When you work in Youth Services, shortening days and cooler temperatures mean that Fall Programs are almost starting. Here at the Ada Community Library, I'm getting excited about my new Robot Creations program for ages 6-12.

Robot Creations was inspired by my first success with a technology-themed program for youth, Gadget Garage. In the Garage, school-age kids took apart various broken electronics equipment (cell phones, computers, VCRs, and so forth) and learned a little something about technology along the way (or so I hoped).

Enter LEGO. After reading a Wired magazine article about an upcoming upgrade to LEGO's original robot-constructing Mindstorms system, I knew it would be the perfect base for a redesigned Gadget Garage program. (CJ over at Technobiblio thought so too in "Lego Mindstorms and Getting the Kids".)

We managed to set aside some programming funds to purchase two sets of the brand new LEGO Mindstorms NXT. I hope that having such cool "toys" at the library will both bring in new younger patrons (and their parents) as well as demonstrate that libraries can (and must) branch out to offer exciting new and untraditional programs.

Stay tuned for future updates about how my new Robot Creations program goes over. Any other librarians out there trying unusual new programs? Please comment and share your ideas and successes with us!

I was pleasantly surprised to find that today's (7/22/06) Library Link of the Day features a newspaper article from The Times-News in Twin Falls, ID. The article's titled "Libraries Adapt to Attract New Generation" and is well-worth a few minutes of your reading time.

With 87 percent of Americans between the ages of 12 and 17 using the Internet for almost everything, librarians are being forced to change their offerings to both keep their older patrons and attract new ones weaned on electronics.

Kudos to Jerome Public Library and Twin Falls Public Library for striving to create Digital Native friendly library spaces. I particularly like the idea of a "Homework Cafe" and "juice bar". By not only refusing to sell food and drinks, but outright banning them from our libraries, we've given over our "third place" cred to places like Barnes & Noble and Starbucks.

What is your library doing to create a "Flight Deck" for teens and Digital Natives?

(Author's Note: This post was originally published in the June 9th issue of The Scoop, the Youth Services Newsletter of the Idaho Commission for Libraries.)

The title of this post is direct, blunt and confrontational. It’s meant to be. It’s also a piercingly honest take on our profession. Metaphorically burying our heads in the sand will only serve to bury us and all of librarydom in the end. Hiding from the truth won’t make it disappear.

I lifted the title straight from K.G. Schneider’s reality-checking blog post, "The User Is Not Broken: A Meme Masquerading as a Manifesto." If you haven’t read it yet, you should. In fact, even if you’ve already read it, you should read it again. Follow up with Michelle Boule’s corollary post," We Are Broken, Not 'Them,'” to round it out further.

Reading through Schneider’s manifesto (and Boule’s additions), you probably had one of two reactions to their assertions. You might already be rallying behind the call to arms as you print copies to post up on staff bulletin boards, forward links to all your library friends, or even just ponder the implications. You might not have agreed with everything on the list (chances are you don’t) but you probably found most of it rings true.

On the other hand, you might have responded by generating a mental litany of objections or dismissals, shrugged it off as unimportant, or maybe simply felt your eyes glaze over halfway through. You reassure yourself that libraries, librarians and library services don’t need to evolve drastically because there hasn’t been a drastic drop-off in usage. Things don’t need to change because that’s the way we’ve always done it and it works fine, thank you very much. Libraries will persevere because libraries have always persevered.

For the most convinced and assured, there’s not much to be said that would persuade them otherwise. But those in disagreement with the manifesto, while still skeptical, remember this – your ignorance will not protect you. Society is experiencing radical shifts as a result of technology, globalization and other upheavals. The library as a static, rigid institution will be marginalized, minimized and eventually extinct if it fails to embrace profound change.

The library is only as adaptable as its employees and policies. Everyone in an organization must express a willingness to try the new and progressive for large, positive changes to be possible. Everyone, especially management, must be willing to take risks and accept that some changes will falter or fail along the way. Approach the library as a user who is not entrenched in library lingo or culture, with intent to remove or reduce the obstacles and policies that clutter their way.

Ultimately though, this is all so much talk. And as they say, talk is cheap. It’s up to you to shed ignorance, take action, instigate change, and evolve your library.