WebJunction

Milton, Ontario, is a town of about 50,000 just on the edge of the greater Toronto area.   It was once a mill town, which the laconic locals soon shortened to "Milton."   (As you might expect, there is an alternative version alleging that the town's founder, John Martin, named the town after the poet John Milton.)  Whether the town's roots are in the earthy or the artsy, though, lately the population has been booming.  In the next couple of decades, Milton is expected to double in size, partly because of its proximity to both the Toronto conurbation and the Niagara Escarpment, with its abundant hiking and skiing opportunities.

The Milton Public Library has grown along with the town: it's just celebrating its sesquicentennial (that's 150 years--how many North American libraries can claim that?).   Like libraries in other areas with rapidly increasing populations, the Milton Public Library faces its share of growing pains.  Plans to build a brand new library are on hold for the moment, given the town's many civic priorities, but the space crunch demands a short-term solution.  So the library has acquired the building next door that will be the new home for the library's administrative and technical services.  This will free up space in the current building for both children (with an outdoor "story garden" in the works) and teenagers. 

The new area dedicated to teens will give them a place to hang out with the Internet, graphic novels, manga, and each other--but it already has a virtual forerunner.   The library has launched a tidy and elegant collection of resources for teens on the library's Web site.

Simple and effective, the Milton Public Library teen page serves up easy access to great resources.

Children's Services Librarian Janis Marshall and library Webmaster Valerie Neil teamed up to design and build the library's teen resources page.  Guidance for the development of the page came from a variety of sources, including professional journal Teacher Librarian and the useful teen-services journal Voya (http://www.voya.com/WhatsInVoya/ViewEd.html).   Of course, suggestions from staff provide a vital piece of input.  But most important is the site’s openness to the expressed needs of the teens themselves.  To continue to develop and enhance the site, the library has budgeted funds to establish a "teen advisory group" to help with collection development as well as Web site improvement.  Keep in mind that the Web page, as effective as it is, is still "in its infancy" (like the rest of the library's teen program).  Expect to see even better things where this came from!

Teen patron Calvin Hill muses on the mysteries of the Web.
Photo by Janis Marshall

The development of the teen page is the continuation of a project that's been under way several years now--to build pages "Especially For" children, seniors, and genealogy and local history.   Each of these pages is a great resource, not just for the target group of patrons but also for staff offering help to them with reference questions.  These customized pages have been very effective at demonstrating the value of the library to the community.   As Webmaster Valerie Neil says, "Sometimes the local resources are harder to find than the national ones."

As those who run larger Web sites know, it's difficult to get a sense of exactly who's using the site and how.    But that is actually one of the key strengths of creating such a site: given the intensely private world of adolescence, a Web site allows the library a way to reach out to this group of patrons exactly where they are.  What Janis and Valerie do know is that many local youth organizations link to their page--and some pretty impressive folks from farther afield as well, including the Somali Center for Youth & Community Development in Ottawa (which has Milton's youth site on its Web site's front page) along with such notable organizations as the City of Ottawa and the government of Ontario’s Ministry of Children and Youth Services.

Getting the word out about the library site has included posting in-house fliers, placing pieces in the local paper, and renting a booth at the local home show--the booth features a computer station as well as pencils and refrigerator magnets with the library's Web address to hand out.   In Milton's fast-growing environment, the home show is an ideal place for the library to introduce itself to newcomers!

Milton teens (along with their parents, grandparents, and younger siblings) are learning that their library building AND their library Web site are good starting places for getting the information they need.   That's a good sign for a growing community--and for its library.

The Milton Public Library's Web site is at http://www.mpl.on.ca.  You can reach Children's Services Librarian Janis Marshall at janis.marshall@mpl.on.ca and library Webmaster Valerie Neil at valerie.neil@mpl.on.ca.

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