my name's Jennifer Peterson and we're really excited to have you here today for this very special webinar.
I'm going to welcome our first voice, Lisa Peet is here from Library Journal and we're really excited with the opportunity to partner with the Library Journal, the "Movers & Shakers."
I'm going to go ahead and have you kick us off and introduce our presenter for today.
>> Lisa Peet:  Thank you.
I'm really happy to be here.
So, we are going to have Courtney Saldana talking and she is from Ontario City Library.
I'm Lisa Peet, editor of news from Library Journal.
First thing I'd like to do is talk about our "Movers & Shakers."
This is the 16th year that we're doing movers and -- we're going to be having all -- I should add, in December and march, we'll have Elizabeth Fitzgerald and Erin Berman also giving some webinars.
But,to talk about movers, this is our Library Journal -- it's not so much of a contest as it is how we look to surface emerging leaders in the library world.
We profile 50, plus or minus, individuals around the world, it can be international across the world and are making a difference in the library field.
Vendors, publishers, librarians.
You can nominate somebody, you can nominate yourself.
It can be any type of library, academic, public, special library.
Anybody is eligible to be one of our "Movers & Shakers."
We're looking for not just the people that are out in front, the people who have a lot of pizazz, you see every day.
The people behind-the-scenes, people who are moving the field forward and we know there are a lot of awesome librarians who are doing core work who might not be familiar faces or name, but are equally important as the big stars.
We want to see everybody here.
No money, but being named a mover is always a really great thing for your career, especially if you're just getting started.
But all the time, being a mover is something you have your whole life.
It's a gift from Library Journal.
Being a moving puts you into a big group of people who are making a difference and are making a difference in the library world.
You can always see movings identified and I hope that everybody here who is a mover will speak up and identify yourself.
So, the deadline for nominating movers is November 5.
I hope everybody has someone in mind.
If you have questions about how to nominate, please ask.
Now, Courtney Saldana is one of our 2016 agent.
she's at Ontario City Library.
She works with teens full time.
She started kinder-go, which engages kindergartners to read.
And in 2012, she developed and launched Skills for Teen Parents, helping teens with what they'll need to succeed as parents, including interview tips, childcare and birth control.
It is also known as STeP.
That program is now being run at 16 libraries throughout California.
So that's moving and that's shaking.
Courtney has a handle on her teen programing and she's implementing new strategies.
>> Jennifer Peterson:  I don't see any questions yet.
If you have questions about the "Movers & Shakers" nomination process, be sure to tap us in chat and Lisa will be able to answer those later.
I think we're ready.
>> Courtney Saldana:  All right.
So, let's get started.
Thank you so much for the introduction, Lisa.
So, as Lisa mentioned, my name is Courtney Saldana.
We're going to talk about teen programming along with other stuff.
Feel free to ask questions, as Jennifer mentioned.
I'll try to look down every now and then.
Who am I?
I actually joined the library world backwards.
I was convinced that was going to open a children's book store, with a fantastic coffee room so parents would be entertained and kids were reading.
Turns out, it's really expensive to open a book store.
From college, all the way on, I've always worked around books.
I've been in book stores, I've been in libraries.
I decided I wanted to work in a library.
I was working a part-time job in a little library up the street from Ontario.
I was invited to help with teen programming and as ridiculous as it sounds, I loved working with teenagers.
I was astounded by their boldness and they go full steam ahead.
Hopefully everybody has that same feeling about teenagers.
So, all things teen.
This is just a couple of things we make sure we cover.
We'll do a short needs assessment and talk about teen spaces and "Teen Book Fest" and then the STeP, which is Skills for Teen Parents skill.
I'll pause after I speak about each segment, so feel free to ask those questions.
I'm sure Jennifer will catch me up on them.
If I don't cover something, email he.
Hello to everybody who's chatting on the sidebar.
You're never too old to be a "Movers & Shakers."
We need to define what is a teen.
This is really, really hotly debated.
You know that we like to decide that we know exactly a teenager is.
They are 12 to 18-year-olds.
