How to use this Page

In light of the recent website evaluations we discussed in class and to compliment the subject I discussed in yesterday’s blog post, I thought I would do a review on a sexual information website for teens. I will first make a few comments about RAMP, the Toronto Public Library’s teen webspace. The second part of my post will review Spiderbytes, a sexual information site for teenagers recommended by RAMP.

RAMP

Links to sexual health information are listed in the “life stuff” section of the website. Considering that the search function in RAMP is not very good (I actually couldn’t get it to work at all and kept getting error messages), “life stuff” is not necessarily an intuitive place to look. The importance of sexual health and young adults’ curiosity about sex justify better labeling and a more direct link to this information.

I think the sex information links in RAMP could be organized better in general, particularly since the different pages lead to many (if not all of the same links). I could go on critiquing this site but I think we already discussed it enough in class.

Spiderbytes

Spiderbytes was created by Planned Parenthood of Toronto, a community based, pro-choice agency.

Besides its terrible name (what exactly does Spiderbytes mean?), Spiderbytes’ design is lacking in usability. I think the design goal was to be different and attractive and although it achieves that, it is not great to use because you have to figure things out. Although the persistent navigation is consistent, you have to scroll over the buttons in order for labels to appear. Additionally, there are two persistent navigation bars/icon groups, which is disorienting and confusing to the user. The main navigation bar, housing information about sex, relationships, puberty, etc., leads to pages that look blank until you figure out that the little lists on the right-hand side of the pages are links that you have to click on to have the information appear in the center of the page. The font size here is way too small. Perhaps a young adult would find this design refreshing and enjoy exploring how the site works (I venture to guess that may have been the goal of the designers), but Jakob Neilsen, the usability expert, would disagree. Neilsen reports that studies of teen website use reveal their patience levels and attention span to be even lower then that of adults. If a user is looking to quickly access information, they would not be able to on this site.

However, the site does score some positive points with its design. It is not too busy or flashy with a lot of distracting animations. It does not require a lot of scrolling and does not use colours that bother the eyes. Rather the design is quite simple and clean, if not conventional and intuitive. Additionally, it contains interactive elements such as quizzes. For instance, in the “puberty” section, teens can fill out quizzes about getting hairy and periods. These short multiple choice quizzes test the knowledge of users and provide information (and answers) in an engaging way. Another good example is in the “sex” and “virginity” section where teens can take a quiz to let them know if they are ready to lose their virginity.

Thus the site offers great content. When I was a teenager we didn’t have access to this type of information, in this format. I think it would have been kind of cool to explore sexual health information through interactive, online quizzes. The inclusion of sexuality and sexual orientation in the content is also important and useful. The inclusion of disability issues is great but these are located in the “sexuality” section which is probably not the first place that people would look for this information. Although the information is generally straightforward and succinct in the main sections of the website, links to clinics, phone lines, etc, are located in a small pop-up window that requires a lot of scrolling. This information is thus not very accessible in terms of the website’s ease of use.

The site provides very informative content in an interactive and interesting way, but the design is ineffective and impractical, taking away from the overall experience. It is a good example of the ways in which information providers sometimes defeat their own purpose and put up unintentional barriers to accessibility. It is important for librarians to be aware of these issues and to critically evaluate the information tools they provide to their community.

Although Planned Parenthood of Toronto is a very reputable and authoritative community health organization, if the city’s public library is compelled to include a link to this site, I would recommend they ensure links to websites with more usable designs as well. As it stands, RAMP does not offer links to more then four sexual health websites in total. If I was a teenager (maybe not the best way to make this judgement… ) and clicking through all the links led to sites that looked and worked like Spiderbytes, I would likely leave the library site and look for more straightforward information elsewhere.

Posted in Accessibility, Barriers/Access to Information, Health Information, Public libraries, Reviews and Reviewing, Teen Content Creators, Teen Spaces      

For my blog posts I’ve decided to focus on teenagers and sexual health information. How available is information on sexual activity? How useful and accurate is it? How accessible? Are rates of STD/STI infection and pregnancy reliable indicators of an “information gap?” Is engaging in risky sexual behavior a sign that one is uninformed? In the first few years of the century, news stories were reporting that incidents of STDs were on the rise among young adults. A recent article, however, based on evidence from Stats Canada, reported that Canadian teens have become more sensible about sex disease risks. Are we seeing the start of a new trend toward more awareness and lower rates of STIs? The government has certainly taken initiatives to inform people about sexual health with their huge (and controversial) HPV vaccination campaign.

In this blog post, I want to briefly explore some barriers to information and comment on factors that contribute to risky sexual behavior in young adults.

It seems to me that when I was a teenager, in the 1990s, sexual health information was not as readily available as it is today. We mainly learned from our peers (which is probably still the case for teens today) and we had sex ed classes every so often. When someone was faced with a very serious issue, like pregnancy, there were sexual education centers and birth control clinics where they could go to get help. These places were also known as good sources of free condoms (for those who were not shy to go and ask for them). AIDS was big news in those days and we understood the importance of practicing safe sex and using condoms. Teenagers involved in risky sexual behavior then, as now, for a variety of reasons.

