Eurogamer carried the story that Police fight crime with games. In Edinburgh, the police department and the library joined forces to provide gaming programs for teens in the form of a gaming competition. Now this is a very creative solution for keeping teens happy in the library, and I love the inclusion of the police, allowing the teens to form positive relationships with not only librarians but officers. What an opportunity!

Eide Neurolearning Blog focuses on learning differences, learning styles, gifted, autism, attention, testing, and much more. It has fascinating articles on new brain research, schools, and brain use and development. If you are a parent or teacher of a child with special learning needs this blog is for you.

Ohio Library Bars Unchaperoned After-Schoolers says an ALA article. The Wickliffe Public Library has banned visits from unchaperoned children under age 14 between 2:30 and 5:30 pm.
“We regret this course of action but must protect one of Wickliffe’s most valuable resources and its patrons,” officials advised parents and their school-age children by letter in early January.”
Yikes! When I was a children’s librarian in a very popular afterschool library, we started serious programming for teens and preteens. The crowds had been out of control for some time and the librarians were tired of kicking kids out, monitoring what was happening in the stacks, and intervening in wrestling matches, so I do know how it feels. We did a two prong approach. First we created very strict noise rules where kids would be warned several times, then asked to leave, then if they returned and did the same, their parents would be contacted and if that didn’t work, then they would be banned for a week. It worked really really well. In fact, we only had to ban one kid in the two years I was there while the rules were instituted. We also created a teen space in the meeting room, filled with books, Dungeons and Dragons games, a dedicated computer, and an adult. We could close the doors when they got too rowdy, but we could also do programming and really tell the teens that they were an important part of our community.
That is my problem with barring unchaperoned kids outright. What message are we as libraries sending these future taxpayers and what message are we giving to the parents of the teens? Doesn’t seem like a very positive one.

Girl Talk is a site helping parents talk to their daughters about underage drinking. The site offers straight facts, information on the power of mothers, consequences of drinking, and answers to questions along with recommended resources.