Hi! I’m Nick Franklin, a YA Librarian and manager at Brooklyn Public Library, guest-blogging from the ALA Mid-winter Conference in Denver, CO.

In my regular work life, I work with a diverse population of teenagers in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. As such, I thought that attending a Pre-Conference YALSA Institute discussion entitled “Serving Today’s Diverse Teens” was sure to be something that would serve me well. I was right, though not necessarily for the most obvious reasons.

Serving diverse populations of teenagers, as it turns out, is not merely something that concerns urban librarians. Globalization and conflicts in the last two decade have made the U.S. a refuge for a huge number of immigrants from countries in Africa and Asia, while urban areas have gradually ceased to be the primary destination for new arrivals. Providing adequate, friendly service to new Americans has always been a central goal of the public libraries, but where the mission was once understood as one of ‘acculturation’ in a very colonial sense, we can now look at it as a mission of mutual understanding and learning and, above all, helping immigrant teens preserve their sense of identity while still being active participants in their new homeland.

This was overall message of the three presentations of the day given by Jennifer Velasquez of San Antonio Public Library and an instructor at San Jose State University; Vicki Emery, Media Coordinator at the Lake Braddock Secondary School; and Oesei Akoto Baffour, Administrator of Branch Libraries at the Fort Worth Library.

• Ms. Velasquez emphasized how important the 40 Developmental Assets for adolescents as outlined by the Search Institute. Of primary importance is the sense of belonging that comes from active participation in activities in a place outside the home.
• Vicki Emery demonstrated how ESOL students who are not active readers in the language they speak at home, can develop reading habits through active excercises the help them develop the skills to internalize and recall narrative. Ms. Emery showed some of the book trailers – movie shorts that preview books – created by an ESOL class at Lake Braddock Secondary.
• Finally, Oesei Baffour, who is also a sculptor and a former Teen Librarian at New York Public Library, discussed his own experiences first arriving in America from Ghana and the difficulties in assimilating to his new surroundings.

Equally informative, I should point out, were the conversations that participants from suburban and rural libraries had amongst themselves (over a great lunch provided by YALSA) about how the ethnic and cultural makeup of their communities are changing ever more rapidly. It’s a fact that makes discussions such as these all the more necessary for all librarians to be involved in.

So a great start to my conference! I’ll be sure to check back later with more news from Denver soon.