Getting Stratford Teens Hooked on Books

When Stratford Library Director Barbara Blosveren asks teenagers why they like coming to the library, they usually give the same reason teens did in the 1980s when she started the library's teen department.

"They feel comfortable here. They can read the books they want to read," she said.

"When I hear them speak, I tell them I can't believe you're using the exact same language I quoted in articles years ago," Blosveren said.

Those articles, published in professional journals for librarians, reflected her national reputation as an innovator and expert on providing library services geared for children and teens.

Blosveren, who lives in Orange, has been the Stratford Library director since January 2007. She started work for the library in 1982 as a part-time children's and reference librarian. Next year will be her 30th here.

She grew up in Malverne, NY, went to college at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, and got her master's degree at Southern Connecticut State University in 1976. Before coming to Stratford, she was assistant director at the Woodbridge Library and a part-time librarian at the Orange Library.

In Stratford, she soon became a children's librarian.

"And then I created the teen department, which I believe was the first teen department in Connecticut," she said.

It had its own young adult book collection and its own space in the library, all designed for grades 7-12. To support it, she helped form the Youth Review Board, comprised of teenagers who would read new books for middle school-aged and high school-aged students, and write reviews on them.

The Youth Review Board was highly successful from the start, she said. It is still going strong, and has begun planning a 25th anniversary celebration for next June.

"I recognized that it was very important then, as it is now, to keep young people engaged in reading," Blosveren said.

She said often teens stop coming to the library and don't return until they are adults bringing their own children there.

The Youth Review Board compiled its book choices on a reading list, which Blosveren distributed to libraries and school in 40 states.

The group's reading list won them awards, including the Outstanding National Reading Group award from the Young Adult Division of the American Library Association.

Major publishing houses in New York City included the Stratford group among eight across the country to review pre-publication galley proofs of new books to see if the stories and the cover designs appealed to teenagers.

Blosveren became a nationally-recognized expert on teen reading programs and served as a consultant to train other librarians on how to develop their own teen departments and promote reading for that age group.

She said she repeated her success by designing a similar program for people speaking English as a second language, by creating a book collection for them and an advisory board of immigrants to make recommendations on which books and programs to include.

"I feel so incredibly fortunate to have this be my professional experience," Blosveren said.