20 years ago today (May 15, 2006) the first issue of the Teen Librarian Monthly newsletter was sent out to around a dozen subscribers who I had met at a training day on working with Teens in Libraries that was offered by CILIP. During an break in the training we had all got to chatting and I suggested that when we got back to our libraries we keep in contact and share ideas, resources and support as then ,as now, there is a hole in library services when it comes to comprehensive teen library services.
The original newsletter was a two page word document that I mailed out, I later had the idea to convert it to .pdf. Nowadays of course, most word processing programs offer save to pdf as a matter of course, but back in 2006 I had to sign up for an Adobe account to get a limited number of free pdf conversions, and each month I would patiently upload a word version of the newsletter and then download a pdf copy to send out. I had to create a large number of emails as I kept having to sign up for Adobe accounts as, if memory serves, I only had six free conversions before I had to pay for more.
Behold the original issue of Teen Librarian Monthly
I created the logo in MS Paint:
and, basic as it is, I still have a lot of love for it. For years I wanted to jazz it up but my (at the time) limited digital graphic design skills could never match what I could see in my head so the 2006 graphic remained at the masthead for years. My original idea was to create a newsletter with content and ideas submitted by colleagues across the country, so that Teen Librarians would not constantly need to reinvent the wheel, but sadly too many of my colleagues were so busy doing the work that they did not have time to write and share what they were doing. Many were able to share successful programming ideas but for the most part I put together a newsletter of news, ideas and resources that I either found while looking for things to aid me in my job, created or worked on with friends.
A full archive of my pdf newsletters is available to download and read here: https://teenlibrarianmonthly.wordpress.com/
In 202o the newsletter transitioned to MailChimp and this iteration of the newsletter ran until 2024 when my job changed and I mostly stopped working with teens in libraries altogether (not through choice but due to the changing nature of my life in libraries).
The MailChimp era newsletters are all available here: TeenLibrarian Newsletter
These days the TeenLibrarian site is run by me in the US and my friend Caroline in the UK, mostly book reviews as well as posts and articles about Libraries in the US & UK, the struggles they face and resources for Library Workers who bear the brunt of attacks on books, burnout and more.
To everyone who has written for, subscribed to or otherwise shared the work we have done here – THANK YOU! Over the years, whenever I was at a low ebb I received emails and other messages saying thing to the effect of “Thank you – I no longer feel so alone in Libraries!” and honestly, those emails kept me going.
Honestly, I do not know how much longer the site will be around, the newsletter is pretty much done, but if anyone has any ideas on what we can still do here, please do not be afraid to let me know, my ocntact details are here: https://teenlibrarian.co.uk/contact/
