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Do you have a maker space?

Do you provide STEM-based programs?

Do you work with community partners?

Do you have afterschool programs and services?

If you answered "yes" to any of those questions, I have another question for you, "why?"

The reason I ask is that a lot of times I hear library staff working for and with teens talk about the great programs they sponsor and develop with teens - robot making and coding and creative writing - but I don't hear much about the why. And, it's that why that is most important. I know it might not seem like it, but it is. Why? Because it's the why that helps make sure that the programs are going to help teens grow up to be successful academically and in their personal lives. Because it's the why that is what funders and elected officials and community members are going to want to know in order to decide if your program is worth funding or supporting in another way.

Consider these two ways of talking about what you make available for and with teens during afterschool time:

Here's what's on the calendar this month for and with teens in Anytown - building apps for your smartphone, printing action figures with 3D printers, and stop-motion video.

OR

At the Anytown library we strive to give teens opportunities to gain critical 21st century skills like design and critical thinking, leadership, collaboration, and decision-making. The way we do this is to sponsor programs where they get to design their own apps for their smartphones. In this workshop they do everything from planning the look and feel of the app, deciding who the audience is, and coding the app for different devices. We also give them the chance to design 3D action figures and print them out with our 3D printer. But, before they actually do that they learn the steps in the design process and have to go through several iterations of ideas and test out their plans with their peers. We also, work with teens on stop-motion video and in those projects they work in teams to design and develop their idea, test out their video with other teens, and write reviews of each others works.

See the difference?

Of course the first example is quick and easy and the second is definitely not a succinct elevator pitch. But, the second will actually show the impacts your afterschool programs strive to achieve. And it's those impacts that stakeholders and decision-makers are going to be most interested in.

So, as you are planning and implementing your afterschool program of service this year - and even beyond that - for each project before you even get down to the nitty gritty of what the program will entail in terms of timing and staffing and supplies, etc. Ask yourself, "what are we trying to achieve for and with teens" through this program of service?" And, "How are we going to know if we have achieved (or are achieving) the why?"

Then, as you continue planning ask yourself regularly, "Is this going to help us meet the why of this afterschool program?" If not, then you'll want to re-think. If so, then you get to keep going. And, then when the program is over, and even during it, you can continue to ask yourself, "Are we reaching the why?" And, "How can we tell we are reaching the why?" If you are reaching the why, that's great. If not, it's time to revise and re-think.

And, don't forget that every time you talk about your teen services include the why of what you do. You'll discover you change the conversation and it's likely that those you talk with will actually start to think differently about what you do and how you help to improve the lives of teens in your community.

Learn more about developing outcomes - which is really what the why is all about - by checking out:

• Theory of Change: A Practical Tool for Action Results and Learning
• Outcomes-based Futures
• Why Evaluate Afterschool Programs

For years and years and years (I've worked in libraries for a long-time) I've talked about and heard about the importance of school and public library collaboration. And, over the years, I've talked about and heard about how hard it is to be successful in this area. It actually seems to me that the challenges and barriers that I've been talking about and hearing about for a couple of decades haven't really changed. And, they certainly haven't gone away.

The fact that conversations remain the same over a long period of time, got me thinking - Maybe we are going about this the wrong way. Maybe, instead of the focus being on what we regularly call school and public library collaboration (the thing we do), what we really need to focus on is what is required in order to have positive lasting outcomes/impacts for students and teachers (what we want to achieve). This was brought home to me this week when I read the post Building Relationships Through the Use of Technology by George Couros. The ideas embedded in the image he included in that post (shown on the left) really resonated with me.

What if as the new school year starts you didn't talk about or focus on the act of collaborating with your school or public library, but instead talked about and worked towards answering the question, What should the outcome of public library school library collaboration be for students, teachers, parents, and school staff? What would be different and would you be more successful by the end of the school year? Taking the Couros post image as a model would you go from "Good Answers" like:

• Making sure that library staff know about assignments
• Being able to teach school staff (teachers and administrators) about library resources
• Making sure to purchase materials that support teacher/student needs
• Being able to add website links that support teacher/student needs
• Having the chance to work on lessons with teachers

To Better Answers like:

• Build relationships for long-lasting success within the public/school library community
• Change cultures
• Learn from each other - students, teachers, parents, administrators and other school and public library staff
• Develop outcomes and stories that can be used in advocacy efforts
• Drive change
• Lead
• Support learning of students no matter what.

