teens

The Public Library of Charlotte-Mecklenburg County (PLCMC) in North Carolina has so many innovative programs and initiatives that I could probably write a book about it. I'll spare you that, however, and just discuss the coolest thing that I learned about from my talk with Kelly Czarnecki at PLCMC.

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to talk with Cara Sawyer from the Cherryfield Free Public Library, a small independent library in Maine. Cara informed me that she recently decided to replace their little-used web site with a MySpace page, and she enlisted the teens that use the library’s two public access computers to help her set it up and maintain it.

Thanks again to Kieran Hixon and Jesse Weaver of the John C. Fremont Public Library. They gave a great presentation this morning on their home-grown, open source PC Reservation program (recordings and information about upcoming webinars can be found on the WebJunction site) . Instead of recapping the webinar, I'd like to share a quote from our recent interview with Kieran. She tells a great story here about the impact that teen gaming events have had on her small-town library. She started these tournaments with equipment she already had in the library and donations from the community. So it didn't put a big strain on the budget.