At Ontario here, the easiest way for me to do this is say you have to have teen in your age, 13, 14, 16, 18.
There is no 12 teen and that has made life really, really simple.
So when you're looking at teen services, especially if your library doesn't have them yet, you have to figure out how you're defining teen.
Let's talk about our current group of teenagers.
19-year-olds,thank you.
We grandfather 19-year-olds into our programs.
If you are a long-time teen lab member, come on in.
You can stay while you're 19.
Justin Timberlake was never this guy who decided to dress all in jean jackets.
Today's teenagers don't even know who n-sync was because they also didn't know who that was.
Next slide.
they have no idea of what a monthly texting limit was.
Everybody has unlimited.
They don't know what a pager was.
They don't understand the concept of phones being attached to walls and doing a digital dial to it.
Today's teens are as old as the movies that you see in the picture here.
 Seriously.
They have no idea that heath ledger was in 10 things I hate about you.
They know him in batman.
They don't know who Mr. Feeney was.
They don't know who cory and tapanga were.
I'm 30.
They are a completely foreign --
exactly.
Thank you.
Sidebar.
So, again, people -- be mindful of who your teenagers are and what they're coming into your services with.
I know, girl meets world.
How can we not know girl meets world?
What is a needs assessment?
You need to double-check what you need you know.
I'm sure we've all done this thing where we know our teens, we see them every day, we know exactly what they want.
It's not about what we think they want, it's about what they actually want and you have to keep that in mind.
If you have been working with your target demographic for several years, be mindful your teenagers are going to change every two or three years and they're going to be a completely different group of teenagers.
You mentioned it is easy to lose 10 to 12-year-olds.
That's a great comment.
We do here specific tween classes.
It is a bridge from tweens to teen.
Your teen programs fail to be a teen program if you invite tweens and you don't have any teenagers who want to come because everyone in the room is 11.
That's how we do it here.
Let's see.
So, the thing -- I went too far.
Backing up.
So, once you know what they like, work with them to merge what they're asking for and what may might need.
Yes, you want to hear you teens and deliver on what they want.
You have to be mindful on what you can do and the kind of things you can offer.
So, while they might be -- not be psyched about those sat study sessions, they'll be really well-used and parents will appreciate it.
They make the kids come.
The kids don't like the program perhaps but they see everything you're doing.
One example here was we had twilight programs in support of the books and movies.
By the end of the series, by breaking dawn, nobody showed up for it.
They were so burned out.
Keep in mind, oversaturation as well.
They're going to reach capacity for what they want to see and they're going to need a break even from twilight.
Okay.
So, the most valuable thing I can tell you to do to form your teen group.
Here it's called the teen lab, library advisory board.
Seems to always start with t.
Get one of these groups on.
This was one of my groups of seniors a couple years back.
We're wearing our teen lab T-shirts.
don't be afraid to feed them because what they say is true, if you feed them, they will come.
What they're asking for is actionable.
Have them get something they're interested in doing and you need to deliver on this.
It's try if you're brand new to teen services and you want to establish good faith.
The first thing that my group was a pumpkin carving program.
I was a new teen librarian and they were asking me to give them knives and it worked.
They understood I cause giving them something that could be deemed dangerous and they got the whole thing that I was delivering on something they had asked for and that set up a fantastic rapport going through.
Alexis, bring up your question at the end and we'll address that.
With the lab -- again, you want to give them what they're doing.
The other side of it is they can do the dirty work for you.
They will help recruit for you.
They will advertise for you.
They will present for you.
You're going to give the college recommendations and be that one adult in their lives they can come to when they're having a problem.
And thatal come into play later with the STeP program.
They'll want to work for you because you're serving them.
I love that -- Lori, that's hilarious.
Bonding is the best part.
Partner.
How do you get your partners?
Once you have your plan of action with your teenages, what you want to do is come up with the people who can help you keep your teens and also bring in more teens.
So this is where your high school librarians and high school counselors come into play.
You want to make sure you know who these people are because those are the ones that can help you target the ones that aren't in your building.
