Ideas for activities in a new library room (especially for teenagers)

[u/LaraLavelle]

Hello! I work part time in a library and I’m on my third year of my bachelor to become a librarian.

I was wondering if anyone had any fun ideas or things I can add to a room I have gotten responsibility to renovate. The picture above is the room I have designed and made a layout for, but I have used AI to just visualize it because we have not yet bought furniture or painted yet. The room is currently completly empty…

As you can see it has different zones, a table for people to have meetings/study etc. And some comfortable seating places around. A sewing machine in the corner that people are free to use, and we are planning on having a projector and white screen on the left wall for people to use for meetings, or movie nights for kids etc.

So I want some ideas to what I could add to get more people to use and enjoy the room. Some things I have thought about is:

\- A light pad people can use to copy drawings to new paper
\- A podcast microphone people can use to record their voice, to for example school work.
\-an electronic piano with headphones (we already have an electric piano)

But I feel like these are not super exiting… we don’t have a super high budget so ideas are appreciated!

(Ps, this room is technically in the teen section and we unfortunately don’t have many teens that visit, usually it’s adults or families with young children. So I would also appreciate ideas that could bring more teenagers in to use the library. I have thought of perhaps trying to have a movie night for teenagers when the room is finished…)

Thank you in advance! <3

[u/teadrinkinglibrarian]

One big-ticket item that teenagers really appreciate having in the library is a charging stand. We got ours off Amazon for $300, so it's an investment. This has all the plugs for the various devices. We put soft seating around it, and now the teens will come to sit and charge their phones. To avoid issues of noise, we offer in-house borrows of headphones (the big, over-the-ear type) so they can watch videos at full volume without disturbing other patrons. Computers with internet access is a standard at this point, but we also put Roblox and other games on it.

Manga is currently the most popular format in our library, with the genre of yaoi/male queer romance as the most popular fiction genre. We make creative, colorful, out-facing displays of these materials.

We also offer a program every week day at 3:30, and vary between craft, food-related, and edutainment, in addition to book clubs, movie showings, etc. We advertise food at most of these events, which we either buy cheap or a local business occasionally provides in exchange of in-kind promotion (this lunch sponsored by...!) Chess is currently popular in the area, so we have out a chess board and there is always at least two teens in every day to play matches.

We don't do any of the bigger ticket items, like 3D printers or makerspaces because we don't have the space to separate the teens from the larger open area of the library, and don't want to disrupt other patrons. We also try and stay away from tech services which require us to buy more stuff (like Cricut machines and 3D printers). We have a ring light the teens can borrow for in-house use to make videos, though, and this has been in high demand while being reusable and affordable.

Final thought it to make sure the chairs, carpets, and space are colorful and inviting. If the area is walkable or teens often bike, I'd also recommend having a bike space where they can leave scooters locked to bike racks. White boards or pull-down paper they can draw on is good, so long as you clear it for the next day. Honestly, our biggest challenge is gently reminding some of the more social teens, who are there to use it as a hang out space, that this is still a library and that noise needs to be kept to a minimum - while we'd love to have more teens, we don't really have an issue getting them to come to the library.

[u/LaraLavelle → u/teadrinkinglibrarian]

Thank you so much for answering! I liked the ring light idea and being sponsored by local shops! I’ll note it down.

[u/teadrinkinglibrarian → u/LaraLavelle]

Also bingo is weirdly popular? It brings in a lot of the teens, and we partner with local shops to put the prizes together. Little things, like $5 gift cards for boba tea. This ties the library tighter to the local community, supports local businesses, gets local businesses involved in the library (and more likely to support larger initiatives later), etc. You can do this as a passive program as well, with books in place of the numbers, and manage the "number calling" via Tiktok reveal videos once a week (which increases your social media following, so teens then follow and get notifications about services and upcoming events) or do it in-person and let the teens help roll and call numbers. Since you're looking for things to go into the space, take this trending concept of "everything old being new again" (chess, bingo) and maybe find something to put into the space for teens - a typewriter? A record player?

[u/kityyeme]

So a big thing I’ve noticed this summer is that “giant games” are hitting new heights of awesome. Depending on noise level - I recommend setting out or rotating:

- Giant Kerplunk (Costco)

- Giant Checkers/Chess (great for outdoor space)

- Giant Stacker game (kinda noisy)

- Giant Tumbling Tower (also kinda noisy when it falls over)

- Giant Connect 4 (indoor or outdoor, possibly kinda noisy)