Sowing the Seeds of Praxis: Incorporating Youth Development Principles in a Library Teen Employment Program

The article summarizes the tradition of teen services in public libraries and discusses the more recent incorporation of youth development principles and practices into those services, with the Public Libraries as Partners in Youth Development project being singled out as a major contributor to current thinking about this issue. The Free Library of Philadelphia’s LEAP program, with its after-school employment of Teen Leadership Assistants, is presented as a normative case study in the intentional design and implementation of a teen job program based on youth development principles. Based on the Free Library experience, the author suggests that public libraries can supplement the developmental value of schooling by considering youth development an integral aspect of any jobs in which teens are employed and that teen job programs be considered an integral component of teen library services. It is 9:00 on a Saturday morning in April. More than fifty teenagers are streaming into the Central Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia. Jincy and Meghan left their homes in the far northeast section of the city nearly two hours ago, commuting by bus and train to reach the library. Teddy has come from South Philadelphia, giving up practice for an upcoming table tennis tournament. Zoey bounces in from her mother’s nearby apartment, full of energy that annoys some of her sleepier colleagues. Johanna drags in a little late; she admits that she is not a morning person. Jasmine carries a paperback copy of Twilight and a notebook in which she writes poetry. Gennady clowns and talks with anybody who will engage with him about politics, school, music, or movies. Eric hitches up LIBRARY TRENDS, Vol. 58, No. 1, Summer 2009 (“Important to Us All: School Libraries and LIS Research,” edited by Marcia A. Mardis), pp. 63–81 © 2009 The Board of Trustees, University of Illinois Sowing the Seeds of Praxis: Incorporating Youth Development Principles in a Library Teen Employment Program