A Passion for Print: Promoting Reading and Books to Teens

by Kristine Mahood

Overview

Get teens excited about reading by using your own love of books along with a good dose of market savvy. This simple, upbeat guide is packed with practical guidelines and a wealth of exciting ideas for promoting books and reading through everything you do—from collection building, designing the space, and creating a Web site, to booktalking, readers' advisory, and special events. A practical, step-by-step approach.

Promoting books and reading is one of your most important roles, but reaching teens and inspiring them to read can be a challenge, especially now, when teens have so many other commitments and interests. This guide will inspire you to build your book knowledge and combine it with marketing savvy to bring teens together with books and reading. Drawing upon recent research on teens and libraries, the author offers practical guidelines and a wealth of exciting ideas for environmental reading promotions (collection building, designing the space, creating publicity materials and developing the web site), as well as interactive promotions (communication with teens, readers advisory, booktalking, partnering with other organizations, and book-related activities and events). Based on the author's experience and the experience of others who work with teens, the book provides librarians and other educators with a simple, handy, and upbeat guide. Grades 6-12.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781591581468
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	03/30/2006
Series:	Libraries Unlimited Professional Guides for Young Adult Librarians Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.54(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Kristine Mahood, Young Adult Librarian, Timberland Regional Library, Olympia, Washington, has done a number of presentations and workshops at professional meetings and conferences, published several articles, and contributed a chapter on booktalking to Sheila Anderson's book, Serving Older Teens (Libraries Unlimited, 2004).

Table of Contents

Series Foreword
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Understanding Teen Assumptions about Reading, Books, and Libraries
So Where Did You Get Those Jeans?
Building Teen Collections
Space for Books, Space for Reading
On Sale Now! Creating book Displays and Bulletin Boards
Print Promotions
Web It
Tell me about a Book you Read and Enjoyed—Or How about a Movie?
Booktalking
It's happening at the Library: Book-Centered Activities and Events
Appendices
Index

Editorial Reviews

Mahood's book will be especially useful to librarians new to YA services. The author, a YA librarian at Timberland Regional Library, Olympia, WA, takes readers on a guided tour of the world as teens might see it. She examines the kinds of marketing practices from the retail world that are effective with teens and offers suggestions for adapting those strategies to public libraries. She hands out copious advice on ways to promote library services to teens, including using print materials, web sites, book displays, and bulletin boards. Chapters on readers' advisory and book-talking will help even seasoned librarians breathe new life into these activities. Mahood does a remarkable job of distilling information, such as marketing and design principles, into a highly readable and usable text, making this primer on YA services stand above other titles of this nature.” —Library Jourbanal, Starred Review

“[A] wonderful resource for librarians, whether they are of the YA variety or just hoping to interact more positively with teens and encourage them to use libraries. This book is indeed passionate on the topic of service to yough and there is an abundance of information and many ideas between its covers for attracting and keeping youth in the library. Mahood writes a highly readable book that may be studied carefully from cover-to-cover or immediate guidance about specific topics, chapters or sections may be sought using the detailed table of contents and index. Mahood's book is thorough in its attention to detail and advice on how to make your library, whether big or small, welcoming and attractive to young adults. Whether your library has its own YA Librarian or only one Librarian, A Passion for Print can guide you in jump-starting services and programming for YAs or reinvigorating what is already in place.” —Partnership: the Canadian Jourbanal of Library and Information Practice and Resear

“Mahood targets public libraries, but her information and suggestions are equally valid for secondary school libraries and can be easily adapted to educational settings. She presents many new insights and unique approaches, and the volume will have value for both new and experienced librarians who want to stay abreast of current trends among their teenage patrons.” —Reference & User Services Quarterly

“Impressive in its organization and depth of information, this great resource covers practically everything young adult for the public or high school librarian….The authors' passion for print and for teens is evident in the writing and the research that has been done to pull this handy little book together. One can strongly recommend it to seasoned veterans trying to keep on top of current trends or new young adult librarians interested in finding ways to guide teens to literature or literature to teens. Order one for work and another one to keep at home.” —VOYA

“High school and YA librarians will be delighted with the practical information and ideas in this title, but it's even more useful for smaller public libraries hoping to improve their appeal to teens. Beginning with research on reading, Mahood moves on to merchandising principles; developing teen collections, spaces, and Web sites; and finally to booktalking, readers' advisory, and events scheduling. The author's enthusiasm and experience, coupled with citing current studies, other professional books, articles, and Web sites, make her suggestions appealing and attainable. She provides everything from lists of YA genres to easy design principles for displays to suggestions for questions to ask for better readers' advisory. More photos would have been great, but this is a book that can make a difference in the library tomorrow!” —Booklist/Professional Reading

From the Publisher

These two titles aim to help young adult (YA) librarians provide service to teens in a way that both reflects and respects the individuals that make up this user group. Mahood's book will be especially useful to librarians new to YA services. The author, a YA librarian at Timberland Regional Library, Olympia, WA, takes readers on a guided tour of the world as teens might see it. She examines the kinds of marketing practices from the retail world that are effective with teens and offers suggestions for adapting those strategies to public libraries. She hands out copious advice on ways to promote library services to teens, including using print materials, web sites, book displays, and bulletin boards. Chapters on readers' advisory and book-talking will help even seasoned librarians breathe new life into these activities. Mahood does a remarkable job of distilling information, such as marketing and design principles, into a highly readable and usable text, making this primer on YA services stand above other titles of this nature. In The Teen-Centered Book Club, YA specialists Kunzel and Hardesty propose a new model for book clubs that encourages teenagers to take the lead. Like Mahood, the authors have the utmost respect for teen patrons, outlining numerous strategies for understanding teen patrons and developing plans to involve teens in the process of creating and participating in a book club. Their book supplies both motivation and nuts-and-bolts information to help librarians through the process of starting book clubs that meet the goals of the library and the needs and interests of teen patrons, while working within the constraints of a librarian's time and programming budget. Early chapters in Part 1 provide the whys and hows, followed by 13 different models for successful teen book clubs. A final chapter in this section offers advice on marketing and promotion. Part 2 presents a step-by-step, hour-by-hour guide from the first meeting of a group all the way to its conclusion. These chapters offer valuable advice on such things as book selection, facilitating book discussions, discussion styles, dealing with disagreements, setting boundaries, and fostering relationships through book discussion activities. A final chapter furnishes tools for evaluating the program's success. Any librarian contemplating offering a book club for teens will find this title to be a superior guide. Rachel Davis, Thomas Memorial Lib., Cape Elizabeth, ME Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal