Gangster Shrinky Dinks

For an anime/manga club meeting I had the teens make "anime shrinky dinks." I ordered fifty sheets of the special shrinky dink paper and printed out as many well known anime characters as I could think of. The teens traced their favorite anime characters on the paper, popped them in the oven, watched them magically shrink, and made the coolest key chains out of them.

The activity was a big hit and it attracted teens from all around the library. My boss jokingly told me beforehand that some of our urban teens would want to make "gang sign" shrinky dinks. "Ha ha" I said "gang sign shrinky dinks? That's hilarious." Well soon enough we attracted the rough and tumble crowd of teens that are up and coming in gangs. I didn't expect to see them at an anime club activity but they thought the shrinky dinks were cool. And sure enough they created their own gang sign shrinky dinks, drawn with black sharpies.

So the 80s toy that was originally made for children was used today to make gang sign keychains. I'm just glad they're making gang sign shrinky dinks instead of spray painting their signs on buildings.

Forever Young

This week we had the teens make Christmas cards for the local senior center. Many of the teens were enthusiastic about making the cards, creating almost 40 cards for the seniors. However, one teen flatly refused to make a card for the seniors. He told me that he did not like seniors and thought they were creepy. I reminded him that one day he was going to be old and wrinkly and that probably one day some punk kid like himself was going to give him a hard time. This teen replied that he was never going to be old. Well, if you're not going to be old, then the alternative isn't that great.

Teens seem to think that they're going to stay young forever. The senior citizen years seem eons away. Yet constantly my fifty three year old mother tells me she remembers when she was my age "just like it was yesterday." So although those teens think that old age is forever away, the years will go quickly.

I have to add that my favorite card the teens made for the seniors was a happily decorated one that read: "Merry Christmas Elderly People." It was made in all seriousness but it gave me such a laugh.

Toilet Troubles

I've decided to put on my resume, right next to my masters degree, "professional toilet unclogger." The past two weeks I've unclogged our library's stupid toilet four times. Each and every time it's been disgusting. As I pumped the plunger through the putrid mess I couldn't help asking myself, "My God, what did you people EAT?" I can't understand how a single person can create so much crap at one time.

It turns out our toilet troubles are due to some dingbat flushing a sharpie down the flusher. We couldn't figure out why the toilet kept clogging. The Roto Rooter man came out and found nothing. It still kept clogging. Then after repeated e-mails and frustrated calls we had another investigation and found the offending marker. If I find whoever threw that marker down the toilet I'm going to lock them in the bathroom with a toothbrush and make them spit shine that toilet for all the grief I went through.

Stolen Car?

The other week a woman came into the library frantically saying her car was stolen. We called the sheriff's office and sure enough her car was not in the parking lot. Curiously though, there was a car that looked exactly like hers, make and model, parked right next to where she was parked.

It turns out that another woman mistakenly drove home in the wrong car. The cars were so similar and parked next to each other that there was a mistake. Apparently many identical models of Saturn cars can open with the same key. (Scary thought.)

So as this woman was at our library all upset thinking her car was stolen another woman came back to the library all flustered because she had driven home in the wrong car. The cars were switched and there was no charges or anything pressed.

My question is: how could you have driven so far in the wrong car and not have noticed? Sure, the cars may have looked alike but seats are pushed at different levels, items are hanging from the rear view mirror, things are in backseats, the radio would be at different stations etc. I'm glad the woman eventually noticed that she was driving in the wrong car or she might find herself driving her new car and suddenly be pulled over.

No More Favors

There is a teen that's a regular in my library that's chosen to do his community service hours at the library. His crime? Breaking into a church. It was done on a lark with his friends. I overheard our cop on duty tell him "Now, if any of your friends say 'I have a great idea', it's usually not a great idea." Good advice.

This week has been a struggle with him to get him to do his community service hours. Monday went fine, except I had to drag the girls away from him while he worked. One girl whined to me, "Why can't I talk to him why he works?" I explained that it's not really community service hours if you get to talk to your friends.

The rest of the days have been more difficult. Tues-Thurs he's claimed he doesn't have his sheet so he can't do the work. I told him that he can still do the work and I'll just sign off for the work when he brings his sheet in. This solution doesn't work too well for him because it interrupts his internet time and although I repeatedly told him I had work for him to do, I PLANNED work for him to do, he said he couldnt' do it.

This teen doesn't seem to understand that I'M doing him a favor by LETTING him work at the library. He thinks he's doing ME a favor by working at the library. It's not easy to come up with 20 hours of work for a 13 year old to do unsupervised. That is work in itself. I'm drawing the line tomorrow, he works for me tomorrow or he doesn't work at the library at all. No more favors.

Reading Hamlet by Playing Halo

Frankly I'm tired of hearing the same old talk in library circles about the so-called links between literacy and gaming. In fact, "skeptics point out that psychological research consistently shows that skills often don’t transfer from one setting to another." This quote is from an interesting article from the New York Times on video games and reading.

Playing three hours of Halo a day is not going to help you read Shakespeare. What WILL help you read Shakespeare is actually picking up a book and reading.

This is a wicked thought but part of me thinks that librarians jump onto this "literacy in gaming" bandwagon to make themselves feel better about offering video games in libraries. Deep down there might be some hesitation against it but if some expert is talking about "critical thinking skills" they acquiesce and bring the games into the library.

I have no problem with gaming if your purpose is to bring patrons into the library. Games are great for that. However, don't gloss gaming up with the high and mighty title of "literacy", call it what it is: digital bribery.

Dia de los Muertos for the Teens

In our library every afternoon these large groups of Hispanic teens come in and hang out. They sit and talk, never read a book, attend a program, rarely get on the computer; the library is just a hang out place for them. I have tried to invite them to programs but they look at me in a mixture of annoyance and confusion when I ask them to come.

Recently I communicated with other librarians in the state on possible ideas to get the Hispanic teens involved. They offered some good ideas but the main response I got back was "don't bug them."

However, finally I got the Hispanic teens interested in something! This week we celebrated Dia de los Muertos or "Day of the Dead" at our library. It is a holiday celebrated in Mexico around the same time as Halloween. One of our staff created this wonderful display (pictured above) and the teens contributed to it. The flowers on the display are made simply with crepe paper and pipe cleaners. I offered the supplies to make the flowers to the Hispanic teens not expecting a response but they went into it enthusiastically. They created whole bouquets of crepe paper flowers.

It has made me think that maybe the key to get the Hispanic teens involved is to offer more activities ethnically centered. Perhaps my programs are too "white" for them. Why I don't know what my exact next step will be, seeing the Hispanic teens interested in something has given me hope.

The Psychology of Teen Fights

A few weeks ago some teens planned to fight in front of the library. To plan a fight in junior high you must do three things:

1. Pick someone bad and cool to fight with to up your status
2. Make sure everyone in school knows where and when you're going to fight
3. Make sure everyone coming to the fight has video capabilities on their cellphones in order to post the fight up on YouTube

Usually the places picked are very public such as malls, public parks or in front of libraries. These are places where you won't even get one punch in before the fight is broken up by an adult. I have thought about why the teens pick such public places like the library to stage their fights and then I realized that they WANT to get caught. They are really having these fights for show. They want to prove they're big and bad without getting hurt. The teens that really want to do damage pick different locales for their fights and they don't want anyone to bring their cellphone cameras.