The kids coming in are the ones you're going to focus on first because they're there.
You don't want to rest on the fact that they're already there.
You want to retain to the kids who aren't coming to the library.
So become best friends with the people on this list.
This group is a group of high school librarians who make treks to come out to "Teen Book Fest."
She is a librarian and gets together to bring all these people out.
The really fantastic thing is each one of these people represent a different high school and each high school does a book club that's focused on a book by one of our "Teen Book Fest" authors.
If you help, they help.
It all works out really, really well.
Focus on the kids that you're not reaching to.
And this is also work marketing comes into place.
Again, you can't reach kids you don't know.
You can't reach the kids that you don't know if you don't know where they're at.
Be mindful of your marketing plan and get your marketing plan out to all these people on your list.
If you put a library flier in a -- I don't know, in a Starbucks, it's going to be more successful than if you put a library flier in a Walmart where teenagers are not naturally hanging out.
My kids take all of our fliers into the high schools and drop the fliers off at all the places they hang out.
Everything the library passes out has to be approved by the library or the school district which is a ridiculously long approval process.
If the teenagers take the fliers into school, we don't have to abide by that rule which is fantastic because all the information gets out.
So, some best practices.
You want to deliver to your teenager, show them they can trust you to hear what they're acting for.
You want to work on that trust.
When you have those teenagers and they're close to you, be mindful that you want to honor that trust and report when necessary.
This is a hot topic as well.
We're not mandated reporters, at least not in my building, you do want to step in when it's necessary because you are the adult in their life.
Again -- forward with that, they're going to start to see you as a friend, which is fantastic.
Don't forget you're the adult in the situation.
Set boundaries and deliver on them.
I've had to kick out all of my favorite teens from the library because they get crazy and that's fine, just do it with good humor and understanding.
Don't forget what it's like to be a teenager.
I often tell them high school is the craziest thing they'll go through.
They have the added pressure of social media and everything that that adds to the high school equation.
So, be mindful of that.
Finally, it's very easy to get caught up on what the library expects from your teen programs.
The thing that has always been most important to me is that you are there to advocate for those teenagers.
Maybe your programs will be 10 kids and that's stellar for your building, that's fantastic.
It is important that those kids recognize you as somebody they can trust and they're building relationships with other teenagers that they can take out of their school lives.
So many wouldn't have met without our program and labs.
They can be in the school environment and come to the library and be themselves.
Any questions, so far?
Anything that I'm dying to answer?
>> Jennifer Peterson:  There's been some great discussion, Courtney -- there were sharing ideas.
Someone says they're in a rule community and a large majority of the students are bused home, it's hard to get them back to the library.
Someone suggested that inviting them to an open house so that they can come and run the activities at -- perhaps book fairs at the school.
There was something -- someone suggested that there was a specific bus that could drop kids off close to the library, so checking with bus routes.
Do you have suggestions for folks that are having trouble in transport?
>> Courtney Saldana:  
Transportation is always going to be a hindrance for teenagers.
It's really hard to get out of the building.
If you can -- especially, you got those buses, how cool would it be if you could get an agreement to program on the bus?
Now it doesn't mean that you need to be breaking stuff out, you know, you're trying to play uno.
How amazing would it be if you pull out your phone and show them how to access the digital apps or talk to them abow library services or set up a pop-up library on the route that has the most kids leaving.
Even when you feel like you're boxed in by the community or the challenges that surround your building, don't be afraid to break out of that box.
It's just a box.
There's duct tape.
We can box it back up.
But -- so think about getting out of the building and how you can meet up with things that are happening outside of the building.
>> Jennifer Peterson:  There was another question about space, having specific space for that.
I know you'll circle back from that.
Her teens are eager to plan, promote and help market but the district department of marketing or the library team that is in charge of designing and providing marketing materials doesn't necessarily want the kids to be doing that.
Do you have any tips on how to compromise?
>> Courtney Saldana:  They don't want the teenagers handing it out?
>> Jennifer Peterson:  I think it's more design.
