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Teen Tech Week: Spotlight on LibGuides for Teens

Yesterday marked the start of Teen Tech Week, sponsored by the Young Adult Libraries Services division (YALSA) of the American Library Association. This year’s theme encourages libraries “to throw open their physical and virtual doors to teens and showcase the outstanding technology they offer.”

To celebrate Teen Tech Week, we’re highlighting a few of the many great LibGuides created for teen audiences by school and public librarians. The three guides featured here will also form the kernel of a new “Teen Interest” category on the LibGuides Best Of site. Feel free to use one of the guides as a template to reuse / remix on your own site! (The guide authors have given their permission.)

Teen Resources

Teen Space
Newport News Public eLibrary
http://nnpls.libguides.com/teens
The Newport News Public Library in Virginia has created an attractive and dynamic “Teen Space” with a wide range of resources for its teenage audience.

The site offers everything from career and college information to homework help  to books and magazines to special events. It’s all wrapped into the highly customized and tightly structured design that gives the Newport News eLibrary a distinctive online look and feel.  (NNPL uses LibGuides for its overall online site.)

Be sure to check out the library’s use of tabbed boxes on each of the pages of its teen guide to keep the content compact and organized.

Walk in My Shoes: Exploring Cultures in AmericaWalk in My Shoes: Exploring Cultures in America
Akira Toki Middle School
http://madison.campusguides.com/content.php?pid=422156
This guide, created by teacher-librarian Madge Klais at the Akira Toki Middle School in Madison, Wisconsin, supports the study of multicultural literature for teens.  It’s a companion to her 8th grade course in the school’s Unified Arts Program, and it’s filled with information, illustrations, and resources.

Madge hopes to have students add additional content, including book reviews, Animoto videos, and other items to the site as they proceed through the course.

 

Just for Teens Just for Teens
East Baton Rouge Parish Library
http://ebrpl.libguides.com/content.php?pid=283472
Louise Hilton at the East Baton Route Parish Library in Louisiana designed this guide as a “one-stop shop” for area teens to find resources on arts and crafts, gaming, writing, teen reads, music, and more. It’s full of books, databases, websites, online classes, and creative ideas.

The guide also connects to the library’s social media presence, including Twitter and Instagram plus a Facebook page and Pinterest board just for teens.

Like all the best guides, “Just for Teens” is a work in progress, with new and changing categories and content to keep it fresh and fun.

Congrats to all three for these great guides. We’re looking for more Best Of examples, so if you’ve created or know of a guide that’s a cut above—in this category or any other—let us know!

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