Reading Summary - Honnold (2011)

Honnold, R. (2011, June 1). With No Rights, What is Left. VOYA, 108-109.

This brief, two-page article advocates for intellectual rights for teen readers, citing examples from her personal and professional experiences with censorship. She writes about having been forbidden as a child to read Catcher in the Rye, trying to keep her own child from reading a particular book unsuccessfully, and dealing with a library patron who campaigned to have all teen books with any sexual content outside of marriage removed. The same patron referred to the library as a "porn shop" and referred to the teen programs that included Dungeons and Dragons gaming groups as "satanic meetings." Honnold advocates for teens' freedom to read and feel a responsibility to uphold that freedom professionally. She recommends that teens, librarians, educators, and parents communicate with each other rather than lashing out and attempting to ban or boycott. Her own unsuccessful attempt to censor her daughter's reading leads her to believe that undue attention to a book only makes teens want to read them even more and do so secretly without proper support.

This article is very important to me, as someone who also supports teen reading freedom. I was personally very un-censored as a child, and as far as I can tell, it didn't screw me up. My mom is a former middle school teacher who has "read a banned book" t-shirts, and launches a one-woman banned books week informational on her social media accounts every year. It's important to think about what patron disapproval is like on a personal level. This patron went on the radio and wrote letters to the editor about the librarian who wrote this article. That kind of public disapproval would be hard to deal with and would make sticking to one's convictions more difficult. It is important to understand not only intellectually but also on a personal level what it it like to champion intellectual freedom.

Reading summary - Howard (2011)

1Howard, V. (2011).What do young teens think about the public library? The Library Quarterly, 81(3).

This article reports on the findings of a large research project aimed at discovering what 12-15 year old teens think about the public library. The project involved both qualitative and quantitative research methodology. In the literature review, several points from other studies are raised about what teens would prefer in libraries are mentioned:  

- comfortable places to sit and read
- longer checkout periods
- arranging the books by genre rather than alphabetically
- more computers
- a place to socialize and do homework


- In Phase 1 of the study, students in grades 7-9 were surveyed, and the results were that a relatively low number of students were using the library - only 13% used it weekly. However, 83% of those surveyed had used the library in the past year, so it's not all bad news. The surveyed teens also indicated that they were mostly satisfied with their libraries, so this could be seen to indicate that positive occasional uses are better than frequent unsatisfying ones.

The study found that teens would like a more social area, not next to the children's section, with an acceptable noise level. Working together on school projects and helping each other with homework is going to make some noise, and it would be beneficial to have that kind of space where speaking and interacting is not going to cause problems. Teens want a brightly colored, interesting area, not white walls and uncomfortable chairs.


Barriers to public library use for teens range from lack of programming, lack of necessary technology, lack of a bond between teen patrons and library staff , and lack of an appealing environment in which to hang out and do homework.



The good news? All of these things are fixable and can be a part of an over-arching plan to save public libraries in this digital age. Well-advertised programming for diverse interests, a dedicated library staff member for the teen population (preferably a teen services librarian) who is knowledgeable about current media for teens. Libraries are facing change as physical objects like books, cds, and dvds become legacy technology. One way libraries can keep relevant is to become a Third Place (Oldenberg) for teens. Teens in particular are important in this equation, because adults have agency and money to go to other third places, such as bookstores and coffee shops. Teens need a parent-approved safe place to hang out, and the library could be that place. We just need to be interesting. That's not so hard, right? :-)

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