For over a decade, middle school and high school students participated in the Kingsbridge library’s Teen Advisory Group. Most of them were local, while some of them traveled from as far as Brooklyn to join our group. They generated positive press. They helped to advocate for our library system. They helped us decide which books to order and what programs to request. They created artwork that decorated dozens of displays, helped us test new programs, wrote reviews, and shaped the Kingsbridge Library Teens Tumblr.

I originally intended to write a “Teen Advisory Group Appreciation Post” in the spring, as the school year was coming to a close and the TAG meetings were going to be taking a break until September. When COVID-19 happened, our programs were cut short and I was never able to give my teens their send-off in person. But I did want to let them know how much we appreciated all the great work they did to benefit our library, and give a virtual send-off instead!

So … this blog post is going to be a little different from what I originally intended. Let’s start with some of the work our TAG did over the last year, and then we’ll talk about the future of YA programs. 

Enhancing Our NYPL125 Display, and Giving YA Books Some Love

Our Teen Advisory Group was always looking for projects that would make good use of their imagination and their creative energy. The 125th anniversary of the New York Public Library system gave our teens plenty of opportunities to show off their skills!

Part of NYPL's 125th anniversary was celebrating our library system’s Top 10 Checkouts of All Time, and our TAG’s contribution was to bring extra attention to some of the YA-friendly books on the list. Our teens created word search puzzles based on books on that top 10 list, and also created artwork celebrating these books to enhance our display! 

Helping Us Prepare For Future Programs, and Creating Social Media Content

Our TAG members helped to test out our library’s button-making machine, and designed buttons with dystopian images for a “Dystopian Crafts For Teens” program. They also helped to create short videos that we shared through our social media channels, doing things like demonstrating how the button-making machine worked and creating light box displays.

The (Virtual) Future of Teen Advisory Groups and Other YA Programs

Usually by August I would have planned out dates for TAG meetings that would start in September. These meetings would take place in the Community Room of our library, and the meetings would continue for the whole school year. But this September is going to be very different from every other September in our history. Many parts of the library will be off-limits when we open to the public. We won’t be having in-person programs for a while (and no, I don’t know how long “a while” will be). Our Community Room is going to become a Quarantine Zone for returned items. So … what does that mean for our future?

Right now we’re planning to restart public programs for teens starting in the fall, but having them virtually through Google Meet instead of having them in person. Library staff have been “soft launching” virtual programs this summer with small groups, figuring out our new reality of dealing with cameras, learning how to unmute ourselves, and picking the best backgrounds for our virtual calls.

At this moment our fall schedules are up in the air, because we need to know what school schedules are going to look like first. But as soon as we start scheduling programs, we'll be adding them to our online calendar.

If you’re a teenager and you’d like to keep your brain active this summer, there's lots of stuff you can do right now:

• Check out NYPL’s summer reading site, which includes online programs for teens and virtual summer camp activities!
• Write book reviews for the Kingsbridge Library Teens Tumblr (we’re now taking virtual submissions!)
• Participate in one or more of the virtual programs for teens that are currently being offered by libraries in our system. One benefit of virtual programs is that it’s easy to participate in a program that’s outside of your neighborhood, so look at ALL of the programs to see what works for you!

If you’re a teenager who’s interested in joining the Kingsbridge Library’s Teen Advisory Group in the fall, keep an eye on our calendar. Like I said, a lot of things are up in the air right now. The program will probably start in September. It will probably be called a Teen Advisory Group, or else it might be called a Teen Volunteers Group (a different name for the same idea).

Right now we’re recreating ourselves to fit into this strange new world, and we’ll be glad to have you join us!