Learn how teens use social networking technologies and how these same technologies can be used to engage them in library services.

Many of today's teens spend hours each day on Facebook, MySpace, and other social networking sites. What does this mean for library services to young adults? How can librarians harness these popular sites in the service of library programs and education overall?

Teens and Social Networking Now: What Librarians Need to Know is organized around ten major topics, including using social networking sites to connect teens to young adult literature, social networking and legislative issues, social networking and safety/privacy issues, and the social and educational benefits of social networking. Expert practitioners explain how such issues can and should impact library services to young adults, focusing on concrete suggestions and specific steps for best practices and program designs that will help librarians utilize social networking tools to enhance library services to teens, both online and in the library.

As background, the book explores the reasons so many teens use these sites. It also shares a profile of an award-winning public library's use of social networking to engage teen library users and a national survey of the ways YA librarians are using social networking to deliver public library services.

Features
• The results of a national survey of YA librarians and technology managers in public libraries showing how librarians are using social networking in their work with teens and the specific types of technologies they use
• A list of suggestions that can serve as a planning tool for the use of social networking tools in the delivery of library services to teens
• A bibliography of professional resources and research related to teens, libraries, and social networking

Highlights
• Brings together ten important issues related to teens, libraries, and social networking, providing a practical overview of what librarians need to know about social networking in order to best serve this population
• Offers information aimed specifically at practitioners, with practical examples and suggestions for practice
• Shows librarians how to educate teens about social networking communities and how libraries can serve as safe places where teens can access them
• Summarizes research on privacy and social networking
• Outlines the educational benefits of social networking to teens

Denise E. Agosto, PhD, is associate professor at Drexel University, College of Information Science, Philadelphia, PA. Dr. Agosto's research interests include public libraries, diversity issues in youth library services, and youth information behavior. She has published many articles and book chapters in these areas and has received multiple awards for her research and teaching. Most recently she coauthored, with Sandra Hughes-Hassell, Urban Teens in the Library: Research and Practice.

June Abbas, PhD, is associate professor at the School of Library and Information Studies, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK. Dr. Abbas has published widely on children, teens, and social networking. She is the recipient of a State University of New York at Buffalo Certificate of Recognition from Career Services, Division of Student Affairs, 2005, for "making a difference in students' lives."

Reviews
"This book serves as a textbook introduction that is most useful for public libraries just beginning their connection to teens on social networks."—School Library Journal