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Tonganoxie Teens offering advice to local library

By Nicole Kelley - | Jun 28, 2006

A new teen advisory group to the Tonganoxie Public Library recently held its kick-off party with pizza, pop, tie-dye and dogs.

The party was to introduce the Tonganoxie Library Teens, a group that will act as advisors to the library by suggesting books, CDs, videos and graphic novels that are currently popular among their peers.

Sharon Moreland, library director, said she wanted to start the project as a way to build up the teen section that is currently lacking.

“A lot of the time in the library world the focus is on little kids and the teens are ignored,” she said. “You wonder why they don’t use the library as adults.”

Working with Moreland to start the group has been local 4-H’er, Hannah Davidson. As part of her leadership project for 4-H she has been in charge of the planning from the beginning.

Davidson said she started out by interviewing library officials in Basehor and Linwood, which have similar programs. She then formed a focus group with other teens that held meetings to plan the kick-off party.

Davidson said the thing she learned most by working on the project was being able to work with others and depend on them to get the help she needed. The biggest reward, she said, was the feeling of success as the project got started.

“I think it’s going to mainly have a good group to come and have fun with and will help the library to decide what books need to be bought,” Davidson said.

Clinton Megee, 14, was a member of the focus group that planned the event. He said he joined the group because he thought it would be fun and because he hoped people would start reading more.

“I think if they have books they would like, they would want to read,” he said.

Moreland said the group would get together once a month to discuss book ideas. She said that not only would the group help the library but it also would be a fun activity outside of school for the participants.

The library also is offering a summer reading program for teens called “Creature Feature.” The participants receive reading logs to track the time they spend reading and have the opportunity to win prizes. The library will host several activities in the afternoons for the teens as part of the program.