Keynote

Intro is just beginning. Welcome, thanks to IMLS, and overview of the event. Good news that the rare book collection is open for visits at lunchtime- I'll probably check that out.
The symposium was planned by Pitt MLS students! They got an A for the class.

Keynote is stuck in Tucson- so a replacement has been found. It's now Jim Conway of the Search Institute, a research and policy institute. Conway has several decades of experience working with urban youth and community groups.

What are youth looking for in libraries- purely social? A convenient place to hang out and use computers? Do they really want to learn about/use library services?

Search Institute has identified the role of libraries in creating healthy communities for youth- 40 factors identified in a wide-ranging research-based study - developmental assets - are seen as critical in healthy communities, including obvious things like supportive families and positive adult relationships, positive value and safety, boundaries etc. Search Institute looked at learning styles and engagement with education, including pleasure reading, and the relationship with these activities and relationships with personal and community values.

Search Institute has surveyed 3 million young people using a tool created from this study. The result has shown that the amount of resources within a community directly correlates to the healthiness of that community and the behavior of young people within it. Children need access to as high a number of these positive developmental assets as possible- whatever they are- and the more assets are in a community, the lower the incidence of negative behaviours and the higher incidence of positive behaviours.

Connectedness between libraries and communities has historically been one of these assets, and libraries have been willing to change their practices and activities in order to respond to the changing needs of the communities they served.

How should libraries see young people? Teenagers are a resource- if they are seen as a problem a vision cannot be created and they will become a problem. The libraries negative engagement with young people will be reflected in young people's behavior, both in their engagement with the library and with the community as a whole.

Search has worked extensively with faith groups and congregations in finding common ways of helping create a healthy generation of young people. Research has shown that assets are not developed through programs- they are built through relationships. A majority of young people state that they do not feel valued by their community or by community organizations. Library staff can depend less on youth programming and more on engaging and valuing youth during their everyday interactions with their library.