At the Library

?Do we have TAB today?? ?Where is the TAB meeting?? If you have ever been in the library around the 4 o?clock hour on a Monday you may have heard your librarians and/or a group of teenagers talking about ?TAB.? You might have wondered if that is secret code for something or if they are they are simply referring to that classic soda drink so popular in the ?70s in an attempt to revive it.

In actuality TAB is an acronym for Teen Advisory Board. Many public libraries have a variation of this organization. It is basically a group of teens who have volunteered to help their library fulfill their mission, focusing especially on services directed at teens. After all, who knows teenagers better than fellow teenagers?

Here at the Washington Public Library we have had a Teen Advisory Board for around 15 years. When we started the group there was a limit of 9 members, a rule created by the teens themselves and heavily influenced by the very popular Pirates of the Caribbean movies at that time. In those films the Pirate Lords were nine powerful pirate captains who each claimed territories around the world. So the board decided nine was the perfect number to claim their library territory. Over the years however, that rule has been disregarded and we now have 14 members on the board, the largest number of TAB members ever!

Any interested teenager in seventh-to 12th grade can apply in the fall of each year to be a member. There have also been a few years that we have accepted a sincere sixth-grader to serve, referring to them as a TABit (TAB in training). However, we have agreed that the group should not become too large so that we are able to maintain consistency and productivity.

When a teen applies they agree to four basic requirements including 1) To help plan and implement teen programs at the WPL; 2) to help evaluate and select materials for the WPL teen collection; 3) to help maintain the WPL teen section on our website; and finally, the most important; 4) To be a responsible library patron and an advocate for the library.

I am very proud of this group of kids and I rely on them to make the Washington Public Library more vibrant. Over the years some of the programs they have planned and implemented have ranged from a Karaoke Night to a life-sized Clue game. They have also created and run the ReBook room, a used book store in the lower level of the library where all the proceeds go toward library programming. Currently serving on our board are senior Ileia Kraft, who is now in her sixth year on TAB!

Fortunately TAB members who start early usually stick around through their senior year and prove to be excellent leaders. This is the case with Ileia. We also have two juniors, Isaiah Kraft and Willow Kane. There are five sophomores including Gwen Flannery, Mercedes German, Kaytana Heimark, Karmen Knipfer, and Lorenzo Zamudio. There are four freshman, who are John Flannery, Stephen Graham, Olesia Kraft, and Audrey Wubbena,. Finally, we have two seventh-graders, Dustin Levsen and Chloe Staley.

You can see the TAB promotional posters on display in the young adult lounge of the library and they will also be featured on our WPL Facebook page in the upcoming months. This group definitely keeps the library fresh and full of youthful spirit and we hope it continues to be a tradition for many years to come. Thanks, TAB!

These are the new materials available at the library this week.

Adult Fiction

True Faith and Allegiance by Tom Clancy

Mercury by Margot Livesey

The Devil in Jerusalem by Naomi Ragen

Large Print Fiction

True Faith and Allegiance by Tom Clancy

Adult Nonfiction

The Longest Road by Philip Caputo

Bloody Ridge and Beyond by Marlin Graft

Without You, There is No Us by Suki Kim

Enigma by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore

Adult Biography

The Making of Donald Trump by David Johnston