Of course, as with many things in life, this is often easier said than done. But, it's doable, I'm certain. For example, this year instead of going into classrooms or talking with your counterpart colleagues about the resources you have for students and teachers, what if you had conversations that focused on what teachers, students, administrators, staff are:

• Working on
• What are they successful in/at
• What they are finding difficult to accomplish
• What would they like to be able to do more easily
• What would they like to change

Would that lead to stronger relationships with everyone and as a result a better chance to bring about positive outcomes? As you think about the outcomes and the conversations you can have with your library counterpart and school personnel and parents and students remember, the outcomes are what the students, teachers, staff, and parents gain. While through these gains library staff might find that their resources and expertise and time are used successfully - the focus of the outcomes you work towards in this area should be about the people you serve, not about you and your library. The outcome is in what changes in the academic and formal and informal learning lives of those you work with.  For more information and resources about outcomes, visit YALSA's wiki.

I don't think the idea of collaboration is a bad thing. But, I do think that we spend a lot of time talking about the thing - collaboration - and not what the impact of the work needs to be for students and teachers and families. Change the conversation, listen to those you want to serve before you tell them what you can do for them, build relationships, focus on the goal for the user, and see what happens.

In April the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy announced a Week of Making which started on 6/12 and runs through 6/18. The Week is being held in part in celebration of the one-year anniversary of the first ever Maker Faire at the White House. During that first Faire President Obama said:

Maker-related events and activities can inspire more people to pursue careers in design, advanced manufacturing, and the related fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and possibly take their creations to the next level and become entrepreneurs.

I love the President's statement because it focuses on the learning and not on what might be used to produce that learning. That's where the work we do in libraries and with community partners comes in. We figure out what teens need support in, how to help teens learn what they need, and then connect them to that learning. At the Library where I work we try hard to make the hardware and software used to create making oriented learning experiences one of the last decisions we focus on. Even if we want to create a program that gives teens the chance to use 3D printers we don't focus on the printer but on the skills that teens gain by the time they are ready to use the printer. For example, our Digital Media and Learning Program Manager is developing curriculum for library staff and teens to use that focuses on design thinking, prototype building, planning and decision making, leadership, collaboration, and presentation. Sure at the end of the series of programs teens will print a 3D object. But, it will take some time to get to that place, and while it might be really cool to use the 3D printer for the objects designed, the teens will have learned a great deal more before that point.

In some instances I think it's hard for some library staff to articulate the gains that teens make as a result of the making programs we provide. And, as a result it ends up that we talk about the actual printing activity and the printer and not the skills learned and/or improved on. It certainly can be difficult to speak to the learning instead of the "coolness" of the making. But it can be done. For example, think about:

• The process teens will have to go through BEFORE actually making something - whether that's making something with a 3D printer, a circuit board, a coding program or something else. What steps do they have to take? Do they have to have a goal in mind? In almost every case the answer to those two questions is "yes" which means that one of the benefits of making for teens is that they need to set a goal and plan a process by which they are going to reach that goal.
• The troubleshooting that teens will have to take part in as they begin to make something. Again, that could be making a website, a robot, a 3D object, a game, or something else. Is it likely that the teens will have to iterate over and over again as they discover problems and need to solve them as a part of the making process? Again, the answer is most likely, "yes." That being the case then a key positive of making for teens is that they gain problem-solving skills and life skills by having to try and try again. Not to mention the persistence and perseverance skills gained.
• The support and help teens will need from others as a part of their making. Will teens need to talk to experts in coding or robots or 3D printing? Will they need to look something up in library resources in order to move forward? Will they have to ask friends and family members for help? I bet the answer to at least one of those questions is "yes" and that means that teens will learn to collaborate, do research, find out how to ask and answer questions, and learn how to interact with adults and peers.

The above are just three ways in which making can and does support the college and career readiness and life skills of teens. I bet you can think of many more. If you do struggle with helping others to understand why making is more than about the stuff of the making, start creating your own list of the benefits and start practicing talking with others about those benefits. And, as you begin making projects with teens, the benefits beyond the product will become clear pretty quickly. Highlight the learning that teens do every time you talk about your making programs.

