After years of renovations and closing down for a month for final touches, the Denver Public Library’s Central Library next to Civic Center Park downtown held a grand reopening celebration on November 3. The party included the introduction of a brand-new section of the Central Library on its second floor: a Teen Library, where young readers between 13 and 19 years old (yes, the “teen” years) can hang out and be themselves… whether or not they’re there to read.
Stephanie Baker, Teen Library Supervisor, is happy to be in the role running the Teen Library, a position that did not exist before.
“I am the first person in this position,” she says, proudly. “I was the first person hired for this team. And once I got on board in June, I got everybody hired and ready to go, and we spent a lot of time, like, buying all the things that you need to start up a brand new library.” All of DPL’s branches have books for teens and so cater to those young readers, but the Central Library has the staff dedicated to serving teenagers with not just written content but activities that appeal to them, and everything needed to make those activities happen, including (not surprisingly) computers but also musical instruments.
Baker was hired from a library in Arizona where she enjoyed engaging with teens, but she had to work within existing library infrastructure. When she heard about the gig at Denver’s Central Library to build a Teen Library from scratch, she jumped at the chance.
“Now I had the opportunity to walk into an empty space with no staff and really build this from the ground up,” she notes. “Sometimes when you inherit a staff, you get folks who don't really want to be working with a certain population, or it's not their passion. And so I was really lucky to hire a team that is really excited to work with, a team that wants to be great stewards of this space.
“So they take a lot of ownership in it, and they especially love sharing it with the teens. They just have done such a great job of doing outreach and bringing schools in,” she explains. “Like today, we had two different school groups here hanging out, learning how to do research, playing on the computers, playing musical instruments.”
After years of renovations and closing down for a month for final touches, the Denver Public Library’s Central Library held a grand reopening celebration on November 3.
Photo provided by Denver Public Library
There’s a sound-dampening pods for playing games or making music, and even a recording studio to capture the work produced by the teens.
Baker says the Central Library remake began in 2016. “They started planning this renovation by reaching out to the community and asking them what they wanted and what their preferences for the building would be,” she says. The library still follows that process, including for the Teen Library. “And so part of that vision from community input was to have some real space dedicated to teens, yeah. Not only is it this wonderful space, but it's giving back to the community what they've asked for.”
That attention to the community’s needs includes allowing noise – breaking the ages old stereotype of librarians shushing people amongst the hushed tables and bookshelves.
“Yeah, it seems counter intuitive, doesn't it?” she says, chuckling. “But to me, noise and mess means people are having a great time, and they're engaging and they're interacting in the space. And I just love that. And with teens, we can't afford to be shushing or asking them to not be themselves. We have to let them express themselves verbally or however, you know.”
Libraries provide great services for very young people like children who need help with pre-literacy to become used to reading, and with adults who might need access to computers or to print out a resume for job hunting.
“Their needs are being met, but what we have noticed traditionally is that teens needs are not necessarily being met,” Baker explains. “They're too old for the children's space that doesn't connect with them. They're too young for the adult space.
“The Teen Library is a space where they can come, they can socialize, they can express themselves in a welcomed environment, there's not going to be judged. We're not going to be shushing. They can come and be themselves. We have gaming computers, we have Xbox we have, like, Nintendo switches.”
And Baker’s team is always reaching out and asking for input on what people would like in the Teen Library, with surveys and QR codes to online surveys, and whiteboards asking people questions. “And you know, it's been really great to be able to take that feedback, and then turn around and hand them the things that they said should be in the space. It gives the teens ownership. It makes them feel like we listen. We're listening and we care.” Baker’s team is even starting a Teen Advisory Board to give teens responsibility for suggesting how the library needs to evolve to serve them, and come up with community projects that would be relevant.
One suggestion that became a reality is a Project Garage where teens can come and work on projects to make things. “It's this big room within the Teen Library, and it's got these really cool garage doors. So we call it the project garage. And we've got, we basically have all these cabinets, and they're full of different materials, art, for art and building and electronics, and, you know, different types of robotic scenes that they can just come in and take out what they want, and start working and learning, and it's about living. Oh, it's way beyond just books. We're tapping into all of those literacies like computer literacy and tech literacy and art and music, and we're really trying to make it a well-rounded space that connects with various different types of teens and their interests.”
