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Guidelines for Library Services for Young Adults
Section 1
Introduction Audience for the guidelines:
Practising librarians in all types of libraries and communities, urban
and rural areas around the world, professionals, assistants and volunteers
Library administrators and decision-makers
Professional educators and students in library schools Each public
library has a different ρommunity to serve and therefore
different priorities and needs.
Although special library services for young adults have not been well
established in all countries,
these guidelines are created in the belief that young adulthood is a
unique life stage. Young adults are entitled to the same quality of library
services offered for other age groups in the population. So every library
should start services for young adults as part of basic library services.
Library services for young adults should be developed in the context of library
services in general and in co-operation with other institutions.
Mission and Goals
The public library, the local gateway to knowledge, provides a basic condition for lifelong
learning,
independent decision making and cultural development of the individual
and social groups
(UNESCO/IFLA PUBLIC LIBRARY MANIFESTO, 1995)
The UNESCO MANIFESTO proclaims the belief in the public library as a
living force for education,
culture and information.
Teenagers need special attention since many abandon voluntary reading
at this stage in their
lives. Their introduction to a wide array of books, compatible with
their changing interests, should
be encouraged by librarians and others who are aware of their
psychological and emotional growth
(CHARTER FOR THE READER, INTERNATIONAL BOOK COMMITTEE AND INTERNATIONAL
PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION 1992)
Libraries can be an important force for the individual in achieving a
successful transition from
childhood to adulthood by providing access to the resources together
with the environment that will
foster intellectual, emotional and social development and offer a
positive force for an alternative to societal problems.
Goals for Services for Young Adults
Provide a transition from childrens services to adult services
Encourage lifelong learning through the library and reading promotion
Motivate lifelong reading for information and pleasure
Promote skills for information literacy
Provide library collections and services for all young adults in the
community to meet the following needs:
educational
information
cultural
leisure
Goals of the Guidelines
These guidelines are a list of ideas from an international perspective
that can be helpful as an inspiration both for trained and inexperienced
librarians who have the responsibility of serving young adults.
Section 2
De.nition of the target group
The target group (young adult) can be de.ned as a group of people
in-between childhood and adulthood. The target group includes all members
regardless of race, religion, cultural background, intellectual or
physical ability.
Needs of the target group
The library must be open to everybody and therefore must respect
different cultural needs.
Cultural needs have their roots in both oral and visual traditions, in
the changing of society and
social status, in cultural diversity and in visions and dreams. These
needs should be re.ected in the
provision of the library resources, services and programmes and in the
physical environment of
the library.
It is important that the services for young adults should be designed
not only by librarians but in cooperation with representatives of the target
group.
The young adults must be treated with respect, acceptance and a
willingness to realise that their
choices could be different to those that libraries traditionally offer.
They should be actively involved
in planning, implementing and evaluating resources, services and
programmes.
Materials
As the needs of young adults vary greatly, the resources have to re.ect
their needs. The library
therefore has to have resources for all groups including young adults
with disabilities, and social
and linguistic minorities for:
Information and education
Leisure/recreation
Cultural diversity
Different languages
The form and content of the resources has to acknowledge the different
types of users, their interests, their intellectual skills and cultural
background. Consideration should be given to providing a wide range of comic
books, romances, popular series and current popular music.
The collection may consist of material such as:
Printed material
Books
Magazines
Collection of clippings and brochures
Posters
Non-printed material
Audio cassettes
CDs
Multimedia (CD-ROMs, CDI)
Computer software
Video-cassettes
Board and electronic games
Access to local, national and international electronic networks
The library must have the support of the necessary equipment to cater
for users needs, ie. adequate
number of computers, videos and headphones.
Services and Programmes
The goal of services and programmes is to meet the changing needs of
young adults, including all
cultural groups and young adults with special needs.
Continuous assessment of the needs of young adults is a basic
responsibility of each library. It is
necessary to involve young adults in planning services and programmes
(short and long-term
advisory groups, feedback mechanisms such as wall charts, notebooks,
computer bulletin boards).
If any space is provided for young adults, furniture and decoration
should re.ect the preferences of
the users and it should be located separately from the childrens area.
The library should provide staff trained and willing to respond to the
speci.c needs of young adults.
Examples of Recommended Services
Providing reference information (including homework support)
Conducting library tours
Training literacy and information skills (using print and electronic
resources)
Offering readers advisory services (individuals and groups)
Encouraging the use of the collection in all formats
Facilitating access to resources outside the collection e.g.
referrals, inter-library loans
Increasing public awareness of young adult library services
Co-operating with other information and service providers in the
community
Providing services to special groups (young adults with disabilities,
teen parents, education in prison and hospitals)
Examples of Recommended
Programmes
Book talks
Storytelling
Discussion groups and clubs
Information programmes on special topics (health, careers, current
issues)
Celebrity visits (authors, athletes)
Performances (music, art, drama)
Co-operative programming with community institutions and groups
Young adult productions (drama, publications, TV, video and magazines)
Workshops
Section 3
Co-operation with other institutions
The quality of library services for young adults demands a good network
with other professional or voluntary institutions in the local community. The
young adults activities in culture, education and social life must be coordinated
so that the local institutions do not compete but co-operate for the bene.t of
the young adults. Many librarians have the resources and the know-how to be the
professional coordinators for the bene.t of young adults.
