Teens are avid library users

You may be sur­prised to learn that accord­ing to a recent study enti­tled, “Per­cep­tions of Libraries 2010,” teens are among the heav­i­est library users. While two out of every three Amer­i­cans have a library card, 75 per­cent of teens (ages 14–17) have one. The major­ity (62 per­cent) of Amer­i­cans vis­its their library annu­ally, and teens are even more likely to do so (72 percent).

At the Delaware County Dis­trict Library, we rec­og­nize that teens are an impor­tant, inter­est­ing, ener­getic and grow­ing pop­u­la­tion that needs and deserves great library ser­vice. As an advo­cate for teens, teen librar­ian Mandy Hen­ning focuses her atten­tion and abil­i­ties on buy­ing books, DVDs and audio books that this age group wants, along with putting together great pro­grams for them to enjoy. Addi­tion­ally, children’s staff in all library loca­tions pro­vide mate­ri­als and pro­grams espe­cially for this age group.

A quick look at the line-up of pro­grams for the Teen Sum­mer Read­ing Club demon­strates the wide vari­ety of “out of the box” pre­sen­ta­tions that staff have cre­atively devel­oped. From cup­cake dec­o­rat­ing to mak­ing books, from Mex­i­can cook­ing to draw­ing work­shops, and from teen yoga to teen movies, there’s bound to be a pro­gram to inter­est nearly every teen. Teen Cafes, reg­u­lar pro­grams at the Delaware (Main) Library fea­ture Wii tour­na­ments, PlaySta­tion 2 games and Gui­tar Hero fun.

The library also recently added Nin­tendo DS to play­ing the library, and we’ve bought dozens of games, too, such as Super Mario, Rhythm Heaven, Cook­ing Mama, Smart Girls Play Hour and Lego Batman.

While some of these items may seem a bit untra­di­tional for libraries, they cer­tainly hit the mark with the teens. After all, the Delaware County Dis­trict Library is their library, too, and we strive to make it a friendly and imag­i­na­tive place for them.

How does the gas pump know to auto­mat­i­cally shut off?

Cre­ated in 1885, that first gaso­line pump was used to dis­pense fuel for stoves and kerosene lamps. The shut­off valve was invented in 1939 by Richard Cor­son who fash­ioned it after the but­ter­fly float in toi­lets. There is a tiny hole called a sens­ing hole at the tip of the spout on the noz­zle, and a tube that con­nects it to a diaphragm near the shut-off valve. When you squeeze the han­dle and gas starts to flow through the spout, it cre­ates a vac­uum in the tube, keep­ing the diaphragm neu­tral. When your tank is reach­ing its limit, the gas is at a level high enough to cover the sens­ing hole. Air can­not get through the sens­ing hole to the vac­uum, which makes the atmos­pheric pres­sure move the diaphragm, flip­ping a switch in the auto­matic shut-off device. Check in How Things Work for more detail.

How did the Radio Flyer wagon get its name?

Ital­ian native Anto­nio Pasin and his cousin arrived at Ellis Island in 1914, and they intended to turn their wood­work­ing skills into careers as cab­i­net­mak­ers, accord­ing to Brands and Their Com­pa­nies. By 1917, Pasin was hon­ing his skills on hand-carved wag­ons. After a few years of sell­ing his wag­ons door-to-door, Pasin was able to make the com­pany offi­cial. Pasin named his fledg­ling busi­ness “Lib­erty Coaster Wagon” to express his thanks to the coun­try that had wel­comed him and fos­tered his suc­cess. The com­pany soon began mak­ing tri­cy­cles, scoot­ers and a metal ver­sion of the hand-carved wagon. Pasin’s two favorite inven­tions were the radio and the air­plane, so he dubbed the metal ver­sion of the wagon the “Radio Flyer.” The com­pany now renamed “Radio Flyer” is run by Pasin’s grandsons.

Why are dishes made with spinach called “Florentine?”

The “Flo­ren­tine” des­ig­na­tion is given to some French dishes in honor of Cather­ine De’ Medici, who is said to have eaten spinach at every meal, as explained in Food Lovers’ Com­pan­ion. Cather­ine de’ Medici was an Ital­ian noble­woman born in Flo­rence who was Queen con­sort of France from 1547 until 1559, as the wife of King Henry II of France.

If you have a ques­tion that you would like to see answered in this col­umn, mail it to Mary Jane San­tos, Delaware County Dis­trict Library, 84 E. Win­ter St., Delaware, OH 43015, or call us at 740–362-3861. You can also email your ques­tions by vis­it­ing the library’s web­site at delawarelibrary.org or directly to Mary Jane at mjsantos@delawarelibrary.org. No mat­ter how you con­tact us, we’re always glad you asked.

Posted by Andrew Tobias on Jul 15 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.