CENTRAL AREA - Teens have plenty of options for entertainment: gaming, social networking sites, TV On Demand, and much more. So how do libraries stack up? Better than ever. According to two studies recently conducted by the American Library Association (ALA), teen library usage is flourishing due in part to efforts such as Teen Read Week, held this year from Oct. 14-20.
Deb Caletti, author of "Honey, Baby, Sweetheart," and Tiffany Trent, author of "In the Serpent's Coils," celebrated Teen Read Week at Washington Middle School in Seattle on Tuesday, Oct. 15.
They were joined by the popular young adult authors and readergurlz.com divas Justina Chen Headley, Janet Lee Carey, Lorie Ann Grover, and Dia Calhoun.
Now in its 10th year, Teen Read Week is the only national literacy initiative aimed at teens, their parents, librarians, educators, booksellers and other interested adults. The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), the fastest-growing division of ALA, sponsors the initiative. The purpose of the event is to increase the number of teens who are regular readers and library users.
This year's theme was LOL @ your library, which encourages teens to read something humorous or light, just for the fun of it. During Teen Read Week teens were also encouraged to participate in the Teens' Top Ten a nationwide vote for their favorite books, accessed online at www.ala.org/teenstopten.
A poll conducted for the ALA by Harris Interactive, which surveyed 1,262 youths between the ages eight to 18 on library use, found that a significant amount of respondents used both their public library and their school library media center for personal use. Thirty-one percent visit the public library more than 10 times a year and nearly 70 percent use their school library more than once a month. Of those who regularly use their libraries, more than three-quarters (78 percent) indicated they borrowed books and other materials for personal use from public libraries, while 60 percent sought out materials for personal use from the school library.
As usage continues to grow, libraries are responding by increasing young adult library staff, programs and services. According to the Public Library Data Service (PLDS) Statistical Report, published by the Public Library Association (PLA), a division of the ALA, nearly 90 percent of the public libraries surveyed offer young adult programs, with more than half (51.9 percent) employing at least one full-time equivalent dedicated to fostering young adult programs and services, up dramatically from 11 percent in 1995.
Since its inception in 1998, Teen Read Week has focused on the importance of teen recreational reading and encouraging teens to go to their local library. Teen Read Week's objectives are to give teens an opportunity to read for the fun of it, to allow teens to select their own reading material and to help teens get in the habit of reading regularly and often.
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