INTERVIEW WITH ROSEMARY HONNOLD

What made you decide to create a web site about programming for teens?
The first version of See YA Around went online the week of March 28, 2001. On that date I had a presentation to do for the Ohio Library Council Northeast Chapter Conference about marketing teen services and materials in libraries. Rather than make hundreds of copies of things I wanted to show my audience, I thought I would experiment with posting it all online. Often, it is the idea you need to take home and remember, not a stack of papers to file or throw away. They could refer to the Web site whenever they needed the idea. So I passed around bookmarks with the Web site address and had one paper copy of everything to show and talk about at the presentation. Later I decided to add a few more things and then I thought maybe other YA librarians might like it so I posted it to the discussion lists I am on and the rest is history! To date it has had over 120,000 hits.

Did you take a class on web design, or learn it on your own?
My first Web site was created at geocities and was a collection of my artwork. They had an easy editor that made it pretty easy to set up a simple page. Then I looked at the source code and experimented with the values to see what would happen. After that, I looked at the source codes of other pages to learn what the html commands would do and what the result would be, asked friends to explain things like tables, looked at html guides online, and then finally took a Web design class online through Belmont Technical College in Ohio. I had looked at html books first, but they are a bit overwhelming to a beginner.

Are all of the program ideas your own, or do other librarians submit theirs?
The programs start with an idea that I have seen somewhere, a book, a movie or television show, a game, an experience or an idea the TAB has tossed to me and I start thinking how it might work with my crowd and in Coshocton Public Library. Sometimes it starts with a prop that I have. That is pretty much what every YA librarian needs to do, since everyone works in a different situation. So an important part of the job is getting in touch with your teen audience and finding out what they want by talking to them and offering surveys and polls. See YA Around and my book, 101 Teen Programs That Work, are meant to inspire YA librarians with ideas for programs. Hopefully they will take the ideas to their teens and involve them in creating their own versions of the programs.

What's the most successful teen program you've ever done?
The Teen Advisory Board is the best thing we have going. Without them, the rest wouldn't fly. Their favorite activity is the shopping trip we do each year to a large bookstore. They choose books for the YA collection and I create bookplates with their names and the date to put in the books. So part of our collection has been chosen directly by the teens over the past few years. We go out to lunch together on the trips, so it is a bonding time, too. The TAB votes the shopping trip as their favorite program every year.

Any disasters or funny stories?
Well, speaking of the TAB, we had a visiting YA librarian from southwestern Ohio come to a TAB meeting this summer. She was interested in learning about TABs and deciding whether to start one in her own library. She asked the teens, "Is there anything I should do or not do to start a teen advisory board?" One of my teens calls out "Don't do it! Your hair will turn white like RoseMary's!" I am afraid to ask the librarian if she decided to start a TAB or not.

Nickelodeon contacted me about our annual Monopoly Tournaments. They wanted to feature the tournament on "In Play Today", a 60 second spot on games going on for kids and teens. The spot plays several times a day on the weekend of the event. They sent me a video of the spot they made and I played it at this year's tournament for the tournament players. They were more than ready to pose for pictures after that and asked if I could try to get them on MTV next time!

Did you do anything fun for Teen Read Week this year?
Teen Read Week at CPL was sort of low key this year due to a variety of reasons. The TAB had a photo shoot for the display case, we had an independent program in the YA room using the ALA DC Superhero poster, there was a display of books by teen authors and how to write and get published, a suggestion box was set out, the new edition of the TAB's newsletter YA Today was published, and all teens coming in the library could pick out freebies from a collection of comics, posters, Marvel tattoos, and collector cards I had accumulated.

Tell us a little about your Teen Advisory Board. How did you get such a large, active group together? What kinds of activities do you do with them?
I've asked the teens to tell me how they heard about the group, wondering which of my oh so clever publicity attempts worked best. Nearly all had heard by word of mouth. Either a friend or a sibling that had been in the group had told them about it. For our first group, we had sent applications and small posters to all the school libraries and placed applications in the YA room with a poster publicizing what the group would do.

We do volunteer activities like wrapping homebound gifts, booktalking, reader's theatre for children's programs, publish a newsletter, generate shopping lists for the music collection, select magazines when we need new ones, set up the big annual book sale for the Friends, decorate for children's parties, brainstorm teen programs and go on our book shopping trips. We have done a lot of busywork while we are talking that has saved the staff many man hours of work -- folding, stapling, cutting, collating, assembling. We also decorate a tree for the community's annual Festival of Trees to represent the library. Last year's entry was The Book Tree, suggested by teens on the board. A picture of it was published in American Libraries, which was a thrill to my teens and my library.

Any words of advice to someone doing their very first library program for teens?
Involve the teens in the planning and implementing of the program so the program is theirs. Numbers cannot evaluate teen programming. You have had a successful program if your teens ask, "When can we do this again?".

How did you end up writing "101 Teen Programs That Work"?
Patrick Jones, our YA guru, sent an email suggesting I write a book. I was flattered but had to reply that I had no idea how to write a book! He sent a book proposal form from Neal-Schuman Publishers and encouraged me to give it a try, and said he would help me out if I needed it. I answered the first three questions and sent them to Patrick, asking if he thought I was on the right track. He forwarded it to Charles Harmon, the director of publishing for Neal-Schuman, and Charles encouraged Patrick to encourage me to send it in. So with that boost, I sent in the finished proposal in a short time and got a contract! That all happened in December of 2001. I finished the manuscript in May 2002 and it is due out October 2002.

Have you received any feedback from other teen librarians about the book?
Not yet, no one has seen it! I have received lots of mail about See YA Around from YA librarians all over the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The Web site seems to have filled a need for many a quick resource of program ideas for teens. The book has LOTS more ideas.

Do you have any other projects in the works?
I've been trying my hand at doing some presentations and workshops this fall. I did my first full day workshop for NORWELD in September and I went to the Tri-Conference in Fargo, ND to do two sessions in October. I would like to do some more of those. I am working on another book. I discovered I really enjoyed the writing process and suggested a book topic to Neal-Schuman before I had really finished with the first one. The working title is Serving Today's Seniors: A How-to-do-it Manual for Librarians. I am co-writing it with Sara Mesaros who is the Outreach Coordinator at CPL. If all goes well, it should be published in the fall of 2003.

Anything else you'd like to add?
On the surface, programming is the fun and creative part of working with teens, but the results are you get a chance to make a difference in your community and in individual lives by helping teens build assets at the library.

Contact information:
honnolro@oplin.lib.oh.us


RoseMary's links:

See YA Around
http://www.cplrmh.com/

The Book Tree
http://www.cplrmh.com/booktree.html

RoseMary's Art Gallery
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Gallery/9010/

101+ Teen Programs That Work
http://www.neal-schuman.com/db/6/296.html