Since the Internet has given rise to a plethora of information, sexual health information is more prevalent and accessible then ever. In fact, the amount of sexual health information is overwhelming. Governments, hospitals, medical associations, and other authoritative bodies have put together, or subsidized the creation of comprehensive and reliable collections of sexual health information on the Internet. Barriers to access are multiple and varied. For starters, not everyone has access to the Internet. Many young adults who do have access to the Internet do not know how to conduct proper searches or assess the reliability of information. Still others are prohibited from conducting proper searches due to filtering imposed by parents. Teens who seek sexual health information at public institutions like libraries face similar barriers, lack of experience and knowledge using technology, and filters. Additionally, being in public may be a deterrent to some. Other barriers exist besides these, such as cultural, psychological, and institutional barriers. At least in Canada educational policies support sexual health education as a basic human right. This is not necessarily the case in the United States where some State systems actually prohibit sexual education.

Finally we cannot underestimate the importance of rebellion to teenage development. Although rebellion is played out in different ways and to different extremes, it is considered a natural aspect of a child’s transition from dependence to autonomy. It would be difficult in this day and age of media saturation to argue that children and teenagers are unaware of the dangers of smoking and drugs, yet some young adults still engage in these activities. Sexual activity is often a part of this rebellion.

This analysis would be incomplete without mention of the competing educational and pop cultural messages that influence (and confuse many) young adults. See:

I personally do not like the term “information gap” because it implies a lack of information and oversimplifies a very complex problem. I don’t think we need more sexual health information. Rather, we need to increase access to that information and foster an atmosphere of openess, encouraging a safe environment for teens to engage in a critical discourse of sexual issues. Many library systems are creating websites for teens that include links to authoritative sexual information. The problem with these library pages is that they are generally only available through browsing. In order to promote these resources libraries should partner with sex educators, school programs, and local health institutions.

Tomorrow I will do a review of a teen sexual health website.

Several weeks ago, a friend sent me the link for the Real Public Librarian blog.  It happens to be the blog of Debra Burn, who was so instrumental in developing the verbYL Youth Lounge/Youth Library I blogged about yesterday.  She blogs about lots of different library issues, but one particular post that I found interesting was “Youth in libraries—are you really ready to let them in?”, which I used as the title of this post.  After reading glowing accounts of the wonderful teen library spaces out there, I recalled this post and started thinking about its very real relevance for all libraries.  Even in the midst of our desire to provide appropriate spaces for our young adult patrons, we need to examine how we deal with them in the library, particularly when their behaviour is somewhat less than stellar.

Burn’s post centres around a hypothetical separate young adult library, but I believe her comments apply to regular libraries as well, whether with separate teen space or without.  Burns asks us to imagine the creation of a successful new teen library space, which achieves the desired goal of drawing in masses of eager young adults, ready to enjoy the library and its facilities.  What happens, she asks, when you as the librarian find yourself faced with a group of “at risk” young people who over time establish a pattern of disrupting the library?  Their behaviour goes beyond the normal thoughtless exuberance that can sometimes characterize youth; some of the youth “show little regard for adults and authority”, and some “are downright scary”.  Her question:  do you ban them from the library or do you stand firm that all are welcome and continue trying to work with them, keeping in mind that by so doing you may alienate some “good” patrons?

My first instinct, pondering this situation, is to kick the troublemakers out.  Yes, access for all, but unacceptable behaviour may mean one loses that privilege.  But what does that accomplish?  Relative peace in the library, I suppose, but how do I reconcile the fact that I have denied access to some?  Obviously, in some extreme cases, this may be the only way to go, but, as Bernier and Herald stated, “Zero tolerance fails every day all over the country…criminalizing [youth] does nothing but perpetuate useless and costly cycles of recrimination and retaliation.  Nor does it help bridge the service gap between libraries and disenfranchised youth” (1997, p. 47).  And as one youth services librarian put it:  “I don’t believe that there are bad kids, but that every kid can have a bad day, week, month, or span of years” (Farrelly, 2007, p. 41).  I’m simplifying a complicated issue, but these quotes would seem to suggest that banning “at risk” youth should be a rare exception.

Burn gives rational arguments for both sides of the question, as obviously it is a decision libraries need to come to on their own.  She goes into more depth in discussing the second option, which she believes requires the assistance of human service professionals in order to provide optimal support to “at risk” young adult patrons, which obviously is tied to her experience planning for and implementing verbYL.  Once again, I was struck by the genius of community partnerships.  It would be asking a great deal of librarians to require them to deal with such patron behaviour on their own, but if the library worked in tandem on a day-to-day basis with human service professionals trained in dealing with such issues, think what could be accomplished.   It wouldn’t be easy, and it may not work everywhere, but in the quest to be truly accessible to all, it might at least be worth exploring the possibility.

References

Bernier, A., & Herald, D.T.  (1997).  Rude and crude?  School Library Journal, 43(8), 47.  Retrieved September 27, 2008, from EBSCOhost.

Farrelly, M.G. (2007).  Unleashing your inner man.  Public Libraries, 46(2), 40-41.  Retrieved September 27, 2008, from ProQuest.

 “Real Public Librarian” blog   www.paradigmlibrary.blogspot.com