Guest Post: Transforming Teen Spaces @ ALA Annual Conference

Today’s Ypulse Guest Post is from Director of Interior Design Margaret Sullivan of H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture LLC who reports back on transformative trends in teen libraries from the American Library Association Annual Conference in Washington, D.C.

Transforming Teen Spaces @ ALA Annual Conference

Once a year in the middle of the summer tens of thousands of librarians, authors, vendors, and library advocates ascend upon an American city (usually a hot one!) for the American Library Association Annual Conference.  In the library world this is called “Conference” and it is the most important venue for education, idea exchanging and social networking for the information stewards among us.

This year’s ALA Annual Conference was held from June 24-29 in Washington, DC, where temperatures soared up into the 100’s. It was no surprise, then, that most of us in attendance were pleased to stay in the cool of the Convention Center and attend the programs, group discussions, committee meetings and walk the floor of the exhibits area, filling our bags with free S.W.A.G.- “Stuff We All Get”.  (I scored 5 new Star Wars graphic novels; totally inappropriate for my 4 and 7 year old boys, who, nonetheless love them!)

And like all of us who need to find a place among the masses, individuals participate in ALA through membership in divisions, sections and committees. Each with acronyms, the structure resembles a fraternity or sorority system at a large University. Among the alphabet soup of the divisions (AASL for school librarians, ACRL for academic librarians, ALSC for children’s librarians, PLA for public librarians, etc…) there is a place for everyone.

I am on the Functional Space Planning (FUN) Committee, of the Building and Equipment Section (BES) of the Library Leadership and Management (LLAMA) division. It is our charge to educate librarians about the current space planning guidelines (furnishings, equipment, etc…) based on current trends in library programming.

And there is no “trend” growing faster right now in the library world than teen programming. Thus, librarians are begging for guidance in providing appropriate, comfortable, flexible and “non-traditional” spaces (like… how much room does the Wii really need?) to provide an enriching environment for their teen patrons.

This was the impetus for my committee’s program, “Capturing Kapow! Transform Your Teen Spaces to Transform Your Teens” co-presented with Denelle Wrightson, Director of Library Design at Dewberry Architects, with panelists Amy Wander, Teen Librarian at the Lafayette Public Library , Louisa Storer, Teen Librarian with the New York Public Library in the Bronx and Lambert Shell, Coordinator of Youth Enrichment Services for the Queens Public Library. The program set out to answer the following questions:

1. Commercial forces geared toward teens are strong and effective. What are marketers doing to engage the teen and tween demographic?

2. What can the library do to appropriate these techniques and stay true to their mission?

3. What do teens want?

4. What are some of the most progressive teen librarians doing in response to these factors?

5. How can we turn this information into the nuts and bolts of space planning?

The easiest question to answer is “What do teens want?” Like all of us, they want respect, and it is the most successful marketers and librarians know how to offer this through multiple techniques.

1. Let teens curate their identity
Phone-based applications like Foursquare allow users to “unlock” and collect badges based on going to different locations. Individuals have an identity that can be shared with friends based on a unique collection of badges. You have the opportunity to become “Mayor” if you frequent the location the most. And because many of the places are businesses, it is excellent retail marketing. In addition, VH1 and MTV have recently teamed up with Foursquare to feature their reality star celebrities as members, giving us all the opportunity to know how the cast of “Jersey Shore” curates their identity!

2. Allow for customization
Teens are critically aware of the nuances of appearances and what it signifies. A company in the Bronx, da Bakery, has tapped into this by offering custom-designed silk-screened t-shirts that represent the teen’s identity. But that is not all! The company also purchases the exact paint color of new sneaker models before the sneakers even come out, so that the color in the t-shirt can match the sneaker color precisely!

3. Provide platforms to stay connected
From Harper Collins’ The Amanda Project to Scholastic’s The 39 Clues, to Twitter feeds announcing Flash Mobs (at the New York Public Library’s “alternative prom”, a Flash Mob occurred based on a twitter feed rumor that Lady Gaga would be attending!), the opportunities to engage teens through multiple channels is endless!

Most importantly, “join their space; don’t expect them to join yours.” The panelists of teen librarians were emphatic that parents should be discouraged from being in the library with their children. The most successful teen programming is when teens can take ownership of their space, their bodies, their minds and their activities.

Librarians whose mission is to enrich the lives of their patrons need to know: What makes for a happy and healthy teen anyway? The Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets for ages 12-18 provides a prescription. Librarians know which assets their programming can and can’t support, but the assets I always quote when working with library building committees, especially the ones who don’t understand why the teen space needs room for a gladiator fighting ring, a rock concert, a fashion show or a sleepover, is that teens need at least three hours a week of recreational activity and three hours a week of creative activity in addition to at least three hours a week of reading for pleasure.

And finally, what does this mean for designing teen spaces in public libraries?

1. Involve Your Teens in every step of the design process. From programming to space planning, to color selection to furniture selection. What better way to provide a platform for teens to “curate their identity” and “customize” than the opportunity to design their own space.

2. Provide for a variety of activities Teen programming can encompass “traditional” library activities such as reading, group study and reference gathering, but it can also encompass poetry reading, movie night, gaming and, really, whatever programming your library is willing to offer! So… assume that at any time, the entire space can be transformed. The more flexible the furnishings (i.e. select furniture on casters) the more successful your space can become.

3. Let the Teens design their own piece of furniture… and build it! One teen designed a four-person group study table that has a retractable piece in the middle that transforms the piece into a ping-pong table - a perfect combination of the traditional and non-traditional library space.

4. Buy a “wow” piece of furniture The best way to show respect to the teens is to invest in a couple of pieces of furniture that represent what they consider the trends of their time. It doesn’t have to be expensive either. Because in the teen world, trends can change as rapidly as one-three months, it is okay to think about “recycling” furniture.

5. Be Creative (Cheap!) with Paint It is amazing how simple color and wall graphics can transform a space.

Ultimately, what we set out to answer was what we all should have known from the start: that the best way to engage a teen audience and enrich their lives is to provide an environment where they are respected, listened to and valued. And when the physical environment can reflect that a library truly understands its teen patrons, then the library’s mission of enrichment can be rewarding for us all!

About Margaret
Margaret Sullivan, LEED AP is a Director of Interior Design at H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture, an architecture firm that specializes in public buildings including libraries, theaters and performing arts centers. She has over 15 years experience working with some of the most progressive librarians in the country, including the design of the Teen Loft at ImaginOn, the Joe and Joan Martin Center in Charlotte, NC.