>> Courtney Saldana:  There are some boxes you can't get out of just because that's the way it is.
You can always ask your teens to come up with an idea.
Do you want it to be science fiction?
I do that with my graphics person, I will say something like this.
>> Jennifer Peterson:  That's a great idea.
I like that a lot.
Excellent.
>> Courtney Saldana:  Just different things.
In the interest of time, I'm going to move on.
>> Jennifer Peterson:   I'll keep collecting questions.
>> Courtney Saldana:  Teen Space, you want to involve your teen board.
Your teen lab should be at the forefront of your area.
Be prepared.
Just because you have an idea of what you think a teen section should look like does not mean that your teenagers have any idea what it could in compass.
Bring in different samples.
Have all this information with you so that their mind starts to open up behind there's a wall, get some couches, here's a chair.
That's where they will naturally sometimes sit.
Brainstorm the type of activities they want to do in the space.
Our teen section is way in the back corner of the library.
There was no cameras back there and the teenagers wanted a couch.
That wasn't going to happen just based on what was happening in my building so we weren't able to get a couch.
Those are things to be aware of.
You want to have kind of prepared what you also want to have happen in that space so you can meet what the kids expectations are.
You want to create different spaces within that larger space.
So you don't want your area to be all study spaces because not everybody's coming for a study.
You don't social spaces all over.
You want to involve them in all aspects of it.
While you're creating, prioritize what you need, versus what you want.
I did a study on our space and I was shocked to found out that of our two computers, they've only been used 90 times in the last year.
That's crazy.
I'm going to have to rethink what we're going to do with our computers.
Be mindful of your library policies or what you want those do be.
On the same side of that, who's going to enforce those policies?
You need to make sure you have your friends within the library, fellow staff, colleagues on your side so that they can help enforce those rules.
How are you going to grow that space?
You don't want to box yourself in where there's no room for growth or room for change.
What are you calling it?
How do you stay current when the funding is gone and how do you update.
Library Journal had a fantastic article on spaces.
Just because you don't have a budget doesn't mean you can't.
My motto is always ask.
The worst they can do is say no and maybe say yes.
I put in a budget request to redo our teen section and I got it and I'm super stoked that we are going to redo our teen section.
It's been 10 years.
If you can't get it through your regular budget, think about your friends group.
Maybe they'd be willing to give you a couple thousand for the next few years.
Those little adjustments are going to make a difference to your teenagers.
With your -- if you have a budget, contract your library design reps, they have a design center and they will come and help you put together your look.
They'll evaluate the space you have.
Without budget, my favorite place is IKEA.
Get yourself on the listserve because it's relatively inexpensive.
If you do have budget, think about technology.
10 years ago, when I created the teen section here, everybody didn't have cell phones so having plugs in the wall was not that big of a deal.
There are no plugs for their phones now.
Additionally, if you don't have a budget, browse your building.
Go down stairs, look in all your storage rooms because there is a lot of stuff that people put away and forget about that you could likely borrow and bring up to your space.
If you're a large city or county and have a public works, see if you can get a tour of that surplus storage because there are a lot of goodies that no one remembers.
Once you know what you're doing and come up with a name, you use that name everywhere.
You come up with a logo.
When you're talking to your staff about it, call it whatever you're calling it.
Ours is called a "Teen Alley."
Once you have that logo, I want you to use it everywhere.
It should take over the library.
You want it to take over the lilibrary.
You want your stuff to match.
So, are you calling it the Teen Space and then your title is young adult librarian?
Or are you calling it the y hangout and you're calling it teen?
Be aware of conflicts.
You want to brand yourself succinctly and wholly.
It'll make your life easier.
Where do you come into the Teen Space.
You need to be there.
Do not create a Teen Space without a reference desk for yourself.
When I got here, 10 years ago, there was no teen section.
There sure as heck wasn't a teen space.
There wasn't any knowledge that they had a librarian dedicated to them.
When they get someone that dedicates a librarian to them, that's when they're going to start coming.
