Clic presentation #4 Teen Advisory Group

This presentation was also facilitated by Beth Crist.
Advantages of having a TAG:
-gain teen perception
-gain good ideas that may not have been thought of
- word of mouth from teens to other teens
- possibly gain some volunteers
- assitance in improving the YA collection
- help staff think like patrons
- staff use the opportunity to promote the YA collection and up coming programs
- build community good will
- can shift the perception of the library to the idea that the library is a "cool" place to be

Advantages of being a TAG member:
- Community service or service learning hours
- gives teens buy in into the library
- looks good on applications and resumes and potentially gain a good reference
-teens gain skills that help with lifelong learning
-guidance from and adult who isn't their parents or teachers
- gain skills as leaders and working in groups

What makes trends cool to teens?:
- age appropriate
- unique to them
- edgy or dangerous
- if cool celebs are doing it/supporting it
- friends are doing it
- see it on social network sites
- makes them feel independent or older

What makes trends uncool?:
-if your parents approve
-if your younger siblings are into it
-gets too old "that's so five minutes ago!"

Make and Keep TAGs (and your library) Cool:
- keep it exclusive - apply or vote in members
- staff need to be approachable to teens and give guidance, but not be an authority figure
- patience
- locations
- seeing results, indicates that they are making a difference and people are listening to their ideas

Ways to promote TAG:
- facebook
-post meeting minutes online
- school newsletter
- advertise on Computers in YA area
-radio stations
- peer to peer advertisment
- school announcements
- staff promote to teens one on one
- promote at venues that teens frequent

A good website to check out is www.jervislibrary.org/yaweb/tags.html
This presentation also came with a handout that I would be happy to share if you shoot me an e-mail.

Clic presentation #3 Storytime Stew

Storytime Stew was presented by Suzanne McGrath and Lorraine Turk. Both women worked together to acquire a CAMP grant which supported their idea of teaching children about gardening. From listening to them, their program sounded like a gardening camp. Each step in the process of gardening was used as a learning opportunity for the kids. They also used vegetables and fruits from their garden to cook something to eat each day that they met. Each meeting was 2 hours long and their activities ranged from raising worms for the soil they make to pickling cucumbers.
Some books that were used for the planning process:
-Growing Your Own Pizza
-Growing Food in the Southwest
- Literature in the Garden
- Worms Eat My Garbage
- Miss Spider's ABC
This sounded like a really cool activity and they indicated that even if you don't have the space for a full garden, you can work with container gardens.
This presentation had a really good and detailed packet of information and I would be happy to copy it for anyone who would like it, just shoot me an e-mail.

Clic presentation #2 Energize Your Summer Reading Program

This presentation was facilitated by Beth Crist. Instead of doing a presentation Beth moderated a discussion about SRP. Each person talked about what they are doing with SRP in their library. Some notable things that were mentioned in this presentation:
- Summer Food Service Program is a program that is being offered at selected schools. Kids up to the age of 18 can go for a nutritious meal each day during the summer months. It was discussed that this would be a good place to reach people.
- World Book Night is April 23rd.
- One thing that was discussed was using fine reduction or free prints as an incentive as opposed to disbosables.


These were the main items covered in this presentation.

Clic presentation #1 Job Seekers at the Library

This presentation was lead by Joyce Hannan and Kathie Stenzel. Joyce began by talking about unemployment Insurance.
-The workforce center's website is yourworkforcecenter.com/ and it's important that applicants read all of the directions and answer questions truthfully.
-After completing the applications there should be a message that states the confirmation number and if they don't see that then they didn't finish the application and need to go back in and complete and submit the application.
-One possible are of confusion is with pin numbers. There is a 4 digit pin number for the unemployment website and there is a 6 digit pin number for the debit card.
-Applicants are never paid for the first week and it could be 4-6 weeks before the claimant will see a check.

Kathie then began to discuss the employment side of things.
- connectingcolorado.com is the online workforce center and every claimant has to register through this website.
- All applicants have to contact 5 potential employers each month unless they are in a highly specialized field (ex. pilot).
- Claimants have the opportunity to upload their resume so that the computer with fill in information where able and it will end up saving time.
- If any staff would like to play with this website Kathie gave a test S.S. # and password. Feel free to e-mail me if you'd like this information.
- If a claimant forgets their password for this site they can select forgot password and the system will e-mail the password; however if the e-mail has been changed then the e-mail will go to the old e-mail and the claimant will have to call to resolve the situation.
- An account should never be deactivated without the claimant first talking to someone at the workforce center.
- For e-mail notifications the user can't use Yahoo because Yahoo will always send mail to spam.
- If someone gets phone notifications and doesn't understand the automated message, they can sign into the website and click on calls and e-mails to check for notifications.

These are just the major items discussed in the session. They tried to give a brief overview, but mostly touched on the areas where people get confused. After talking with Joyce, she indicated that she would be happy to do a webinar where she can go step by step through the process of applying for unemployment so this could be an option for a future staff training. If anyone would like her informaiton please feel free to shoot me an e-mail.
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Task # 10

My favorite aspect of the new site is that I can search for articles from the home page. I like to look up articles and this eliminates several steps. I also like that the Ask Us button is so prominent and on every page. It's like that commercial with the easy button. Like we are here to make your life easier, you just have to push the button. One little glitch that I saw was that when I clicked on the MCPLD logo I was taken back to our current site instead of the home page of the new site. I'm sure this is only a glitch because we haven't switched over yet, but I thought that I'd pass it along. I am guessing that the Spanish page will remain a lib guide and I think that it looks really nice, I just would like for it to have the same feel as the rest of the site, but that's just me. Great Job to Cari and the rest of the Web design committee!

Task #9

I have looked at universal class a few times and I think that there are lots of possible applications. This time, I noticed the cooking classes and I think that the library could hand out flyers to local restaurants so that employers can offer these classes to new hires. We could all also carry these flyers in our pockets for when we eat out and have a bad meal.

Task #8

Today's training on the Spanish Language lib guide was extremely helpful. I think that Grace, Lisa, Eusebia, and Jennifer did a wonderful job. I think that with the way it's set up, it's not necessary to speak Spanish in order to help someone who does.
I thought the quiz right after was helpful to because it helped to solidify the information.