Librarian in Black Blog – Sarah Houghton

2020 Vision Conference: Digital Natives Panel
Facilitated by Stephen Abram

Update: Aaron Schmidt has a write-up of this session as well.

This session was an intensely interesting part of the conference.  This is fascinating stuff.  We had a panel of a dozen or so digital natives, ranging in ages from 12-17.  Here are their first names and ages: Brian-12, Chris-16, Sam-17, Roy-17, Jenna-14, Morgan-12, Ben-15, Katie-17, Becky-16.  Hope I got the spellings right–sorry if I didn’t.

Abram’s first question was: what was the last piece of music you listened to and what genre is it?  Half the panelists said they listen to music on iPods most frequently, half said they listen to the radio primarily.  Almost no mention of CDs whatsoever.

What brands of jeans do they like? Clearly the girls were more focused on brand.

How many friends do they keep in constant contact with?  Answers ranged from 2-20.  Very different.

How many friends are of a different ethnicity than you are?  Most said between 0-2, but the one Indian panelist (Roy) said "Since I’m Indian, pretty much everybody."
Idaho is a very homogenous state, racially, so the responses here were not surprising.

Do they expect to have a same, better, or worse standard of living than their parents?  Most hoped it would be better, but they weren’t confident.

Do they expect the world to be better in 10 years, when their generation starts making world decisions?    Many said worse, due to violence, environmental destruction, global warming, that people are getting "dumber," maybe better technology but more poverty.

Do they do volunteer activities?   Every single one of them volunteered.  Helping the elderly around their homes, church car washes, food bank, hospital.  A lot of them mentioned one-time activities, not ongoing activities, and there was definitely a dominance of church-related activities.

What was the last time you exercised, and what did you do?   Lots of frequent and diverse exercising, though it’s interesting to note that the skateboarder said he didn’t consider that to be exercise.

Do they agree with this statement: it’s better to be seen as part of a peer group, than to be seen as too smart by your peer group.  One person said it depended on the smartness of your individual peer group.  The general impression they gave was that they recognize it’s important to be smart, but definitely not to stress that when you’re with your peers for fear of alienation or seeming cocky.

Should the government pay to ensure that universities and colleges offer equally accessible education to poorer or middle class students?  Absolutely yes, if the person has worked hard and done well in school…period, regardless of economic status.

Do you believe that either gay marriage or civil unions should be made law?   Okay, now this was an interesting one, and my Bay-Area eyebrows went up in anticipation of a public outcry from the kids’ parents or the kids themselves.  Five males and one female said no, because of personal beliefs.  Two females said that it doesn’t matter if the two people love each other and that they shouldn’t be controlled by the government.  One female said that it’s fine, but should be called something different–not marriage.
Definite gender split here on this issue.

When was the last time they’ve visited a large bookstore?  Answers ranged from "yesterday" to "I have no idea, it was so long ago" to "I don’t read anything unless the teacher assigns it."  Alane pointed out to me (and then Stephen said it too) that some of the panelists noted "The last time I went to the bookstore for a book…", indicating that maybe they’ve gone for other reasons, like coffee.

When was the last time you visited a public library?  Long time ago, couple of months ago, 9 months ago, a few weeks ago, 8 years ago, couple of days ago, month and a half ago (his first visit, for the Da Vinci Code, when he had to be placed on a 40-person wait list *UGH!*), month ago, months ago.
The public library is not a regular part of these kids’ lives…but we already knew that, unfortunately.

When was the last time you visited a school library?  3 weeks ago, constantly for school extra-curricular activities, not since a class visit months ago, a long time ago, last quarter, regularly, only for a school visit, last quarter, for extra-curricular school activities.

Do you play video games, what, on what?  MALES: X-Box and PS2–Tony Hawks series, Mario on Gameboy, PS2, X-Box daily with friends (Call of Duty, Madden), Sims, X-Box.  FEMALES: Doesn’t really play but sometimes plays Dance Dance Revolution with friends, plays at friends houses: Kingdom of Hearts, motorcycle game at a friend’s house (prefers hand-held Yahtzee games and such), no video games.  Boys seem to play more frequently, and no web-based gaming at all was mentioned.  One panelist mentioned that his dad is a huge Everquest fan.

Are you on MySpace?
Yes – 1 (female)
Yes, but switching to Facebook for safety reasons – 1 (female)
No – 4 (male), 2 (female)

This is really interesting, and Stephen noted that this is vastly different than the results he’s seen on other teen/digital native panels in other parts of the country.

Do any of them text message?  Some of them do, frequently, and their parents pay for it.  Four of the panelists said no, simply becuase they don’t have a device to use or because they’d have to pay for it themselves.

