A teen librarian was doing a questionnaire on her blog, having teen librarians comment with their answers. I thought I'd put mine here. If you were interested.
1. How did you become a teen librarian? As soon as I knew I wanted to be a librarian (age 17), I wanted to work with teens and children. My foot in the door had me working with retirees and then adults. Occasionally I got snippets with teens. Finally (11 years later) I was able to move over to a Children’s position that served teens as well. And it has been a blast!
2. What is your favorite teen read (book or author)? Too many to pick a favorite! For current authors I especially enjoy Ally Carter. I’m enjoying most of the Dystopians coming out, too. For past authors I never go wrong with L.M. Montgomery!
3. What is one thing you wish your co-workers, administrator or community knew? Teens (or more particularly their actions) often don’t make sense. That’s just a part of who they are right now! When you accept that, they are a whole lot easier to understand, tolerate, and/or serve.
4. What is the one thing you wish your teens knew? I’m not so far from my teen years—I can still remember what it was like. Plus, I have tons of friends who currently are teens. I know more than they think I do about what life is like for them right now.
5. What has been your best program to date? Oh, that’s tough. Perhaps because it’s still recent, but my Hunger Games program 3 months ago was awesome. Highest teen attendance I’ve had so far and everyone had a blast!
6. What do you wish there was more of in teen fiction? Time to read it all.
7. What teen fiction trend are you so over? Paranormal (vampire, werewolf, etc.). Then again, I was never in it.
8. What is your least favorite (or most challenging) part of being a teen librarian? Getting teens to come to programs. They are so busy with so much. They love hearing about what I’m planning, but then they don’t come.
9. What is your favorite part of being a teen librarian? The teens. They are so fun to be around. I love talking to them about books. I love hearing about what they’re doing in life. It’s such an awesome age—in both senses of the word.
10. What do you think is the biggest challenge for the future of teen librarianship? Budget. There are still so many who don’t think we need as much, but teen books are expensive and the awesome programs (bringing in authors and such) are pretty costly, too. I worked previously in a position where I had little to no money for programs. Teens had fun, but weren’t awed and out telling everybody that the library is an awesome place for teens.
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