Diane P. Tuccillo - Totally Tweens and Teens: Youth-Created and Youth-Led Library Programs

A former English teacher and high school drama director and coach, Diane P. Tuccillo earned her MLS degree from Rutgers University in 1980. After serving as young adult librarian at the Rutherford (NJ) Public Library and the Reading (MA) Public Library, she became the longtime young adult coordinator at the City of Mesa Library in Arizona where she led a dynamic, nationally known library teen advisory group for twenty-seven years. Most recently, she was teen services librarian at the Poudre River Public Library District in Fort Collins, Colorado, from 2007 until 2017 where she coadvised a vibrant Interesting Reader Society teen advisory group.

Tuccillo has been actively involved in and received awards from several professional organizations, including the Young Adult Library Services Association, the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the National Council of Teachers of English, and the Arizona Library Association; has been a book reviewer and article contributor for professional journals such as School Library Journal and Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) magazine; and has contributed to books such as Nilsen and Donelsons classic Literature for Todays Young Adults. She has been a regular and an emeritus member of the VOYA advisory board.

Her second book, Teen-Centered Library Service: Putting Youth Participation into Practice, was published by Libraries Unlimited in 2010; and her third book, the completely revised and updated second edition of Library Teen Advisory Groups (the first edition published by Scarecrow in 2005), was published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2018.

Tuccillo lives with her husband, Mick, in Fort Collins, Colorado, where she serves on the board of directors of the Poudre River Friends of the Library, is a volunteer with the Poudre River Public Library District, and helps to run a local adult book discussion group.

A professional guidebook such as this one could not be written without the generous responses of many people. My deepest gratitude goes to all of those who helped me in big and small ways with the wonderful stories and examples from their communities.

Special heartfelt thanks go to Diana Tixier Herald for her inspiring foreword.

Additional thanks to the following people who so kindly responded to my requests for information and details about, photos of, publicity for, and other items about their youth-led programs and ways they have encouraged teens to take the lead:

Geoffrey Baker, Jamie Beckman, Erik Berman, Lori Bouchner, Amanda Cain, Michael Cherry, Lori Conforti, Skye Corey, Allison Cusher, Patsy Divver, Kelly Durov, Anna Fillmore, Adam Fletcher, Bridget Golembiewski, Sheala Henke, Kathleen Houlihan, Kelly Johnson, Summer Kosage, Jennifer Krafchick, Tara LaCerra, Jenny Liebig, Joshua Lieu, Chelsea Paige, Alice Robinson, Alicia Rodriguez, Caitlin Sempowich, Lindsey Tomsu, Celine Vandervlugt, Blaine Wentworth, and Ivy Weston.

Of course, the fantastic tweens and teens who sent me quotes about their youth-led programming experiences and who allowed me to use their photos and other materials are especially appreciated:

Mia Anderson, Karthik Arcot, Pedro Arzuaga III, Samantha Bellman, Mekenzi Bogard, Emma Carroll, Kate Giblin, Lucille Glassman, Leah Goldberg, Sarah Grande, Thomson Hess, Breanne Jordan, Chloe Kapica, Crystal Lee, Mackenzie Lyseng, Elyse Malamud, Hadley Newcomer, Bianca Nunez, Alexandra Pereskokova, Nightengale Pergolotti, Sarah Risma, Sydni Rivero, Aayushi Roy, Nicole Segaran, Bailey Sheridan, Josh Sjolander, Chelsea Tinsley, Kendal Tinsley, Jayapriya Una, and Margaret Yin.

Apologies to anyone I may have overlooked accidentally.

This book would not exist without every one of youmost of all, the enthusiastic and remarkable teen program creators and leaders.

You might ask yourself: Why encourage programs that are youth-created and youth-led. After all, maybe the teens who frequent your library do come to the programs you and the library staff design, and they seem happy enough with that. Sometimes you might even ask those teens their opinions about programs you are considering, and you might get them to take volunteer roles in helping you see the programs through. You might have a teen advisory group or council that you run ideas by before you plan programs, to see if they think the ideas will fly. Then again, your library might have specific needs that require volunteer assistance, such as running a craft activity for young children, and you recruit teens to fill the gaps.

You are definitely promoting young adult library involvement, and this is significant.

More meaningful, however, would be to recognize, promote, and support tweens and teens coming up with their own ideas and plans, and having you and other library staff help them to see those through. It is fine to share examples and ideas from teens elsewhere that you have read or heard about (after all, that is one major aim of this book), but the important factor is letting the teens design and run events themselves, not be assigned to them.