Spark a Sense of Panic (And Inspiration!)

Every year literally hundreds of libraries band together for the Collaborative Summer Reading Program (CSRP).  This effort is supported and recognized by scholarly studies as a great benefit to children and teens as well as the surrounding community as it engages younger students in reading and other activities to both keep them out of trouble and to avoid the "summer backslide."  This has been met with huge success and is one of the biggest projects for a public librarian in programming.

However, this often means that every year around March, though sometimes even earlier, all of these librarians realize that an entire community is looking to them for an array of fun, educational, and meaningful activities, books, stories, programs, events, prizes, reading records, decorations, and a slew of other things for an entire two month span.

And I haven't even picked out tablecloth colors yet!

But we love it!  Every second of planning transforms itself into a few smiling faces and avid readers, which are some of the biggest perks we can really ask for.

This year's theme for teens is "Spark a Reaction" with a nod to many plays on this phrase such as science and expressing yourself.  I always tend to take the given theme and pull it like taffy to fit the local teen interests, which works great for everyone involved and I plan to do the same thing again this summer.

One of the many resources available for librarians partaking in the CSRP are workshops.  The Children's Librarian and I attended our local workshop just yesterday and were both overwhelmed and inspired by the ideas we heard, as is tradition.  My little YA Pinterest Board is filling up with science experiments.

The workshop itself offered some things I may not have thought of solo.  Such as TARDIS Art.  Teens take a TARDIS and stage it in creative places for a photo opportunity.  This gives teens a chance to explore their area (or vacation spots) and show off their creativity and skills with their camera phone or a camera borrowed from the library.  This is why I like hanging out with Teen/YA Librarians - we are unstoppable in our geekiness when we get together!

Like so, but in even more creative locations!  Cosplay optional.

This planning is going to be a big (nay, huge) part of my time for the next few months, so I thought I would share some of the process.

Events Clarion Free Library teen can look forward to this summer:

1. Movies.  Grab a DVD, some popcorn, a Public Performance License, and you're ready to go.  I hope to have various new movies like The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, which fits the theme in two ways: a fandom following (Spark a Discussion) and a social revolution ("One spark to start a fire.").  Don't forget, the theme is taffy-esque.
2. DIY and crafts are just as big for teens as they are for kids.  Some of the cooler projects I hope to do include Build a Catapult (which will connect nicely with a Minecraft theme) and DIY Ice Cream.
3. Collaboration with the Children's Librarian.  This one is actually new for this year!  Jean and I hope to create an event with an age-crossover called Book Buddies.  The idea is that we can draw teen volunteers into the library by setting up a program for them to read to younger children.  This is something that has been done in the past, before my time, but had petered off.  We really hope to get this going again and see some new faces in the library!

And more, of course.  We still have the various fandoms such as Supernatural, Doctor Who, and Anime that always need some attention over the summer.  There is also the actual reading portion so I'll have lots of fun finding theme books and creating Reading Records to track hours for each teen.

It's all worth it and fun for every second!  There's something fantastic about telling a teen about summer reading, or just a portion of it, and having them say, "That sounds awesome!"  Even the little things can make a big impact and get teens excited for the summer in new and different ways.