07 Mar Get Connected @ Wilkinson Public Library during Teen Tech Week 2010
Local teens will be tuning in as Wilkinson Public Library celebrates the third annual Teen Tech Week March 8-12, 2010. WPL joins thousands of other libraries and schools across the country who are celebrating this year’s theme, “Learn Create Share @ Your Library.” Teen Tech Week is a national initiative of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). The purpose of the initiative is to ensure that teens are competent and ethical users of technologies, especially those that are offered through libraries. Teen Tech Week encourages teens to use libraries’ non-print resources for education and recreation, and to recognize that librarians are qualified, trusted professionals in the field of information technology.
“Offering a variety of technologies and providing top notch education about these resources is of vital importance to the youth of our community,” says Sarah Lawton, Wilkinson Public Library’s Teen Librarian. “We are fortunate to have a great group of kids here in Telluride. They are smart, motivated and eager to engage. By providing programs that speak to their interests, we can link teens with the world of information while introducing them to the strength of community.”
Recent studies from Pew Internet & American Life Project show that, on average, 8-18 year olds spend more than 6 hours per day using technology including TV, DVDs, video games, audio media, and computers. “Technological literacy has become increasingly important over the past decade. In the library world, it is now equal in importance to reading literacy,” says Lawton. “The role of the library is to make sure that all of this media exposure has a social and community element.”
Wilkinson Public Library hopes to attract a wide variety of teenagers and increase teen technology literacy locally by offering a series of programs including:
• Music Tech Tools – Mix It Up with Garage Band
• Photography Tech Tools – Edit Photos with Picnik
• Teen Tech Week Scavenger Hunt and Book Trailer Film Fest
“Teen Tech Week is also an opportunity for the library to collaborate with teens and to learn more about the interests and trends in our local teen community,” Lawton says. To this end, WPL is soliciting short commentaries from local teens on how they use technology. Anytime during the month of March, teens are invited to stop in and upload a few comments about which technologies they use, what they think is lame and what they would like to learn. The results will be compiled to create a short video about the digital lives of Telluride’s teens. The library plans to use this video in conjunction with a technology mentoring program the Teen Services Department will be launching this summer.
Teen Tech Week is held annually the second week of March. For more information about the national initiative, visit www.ala.org/teentechweek. For information about teen programs at Wilkinson Public Library, contact Sarah Lawton at slawton@telluridelibrary.org or 728-4519 x13. All WPL teen programs are for youth in grades 6-12.
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