Well, today was a short day - due to some mix-ups with my schedule, I had the morning off. I planned to attend the ELL (English Language Learners) study lab session at Minneapolis, but when I got there there were no students, so I went home and had a nice lunch with my Mother-in-Law. We ate at a fantastic Italian restaurant called Bacio's and then went to Macy's until I was scheduled to work at the Franklin Library at 3:00pm.
The Franklin Library is very similar to the Northern Lights Branch (where I work in Columbus) - it is a building that is bursting at the seams with customers and serves a lot of kids, teens, and recent immigrants from various countries, particularly Somalia. The lower level of the building houses the Franklin Learning Center, which provides ESL and adult basic education classes. The Learning Center is a cooperative effort of the Minneapolis Literacy Council, several community organizations, and the library. I will be spending some time in the learning center next week, so I will go into more detail later.
The library itself just opened up a space on the lower level that is exclusively used for teens when the room is not needed for other programs or community group meetings. It is very cool - it has several internet computers, and one side of the room is a lounge/ gaming area. They have a flat screen TV and gaming equipment for use by teens during the evening hours (3:30-close). They also have a dedicated staff member who works these hours and staffs "Teen Central" - she has a background working with teens in the school system, and is doing some great programming for teens. They have a book club and design club (art and craft projects) and are planning to start a music listening club and a writing club this school year. It is obvious that the staff is great with teens and kids at Franklin - they knew them all by name and obviously had an established relationship with them. The teens were comfortable in and respectful of the space - even when Lily had to take away gaming priveleges because of some innapropriate shouting, they stayed in the space and changed their behavior appropriately. We played marbles on the floor and Lily taught us a game called "Thumper" that was great fun.
I also had a chance to talk with youth services librarian Johannah (of "Dancing with Johannah" local fame, see www.myspace.com/dancingwithjohannah ) who also had some great ideas about programming. I got a chance to sit in on a Cartooning workshop this afternoon, and she was fantastic with the kids in the program, and even did some drawing herself. The head librarian, Angela was extremely welcoming and we had some good conversations about working with some of the challenges that face both of our libraries. I think the biggest thing that I heard from all of the staff was the importance of relationship building with the kids and teens, and how much of a difference that makes in dealing with challenges that arise. I am proud that the Northern Lights team has the same philosophy and it is satisfying to see it so beautifully in action at another library! I look forward to keeping in touch with the Franklin staff and gleaning ideas from their experiences here in Minneapolis.
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