The Mt. Laurel Library is home to various age-specific activities, such as story time for toddlers to preschoolers and crocheting for adults. Although the library has events for teens and tweens, the library only had a teen advisory board to help with the in-between-aged planning. That is until recently, as a Tween Advisory Board was created to help attract a different age group to the library.
Mt. Laurel Library Special Projects Manager Julie Binger said planning for the Tween Advisory Board took awhile.
“We knew we wanted to create a tween program,” Binger said. “We have such a good history with the small kids with story time and then we have a good teen advisory board. We really needed to start doing tween services more.”
Binger said there have been events geared toward tweens in the past, but creating an advisory board where the fifth- through seventh-graders are planning events for their own age group is a lot easier than adults planning for the tweens.
Time and interest in activities have changed since she was younger, so Binger said it was difficult coming up with events with the teen library event coordinator.
The first activity the advisory board is planning is a Minecraft-themed treasure hunt. Binger said she would have never thought to transform a video game into a library treasure hunt if they tweens did not bring it up.
“They have such great ideas,” she said, adding each month is a different theme. The tween advisory board members have to come up with activities based off the theme of the month.
Erin Fuzer, 12, attended her first meeting on Thursday, March 7, with her friend Emma McPherson, 12.
Erin said she really didn’t know about the tween advisory board, but decided to tag along with Emma. After realizing what the board was about, she thought it was a good idea to help incorporate its ideas into activities.
“Normally people don’t take our opinions. They take the little kids’ opinions and they take the older kids’ opinions. They don’t think about us,” Erin said.
Emma also thinks the advisory board is the best way for tweens to state their opinion when it comes to library activities.
“We get to state our opinion because they usually skip over some of the younger kids in their tweens. They just go straight to the adults. They just sort of leave us out,” Emma said.
Binger said the idea behind the advisory board is not only to plan more tween-related activities, but to get the tweens involved in the process.
“I hope this makes them feel valued,” Binger said.
Pranay Musalimadugu, 12, enjoys playing Minecraft. He said he also likes planning activities for the library.
“I like it because I have more of a voice,” he said.
Binger said now that the tween advisory board is established, there are going to be activities in the library for all age groups. She said she hopes the activities will attract more tweens as well as make it easier for the tweens on the advisory board to transition to the teen advisory board.
“They are not little anymore. It is so hard to figure out what to do for them,” Binger said. “I am hoping if they start coming to the library now, they will stick around.”
The Tween Advisory Board is hosting its first activity on Saturday, April 20 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the library. To coincide with March’s Minecraft theme, the board constructed a treasure hunt-style activity inspired by Minecraft.
The advisory board is also looking for more members. For more information about the advisory board or the activity in April, email Mt. Laurel Library Special Projects Manager Julie Binger at jbinger@mtlaurel.lib.nj.us.