Do they IM? One female has MSN, AIM, and Yahoo! and uses MySpace’s asynchronous messaging now instead primarily.  Some of the parents disallow IM entirely.  There was a definite trend that this was really used a lot when they were in middle school, but not so much in high school. 

How many of them post to blogs etc.?  One does frequently, though it’s on a private space that only her friends can see.  She had an experience with a creepy guy contacting her, and she finally blocked him and made her account private. See?  They’re smart   They can figure out who’s creepy, and what to do about it.  One did set up a site to help each other with their homework (coolio!). However, most don’t blog at all. 

Are any of them musicians?  One girl plays guitar and bass, but only in school.  Two play the viola.  One used to play the drums.  One plays piano and trumpet.

Are they Republican, Democrat, or Independent?  Republican-4 males.  Democrat-2 females.  Independent-1 male, 2 females.

What do you wish your school or public library would have now or in the future that would make you use it? 

• Good space for group work with computers to share on
• Nicer computers (flat screens, faster connection speeds, an OS more recent than Windows 98)
• Pre-reservable computers
• An area where you could talk and make noise
• Tables for group work
• Computers with simple internet access
• Better labeling of the books on the shelf for easier-finding
• Four of them said an easier way to find the books (can I get a "hell yeah" on that one?)

If they had to vote for a million dollar bond for either public libraries, schools, or community parks, which would they go with?
Schools – 7.
Parks – 1.
Libraries – 1.  Yeah.  We didn’t do so well.

What is your career goal?  Photography, Graphic Designer, Physical Therapist (2), Marine Biologist, Medical field, Engineering, computer programmer, football player or navy pilot.
Highly ambitioned teens!

Audience questions
Someone asked how it’s possible that kids go to their library orientation, and then never again?  Answers: kids don’t like to read, class visits don’t happen often. 

Someone asked what we could offer to make them use us.  Answers: downloadable video games, gaming devices, downloadable music but only if you could keep the music files permanently (!!!).

Someone asked if the kids listen to audio books instead of reading.  Answers: most said no, but one teacher showed kids chapter summaries online, so he started just reading those instead of the actual book.
WOW.

Someone asked if they could design an ideal place in the library, what would it look like? 

• A space like at Barnes & Noble with comfortable couches for readin
• A food or coffee stand
• Sunken in padded floor for reading
• More trendy/contemporary furniture and colors
• Music in the library
• More comfortable seats
• Colors, colors, colors!

Stephen asked if they like anime, manga, or graphic novels.  No one on the panel was interested in these. (very odd)

Question: Do any of them know a librarian as a friend? One’s grandmother is a librarian, but that was it.

Aaron Schmidt asked what kind of materials they would like to have, and anything about computers in our libraries.  Answers: game systems in the library, gaming and sports magazines, all the girly magazines, games to check out, game nights, laptops.

Someone asked a follow-up question about having a group-work computer area.  Answer: there needs to be space for 3-5 people around a computer with a big enough monitor.  Or two computers side by side to work together (one could research, one could type notes).  Passable keyboard and mouse (wireless instead of wired).

Would they use IM Reference services at their school or public libraries?  Five definite yes answers, general agreement that it would be immensely more convenient.  One said no.  Not a single one of them had ever phoned the library for help.

What is a good way for us to communicate all these things that we have for them, that they don’t know about?  Answers: MySpace, radio, announcements at school.

When they go to the public library, do staff seem friendly or welcoming, and do they think that the librarians will get whatever they ask for?  Answers: It all depends on the library and the specific librarian, but the general agreement is that they’re very helpful and want to get the information you need (although they might not always be really nice about it).  One reported a bad experience getting his head bitten off and not wanting to return, and one noted a perception that the staff treat people they know well better and give them better service.

Who has more resources and more knowledgeable librarians, school or public libraries? Answers: School because they specialize in their age group.  Public because they have so many more resources and a deeper collection.  Depends on what you’re looking for.

What search box do you use and why?  First answer: Dogpile because it shows more "to the point" results (huzzah !!!!!).  The rest reported more success with Google and being able to narrow search results down with the advanced search features, a simple layout, and the spelling-suggestion feature.  One criticized Yahoo! for having too much flashing advertising, and that makes him not want to use it.  One tries Google first, then if she doesn’t get what they want, will go to Yahoo!, Ask.com, or MSN.  There was definitely a sense of "I used Google first, so that’s what I still use."

This is good stuff, and except for the political vaugaries of teens in different places, I’m willing to bet that a lot of the information shared here would be identical to the attitudes of teens in your own communities.  Read this.  Grab a nugget or two, and use it to plan for better services for your own digital native crowd!