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For one of my classes, I had the opportunity of creating a seminar presentation about consumer health information and the public library.  While researching for this presentation, my group and I visited numerous public library websites to see what public libraries were doing in regards to health information.  There were several trends that were apparent, but what I found the most intriguing was that many public library teen websites did not have links (or at least I could not find them and if I can’t find them when I am actively pursuing this information, will teens be able to find these links?)  Several questions became apparent to me as I began to reflect on the information found on library websites for teens.

 Do you think that public libraries need to be providing access to health resource links on their teen websites?

 I haven’t yet decided where I stand on this issue – I think that there are many different items that should be considered.  For example, when I was searching for health information on library website teen spaces I was not including the databases that are offered by the library.  Some library websites for teens did have links to their databases; for instance, the Stratford Public Library has links to their online health databases.  Would this be sufficient for teens?

 I don’t know if this would be sufficient for teens.  Are teens using their library card to access this information online?  I know that when I was a teen, I was not using databases to access this sort of information.  But then again, I was a teenager a number of years ago.  However, I don’t know if I would have used this to search for information if I hadn’t grown accustomed to searching databases in this program.  Also, what about the days that you are just too lazy to go find your library card to get the barcode to be able to access the information? 

 Another interesting point about searching for health information on library websites for teens is where the health links on the websites are found.  Understandably all libraries do not place health links in the same location, but are there spots where the links would be more easily found? Personally, I found it easiest to find the health links when they were located under Internet Resources or a similar title.  But when library teen websites had categories like “my life” and “homework help”, it could be difficult to determine where to find the resources I wanted.  However, I could always find the information. 

 Would a teen that was looking for health information look under the homework help for links to Internet materials??

 For me personally, I thought that I would find the health links under the life section that included life Internet links. However, I can see the reasoning behind placing the health links under homework help for teens that need the resources for school work. However if I was looking for health information because I had a particular illness or a question about a specific issue, I wouldn’t necessarily think to look at the homework section.  Perhaps this point is moot if teens are regularly using the teen library website, as they may already know where to find this information.

 I would be interested to hear other opinions on this topic.