Give yourself a spot in your teen section.
On that same token, you have to enforce your rules.
So, in "Teen Alley," our rules are there are no adults allowed at 3:0 p.m. during the week day.
The first six or seven weeks, it was tough.
You have to figure out what your rules are and then you have to enforce them.
This is where your lab comes in.
If they are involved with the development of your Teen Space, they are going to support the care and maintenance of your Teen Space.
When they see somebody over there and they have a sharpy and they are sitting with their back to the desk and they seem to be moving their hand, your teenager's going to walk over there and say, yo, what's up, are you putting sharpy on our furniture.
It's fantastic.
Finally, remember that you, again, are their teen advocate.
If you don't do it, nobody else is going to.
So, it's going to be unpleasant kicking out adults.
It's going to be unpleasant making people upset.
Your teenagers are going to love it because they know you're doing it for them.
So, once it's done, it's not over.
You'll need to update it.
Keep an eye on your -- on your furniture.
Is it falling a part?
Did somebody stab it with a knife?
Is it starting to smell based on hygiene issues?
You need to keep it clean.
Get a box of those magic erasers and you'll have to magic erase once a week.
We have a space that takes up --
that is taken up by two computers that are only used a small, small percentage of the year.
We have to evaluate what we want to do with those computers.
When I started at the library, this is what I walked into.
This is the alley.
It was vary not teen-friendly.
It was not really colorful and it was very traditional.
Okay.
This is what we changed it to look like.
As you can see, it took awhile.
And these are actually older pictures.
So this isn't showing updates we made in the last seven years to accommodate what we needed in our section.
I will point out that in the right upper-hand, that's an archway.
I cannot stress enough how important it is to make something large enough that you can point to from the opposite side of the building.
So, our "Teen Alley" is in the farther right-hand side of our library, but the archway, you can see all the way from in entrance.
If our staff, at circulation, get a question, they can point all the way down.
You see the archway?
That's the teen section.
Make yourself a recognizable landmark that you can use for guidelines for people coming in.
So, you can see in this picture, there's group work space, social space with the rockers.
Café seating for solo work and the reference desk.
There's the strong entrance for [Indiscernible].
This is not mine.
This is what I want.
So, this is where we're going to move towards with the next new remodel.
I'm so stoked.
I can't wait.
Best part is picking out furniture.
So, that is Teen Space.
I'm going to move along.
I want to make sure we get through all the content.
If we miss something, feel free to email at the end.
Book festivals.
If you have had an author out, put in, me.
I want to see how many people have done something.
Yay.
There's one.
Good job.
Yes, we love j Asher.
This is great, guys.
So, my best -- my best advice with book festivals is to start early.
So, our next -- woo hoo, I will say that I totally stole it and had a long conversation with Stephanie and that's what book fest is modeled after.
Start small so that you're nice to yourself.
My "Teen Book Fest" was the first thing I created in the library.
I call it my third child.
I love it.
So, I started it in 2011, with that graphic, this is the only thing that we handed out.
It involved four authors.
It was two hours.
We were located at our senior center.
We had no web presence, no digital presence.
We had five authors.
In 2017, we had 18 hours, it moved into an all-day event.
We have a local partnership with the high school so the event was on their site.
We have a website and a hashtag.
My number one saying with my book fest is that the authors are treated with respect.
They have a network in the same way libraries have a network.
Be mindful of what you're doing with your authors and how you're taking care of them throughout the day.
You should be going to every local event you can to actually get the -- to actually meet authors.
If your book store is having it, you need to go.
If a book store two hours away is hosting an author, go.
I've been to the L.A. festival.
 Ala has those.
Good and talk to the publishing houses during conference because that's how you get your invitations so that you can talk to the authors.
Again, you have to start asking early.
Your authors are likely to be there for free or low fee so make their day joyful.
At book fest, we are lined up outside of the school.
Every teenager has a sign with a author's name on it so they go directly to their name sign and that person is responsible for hosting that author all day long.
That person gets them water, gets them to the rest room, makes sure they're not getting hounded, making sure they go to each session.
