After years of trying to put in place a teen area in the library, I finally have a chance at accomplishing this! The hardest part of the planning was surprisingly not the funding. Around here it is the space! Last year we moved our public computers to the Reference area, and we changed the Computer Room to a Community Room. So how do we maintain the Community Room while provind a teen area?

We make it versatile, of course! We won't be moving the YA books from the Youth Room, but we will be (hopefully) providing a safe and engaging environment for teens afterschool. Unfortunately with limited staff, it would only be available a few afternoons a week.

So in a few weeks I will be presenting the idea to the Board and I hope we will finally be able to provide the teens of our community with a place of their own!

Oh this is becoming too much fun! Book trailer #2 is complete and uploading on YouTube at this very minute! I chose one of my favorite YA books - Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher - because it is such a wonderful story and Asher did a spectacular job writing it.  So without further ado, I give you my booktrailer for Thirteen Reasons Why!

After mulling over the idea of creating a booktrailer, I finally sat myself down and created one. It turned out pretty darn good for my first attempt with all the software and royalty free websites. If you are considering creating one, here are the two websites I used for my images and music:

Stock Xchange - great selection of free images, but I wish it was more user friendly, especially the search
http://www.sxc.hu/

FreePlayMusic - an abundant selection of wonderful music clips! Easy to find the perfect clip with categories based on sound, instrument, etc.
http://freeplaymusic.com/

To make the video I used Windows Movie Maker. After playing with it, there are alternatives to the one I created, but those I will experiment with next time. Yes, there will be a next time and many more after that!

Making a booktrailer was such a fun way to market the books. So get creative and have sum fun!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wjq1m0ehgBg