Cultural networking Cultural networking is an
effective way of focusing on the identity in a multicultural society so as to
meet the needs of young adults. The public library, working together with other
cultural institutions and young adults, can plan cultural programmes such as:
Literature festivals
Music and .lm festivals
Carnivals
Ethnic theatre productions
Photo exhibitions
Dance performances
Street dancing
Educational networking
Schools are the most important partners for public libraries serving
young adults. In many countries
and regions of countries, there will only be a school library, a public
library or sometimes a combined library to serve the public.
Co-operative planning between school libraries and public libraries can
more adequately meet the
needs and interests of young adults. A formal agreement is recommended
to ensure the implementation of the plan of co-operation.
Other educational institutions with library services could work together
with public and school libraries in an electronic interlending network.
Such educational institutions could be:
Colleges
Universities
Technical schools
Art schools
Schools for youth with disabilities
Schools in prisons and in hospitals
The co-operation between the educational institutions could provide:
Interlending
Programmes for library training/user education
Campaigns for reading promotion
Programmes for information literacy
Cultural programmes
For educational institutions without school libraries, outreach library
services are necessary to give the
students education in library use so that they can work more
independently with the library system.
Social networking
In order to ensure that library staff co-operate with young adults in
professional ways, it is important
to co-operate with agencies such as:
Social agencies
Employment agencies
Welfare agencies
Law enforcement authorities
In order to have information on new trends and developing social
problems, a network should also
be created of professionals, volunteers, parents, library friends.
The library staff must .nd their own way of working with other library
colleagues. The library should co-operate with different partners in local
networks in order to make observations and draw up a strategic plan.
Section 4
Planning
The library should develop a commitment to young adult services by such
methods as:
Encouraging a positive attitude for all library staff
Establishing policy statements for young adults including policies to
provide access to all resources and information sources available; respect for
rights of others and for library resources; intellectual freedom; and to
provide equal and appropriate services for all young adults.
Providing a focal point or a space for young adult services
Appointing one individual to be responsible for services is the most
effective way of serving young adults
Desirable characteristics for staff
Understand and respect young adults
Be knowledgeable about resources both print and non-print
Be familiar with the collection and with community resources
Be willing to learn
Be .exible enough to accept and introduce change
Be able to provide information services from all appropriate sources
Be an advocate for young adults
Education and training for staff working with young adults
Basic library practices
Evaluation and selection of print and non-print
materials
Developmental characteristics of young adults
Information policy and issues
Print and electronic methods of providing information
Planning services
Create a collection management policy
Plan with young adults, a programme of services that best meets the
needs of their community
Establish a budget with prioritised goals
Undertake fund-raising for programmes for young adults
Develop evaluation criteria
Evaluation of services
Evaluation of library services for young adults should include both
qualitative and quantitative measures of effectiveness. The collection of
statistics should be done in the same way as statistics for general library
services.
Some suggested measurements of use of the library by young adults:
Library visits as a percentage of the young adult population
Building use by young adults
Registration as a proportion of the population
Numbers of items for young adults
In-library use of materials
Library borrowing .gures
Reference services per young adult population
Success rate of information transactions
Average attendance at young adult programmes
External groups visiting library
Visits to outside groups by librarian
Anecdotal evidence of the success of programmes and services
Evaluation can provide a good basis for marketing library services. One
way to learn what young
adults want is to ask them by questionnaires (quantitative) and
interviews (qualitative).
Section 5
Marketing
Inform the young adults about the existence of a new special service for
them within the library by:
Giving the information in places where they meet and where they
congregate, for example cinemas or cafιs
Making the information attractive perhaps by enlisting young adults to
design it Focus the interest of young adults:
Make clear that staff want them to come, to stay and to come back
Show that the library is alive and welcomes change
Focus on one successful event to organise a promotion campaign
Services are nearly totally dependent upon satis.ed customers telling
others about the quality of the services.
International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA)
Section of Libraries for Children and Young Adults If you are interested in the work of the Section of
Libraries for Children and Young Adults become a member of IFLA and
register for the section.
Membership in IFLA is open to associations and institutions; af.liation
is open to institutions and
individuals.
This brochure is produced by the Section of Libraries for Children and
Young Adults.
Join us, it gives you:
the chance to take part in a world forum for discussion, co-operation
and development in an essential area of library activity
the opportunity to make a valuable contribution to your profession
through an open international
exchange of ideas
the opportunity to share your specialized knowledge and expertise with
colleagues from many countries
regular information updates on developments in the .eld through
newsletters, conferences, seminars etc.
IFLA Headquarters
PO Box 95312
2509 CH The Hague
Netherlands
tel + (31) (70) 3140884
fax + (31) (70) 3834827
e-mail: i.a@i.a.org
www.i.a.org
Revised 8/01