Literature for Adolescents
Visit to Local Library's YA Section
The Hendrick Hudson Free Library, the library that I always went to as a kid, is a relatively small two-story brick building with as many large windows as can be reasonably placed on each floor. Standing between the library and the road lies a grassy area that makes most of the views from said windows quite picturesque—although an unfortunate few only show the mundane parking lot. Upon opening the main doors of the library there is what I call a waiting area where you can get yourself ready for the transition from nature to the indoors before fully entering the library. Due to the pandemic, this in between space has become where you go to pick up previously reserved books. Only those with a reservation are allowed past into the library proper.
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Directly in front of you is the main desk which is shaped like a U with a book return slot on the side closest to the door and two computers on opposites of the curve. Ordinarily, there is one person per computer to help visitors but now there is only one. If you have a reservation you need to sanitize your hands and sign in with both your name and the time you arrived. To your left are the stairs to the upper level, and past that, a large children’s section with its own help desk. To your right are the bathrooms while the main bulk of the library lies past the main desk. There is a center walkway that visitors can head down, which eventually brings them to the opposite side of the building. Here, you will see a large area filled with comfortable chairs and tables meant to entice visitors to sit and stay with rooms in either corner. The corner to the right holds an individual study room while the corner to the left has a long, enclosed space entitled “Teen Room.”
Pictured above, the Teen Room is separated from the rest of the library by a glass wall, and even from the outside the bright colors and lights mark the space as different from anywhere else in the library. As you can see in the photo, the majority of the room holds a wide range of YA literature. Along the opposite wall across from those shelves, which you can partially see above, there is a bookcase that seems to be built into the wall and holds audio books, nonfiction, college guides, and test prep workbooks. Bracketing this eclectic bookcase are two narrow bulletin boards that has lists of the previous years’ top YA books as well as some informational articles.
On one end of the Teen Room, there is a large table that can comfortably fit about six people and an individual desk off to the side facing the outside. On the other end, there are three individual cushioned armchairs with three ottomans/tables. Next to the bulletin board that is closest to the cushy seats is another bookcase built into the wall that holds a small but decent collection of manga, graphic novels, and magazines. A third bulletin board presses itself on its other side. Pictures of all of the above are below.
While at times faded, the headings to each of the sections in the wall bookcases are written on bright backgrounds with dry eraser marker. They are pictured below.
As I went to enter the space, I saw a three sided “easel” that displays books meant to interest a potential reader, which in this case, was an adolescent since all the books were labeled as YA. The books certainly caught my eye, which leads me to believe that they are an effective marketing tool for new or high interest arrivals, but I was a little surprised to find it outside of the actual Teen Room because I initially thought that YA books would be limited to that space. Although perhaps I should not have been surprised after seeing a Twilight themed “Get Caught Reading” poster hanging on the end of a bookcase in the adult/nonfiction section. Both are pictured on the right.
Regardless, once inside I found the Teen Room to be a well-lit, inviting, and aesthetically pleasing space that had comfortable furniture, all of which were features my research during class had indicated that teens wanted. Yet teens also reported wanting more individual study spaces in conjunction with group study spaces as well as access to technology and mixed media, something the Teen Room either lacked entirely or only had a small selection of.
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Having looked my fill, I went in search of a librarian to talk to about the Teen Room since I knew I would not be able to find any actual teens. Luckily, the librarian I talked to manages the Teen Room, which added more depth to the insights I could glean from our short interview. Unlike the adolescent interview, and unlike how I normally operate, I did not prep questions ahead of time, and thus cannot provide a link to any interested reader. The Teen Room was renovated about eight years ago, interestingly the librarian was surprised to note that the picture depicting the room’s opening day was gone when I visited. The renovation started because the librarians, collectively, wanted the teens to feel comfortable in a space of their own where they could socialize without having to be as quiet as they would in the main area. Given my research, I was interested if any teens were polled or if teen input was included in the new Teen Room’s design. The librarian could not recall any kind of poll or teen input, partially, she suspected, because the renovation occurred at a time when more libraries were creating a defined space for adolescents, and the library followed this trend.
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My interview also enabled me to see the contrast between how the space was used pre-pandemic and how it is used now. Prior to the pandemic, the librarian recalled that teens used the space primarily to study in groups at the main large study table. More specifically, the librarian also remembered that there was a group of teens who loved to sit in the comfortable individual chairs on the other side of the room, and would hang out at the library a couple of times a week. Yet, as will be detailed in more detail below, the Teen Room was never a super busy space. Since the pandemic hit New York, however, there is a lot less activity in YA section as well as the library writ large for obvious reasons. Generally, now the teens come in with their parents, pick a book or two, and then leave right after. The exception being the few people who email the librarian I spoke to about books they would like her to set aside for them to pick up. Even though the library does not have any policy against multiple teens hanging out in the Teen Room as long as they were wearing masks, it does not appear that any teens want to, or are perhaps able to, take advantage of this. I am curious as to whether this is a widely known fact because, prior to my visit, I had not realized that was allowed.
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Lastly, my interview provided me some insight into which materials were used by teens, how often they were updated, as well as the programs available. While I had read that teens used the reference materials less than librarians thought they did, in this library, the reference materials about college and standardized test-prep are very popular. When applicable, the librarian noted that she annually changed the guides out for newer editions. I was (pleasantly) surprised to find that, contrastingly, the librarian buys new fictional books for the YA section every week. Similarly, the librarian explained that she tries to update the information on the bulletin boards as often as possible, although some of the materials she uses, such as the lists of top YA books can only be changed annually. As we talked more about the bulletin boards and what she puts on them, the librarian confided that it is hard to know who is paying attention to, and/or cares about, the information on the bulletin boards, because our local teen community is not very active. When I asked her to expand upon that statement, she explained that the teens tend to interact with the space on their own time, at their own pace, and often independently. Upon speculation, the librarian acknowledged that this lack of activity could be due to the library’s slightly remote location that is both removed from the town center and too far for most to walk there from home and/or school. Relatedly, the librarian said that the event with the most teen participation is the “Battle of the Books,” a yearly contest hosted by the Westchester Library System. There are 38 libraries, including the Hendrick Hudson Free Library, that can participate and those that do create a team of teens as well as a team of children. Hanging on the wall above the main study table are pictures of teen teams from previous years. Thus, I was able to see how my local library has attempted and been moderately successful at connecting with the local teen community.
Below are additional photos that I think help give the reader a better understanding of the space, but that I did not think fit neatly in the narrative above.
The picture on the left shows the perspective from the end with the table to the other side with the chairs.
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The picture on the right shows the perspective of the rest of the library from inside the Teen Room.
The picture on the left shows a covertly placed list of help lines for various dangerous situations and/or circumstances.
The picture on the right shows the short list of room guidelines.
P.S. Truth be told, by "not fitting neatly in the narrative" I at least partially mean "I no longer had the energy or the patience necessary to move the text and pictures around to get them to fit." Haha.
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P.P.S. Thank you for reading all the way until the bottom!