Library Chat: Bien set a strong foundation for teen activities at MHPL

By Medicine Hat News on August 31, 2018.

Michelle Bien, the library’s teen services coordinator, is retiring and her last day is the day this column is being printed. Michelle has done great work and the library is justifiably proud of the teen services she was so instrumental in developing.

Our head of youth services Carol Ann Cross-Roen tells me “specialized teen services began at our library in the early 2000s and we were one of the first agencies to offer teen services locally. We sought teen input to make sure the programs were relevant to that age group which is how our teen advisory group came to be. It is called TIC TAC which stands for Teen Initiating Change Together And Committed.

Over the years we’ve seen our numbers grow and we’ve also added more programs in response to the demand. Now we’re offering TIC TAC nights pretty much every second Friday during the school year and once a week in the summer.

One of the big draws is videogaming; we usually have four volunteer tournament organizers who completely take care of our Super Smash Bros. tournament. Some of the teens even bring in their own equipment to ensure everyone can play with all the characters unlocked.

Anime night has has a huge following as well. Attendance has surpassed 100 teens on occasion and it regularly attracts 80-plus teens to participate in cosplay costume contests, ramen noodle eating and manga drawing sessions. Again one of our TIC TAC members took a leadership role and developed an anime trivia game through Kahoot that was a big hit.

Beyond the nights that have really big numbers we have a variety of offerings throughout the year which reflect what’s trending with teens. So while Harry Potter Night and Pirate Night have been retired new themes are constantly being brought forward by the group. We average 60 teens per TIC TAC night during the school year. For the last couple of years our best attended nights attract 80-plus teens and the lowest attendance was 33. These are really good numbers!

The first meeting of the TIC TAC executive for this academic year will be on Sept. 26. New members are welcome. We hope that our past TIC TAC members will returning this year as we are particularly dependent on their input and advise to keep the program going.”

As with all our activities and resources, the future of teen services will largely be determined by funding in 2019 and beyond. We will continue to build on the truly impressive teen services foundation that has been built over the years with all the resources we can muster.

Ken Feser is chief librarian at the Medicine Hat Public Library.

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