Diane P. Tuccillo - Library Teen Advisory Groups

Library Teen Advisory Groups

Library Teen Advisory Groups

Second Edition

Diane P. Tuccillo

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

Lanham Boulder New York London

Cover photo credits

(top) Middle Country Public Librarys TAC members Kheerana and Kheran Sharma, Tyler Toback, Anthony Piazza, Vanessa Valenti, Gaby Cancel, and Zarah Nabibaksh donate care packages to and otherwise help out at a local food pantry. Photo by Michelle Kenney.

(lower left) Warren Library Teen Advisory Board member Will Zhang paints the mural he designed for the teen space. Photo by Marcela Dunham.

(lower right) Teen Interesting Reader Society members Tate Thurgood and Madeleine Borodach from the Poudre River Public Library District wear their T-shirts at the Colorado Teen Literature Conference in Denver. Photo by Diane Tuccillo.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available

ISBN 978-1-5381-0462-0 (cloth : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-5381-0463-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-5381-0464-4 (electronic)

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

In thanks to

Cathi Dunn MacRae,

editor and guiding light for my first edition

and

In memory of

Christy Tyson

July 15, 1947January 1, 2011

Young Adult Librarian, TAG Advisor extraordinaire, and

two-term YASD/YALSA President, 19891991

Foreword

My connection with teens started decades ago, in 1969, when I was a senior in college and took a class called YA Literature. Of course, back in those days, there were few titles that could fit that description, so most of the titles we learned about were adult titles that teens would be interested in. I loved the class and the books I read, but the jobs being advertised were for childrens librarians. So, just after graduation, I bought a three- or four-year-old Beetle, learned how to drive a stick shift, stuffed it as full as possible, and set off for Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was the first of many adventures of my career.

During the year I was at Albuquerque Public Library, I did story hours, set up and ran programs, selected books, staffed the circulation desk, and answered reference questions of all kinds. Gradually, I realized that teenagers were a lot more fun and interesting than the children I was working with most of the time. But my small branch didnt welcome teens because the branch manager didnt want them acting their age. I helped them as much as I could, when I was allowed to, and decided that maybe APL wasnt the right place for me after all.

I went back to Texas to get my library science graduate degree, so I could become a Young Adult librarian with the credentials larger library systems were beginning to require at that time. In 1971, I arrived in Californias Bay Area as a newly degreed YA librarian, eager to work with my YA collection and put into action all the programming ideas Id learned about in library school. But once again, I was faced with an administrator who wasnt fond of teenagers, and it was several years and a move to another library system before I could begin to put some of those programming ideas into place, discovering along the way the difference a supportive and enthusiastic administration could make. Diane Tuccillo and many other librarians discovered that too, as you will see in this book.

At the Alameda County Library System, Carol Starr, YA Coordinator, and Regina Minudri, Assistant County Librarian, gave me free rein to do innovative programming, displays of all kinds, run an extensive booktalking program in five high schools, and provided the necessary budget to increase and expand my collection. They also encouraged me to get involved in the YA branch of the American Library Association, known then as the Young Adult Services Division (YASD), and which is now known as the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA).

I began going to ALA, and began to meet other people just as passionate about working with teens as I was. Some were focused on the literature for teens, some on programming, and some on empowering teens with decision-making opportunities for selecting their own materials, creating programs that were important and meaningful to them, and defining exactly what YA or teen services meant. Back in the 1970s, we YA librarians were the Young Turks, passionate about changing the status quo. We fit right in with the spirit of the times, knowing we were on the side of the angels, serving the young people whom others wanted out of their libraries.

We were also controversial, pushing the boundaries, always seeking to try something new. Its not surprisingwe were the first big wave of YA librarians serving a population that was, by its very nature, controversial. YA librarians then, just as teen services librarians do now, defended their service group passionatelyadvocating for new services, new materials, new spaces, and new ways to show teens how to govern themselves and engage in meaningful library experiences.

In the 1970s and 1980s, a number of YA librarians nationwide were at the forefront of the push for self-governing teens who assisted with or even created the collections, the services, and the programming that fellow teens both wanted and needed to have. Christy Tyson and Diane Tuccillo were two of those librarians. Tyson started the active and well-known Young Adult Advisory Council (YAAC) library teen advisory group (TAG) at the City of Mesa Library in Arizona, and when she left to take on YA librarian positions and start TAGs at several other library systems in the country, Tuccillo took the reins of the YAAC group. After many years in Mesa, Tuccillo moved on to become Teen Services Librarian at the Poudre River Public Library District in Fort Collins, Colorado, where she joined Teen Services Librarian Sue-Ellen Jones in rebuilding the Interesting Reader Society (Teen IRS) TAG that is still active today.

Diane Tuccillo has dedicated large parts of her career to helping teens find out about and acquire what was and is important to them. She and the others didnt just work with their own teens, creating book reviewing groups, teen advisory boards, and using programming to fill in the gaps in teen knowledge about a variety of topics. They also preached the gospel of YA services, and specifically, teen-directed YA services, sharing their methods about how to get in touch with teens, make the library relevant to teens, survive when interest waned, help revive and revise all aspects of teen services through the years, and repeatedly bring those services back to a state of success.

Through the decades, YA services in libraries were no longer brand new, yet dedicated YA librarians, with supportive administrations who encouraged innovation and creativity, wanted to spread the word about how to reproduce the different aspects of YA services that reflected their expertise. Speeches, lectures, and workshops were done on how to promote YA literature, how to attract teens to the library, what to do with them once they were there, and how to educate library staff members about this important group of customers that was loud, traveled in groups, and tended to ignore rules that had been held sacred for decades.