Ask for help.
You will need help so whether that is your teen group, which it should be because this is an awesome opportunity for them.
Talk to your network of other librarians and find the people you love in your community and have them out to do this.
People love to do this.
It is my favorite piece.
It's not stressful anymore.
It's stresful because I know I'm going to be seeing all of my best friends.
Be prepared for something going sideways.
Somebody's not going to show up, somebody's going to cancel, somebody's going to get stuck in traffic.
An author's going to be a diva, or a author is going to stay longer than they said they would.
Stuff will happen.
That's okay.
Move on.
If you're having a smaller event.
Have cupcakes.
Always have cupcakes.
It doesn't hurt to have cupcakes.
2011, I was so new to this, I took no pictures.
In 2012, we had four authors.
The main one was j Asher.
Arianna is covering up the face of  of one of the authors.
This was in 2013.
This is the year we blew it out.
All of a sudden, we went from being, really, really small to go really big.
We had 15 authors and think this will forever be my best line-up.
We had Andrew smith, amongst others.
We had it out a high school location that didn't have air conditioning.
As you can see, we had signing tables with no tablecloths.
So, these are the little things that drive me crazy now.
Our shirts, the perks, were ironed on by me at home, like, 11:00 p.m. the night before book fest.
In 2014, we got our act together.
We debuted or logos.
So, you live and learn.
Exactly, wendy, thank you.
In 2015, we introduced keynotes instead of just one.
We finally got a logoed table cloth.
And you can see from the group shot we have grown.
2015, we had moderators that we invited as authors so authors were our moderators, which is so fantastically well-received.
It became really, really fun.
We decided to use a Twitter hashtag, because, why not?
In 2016, which was just this past year, we hosted Marissa Meyer.
This is the year we started to get repeat authors, wanting to come back.
Attendees can vary.
This last year, we had over 400.
There's this beautiful backdrop that I spent real money on and I was so happy with and we were going to be fully-branded.
In reality, the thing that all the authors wanted to play with were those stupid signs that got made in a rush for the heck of it and that's the thing that got tweeted all over social media.
Had nothing to do with my beautiful backdrop.
It was all about the signs that said who they got to meet and the authors thought it was hilarious and decided to make it their own thing.
Really, money doesn't matter.
It's great if you have money, but money isn't necessary.
The key is to ask.
The worst they can do is say no.
The first author was Marcus.
I went to an event he was speaking and I said, hey, I saw you're going to back in town in four months, we're reading your book for book club, would you be willing to come out to talk to us?
No idea that he would say yes and he said yes.
Who knew?
Marcus came out to my library, talked to my book club and we took him out to in n out afterwards.
That is the founding principle behind book fest.
I've only paid two authors, the others are free.
Book fest have a good reputation.
We have authors who consistently book for us.
Jessica Jessica brody, she hooked us with up Marissa Meyer.
These authors talk to each other and they are able to give feedback that they wouldn't necessarily trust if you were to ask independently through an email.
They're not sponsored.
I've been burned a few times when I've gone through their pubpublishing houses or their managers.
I know.
It's a different way of doing it, grace.
It's totally different.
But it's worked really, really well and I feel like I have personal relationships so when I need something, I can ask them.
The first one that I got, the big name for 2011 was Allison noel.
She was fantast.
We had four supporting authors around her.
Those four are the ones that I contacted independently.
Allison noel was from a friend of a friend who had a prior relationship with her.
The second year, same thing.
The third year, same thing.
I used contacts of friends of friends.
Steven, I asked via email, and he said yes.
You never know what's going to happen.
You absolutely have to sell books at the book fests.
The last thing you want is for Marissa Meyer to come from Washington and be there for is  15 books.
Multiple three to four boxes of books sell out.
Always ask your independent book stores to be your sellers.
Builds good will.
So, if anybody's local, March 25, come on down.
We'll be releasing the line-up soon.
They had posted -- I think -- 
the website for it.
Here 2  it is again.
I've got 13 minutes.
