Two men at your library

The theme for YALSA's Teen Tech Week this year was Tune In @ Your Library. When this theme was used for the teens' summer reading program a few years ago, some of my colleagues heard it as "two men" at your library. I will always think of it as "two men".

So, what did I plan for "two men" this year?

Today I had a circuit bending workshop at the library. It was presented by Beatrix*Jar, an electronic sound art duo. They are awesome, and lead a very very good workshop for teens.

Basically, they take battery operated (that's a key point. battery operated. no electrocution on their, or my watch!) devices and rewire the circuit board to create new sounds. In the workshop they took apart a Casio keyboard, tried different wiring until they found an effect they liked, then soldered it in place with a new switch. Then the kids got to dig through their box and pull out other keyboards and educational toys from the 80s and give a try at rewiring the sounds.

I'm not doing justice to how cool circuit bending is. I started to wonder if it was just cool to me because it never occurred to me to take something apart and make up my own use for it, but no. It's cool. Check this out...



My library system does Teen Tech Month as its way of participating in Teen Tech Week. Why? There are a lot of non-print resources available for recreation and education these days, and it's important to recognize that that people need to be technologically literate. And, it's important to me that librarians be considered as qualified, knowledgeable and trusted go-to people when it comes to information technology (as well as print resources), and that the resources and services we provide are seen as relevant and current.

I must keep this underlying professional reason in mind as I get ready for my next Teen Tech Month program -- a techie book discussion / Twilight party. I am geeked about the google map we're going to create of all the events that take place over the course of the books. I also must tame my inner-nerd by then, to keep it at a minimum.