Camden County Library Teen Zone

Are We Invading Your Space?

So, I'm not on Facebook, but I do have a MySpace. To be honest, I'm thinking of deleting it, because I haven't logged in since, oh, January or so.  I'm thinking even more seriously about deleting it because I read this article in the NY Times about grown-ups who encroach on teens' online territory with Facebooks & MySpaces of their own. 

Here's an excerpt from the article, written by a woman who gets a Facebook profile at least in part to annoy her teenage daughter:

Things were going really well, when suddenly something disturbing happened. An instant-message window appeared onscreen to deliver a verdict.

“wayyy creepy,” it said. “why did you make one!”

Ah, there she was.

“What are you talking about?” I typed innocently.

“im only telling you for your own good,” my daughter typed.

“Be my friend,” I typed.

“You won’t get away with this,” she typed. “everyone in the whole world thinks its super creepy when adults have facebooks.”

Is it in fact "super creepy when adults have facebooks"? 

News You Can Use: Teenhealthfx.com

So, I was reading this article on doctors who only treat teens (they call it Adolescent Medicine), and there was a link in the article to a great website called Teenhealthfx.com.  The site is maintained, with new content all the time, by a team of doctors and teens, and covers all kinds of topics, such as:

• Health & Illness
• Sports & Nutrition
• Emotional Health
• Sexuality & Sexual Health
• Relationships, Dating, Family & Friends
• Advice from Teens

I thought the page compiling Advice From Teens was especially good -- it includes sections like Tips For Dealing With Traumatic Events, Ideas To Consider Before Debating Your Views, and Activities For The Weekend.  Enjoy!

Get Your Library Notices Via Text!

Oh, this is five kinds of awesome.  Do you get frustrated with keeping track of all of your library items, with all their various due dates? Do you wish you could receive alerts about books & CDs you have on hold as text messages?  There's an easy way to do both, and more!  The free service, Library Elf can help you keep track of all of your stuff from Camden County Library.  Did I mention that it's free? 

Quoting from the site, Library Elf can do the following for you:

• Email and/or RSS alerts before items are due
• Email and/or RSS alerts on overdues and holds
• Consolidated list of yours or your family's library loans and holds
• Cellphone text message alerts for holds (US and Canada)
• Real-time checking by browser

I just signed up for my account.  If you want, you can do the same.  Note that the Elf's service for Camden County Library is in beta, which, according to the Elf's FAQ means that  "the communication protocol between these libraries and Elf requires more monitoring."  So, once in a while, your notices might not arrive in a timely manner.  If that happens, contact the Elf's friendly staff and they'll help you out.

Save time, save money (goodbye, overdue fees!), track your stuff.  Library Elf!