Today was another short day. I spent the day at the HYPE center for teens at the main branch of Detroit Public Library. HYPE stands for "helping young people excel". Today they opened late and were closing early because they were short-staffed, which is unfortunate. When I got to the HYPE center there were no teens in the room except for a girl who helps run the makerspace program that happens on Thursdays. The librarian that I was supposed to be working with was at a meeting, so I just wandered around and looked around the room. The HYPE center is really a cool place. They've got video games set up to play, they've got plenty of seating and computers to work on, they have study rooms as well as three television monitors that I was told are almost always playing a movie of some sort. Today the movie was Naruto. I'm not much into Anime, but the HYPE center has a huge selection of Anime movies for the teens to pick from.
When Janet, the librarian, finally came in, she showed me around, again, and talked about how they're running out of shelf space for books because they don't have anyone to take on the project of weeding the collection because they are so short staffed. If I were at the Main Branch more often, I wouldn't have minded taking on the project of weeding the HYPE center, but alas, I've already got a lot going on at the Douglass Branch. I also talked with Janet about an American Girl tea party she is planning for May. It is not meant for teens -- Janet also works in the Children's Library--but it sounds like it would be an interesting program for American Girl fans. The girls (or boys) would bring in their dolls, and they'd have lunch and work on a craft such as making hats for their dolls. They're even trying to get an author of some of the American Girl books to come in and speak!
After about 3pm, it started getting busy at HYPE, because school was now out for the day. I watched some of the boys play video games for a while, and talked to Janet about my storytime tomorrow. I have to admit I'm a bit nervous, but I'm hoping it goes well! If not, at least it will be a learning experience! And unfortunately, although the girl who runs the makerspace program was there, all she was doing was working on getting supplies together for a craft time she does on Saturdays, and she invited the teens in the room to help her if they wanted. So there really was no makerspace program, which was kind of disappointing. Maybe next time I'm there! Before I knew it it was time to go! It was a quick day, but overall it was very interesting. I hope my schedule allows me to get back to HYPE soon!
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