With the goal of improving services for the next generation of supporters, Plainsboro Library recently hired a new head of youth services. Earlier this month Darren Miguez, right, joined library, where he will oversee the library collection for children and teenagers. There are also plans for additional youth programming.
“The library adds a gateway to a wider culture,” Miguez says. “To get people on the path to learn about themselves and the wider world, and a place to socialize — the library can provide those things.”
The youth collection is located on the third floor, but the library has emphasized expanding services to adjust to the digital age and go beyond its traditional role of providing books.
“There are many more venues for teens who want to read a short story or a novel composed in tweets,” Miguez says. “Teens will find it. They are not going to be satisfied with a static collection on the shelves. They are digital natives. I don’t think it’s a bad process, but it’s good to have librarians to verify information.”
Miguez was born in England, where his father served in the Air Force as a mechanic and also met Miguez’s mother, a secretary. The family relocated to Las Vegas after his father was assigned to Nellis Air Force Base.
After graduating from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, he worked at the Rainbow Public Library in Las Vegas. He liked working in libraries and attained a master’s degree in library and information science from his alma mater. Working as a teen librarian at Rainbow Library, he met his eventual wife, Lauren Ryan, a reference librarian.
They currently live in Branchburg with their infant daughter; another child is on the way this November. Lauren works in the Somerset County Library System. Before joining Plainsboro Library, Miguez previously worked at Old Bridge Library for eight years, first as youth services coordinator and then as the library director for the past two years.
He finds working with kids rewarding, as he is in a position to answer their inquiries and watch them grow.
“I really like working in the community in the long term,” Miguez says. “Kids who come to your story time, they then go to school, you help them with homework, and you see the community through the lens of the children.”
Teenagers in particular are filled with curiosity, and Miguez notes that they are in a key developmental stage in life.
“Teens ask a lot more questions. They are more voracious in the number of topics and subjects they want to learn about, as opposed to adults, who generally know more or less who they are and what interests they have,” Miguez says.
“They are developing their identity more firmly and learning what they want from life, where they want it to go. You’re dealing with a lot of issues of race, gender, more so nowadays than previously, because of the development of our culture. The library owes it to teenagers to confront those issues head-on and provide those materials for the teenagers to find their own answers.”
At the Old Bridge Library Miguez implemented a MakerSpace, which is an informal workshop for community members to work on projects, from gardening and cooking to 3D printing. He also launched a weekly E-mail newsletter, as well as access to digital magazines and online tutoring.
Plainsboro Library has already featured digital access to magazines and tutoring as it stays attuned to the community’s changing needs. Miguez remembers the card catalogs he saw at his college library in the 1980s, but the system was done away with within two years. And with the advent of the internet the library is no longer the main repository of information, though a librarian still provides guidance in finding credible information and resources.
“Pre-Internet, information was scarce,” Miguez says. “You had to go to the library to access information and books. These days it’s the opposite; it’s an information glut. It’s a matter now of being able to sift through fact, fiction, deceptive information, and cat videos.”
Working with children, particularly teenagers, can often assist Miguez in figuring out how the library can keep pace with community’s changing needs.
“The cool thing about being in a youth services position, you can spot trends, spot interests, and the odd fad that is worth pointing out to colleagues,” Miguez says. “Whatever you see the teenagers getting into, often those interests play out when they become adults. I look to the youth to tell the adult librarians what to watch out for in the future. Who picked up social media first?”
For example, children are increasingly familiar with tablet computers and smartphones. One short-term conclusion is that library websites should be easy to view on mobile devices. In the long term, how should the library adjust or enhance its collection if more people are reading material from a screen?
Aside from the books available, a main goal is to further establish the library as a community center. For youth of all ages, the library has organized cultural programs, introducing children to science, ESL classes, and foreign languages. Recently more than 100 people attended a physics demonstration by a Rutgers staffer, and the library seeks to provide more of such events for the community to explore.
“We’re really going to beef up our teen program in our library, which will hopefully be a nice shot in the arm for Plainsboro,” Miguez says. “We have a young adult collection here, but nobody has focused on programs for teens or connecting with the teen community. There have been events where the high school band has come out, but I want to take that success and build on that.”
To increase community involvement, Miguez wishes to create a teen advisory board that would discuss what Plainsboro teens would like to learn about. This could inform library staff on book purchases and programming planning, instead of just going with what is generally popular.
Other potential offerings include a summer reading program, and Miguez has reached out to the school district to invite high school students to perform for the community.
“It’s basically going to be a sampling of dramatic arts, your theater and choir students,” Miguez says. “We want to show off what the high school is doing and expose the community to the young talent. And it’s good for students to perform in the public.”
For younger children, the library has created a color-coded reading level system that will assist parents confused by the different systems used by each book publisher. Books marked red are the easiest reading level, and reading levels then advance from yellow to blue to green.
Also on the third floor are various story time events available throughout the week. Library staff will read stories out loud, and other events will feature crafts, felt boards, songs, and dances. There are different story time events for each age group, from newborns to kindergartners. Parents with similar-aged kids can socialize, and there are also family story time events for siblings of mixed ages.
“For the very young children, it’s a chance to be in a social environment and be with kids your own age,” Miguez says. “As story time goes up in age, for 4 and 5 year olds they leave their parents behind. The goal is to introduce children to books and get parents to read with children.”
