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October 8, 2009

A.C. library creates Teen Space to attract city's youths

By VINCENT JACKSON, Staff Writer, 609-272-7202 Thursday, October 8, 2009

ATLANTIC CITY - Talhah Zubair, 17, doesn't own a Macintosh personal computer and neither do any of his friends.

Zubair, who attends Atlantic City High School, visits the main branch of the free public library at least once a week. He plans to make time to stop in at its new Teen Space in the future.

The Teen Space houses Macintosh computers, and Zubair wants to learn how to use them.

On the library's second floor, the new 985-square-foot Teen Space, which holds its grand opening today, features not only 10 computers - six Macintosh and four other computers - but also lounge furniture, a large-screen television, a teen art gallery and the teen resource collections of books, movies, music and magazines. The space is also home to several game consoles, including the video game consoles Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStations 2 and 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360.

"I think it looks great," said Zubair, who helped Ocean City graffiti artist Stephen Gibson paint the "imagine" mural that takes up one wall of the room. "There's nothing like it that I have seen at any other normal library. It's different."

Teen Space came together through planning, hard work and a lucky break.

Last October, The South Jersey Regional Library Cooperative and the New Jersey State Library invited public libraries to submit proposals for its A+ Teen Space Demonstration Project.

"We felt as a group that we needed a Teen Space," said Jennifer Boyce, the free library's coordinator of teen service and Teen Space project manager. "We (the city) have a lot of entities, Police Athletic League, the Boys & Girls Club. We wanted to be another option for kids. So many kids are here after school. We knew we wanted a space for the kids."

Teen Space was built for $75,000. That included $10,000 from the state library, $30,000 from the regional library cooperative and $35,000 of the library's money from the city.

A bunch of middle-aged adults did not decide how the Teen Space would look. That's where good fortune played a role.

Last year, Boyce visited the Grind Garage cafe on Asbury Avenue in Ocean City. She saw a long, thin space that resembled the type of area the library's Teen Space would be constructed in. She liked how it was decorated. Ocean City resident Shaina Horton, 24, designed the Grind Garage and was hired to design the Teen Space.

Boyce and Horton met with art and computer-aided design students at Atlantic City High School, along with members of the library's teen advisory group to create a space that teens would like and use.

"My bold color choices were inspired by them. The shapes and forms (of the furniture) were inspired by them. As teens, they had really eclectic tastes. They really helped define the space as far as the aesthetics. The teens were my inspiration. ... The teens made it a teen environment," Horton said. "The library would be the last place I would ever go when I was young.

Because the Teen Space's equipment and construction money partially came from the demonstration proposal, library officials from inside and outside the state will be visiting the Teen Space to check how it turned out and to see if any of its elements could be incorporated into their libraries.

E-mail Vincent Jackson:

VJackson@pressofac.com

Posted by tumulty at October 8, 2009 10:05 AM

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