Happy Teen Tech Week!

Today marks the beginning of Teen Tech Week, which means this is a time for your library to shine! This year’s theme is “Create it at the Library,” which means you can showcase all of your digital resources and services that help students of all ages succeed. Promoted by the Young Adult Library Services Association, you can visit their site and download posters and other promotional materials to get involved.

So what can you do at your library to show off? There are all sorts of activities and events you can plan that center around your special offerings.

Here are some ideas of how to celebrate Teen Tech Week:

1. Identify local experts to participate. Do you know a software engineer, robotics developer, or game designer? Invite them to conduct a workshop, demonstration, or lecture for aspiring teens to attend.
2. Host an open house just for teachers. Show them all that your library has to offer, not just for students, but for them as well! This would be a great time to show them all the fantastic features in Alexandria, from creating and sharing lists of favorite books to setting up specialized study programs.
3. Organize a hack-a-thon for all your savvy students or patrons. You can find resources on how to put this together here.
4. Set up times for tech-related crafts and creations. Students could make an e-book or zine, design a smart phone cover or tablet holder, or create graphic art.
5. Have a cosplay contest with characters from their favorite books or anime/manga.
6. Extend hours one night for a Book to Movie festival, playing films adapted from library favorites.
7. Too many book to movie adaptations to choose from? Host a teen lock-in to extend the festival all night, or perhaps include a game tournament. Serve a light and healthy breakfast in the morning.
8. Who doesn’t love a good scavenger hunt? Set up hidden clues and trails around your library while simultaneously showing off all your digital assets.
9. Organize a technology recycling effort, and educate the community about the proper disposal of items such as computers and small gadgets like phones or tablets.
10. Create Facebook events and share as much as possible across your social media outlets to get the word to as many teens, teachers, parents, or patrons as possible.

Teen Tech Week is the perfect time to educate your students and teachers, perhaps even staff, of the great resources in your library, especially Alexandria Library Management Software. So here’s to celebrating the modern library – Happy Teen Tech Week!