Stop flipping burgers and come to the library!

This spring, I had the pleasure of attending a regional conference in Colorado, sponsored by the Colorado Consortium of Libraries (CLiC). I met so many inspiring, creative, and hard-working librarians. Most everyone in attendance worked in a rural library, and everyone had much to share. One session I attended was about open source, which featured Judy Van Acker, Kieran Hixon, and Jesse Weaver, from the John C. Fremont Library District in Florence, CO.

It turns out that this small library has reaped the benefits of open source, and has implemented many different flavors for use by both staff and patrons. One particularly interesting aspect of their foray into open source is the source behind the coding: a whip-smart and affable 16 year old named Jesse Weaver. Before you start thinking that Jesse is an anomoly, consider a conversation I had with the former director at his library, Judy VanAcker. We talked about how teens are much more tech-savvy and tech-curious than generations past, and how the library is in most cases a petri dish for tech innovation and experimentation. We also chatted about teens needing jobs, and what a better place than the library to nurture the aptitude and abilities of teens who are hiding their tech skills in their parent's basement? And, as Jesse said,

"It's not flipping burgers at McDonald's, which when you're 16 is one of the other major career options. And I get to program, and I get paid for it. That's a pretty major thing, since programming is my hobby."

What if libraries harnessed this untapped talent in their communities? While Jesse noted that he's the only teen working as an IT staff at his library--he works 10 hours a week--he did share how most teens get involved in the library, "A lot of the way that the teenagers around here have gotten involved is through our gaming program. Mostly, they donate old consoles for other people to use, or they suggest video games. It's not like they're jumping up to be volunteers, but I think there's some interest."

What if libraries engaged teens who take advantage of the library's gaming resources to discover if perhaps there's a programmer just waiting for a cool part-time gig? At the John C. Fremont Library District, Jesse has helped to launch Koha and created an open source time management program for his library. What could a teen do at your library? Something to think about...

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LEARN FROM JESSE and KIERAN:

We recently spotlighted Jesse and his colleague, Kieran Hixon, in a free, 30-minute webinar on the topic of PC Reservation systems. Watch the archive to find out if their library's program (called "Powerline") is right for you, and download it for free! If you use Powerline, please comment below so we can forward on your thoughts and feedback to Jesse. He'd love to hear from you.

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