Connecticut Post Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Keila Torres, Staff Writer
BRIDGEPORT — A funky orange, purple and black rug, purple booths and cafe-style tables and race-car rocking chairs that MP3 players can be hooked into are some of the essential items in the new teen cafe at the Burroughs and Saden Library branch downtown.
While libraries for decades have contained special sections for children and adults, “It’s the teenagers that you sometimes lose,” said Nancy Sweeney, youth services team leader for the library. “They traditionally do not have their own space.”
Thanks to the library staff and a group of city teenagers, however, that is no longer the case in Bridgeport.
This spring, with the help of a grant from the Pitney Bowes Foundation, the first-floor space at the city’s main library branch underwent a makeover.
A “Teens Only” sign now warns adults and children to keep out of the teen cafe.
Rafael Parüssolo, 17, said he was excited when asked to participate in the creation of the space. “I thought it was great,” he said. “I usually went to Fairfield branches and all of them have teen spaces.”
The space was officially unveiled in June ,and this month the branch began hosting special gaming and crafts events on Tuesday nights. This week’s special program featured an anime movie.
“It looks very modern and funky,” said Parüssolo, who will soon start his senior year at Harding. “When people think of the library they think it’s a boring place to go. It’s somewhere you feel you have to go for research or something, not somewhere you want to go. Now, they will have another option for entertaining themselves.”
Renel Bernadel, 18, a member of the Mayor’s Conservation Corps, said when he finishes his door-to-door canvassing he goes directly to the Bridgeport library. What draws him in are the computers, of which the teen space now has eight.
Sweeney said the library branches have used gaming systems and computers to draw in teens for several years. “It’s what they like,” she said. “You hope that once they are here they will say, `Oh, you have videos’ or, `Oh, I can read a book without buying it.’”
The city’s other branches have also made a concerted effort to engage teenagers. Teens who visit the Newfield Branch for years have been known to break out in song for karaoke and open mic nights or whip out their dancing shoes for Dance, Dance Revolution games on the Xbox gaming console.
In June, several library “regulars” won the “It’s Your Cause” video contest sponsored by Rosen Publishing and the Teen Health & Wellness website when they produced their own original music to create a video about personal space, with the aid of Sweeney and branch manager Mike Bielawa.
The library also provides educational activities, like the summer reading program in which teenagers win prizes when they read five, 10 and 15 books. As part of the teen cafe, the college preparation materials were also moved from the second floor of the library to the new teen area.
“We’re hoping once school starts it will take off as more and more kids learn about it,” Sweeney said.
