Justin: I’ll start off by
saying this.
It’s been two weeks since
our Teen Library Lock-In ended and I’m not sure if I’ve recovered yet.
My brain is still a bit fuzzy and I still
don’t think I’ve caught up on sleep.
If
I tend to ramble or get lost when I’m talking, we’ll just blame it on that.
You got my back Melissa?
Melissa: I’ll watch your back
if you watch mine. I’m still sort of in
a sleep-induced coma.
The Initial Idea
Justin: My Teen Advisory
Board kept on talking about how they wanted to spend the night in the
library. I thought they were sort of
crazy at first, but the longer I thought about it the more it seemed like a
really great idea. And I had this
feeling that the teens would freak out and love the program. I did some research on how these types of events were
structured. I must say that without the
guidance of the teen librarians at both the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library
and the Willingboro Public Library I
wouldn’t have ever got our Library Lock-In off the ground. I borrowed bits and pieces from their lock-in
programs and created an outline and a permission slip. With these two things in hand, I had
something to give my directors.
Melissa: One of the biggest
concerns we had when constructing the Cape May County Library Teen Lock-In was
how to keep our participants entertained and out of trouble. We decided that the best way to go about this
was to implement activities such as an Library Olympics and a scavenger hunt,
combined with an ongoing marathon of Harry Potter movies, crafts, and computer
access, as well as continuous usage of our video game systems, such as the Wii,
Playstation 3, and Xbox.
Justin: The idea was to start
the lock in right after our weekly game night ended. The games would already be set up and I
thought gaming, especially Rock Band, would be a good community building game
where the kids could get to know one another.
After the scheduled events such as the library Olympics and the
scavenger hunt, things got a bit looser.
We had one room dedicated to a Harry Potter movie marathon, the video
games still set up, one room for tabletop gaming, and crafts in the children’s
room. We wanted to have some structure
to the program but at the same time let teens be teens and have some random
(and very supervised) fun.
Planning
Justin: Once I got the OK from
my directors to have the lock-in, I knew that I had to assemble a REALLY good
team of librarians and library associates to help run the event. I sort of felt like I was putting together
“The A-Team” of Library Lock In staff members.
I knew I had to have the right blend of people who the teens could
identify with and not feel intimidated by.
I ended up with 7 (counting myself) chaperones for the thirty teens that
had signed up. That’s roughly 4 teens to
every chaperone, which is something I thought was manageable.
Making it all work
Melissa: As an example of one
of our planned activities, I will highlight the obstacle course, which like the
scavenger hunt, was created to promote fun activities that would also reflect
library usage. For instance in the
obstacle course, all participants were told to carry a book on their head,
paperback of course, and then proceed to the next activity. Teens had to carry a book on their head, walk
with the book while wearing box shoes, crab walk with a book on their stomach,
jump down an aisle while still carrying the book and find works written by a variety
of author(s), and finally dig though a box filled with scrap paper in order to
locate a library card that had a Teen sticker on it. All participants worked in teams and were
timed. For the winners, we planned an
award ceremony that was similar to the Olympics, complete with medals for first,
second, and third place.
The Focus
Justin: Call me a hippy, but
I’m all about good and positive vibrations.
I always wanted to make sure that both the chaperones and the teens all
respected each other and created a positive community.
Melissa: We also wanted to
stress to teens the importance of good behavior, and how exceptional actions
would be acknowledged and rewarded. We
implemented a Good Behavior Chart. Teens
were awarded stickers that they could post next to their name in order to win an
array of prizes at the end of the night.
I have to admit at first we were not sure if this idea would work, or if
teens would see the idea as somewhat immature and childish. However, like teens have a tendency of doing,
at least for me, they proved to be an exceptional group of young adults. They really went above and beyond to help
out the librarians and each other. There
was definitely on ongoing competition among the teens, but it was never
malicious. They were all super positive
and a lot of fun to hang out with.
The Actual Event
Justin: I got into work the
day of the event at 4:30 and made sure all the loose ends were tied up by the
time we started at 7pm. The first few
hours were a bit hectic in getting all the teens together and in one
place. Once that was done, we started
off on the scheduled events. Some teens
didn’t want to join in, so that was a bit difficult in explaining to them that
they had to be there and once these things were done they’d have a bit more
freedom.
Melissa: Once we were finished with the scheduled
events, the Teens were allowed to be in either one of three rooms. They were great about telling us where they
were going and we didn’t experience any problems with them disappearing. Most of teens just meandered between games,
movies, crafts, and lots and lots of conversations.
Justin: We asked the teens at
the beginning of the program to always tell at least one chaperone where they
were going. We told them that this was
one of the most important things they could do throughout the night. They were amazing
The Aftermath
Justin: The alternate title
for this section is “This is what we’ll do differently the next time
around.”
We had one incident at the lock in that sounded the
alarms. During a game of hide and
seek/manhunt, two teens collided with each other. One had glasses on, so the other teen got
quite a big gash on their head. It was
big enough that stitches were needed. We
had to call their parents at 1am and let them know what happened. They came to the library and we had to go to
the Emergency Room. I accompanied the
teen and the parent there, and 20 minutes later, the teen was all stitched up
and ready to go. The parent let the teen
come back to the library. I feel like I
lucked out on this one. Incident reports
had to be filled out and the overall mood of the lock-in really changed after
that.
Melissa: Yes, everyone really mellowed out, such as a
lot less horsing around, and became more interested in hanging out, talking to
one another, and playing video games.
What We Have
Learned and What the Teens Taught Us
Melissa: The overall of theme of the entire
Lock-In was camaraderie. It was evident
from the beginning that there was a relatively wide range of ages and maturity
levels, as well as groups and interests.
However, throughout the night, it became extremely evident that all the
teens were just interested in hanging out with each other in an array of activities. The entire Teen Lock-In produced a fantastic
sense of community atmosphere. In all, this
event was A LOT OF FUN WITH A GREAT FLOW AND POSITIVE INTERACTION. It was a fantastic opportunity to librarians
to get to the teens and vice versa. We have
received a great response from teens, parents, and administration. We will definitely plan more Teen Lock-Ins
for the future, using the knowledge and lessons we have learned from our
initial experiences with this program.
Justin: I thought 30 teens
would be manageable, but now that I think about it the next time around I’d
limit it to 20, possibly 25 teens and maybe have it twice a year. I also may reconsider having any kind of hide
and seek activities since we had a bit of a snafu this last time. But it worked so well and the teens loved
it! Agh!
P.S. For those wondering where the title comes from…The most
common response to “We’re having an all night sleepover at the library with 30
teens ages 12-18 was “ARE YOU CRAZY?”
P.P.S For even more images from the Lock-In, please visit our Flickr album.
Justin Hoenke is the Teen Librarian for the Cape May County
Library. You can follow him on Twitter
at http://twitter.com/justinlibrarian.
Melissa Brisbin is the Media Librarian for the Cape May
County Library. You can follow her on
Twitter at http://twitter.com/melissabrisbin.
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