Library Project — Teen Book Box

One of my favorite projects from my time working at the Stoughton Public Library was starting the Teen Bookbox program. The idea came from this Teen Services Underground post by Melisa Martinez at the Hinsdale Public Library. 

I shared the structure of the project with my supervisor, and then pitched it to the rest of the relevant library department heads who would be involved, including Circulation, Tech Services, and the Library Director. We agreed that it was a good way to promote books that were in the Stoughton collection specifically (we wouldn't be offering books from the other libraries in our system.) I made flyers to advertise the program, and talked it up to the teens I saw during my programs. 

We opened up 20 slots for teens to sign up, and most of them were snapped up pretty quickly, though not all the teens to sign up at the beginning kept participating in the program through the months I was at the library. The ones who did were SO FUN, and I really got to know them and their reading preferences, sometimes without ever meeting them in person. See the example of one of their feedback forms below. It's clear how much personality could be conveyed simply through a piece of paper.

As part of signing up, I asked the teens to fill out a "Reading Personality Quiz" and list two of their favorite books of all time. From there, I scoured booklists and Novelist to find suggestions of new books they might like and might be slightly outside their reading comfort zone. I got to flex my readers advisory muscles, and it really helped me get to know the collection I was working with. 

Feedback form: 

Challenges:

• This project was really time-consuming. As an intern hired specifically to serve teens, I had the luxury of time to dedicate to launching this program, but it did take up a large chunk of it. As I got to know the kids better and had more of their feedback to work with, choosing books got easier and faster, but I still spent time on research. I wanted to be sure I was choosing titles which would keep participants excited about getting their box next month.


• Budget. The biggest upfront costs were purchasing the boxes and sticker paper to create the book boxes themselves. We were also able to purchase some exciting treats to include in the boxes. If you don't have that option, see if you can collect some donations of trinkets or snacks that might be fun to include.
  Or find printable puzzles/activities/bookmarks online that you can print yourself. 

Reasons to start a subscription book box program at your library:

• An asynchronous subscription program like this builds relationships with teens who don't come to in-person programming. It helped me tap into a new population of avid readers that you might not see in other contexts.


• As staff, it helps you get to know your collection and promote it! I had the opportunity to raise circ numbers on titles that might be a perfect fit for certain readers, but weren't getting checked out a lot. 


• All the flashy boxes sitting on the holds shelf raises the profile of teen programming with other library patrons. They spark questions and give staff the opportunity to talk up what the library is doing. 


• Perhaps obviously: promote reading for pleasure!