Social networking encourages teen library usage at Denver Public

MySpace profile helps push traffic up 41 percent at teen Web site

By Brad Gauder

In late 2005 social networking was getting a good deal of media attention—enough that staff at the Denver (Colorado) Public Library decided to look into MySpace.com. Its obvious appeal to teenagers prompted the library to conduct a survey of teenage library users to learn more about their online social networking habits. Not surprisingly, many of the teens responding to the survey reported that MySpace was their favorite online site.

According to Angela Sigg, Content Developer for Denver Public, this was evidence enough that teens would respond favorably to having access to the library through MySpace and vice versa.“Many teens have library anxiety—they don’t feel like it’s a place for them,” she said.

“We asked ourselves, ‘Why not go to where the teens are?’ We can give them a new idea of what a library is and make them feel comfortable here.”

eVolver, the site for teens from the Denver Public Library, has 517 friends on MySpace.

So, in early 2006, Denver Public introduced its presence on MySpace. The site offers abundant links to online activities that teens use to stay connected, as well as links to library resources aimed at this age group, such as homework help, 24/7 online reference and materials for checkout. There’s also a link to this site from the teen page on the Denver Public Web site.

Denver Public started promoting its MySpace presence in spring 2006 and advertised it on the library’s main site. Sigg reports that the MySpace page has had over 14,000 page hits to date, and traffic to the library’s online teen site increased 41 percent in the year following launch of the MySpace page. And, she notes, it feels like more teens are using the library.

In addition to the library’s MySpace presence, the library’s teen site offers an array of options for users that help them connect to resources and to other teens. When users cursor over the main page links, they see brief descriptions written specifically for a teen audience. For example, the description of the Homework Help page says, “The closest you can get to cheating, without the guilt.”

Each link on the Denver Public Library’s teen site provides a rich array of resources for further exploration, including many social networking tools:

• Homework help: links to the Denver Public catalog and the AskColorado 24/7 reference service, encyclopedias, tutoring resources, online “Cliffs Notes,” and downloadable eBooks and eAudiobooks

• Ask a librarian: ways to contact library reference staff for assistance

• Look it up: links to online resources including WorldCat, OCLC NetLibrary eBooks, the Denver Public catalog, search engines and third-party databases

• Find a good book: links to book reviews, book lists and book resources like discussion groups, and online magazines, as well as a place to write book reviews and request specific titles for the library’s collection

• Get involved: links to blogs and chat sites, plus outlets for young writers and visual media artists, as well as links to information on volunteer opportunities and activism for teens

• Entertainment/media: abundant resources on many types of teen entertainment, plus links to blogs, chat sites and“fun links” to a variety of third-party teen entertainment activities

• Life: links to a variety of resources for helping teens learn about ‘real-life’ concerns like health and sexuality, spirituality, relationships, money, world events with a teen perspective and study skills.

Since the launch of the MySpace page, Denver Public has developed a number of activities aimed at keeping the library a teen-friendly place. One was a YouTube video contest that was held late in 2006 when many teens were on school breaks. The contest theme was “How I have fun at the library,” and it ran for six weeks. A middle-school student won the contest—and an MP3 player—with his reenactment of a scene from a Harry Potter movie.

The library also offers a bookmark contest for its summer reading program that has attracted some 350 entries over the past two summers. Entrants are asked to create artwork that supports the summer reading program theme. Eight winners were chosen for the 2007 contest, and their winning designs have been posted to the library’s Flickr page: www.flickr.com/photos/dplteens.

Teens (and younger library users, too) are also invited to write online reviews for books, movies and CDs in the library’s collection. All qualified entries received during summer 2007 are entered into a drawing for an iPod Shuffle. Interest is high—Sigg reported that more than 1,800 reviews had been received as of August 1.

According to Sigg, it’s easy and inexpensive to invest in social networking capabilities to keep teens coming to the library. “MySpace is free and easy to use, and you can set up your own Web page without having to know how to code pages for the Web.”

Sigg is also hopeful that social networking will continue to grow in libraries. At Denver Public, it“keeps getting bigger and bigger.” Why? “Teens really want to express themselves. They can interact with friends and others their own age even if they don’t live close to each other.”

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