Creating a Digital Media Space for Today's Teens: Part 1 (August 2017)

1. Creating a Digital Media
Space for Today’s Teens
Corey Wittig, Digital Learning Librarian
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

2. Corey Wittig
Digital Learning Lead Librarian,
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
● 11 years at Carnegie Library of
Pittsburgh
● Program Manager of The Labs -
CLP’s mentor-driven library Learning
Lab program
● 2012 Library Journal “Mover and
Shaker”
● Librarian and Teacher at Falk
Laboratory School K- 8 (beginning August 17)

3. Part 1: Background
and Theory (Today)
Part 2: Practice
& Planning
(today and next week)
Part 3: Stuff:
Equipment, software, etc.

4. 2,357,981 (metro area)
Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania
USA

5. Carnegie
Library of
Pittsburgh

6. Creative Technology Programming
The Labs

7. vimeo.com/129009992

8. Part 1:
Background
& Theory

9. Thesis statement:
A library with mentorship at
the heart of service can
better reflect and serve the
community of which it is a
part.

10. A shift from a transaction-based
library model to one based on
relationships and community building.

11. YOUmedia
Chicago –
the big cheese
HOMAGO
3 levels of engagement
• Hanging Out
• Messing Around
• Geeking Out Youmediachicago.org

12.
Questions?

13. “Mentorship is about love.”- “Brother Mike” Hawkins
It’s not just about sharing knowledge. Mentorship is also about kindness and compassion.
dmlhub.net
http://digitalyouthnetwork.org/

14. Pittsburgh
then...
“Hell with
the lid off.”
- James Parton

15. Pittsburgh
now
nextpittsburgh.com
America’s “Most
Liveable City”

16. But...
America’s “Most Liveable City”
newpittsburghcourieronline.com
For whom?
● 2 to 3 times as many African-
Americans living in poverty as
whites
● Preschool and private school
enrollment lowest for African-
Americans
● The typical white student attends a
school that’s 90% white with little
poverty among classmates
● The typical African-American
student goes to a school where half
students also African-American and
poor

17. This goes beyond Pittsburgh
More than 16 million children in the United
States--22% of all children--live in families with
incomes below the federal poverty level--
$23,550 a year for a family of four.
The Future of Library Services for & with Teens: A Call to Action, The Young Adult Library Services
Association, 2014

18. What can libraries do?

19. Libraries can
bridge the
equity gap by:
● providing caring, non-parental, non-
teacher adults to encourage youth
○ Though it doesn’t have to be
limited to youth
● create spaces for informal learning
and exploration of interests

20. Embrace
our role as
educators
and mentors.

21. Credit: Connected Learning Research Network and Digital Media & Learning Research Hub

22. Learning
http://clrn.dmlhub.net/

23. View the library as a place where
literacy and learning
are supported and encouraged.

24. Discrete skills are cool (learning
how to do this and that) but keep
in mind WHY – to what end?

25. STORY
How did we get there?

26. YOUmedia & Pittsburgh: a history
• The YOUmedia physical space was designed by a
team of graduate students under the direction of
Professors Drew Davidson and Jesse Schell from
the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie
Mellon University. – youmediachicago.org
Acting Director of the ETC

27. CLP – Main,
Teen Dept.

28. Getting started, or “How Do You
Create an Initiative Out of Thin Air?”
• Plan your program in the context of your library’s
Strategic Plan/vision/mission statement
• At every turn in the search for funding you will have
to justify your program. It starts here.
• Root it in research.

29. http://www.search-institute.org

30. The Thick of It:
Program Design
YOUmedia & The Labs guidelines.

31. Institutional
Buy-inMission
To Engage our Community in Literacy and Learning
Vision Statement
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh will inspire in the citizens of our region
respect and responsibility for life-long learning, citizenship, and civic
participation
LITERACY

32. Design for Mentorship
Intentional Design of programs and
services will help insure mentoring
becomes an explicit part of library
service

33. The Labs & Mentorship
Mentors in The Labs were hired based
on the YOUmedia (Chicago Public
Library) model
This model marks a shift toward public library workers
identifying as educators first.

34. Mentoring’s
Effect
"I'd like to thank-you for always listening to me and being such a supportive person. When I'm at the
library I always feel free to be me, because of the amazing positive energy you put into the space. My
favorite project is still the sock cat with light up eyes. I still have mine. Through Outside the Lines I
grew to have more confidence in myself and see my self worth because of all the new things I was
trying and people I was meeting."

35. Designing for
Multiple Literacies =
Designing for Diversity
(This can mean: racial diversity of staff, diversity of interests represented in
staff and programming, and on and on…)

36. Design for Multiple
Literacies to Support
Mentors
● Strategic Plan
● Staff training through
project-based learning
sessions
○ Both make mentorship a
part of library culture
Learning with The Labs:
Soldering 101

39. It’s scalable!

40. “The strange thing is that I didn’t know that was
my education. I thought that was the stuff I was
escaping my education for.”
Neil Gaiman
on what he learned in libraries

41. Next week: Tips for planning
your program. Equipment
suggestions and ways to
engage your staff.