WEEK 2 Teens, Reading and Libraries: YA in the News

After reading Anthony Bernier's article, Representations of Youth in Local Media: Implications for Library Service I must admit that I was a bit apprehensive to see how London youth would be represented in the media. As Bernier states, "Thus a clear pattern emerges of the coverage of youth in these communities. One the one hand, poor behavior is exaggerated, frequently without evidence, and extrapolated across the entire demographic group, followed quickly by projections of public policy implications. One the other hand, socially positive behaviors and other factors that better contextualize social behaviors are ignored. Further, youth are nearly erased from the record as socially positive civic agents and sources" (Bernier, 2011). However, I am happy to see that the article that I chose, How, London? Downtown Needs More for Youth, looks at London youth in a quite positive light.

In this article author Randy Richmond suggests that the city of London would do well to "bulk" up its downtown, as it is where most youth instinctively congregate to, due to everything that it has to offer- culture, bus terminals, train stations, and its connection to university and college life. Richmond concludes his article by stating, "If we could have an ongoing replenishment of youth in this city, it would revitalize the entire city" (Richmond, 2012).

What I take from this article is that London youth play an instrumental role in not only in the city's downtown, but in the entire city. I think that this article is a nice contrast to Scott Taylor's Students Aren't Even Back in Town Yet... where Taylor explains that John Scott-Pearse, owner of Club Rouge on Piccadilly St., closed his doors last year to all London students- as Bernier would explain, blaming the whole for the actions of a few (Taylor, 2012).

What this article suggests to me is that it would perhaps be beneficial to the London Public Library (LPL) system to focus its attentions on catering to those youth who exploit downtown London. Currently London's largest library, the Central Public Library, is located downtown-ish (On Dundas). However, I am unsure of what this branch specifically  offers in the way of programming, if any, for this specific population. In catering to youth the LPL could perhaps notice an increase in patronage which may aid it in the way of funding(LPL recently announced that its budget was cut $500,000, leading to both hours and collection development cutbacks).

Sources

Bernier, Anthony. 2011. Representations of youth in local media: Implications for library service. Library & Information Science Research 33(2): 158–167. 

Richmond, Randy. "How, London? Downtown Needs More For Youth." London Free Press 26 September 2012. 

Taylor, Scott. "Students Aren't Even Back in Town Yet..." London Free Press 27 August 2012.