I'm going to chug forward.
Thank you, guys.
STeP.
I want to look at the graphic.
I love the graphic.
I'm so pleased with the graphic.
What was STeP?
In 2009, I had one of my favorite teenagers -- that's me on the right.
That's Stephanie.
She was one of my all-time favorite teenagers.
If you're a teen librarian, you can probably tell where this story is going.
She walked up to me one day and said, Courtney, I had a secret, I new immediately what her secret was.
I was pregnant at the same time.
I said, if you want to share with me, I'll share as well.
I said, I'm pregnant.
And she said, so am I.
I looked around in the community and my heart broke, it was in 2009, right when the economy hit.
Child care at schools had been canceled, parenting classes had been canceled.
So, I started working on granting and I worked for several years unsuccessfully on grants.
It was hard.
In those several years, Stephanie gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, his name is Orlando.
They still come in.
In 2012, I got something -- I was part of something that's called eureka, in California, which is a leadership development training.
Attached to it is a $5,000 grant that you can use to target an underserved population.
I could serve and Stephanie and other teen moms in her same position.
In 2013, we started a program that we called life skills for teen moms and that evolved into STeP, which is Skills for Teen Parents.
It was picked up in 2013.
What STeP served to do in a larger picture is to bridge that gap between what teen parents know and what they need to know to succeed.
We recruited libraries and they were grant-funded, to offer workshops that would be informational and instructional to serve this population.
So, why?
Past Stephanie, why this program?
In California, nearly 35,000 kids are born to moms ages 19 and understand.
35,000.
It's unreal what it is.
Nearly 70% of teen moms in California drop out.
That continues a negative cycle of not being able to progress past a choice that they make in high school.
So, what does STeP look like?
At each site, workshops can put own -- libraries can put on whatever workshops they deemed necessary.
Something that might work here might not work there.
Topics ranged in a massive way.
Car seat safety, day care evaluation, conflict management, journaling and scrapbooking, that was huge in so many libraries.
Each site could decide what they wanted to do to support their teen moms, with the ultimate goal of giving them firmer ground to stand on as parents because it's important to remember they're parents, but they're still teenagers, they want to be silly and on snapchat and be home to put their kid to bed.
We had a variety of different trainings.
We had infant cpr.
We had Wells Fargo come out and talk to the girls about setting up their own bank account.
So many of these girls, they would get their paycheck and give it to their boyfriend, give it to the father of their child, signing away their money.
In my case, the dad did not attend.
In some libraries across the stay, they did have dads attend.
My favorite part was dress for success where I took the girls shopping for an interview outfit and in cases, a back-to-school night outfit.
We're talking, 14, 15-year-olds, they show up in clothing that would only further add to the stigma of what it meant to be a teen mom so I wanted them to be able to walk into job interviews and a parent/teacher conference and make sure they were regarded with respect and looked at as any other parent in the community.
Gets these girls dressed and seeing them stand up straighter, and seeing, one of the most valuable things in my career.
The outcome was STeP.
This is Stephanie with her little boy, Orlando.
There was no way she was not coming to STeP, even though she was 19 at that point.
So, step outcomes were many.
All of my girls didn't go through a second pregnancy.
If you can keep them from repeating that second pregnancy, their success goes up.
90% of my girls graduated high school and that is amazing.
You saw in the previous statistic, 70% of teen moms drop out.
I did not want that to be happening with my girls.
 Furthermore, on the feel-good side of it, 100% of my kids felt more able to succeed and be a good parent in their future lives.
Even if they still make mistakes -- which they will.
Even if they encounter problems, which they will, they feel empowered and that was success to me.
How do you do STeP?
You do it just by doing it.
So again, it originated at my library in 2013.
In the past two years, it has been state-wide by grant programs.
In 2013, it was defunded by the state library.
The program is absolutey free.
Everyone you enlist is going to be free because they have to do their own promotion in their community and hit their own outreach goals so all you have to do is contact them, find a building, get your teen moms and if you are present and you are that person, again,that one adult that is safe, you're serving them in an even greater community.
