[Michlib-l] After School Monitors??

[Linda Smith]

Congratulations on getting teens into the library. That is a wonderful
thing.

I would recommend a teen librarian with a desk in the immediate area. That
way the librarian can be working on other things, like collection
development and teen programing, instead of looking like a monitor. Given
time, the right person will be able to create a connection with the teens
that will serve as a calming effect without driving them away.

I would highly suggest some hands-on teen programing in the department once
in a while during the after school hours. Even if no one but the librarian
works on the projects at first, it will help them get use to the idea that
there are other fun things to do besides tormenting each other. It may take
a while to change the dynamics in the room but a persistent non-judgmental
adult presence should be able to do it. Just remember, unless you want to
chase them away, you can't aim for a quiet space; but, given boundaries
that aren't to onerous, they should calm down for you.

The rules I established and the teens delight in telling each other are:
"No murder in the library"
"No maiming in the library"
"No petting in the library"
These rules have given me a humerus way to deal with bad behaviors, but
they didn't get created until I knew the teens and how they would respond
to correction.

Good Luck!

On Fri, Sep 26, 2014 at 9:42 AM, Andrea Estelle <aestelle at otsegolibrary.org>
wrote:

> Happy Friday Everyone!
>
>
>
> Does anyone have an after school monitoring type of program set up? If so
> can you tell me what you do? Do you pay someone to come in and monitor or
> do you dedicate a staff member to this?
>
>
>
> We currently have a difficult and large group of middleschoolers
> frequenting the library. Our teen room is located down behind the shelving
> away from our desk, and it has become frustrating for the clerks who are
> working the desk to constantly go back and forth from the teen room all the
> time afterschool. We do feel the need to have a monitor in the area of the
> teen room for the hours after school. We have security cameras in the room
> but this has not deterred some of the problem behaviors we are seeing.
>
>
>
> We have tried offering programs geared towards the group. They do not want
> to participate in programs, they are are just looking for a hangout/wifi
> space. It would be fine for them to come in and talk and use the wifi if
> there wasn’t so much drama all the time – we have kids fighting, crying,
> becoming too affectionate, etc. We want the library to be a safe space and
> all the drama is making it uncomfortable to the people who do want to use
> the space appropriately.
>
>
>
> I am torn about what to do with this because we are happy that our space
> is being used heavily by the teens and tweens but we do feel it is not
> going well for them to be basically unsupervised in this area, so that is
> why I am asking about any libraries that have a monitor system set up. I am
> afraid a monitor might drive away all the teens so I am interested in a
> monitoring system that has worked, where teens and tweens still feel
> comfortable using the library, but also they are being monitored so that
> problem behaviors are kept at a minimum.
>
>
>
> Thanks for any thoughts and ideas!
> Andrea
>
>
>
>
>
> *Andrea Estelle, *Library Director
>
> “*Brighten the Corner Where You Are*”
>
>
>
> [image: andrea logo copy]
>
> Every Great Community Deserves a Great Library
>
> www.otsegolibrary.org
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Michlib-l mailing list
> Michlib-l at mcls.org
> http://lists.mlcnet.org/mailman/listinfo/michlib-l
>
>


-- 
Linda Smith
Teen Services Coordinator
   Traverse Area District Library
   610 Woodmere Ave.
   Traverse City MI, 49686
   www.tadl.org
   231-883-8066
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail3.mcls.org/pipermail/michlib-l/attachments/20140926/adc5f6b8/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image003.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 10360 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mail3.mcls.org/pipermail/michlib-l/attachments/20140926/adc5f6b8/attachment.jpg>