BTW, a couple of resources that you might find useful when thinking about the why of making are:

• Design Thinking for Educators
• The Next Generation Science Standards including the Framework for K-12 Science Education

Admission time: like many of us in Library Land, I am still figuring out the best ways to measure program outcomes. Marking attendance is relatively easy (although to be fair, sometimes the teens move do around a lot, which can make them tricky to count). It's a bit harder to identify the changes I want to see as a result of my program, and then accurately measure those changes.

The Programming Guidelines ask us to "Engage in youth-driven, evidence-based evaluation and outcome measurement." I'm not quite there yet. As I mentioned in my post about our weekly drop-in, we've been working with participants in that program to identify priorities, and now we're moving towards evaluations that will measure whether those priorities are being met. But it's still a work in progress.

What I have gotten better at is working with community partners to create evaluations for programs. For example, we regularly work collaborate with Year Up to build their students' information and digital literacy skills. Before each workshop, we meet with Year Up staff to make sure that we'll be teaching the skills they want participants to gain. Collaborating with partners on our evaluations and learning from them about their own evaluation methods has made a huge difference in the quality of our evaluations overall.

At Year Up, I give the students pre- and post-tests to see how much our classes are moving the needle on desired skills and knowledge. We send Year Up staff an early draft of the tests (same questions for both) and incorporate their feedback in the final evaluation tool. Seems foolproof, right?

Well, here's a graph I made from the results of an earlier incarnation of those pre- and post-tests. Can you spot the problem(s)?

Library jargon. Words like "catalog" and "keywords" muddied the results, because (especially before the workshop) students didn't really know what those words meant. My vague question about whether "all the world's knowledge" is available via Google wasn't great either. Students figured that the answer was probably "no"--because of course librarians hate Google. (I don't, honest!) As I phrased it, the question didn't measure the movement I saw in their understanding of WHY a lot of the world's best info isn't available on Google. (Which as we all know is about money, honey.)

This wasn't the best evaluation tool. The next time I created a survey for Year Up, I drastically rewrote the questions. But that's okay! This survey did measure some outcomes--e.g., a huge increase in library resource knowledge among participants. And I learned some pitfalls to avoid next time.

I'm a big fan of giving myself permission to fail, and I take myself up on it a lot--especially when it comes to measuring outcomes. The important thing is to learn and adjust, and get better data next time.

Every kid in our SRP received one of these highly coveted bags.

Our Summer Reading Program ended August 11 after 9 wild weeks.  Almost all the children’s librarians at our 72 branches and Central Library reported record numbers of kids registering for the club and attending events.  Was it the heat?  The lack of summer school?  The awesomeness of our SRP?

Now is the time to evaluate the summer, reflect on our successes and lessons learned, and start planning for next year.

Here’s how we’re evaluating our SRP:

• Counting registration numbers – While they don’t tell the whole story by a long shot, they can be quite revealing.  Ours zoomed up this year, hurray!  And many were first-timers, as we discovered from our surveys (see below).
• Counting minutes read and books read – We just started doing this last year.  While the success of a program doesn’t necessarily hang on how many minutes were read, our administration, board of commissioners, city council, and donors sure like to hear this information.  After all, we’re combating “summer slide” with every minute kids spend reading.
• Counting number of kids still participating at the end of summer – Every child, no matter how much he or she reads, is eligible to enter a drawing at the end of summer to win a trip to Disneyland.  Comparing the number of prize entries to the number of registrations is fascinating and frustrating.  How can we keep more kids interested and engaged all summer long?
• Surveying kids – We contribute to the California Library Association’s Summer Reading Outcomes Project, so we use the project’s survey (with some tweaks) to learn what kids think about the SRP and the library.  This data is pure gold!
• Measuring the success of our outreach efforts – Each of our children’s librarians comes up with a customized plan to woo non-users to their libraries, targeting a specific group and setting goals.  Were they achieved?  How can we be more successful at attracting new families to our libraries?
• Surveying children’s librarians – No one can tell Youth Services more about what worked and what didn’t than the folks running the program on the front lines.  We solicit information, advice and great ideas on all aspects of the SRP from our children’s librarians at the end of every summer.

We are collecting and compiling all this data now.  Imagine the thousands of surveys and prize tickets piling up in the Youth Services office!  And think of the juicy data we’ll get from it all.

After we compile it, we’ll create and submit reports, meet with our 2013 Children’s Summer Reading Program Committee – and start planning next year’s program, which will be (as we vow every year) LAPL’s Best Summer Reading Program Ever!