Feel free to look at STeP.
Call me, I will talk to you about STeP or book fest for hours.
Questions?
>> Jennifer Peterson:  
Fantastic.
I just want to remind folks, too, that in the learner guide, it has other ways to think through all of these different projects and work that Courtney 's done.
As you know, there were lots of questions about spaces, but I'm going to just ask, there was a great question about how many attendees you have at the book festival?
>> Courtney Saldana:  I think the first one, we could not have had more than 60 people.
This last one, we had over 400.
>> Jennifer Peterson:  Wow!
are people coming from -- 
>> Courtney Saldana:  
Everywhere.
>> Jennifer Peterson:  More than just your local community.
That's excellent.
>> Courtney Saldana:  You need an anchor author and then build around that.
So, you know, that first year --
2013, we went big with Steven.
You need to have one big name that you can promote heavily because the other authors attending will do their job to make attendees fall in love with them.
>> Jennifer Peterson:  I'm going to touch on a couple of these space-related questions.
There were lots of libraries that said they're tiny, they don't have a separate area for their teen book collection.
But if you do have a separate space and you're able to put the collection in there, do you have to address how adults get to the collection if there's a no-adults policy for that area of the library?
>> Courtney Saldana:  So what we say is that adults can absolutely come in and get collections and find and search because obviously, a lot of adults are reading ya at this point.
They can't hang out there.
At least, not after 3:00.
The other thing -- this is a down-low.
If we've got an event who's being problematic or teenagers who are being problematic, I will encourage my teenagers to sit down and be extra loud because that will make an adult move so that adult understands what the space is for.
If I have teenagers off the hook -- onces I don't know.
I'll sit down and be like, hey, what's up guys?
Want to talk?
That will also kind of -- if they're not using the space appropriately, it can help to migrate them out.
[LAUGHTER]
>> Jennifer Peterson:  I like that strategy.
[LAUGHTER]
one more question.
So, we know many of the folks on the line maybe aren't necessarily -- their job title isn't teen librarian.
One person said, yes, they are doing some teen work.
In terms of -- if their job is more around circulation or reference, how do you think someone who's not within a specific teen section could develop -- I think you're talking about how to build that trust and recognition.
How are other people in your library, perhaps, or how have you heard from other people the way they can build that recognition and trust with their teens?
>> Courtney Saldana:  One of the biggest problems that we have in library services is that people will say, I'm just a page or a clerk or whatever.
The reality is, whatever job title you have is whatever you make it of.
Sure, you have to do the things connected to your job, but you don't have to stop there.
Noone said to me, Courtney, go out and do a book festival.
I wanted to do it.
You notice a kid is always checking out books that you've already read, engage that.
If you are working in the back and you do collection development and you see something fantastic, talk to the teen librarian and see if you can come out and do a festival.
Don't settle for the job you're in just because it's the title you have.
You want to build what your passion is, in the job you're in.
Period.
>> Jennifer Peterson:  
Excellent.
That's great advice and great advice to wrap us up.
Those who nominated you as a "Movers & Shakers" knew what you were doing.
So, thanks for coming.
And just a reminder, as Lisa shared in chat, the link for the nomination progses, you've got until November 5 to nominate those "Movers & Shakers" at your library.
I liked Lisa's emphasized.
It's not necessarily the rock stars, it could be the folks behind the scenes, helping to keep your library thriving.
I'm so excited we'll be able to bring you more in our series of "Movers & Shakers" and coming in December, we'll be featuring Elizabeth Fitzgerald from the cullenary literacy center and in March, Erin Berman, who comes to us from the San Jose public library and they're doing great work on privacy literacy.
Lots of literacies to come.
Today's session will be recorded and I will be sending you all an email once the recording is available.
I'd also ask that as you leave the room, please take a moment to complete the survey that I'll send you to, it helps us provide feedback to the presenter and guide our own  ongoing program.
Thanks for being here.
Thanks to the caption.
Thanks, Courtney, for your work.
Everyone, have an excellent day.