Why should teens have all the tech fun?
I keep seeing the emails to buy Teen Tech Week promo materials, and it got me thinking. This is the description of Teen Tech Week per the site:
Teen Tech Week is a national initiative sponsored by the Young Adult Library Services Association and is aimed at teens, their parents, educators and other concerned adults. The purpose of the initiative is to ensure that teens are competent and ethical users of technologies, especially those that are offered through libraries such as DVDs, databases, audiobooks, and videogames. Teen Tech Week encourages teens to use libraries’ nonprint resources for education and recreation, and to recognize that librarians are qualified, trusted professionals in the field of information technology.
What about just… Tech Week? I know teens use technology differently, and focusing on teens to make them more “competent and ethical users” is great. However, I’d feel a little less like librarians were stereotyping technology use as relegated to teens if there were just, say, a Tech Week for, say, everyone.
You know, librarians could show off the tech and online resources in their libraries available to everyone, there could be computer/gadget petting zoos, local tech speakers, classes, explanations of what the hoopla is about with Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and whatever else has been in the news. I think it would really beneficial for the entire profession, so that it doesn’t look like the young adult librarians and systems librarians are the only ones who know anything about technology.
I think I’ll run this by my supervisor, and add the project to my burgeoning list. ;D
Are you a librarian already doing something like this? What have you done? How’s it working for you?
Are you a non-librarian reading my blog? Would you go to something like this, and what would you like to see?
Tags: librarians, technology, Teen Tech Week
