CHATTING WITH TEENS

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CHATTING WITH TEENS

• A short survival guide
• Presented by Louise W. Greene for the AskAway
  Virtual Reference Consortiums of Wisconsin and
  Illinois Libraries
• Best Practices Short Sessions
• December 4, 2006

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CHATTING WITH TEENSan overview

• TEEN BRAINS RECENT RESEARCH
• TEEN USE OF VIRTUAL REFERENCE
• BEST POSSIBLE RESPONSES
• DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

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BRAIN INTERRUPTED

• THE CONSTANT CHANGE IN TEENAGERS
• PHYSICAL
• HORMONAL
• EMOTIONAL
• SOCIAL
• According to recent findings in the field of
  neuroscience, fluctuating and erratic behaviors
  can be attributed to brain development which
  spans adolescence through the early 20s

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TEENS ON THE INTERNET

• QUEST FOR POWER
• EXPLORING SEXUALITY
• NEW SOCIAL IDENTITY
• ROLE EXPERIMENTATION

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TEENS ON THE INTERNET

• Internet users ages 12 to 28 years old have
  embraced the online applications that enable
• communicative, creative, and social uses. Teens
  and Generation Y (age 18-28) are significantly
• more likely than older users to send and receive
  instant messages, play online games, create
• blogs, download music, and search for school
  information.
• PEW Internet and American Life Project,
  Generations Online, December 2005

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TEENS AND VIRTUAL REFERENCE SERVICES

• LARGE PERCENTAGE OF USERS ARE TEENS
• 4,000 QUESTIONS x 50 2000 TEEN CHAT SESSIONS
  Per Month
• MULTITASKING AT 200 MPH
• The impression you give as a librarian will be a
  lasting one. This encounter could make the
  difference between creating a library patron for
  lifeor not

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TEENS AND VIRTUAL REFERENCE SERVICES

• Homework and Research
• I need info on all the jobs and trades during
  colonial times
• Do beavers mate for life?
• Personal and Recreational
• What kind of a job do you think I could get?
• Can you help me find tickets to the ___ concert
  for less than 100?
• Inappropriate Questions and Pranks You suck
• I peed in my pants
• Cries for Help
• My boyfriend beats me up
• I think I have an STD

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It Takes Takes Two To Tango

• The virtual reference session is an exchange
• The virtual reference session is a complicated
  physical, visual, psychological, cultural,
  social, contextual exchange
• Know the difference between a reaction and a
  response in this interactive environment

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BEST PRACTICES RESPONSES

• Keep pace with the teen
• One moment
• Still checking..
• Can you wait for me to locate a website or do
  you want to log on again when you have more time?
• Establish a rapport
• Heres some info
• Finding good stuff
• Sending you an awesome website
• Echo and paraphrase
• I am doing a research paper on Shakespeares MSND
  themes and I need some references
• So you need some sources that discuss the themes
  in Shakespeares Midsummer
• Nights Dream Can you use websites or do you
  need books?

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BEST PRACTICES RESPONSES

• Dont take it personally
• They really DONT know who you are and what you
  did last summer
• Select age-appropriate sources
• High school students may be taking an AP class
• Is the Census Bureau website as easily used by a
  senior in high school as it is by a 7th
• grader?
• Set boundaries
• Use warning scripts
• Use the guidelines and standards of your
  consortium on when to disconnect, when to
• report
• Be a robot repeat response if pressured
• Use the set of resources carefully selected by
  your consortium to address suicide threats,
• abuse and drug use

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BEST PRACTICES RESPONSES

• Acknowledge emotional content
• Refrain from mirroring rudeness
• Take every session opening seriously until you
  discover differently
• Teens deal in bytes feed them in small bites

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USE OF SCRIPTS

• Do you have a question that I can help you with?
• This is a library reference service. When you
  have a reference question, we will be glad to
  help you.
• If this is for a school project, I need to know
  the grade level so that I dont send something
  too easy or too difficult.
• Reference librarians are here to answer questions
  and make referrals but arent allowed to give
  advice.
• Some of your language is inappropriate. Please
  rephrase your question if you want to continue
  our session.

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CHECK YOUR GUT-O-METERRude, Crude, Threatening,
or Just Being a Teen?

• Are you a man or woman
• What color is your butt
• What is sex
• I can IM faster than this
• Can you find me a four speaker system for my IPOD
• Patron logs in as Dick In

• Everybody hates me
• Where can I go to get an abortion
• If I move out, can my parents make me come back
  home
• Im bored
• Where do you live?
• Thanks, bitch

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Further Reading

• The Virtual Reference Desk
• http//www.webjunction.org/do/Navigation?category
  11649
• Generations Online
• http//www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/170/report_displa
  y.asp
• Virtual Reference Alive Well
• http//www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA491140.htm
  l
• The Young The Wireless by Aaron Schmidt
• School Library Journal October 2005
• The Multitasking Generation by Claudia Wallis
• Time March 27, 2006
• The Virtual Reference Desk Creating a Reference
  Future
• Neal-Schuman 2006

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Questions?

• Louise W. Greene, M.S., M.L.S.
• Rolling Prairie Library System
• Louiseg_at_rpls.ws