a favour - tag group

Andrea made an area for your group to have display space. can you send me some of your favourite titles, so i can display them/

I can just display them or I can make little cards saying Jess from Tag, your choice.

I know you are all so busy but just one or two titles.

i have tried to put some of the ones that i remembered you suggesting, last time.

Catherine

October's Agenda

Hey- did we decide that our meetings would be 1 1/2 hours from now on? If we did - I apologize (terrible memory!) and if we didn't, it might be an idea - but since the Teen Book Club follows the TAG, I'll have to be sure I can rearrange that meeting first. Let me know if you think we need 1.5 hours on a regular basis (otherwise, we'll continue at 1 hour per month and just schedule extra time as needed).

Anyway, for October:
1. First things first - we'll get to meet our new members! Please make every effort to be at this meeting so you can introduce yourself.
2. We'll talk briefly about the website content as per my previous post - think of anything you'd like to see on the website
3. We'll continue planning the art show (we'll focus on details about when it will runs, submission guidelines, etc and maybe start discussing how we'll divide up the work implementing it)
and if there's time:
4. We may discuss some other TAG projects for the future - Sonika had some great ideas, and we'll continue to brainstorm other ideas. I think what we'll do is create a list of any and every idea and we'll go through and pick those that seem most possible at a later meeting.

See you then!
Cheers,
Andrea

What happened at the September meeting

Hi everyone - thanks to everybody who came out to Monday's meeting. For those who couldn't make it and for our new members, here's what happened:

First - we recruited new members. TAG members took a look at the applications we received and selected some promising candidates - welcome to Ruth, Isabelle, Nishanthi, and Wendy (assuming you all still want to join of course!). When we meet in October, we'll be able to have some proper introductions.
Second - we reviewed a draft template for the teen site that our web designers came up with. Had some cool features (choice of styles, good menus, etc) and looked pretty simple. My meeting with the designer got postponed until next week, but I'll keep the group posted about what happens. In the meantime, I'll be starting to map out some content for the site, and I'd like input from the group about potential features. So far, I'm thinking that the following should be included as categories of info on the page:
- a section for recommended books, new arrivals, featured books, CDs, DVDs, booklists by theme, peer reviews from the TRAP
- volunteering information
- upcoming programmes and events
- homework help - I'll need more input on what would be useful in this section
- a TAG page - news from the group, projects we're working on - obviously, this would be your choice
What else should be included? Are these useful features? Should we include internet links? We may spend a few minutes next month discussing this.

Next I asked the group about my Info Literacy project (I'm working on a presentation for the OLA conference on providing Information Literacy Instruction to teens (i.e. teaching how to research). Some of the areas of the research process where you feel high school students are week in include:
- web research beyond google
- using library resources, finding materials in the library
- narrowing your search terms (search strategy)
- time management
- Citations
If you think of anything else, please let me know. What I think I'm going to do is create a survey to distribute to teens in the library to probe this question and I think I'll use the group as my guinea pigs to test drive the survey (probably at the November meeting).


Last but not least, we began discussing the art show. So far some of the ideas included:
- having an "opening night" in February, but then having the show run on an ongoing basis with rotating collections
- maybe looking at having "academy awards" on the opening week we themes like "most colourful" or whatever
- we'd include all media
- maybe consider a limit on # of pieces per person
- size limit = carriable
- we'd advertise on the website, in library and through art teachers
Keep thinking of more ideas and we'll pick this up net meeting. I'd like to have most of the details established for next month so I can submit a concrete proposal to the managers.

Let me know if I missed anything!
Andrea

And now onto September...

So to prepare for the September meeting...

As mentioned before, we'll be looking for a couple new additions to our group beginning in September. I have one interested party so far, and we'll be reviewing applications for suitable candidates. Assuming this doesn't take the whole meeting, the remainded of our time will be spent on discussing the art show that we talked about in the summer. We'll need to address the following:
- when it will happen
- guidelines for submissions
- what is the objective of the programme
- will there be prizes?
- eligiability of participants (i.e. age, etc)
- how will we handle intake of materials
- publicity and promotion
- should we host an event to kick it off?
So basically all the details. Hopefully, we can come to some agreement on these details at the September meeting; I'll then do what I need to do to push forward a proposal at the library and then hopefully by October we can work as a group on creating promotional materials (if you'd like). So give this some thought for next meeting. If the weather's good, maybe we can take our meeting to the balcony.

At some point this fall, we'll also be discussing ideas for programming in the winter and spring. If you can, try to think of other programmes like the poetry contest and the art show that encourage community participation and creative expression for teens. Try and think if there are any events we could host that relate to literacy and books (i.e. read-a-thon, book swap... whatever). We can start brainstorming these ideas here on the blog anytime.
Thanks, Andrea.

Summary of the August Meeting

Hi Everyone,

I hope everyone had a good first day back.
I just wanted to post some of the info from the last meeting for those of you that were not there...
First off, Lana from our Milliken Mills branch attended to observe how the group runs, get some input etc. (she's starting at TAG at the Milliken Mills location). If you know anyone in the Milliken Mills area that may wish to join, please let me know and I'll pass their names on to Lana. However, since we are recruiting too...
Since we are in the process of planning the content for a teen page on the website, the main project the group worked on last week was to review a series of library websites to provide some feedback on useful features, design ideas and content. Thanks so much for you great input! I'm still compiling a list of recommendations that you provided, and once I'm done, I'll post them on this blog. If anyone who was not at the meeting last week wants to add their comments, list of sites we looked at for ideas is at the bottom of this post. Also, if there are any other sites that you especially like (even if they are not library-related) please let me know. We'll continue to work on this for the weeks to come, so keep the suggestions coming!

Library Webpages for teens:
Pickering Public Library - http://www.picnet.org/teen/default.aspx?menu=teens
Toronto Public Library - http://ramp.torontopubliclibrary.ca/
Denver Public Library - http://teens.denverlibrary.org/
Hennepin County Library - http://www.hennepin.lib.mn.us/teens/
Brantford Public Library - http://www.brantford.library.on.ca/teens/
Hamilton Public Library - http://www.myhamilton.ca/myhamilton/LibraryServices/Teens/

Another random site for your review - what do you guys think of this site (ignoring the content, do you like the overall style?).
http://www.fashionclub.com/

Andrea.