading volunteers.

I've been so impressed by our volunteers, who are all teens; they always act professionally and represent the library well. When our volunteers have had downtime--and that does happen for stretches of each shift--they've been doing a great job of staying engaged and not looking bored. I emphasize that summer reading volunteers can read during the slow times, counting that reading toward their own summer reading goals. I've had a few great what-I've-been-reading conversations with these volunteers in these quieter moments, and I was excited to get to promote some upcoming titles during these talks. (I even mentioned that some of the most coveted ARCs will be available as prizes at our upcoming district-wide TAB lock-in... Woot!)

A few volunteers who are skilled organizers and multitaskers have even taken on the responsibility of restocking SRP supplies and preparing program crafts for children's staff. Suffice it to say, these summer reading volunteers have been a huge help. They are very much earning the volunteer appreciation party awaiting them after the close of summer reading... And that's all I'll say about that reward for now. :)

First month's stats:

• Total program registrations (children and teens): 1783
• Total volunteer hours worked: 213
• Number of volunteers helping with summer reading: 33

Summer Reading Volunteers: The First Week

It was a busy first week of summer reading at my library! It's looking like this may be a blockbuster summer--tons of kids and teens signing up for and participating in the reading programs, lots of half-full displays from so many books circulating, and high demand for our variety of programs. I've been able to observe the enthusiastic chaos and interact with excited kids for one primary reason: I have great volunteers handling the bulk of the summer reading program workload.

The children's side of our
summer reading station.

I'm happy to say that the first week of summer reading sign-ups (and, toward the end of the week, prize distribution) went very well overall. As each volunteer arrived for his or her shift, I gave a "tour" of our mobile summer reading station--during volunteer-staffed hours, it has its own location and table in the library, and during non-volunteer hours it gets wheeled behind the reference desk. I made the tour a bit of a training refresher, and I noticed that many of the volunteers already felt comfortable with the program even before their first shifts. That May training really paid off!

I tried to make sure the volunteers had everything they could possibly need at the summer reading station: book logs, stickers to give to kids who signed up, prizes, program calendars, bookmarks, a stamp to mark when prizes are given... Does your summer reading station at your library have this much stuff, too? I felt like I was surrounding my volunteers with a mountain of Dream Big READ and Own the Night paraphernalia. They proved, though, that they were more than up to the challenge.

Despite the volunteers' level of knowledge and confidence, I made sure to emphasize that the reference desk was only ten feet away should they need anything or have questions. Knowing they weren't totally on their own helped put many first-time volunteers at ease. After the first fifteen minutes of each shift, though, I witnessed all of the volunteers settling into their roles and getting kids excited about the program. It was a beautiful sight.

I did make a few adaptations to my method and to the summer reading station as the week progressed, and I'm making notes to utilize the following tools next summer:

• I printed out a slideshow handout cheat sheet explaining the core stages of the program (registration, halfway prize, completion prize), including a breakdown describing the exact items a participant of each program should get at each stage. I put these cheat sheets in some magnetic sign holders in front of each volunteer's chair. They all mentioned how helpful they found this sheet.
• I hung around the summer reading station for the first few customer interactions of each volunteer's shift. That way I could coach and correct them as necessary, and I was able to point out any aspects of the program that I may have forgotten to mention earlier. (There's something about repeating the same information forty-five million times that makes me miss a small but important fact every once in a while...)
• I encouraged volunteers to immediately sign themselves and their siblings up for the program. Turns out there's nothing quite as motivating as making sure you know how to earn your own prizes!

I'll be interested to see how things continue to develop as the high numbers of registrations turn into high numbers of kids collecting their prizes. I anticipate that these future interactions will involve less explanation on the part of the volunteers, but more time will go into making sure the correct prizes are given, encouraging continued reading, etc. I think my volunteers are ready!

The first week's stats:

• Total program registrations (children and teens): 897
• Total volunteer hours worked: 51
• Number of volunteers helping with summer reading: 27

Summer Reading Volunteers: The Training

At my library, we're lucky enough to have a bunch of year-round teen volunteers who help get things done in the branch. They pull lists of books for displays and programs, withdraw materials, help with craft preparation, and complete a myriad other tasks as they come up--and often tasks do just seem to spring out of nowhere.

In the summer, though, it's different. For the two months my library district offers its summer reading programs (SRPs), the number of teen volunteers at my library jumps from a dozen to over thirty. And for the duration of the programs, teen volunteers are focused almost entirely on the summer reading station at the branch. My library district simultaneously offers three SRPs for children (all on the same theme, but with slight modifications for age and reading ability), a program for teens, and a program for adults, all of which make for a potentially confusing summer. Thus the necessity of what every volunteer really needs to be effective: training.

I hosted our summer reading volunteer training last week, and nearly all of the thirty volunteers attended (non-attendees are trained one-on-one when their schedules allow). I had pizza and drinks handy--they are teens, after all!--and after a bit of socializing, we got down to business.

I spent a good twenty minutes going over the children's and teen SRPs with my volunteers; these are the programs they'll be promoting and explaining during all of their summer volunteer shifts. I made sure to have as many visuals as possible. Everyone got a cheat sheet of the programs and how they work, and a number of the volunteers took notes as I talked. I passed around the various book logs for the programs, and I showed the prizes that participants will earn for reading over the summer. I will be the first person to admit that explaining four SRPs can be really, really boring. With a bit of humor, space for questions, and flinging of prize glow-in-the-dark stars, though, we made it through with minimal fuss. They were even enthusiastic through the process of individually selecting their volunteer shifts, which took a while.

What did the teen volunteers absolutely love about the training, though? Role playing. I gave them potential SRP scenarios: a frazzled mom approaches the summer reading station and wants to sign up her four kids; a teenager hovers near the table while trying to appear disinterested; a young child wants to sign up for the program and boasts that he'll finish by tomorrow and start over again to get tons of prizes; an older sibling wants to know if a pre-reader younger sibling can participate. Throughout all of these scenarios, my teens became more and more confident with the program information. Success, even if just for that first evening!

Despite the volunteers' training and enthusiasm, however, I do fully expect to need to refresh my volunteers on the programs once they start their shifts next week. That won't be a problem, though; I'll likely need to refresh some library staff, too, what with all the different SRPs. That initial investment of time will be worth it, though: throughout the entire summer, our army of summer reading volunteers will take some of the SRP rush away from the reference desk, get kids and peers enthused about the programs and (most importantly!) reading, and develop a real sense of pride and in contributing to the library. I already know that, with nearly 60 summer reading volunteer hours each week, they will be making a HUGE difference in how well my library is able to operate during the busy summer months. A major goal, though, is for the volunteers themselves to feel ownership in their library.

I'll check back in with the progress my summer reading volunteers make throughout the summer, as well as some of the areas for improvement next year. Sound off in the comments if you have tips, success stories, or (I hope not!) horror stories of using volunteers in your summer reading programs.