Has your library ventured into the realm of Minecraft? Are you looking for new ideas to serve your tween patrons? I encourage you to consider investing in a Minecraftedu account. This digital environment offers your tweens and the librarians serving them a wealth of programming options.
Why spend money for an edu account? As a school librarian the edu account gives me control over the Minecraft experiences I offer my students (including the “freeze students” feature). It allows me to custom build what will happen in this space. If you’re ready to step into the role of digital media mentor this is a prime opportunity to do so. Tweens will come to Minecraft programming (you will have a waiting list!). Many of them will bring a wealth of previous experiences. Others will come with little to no knowledge of how to get around. As a librarian using a Minecraftedu account you can offer this wide range of kids a similar enriching experience.
Minecraftedu teacher & librarian control panel (http://www.graphite.org/game/minecraftedu)
One of the things I enjoy about this space is the collaborative potential.
The first group expedition is through a tutorial world. The entire class enters this space (using their real names) and begins to explore. We challenge them to help each other navigate through the world using only the text chat (improving keyboarding skills has never been this fun!). Tweens’ willingness to share their expertise with each other is limitless.
Our options for programming also seem boundless. The next adventure for 5th graders will be a building project. They have researched the architecture of ancient civilizations in social studies and will build Minecraft models of these structures. This is more than a fancy diorama. Tweens will assume the identity of an ancient citizen and provide tours to classmates. Could your public library offer this opportunity in collaboration with local schools?
When we greet new classes in the fall this will become a team building space. Games like capture the flag can make a digital migration. Book clubs could construct a story scape based on a book they have read. Fan fiction can be acted out in 3D and recorded for sharing. Tweens are using digital media of all kinds. Their creative potential is at the ready. Librarians can be valuable mentors if we take the leap.
A 6th grade girl entered the library with a look of trepidation. She needed a book for her independent reading time but was convinced there was nothing for her in our collection. As we talked she expressed the frustration of searching for books in the Young Adult collection of the local public library. She told me how nothing in that collection was right for her. Fortunately the Prairie Creek Intermediate School library is built around the needs and interests of the 800+ 5th and 6th grade students who attend our school. Of course we have YA titles on the shelves but we also have a large collection of materials intended especially for this unique audience.
Drawing distinctions between YA and middle grade literature is an important topic for librarians serving the upper range of the ALSC scope of attention (birth to age 14). In a two part posting we’ll dig into the attributes of middle grade literature, the needs of these readers, and how to best serve them as a distinct group between early childhood and young adult. There has been much in the news about the tendency of mass media and the general public to refer to all children’s literature as Young Adult. A few background readings for our discussion:
Jeanne Birdsall writes in the Horn Book about her own youth reading habits in Middle Grade Saved My Life. She also comments on the trends in publishing for this age:
The immense success of young adult books, written for teens and known to everyone as YA, has been overshadowing the quieter middle grade category and, in some cases, threatening to subsume it.
Anne Ursu has been writing about the capacities of middle graders to handle serious stories told exclusively for them (sometimes more quietly). She has described this age as often being overlooked and under appreciated by the general public, reviewers, and sometimes their own parents. How are children’s librarians doing in this regard?
I had the opportunity to share 5 questions with Anne on the IRA blog. Anne will be joining me for part 2 of this post, to be published in April. What questions do you have for Anne about writing for the middle grade audience? How do you provide great service and resources to middle grade patrons? What are the major barriers to serving middle graders in your library? How can we get more people to see middle grade this year? I look forward to hearing from you.
Speaking of great middle grade books – take a moment to download the Tween Recommended Reads list from the ALSC School Age Programs and Services Committee.
A new report from the Federal Trade Commission entitled Marketing Food To Children and Adolescents: A Review of Industry Expenditures, Activities, and Self-Regulation: A Federal Trade Commission Report To Congress has been made public. The press release and full report (PDF) are available online. Some highlights from mandatory reporting from 44 companies in the year 2006:
- spending was $1,618,600,000.
- 63% of this total was used to market fast food, carbonated beverages, or breakfast cereals.
- television is still the predominate advertising medium intended for children (46%).
- new media (Internet, text, email, viral web) accounted for only 5% of youth marketing expenses - keep in mind it is cheaper to produce this type of media.
- spending on packaging (e.g. cereal boxes) and in-store displays equaled 12%.
- cross promotion was used for as many as 80 movies intended for youth. This advertising technique, which includes fast food tie-ins, toys, and Internet games is growing in its sophistication.
- The report includes information about industry self-regulation to improve advertising for healthy foods and recommends the reduction of advertising for “junk food.”
Lots more to read about in this report. The evolving media environment is creating incredible opportunities for librarians - we’re not alone though. Kids are receiving information (including advertising) from all directions. Helping them develop a literacy of all these mediums and how they work (and who controls and uses them) continues to be a crucial part of our teaching mission.
Our options for programming also seem boundless. The next adventure for 5th graders will be a building project. They have researched the architecture of ancient civilizations in social studies and will build Minecraft models of these structures. This is more than a fancy diorama. Tweens will assume the identity of an ancient citizen and provide tours to classmates. Could your public library offer this opportunity in collaboration with local schools?