This section is all about bringing young readers together and ecnouraging them to share their enthusiasm for reading with their friends and wider commmunities. By using this section, you can

Think about ways of encouraging young people to talk or pass on to each other what they think about what they're reading – making connections with each other. Peer-to-peer recommendation is very powerful.
Look at some of the possibilities for connecting young readers through the Internet.

Here are some ways in which libraries help connections between young readers to happen.

Arranging structured opportunities to talk with each other – maybe in a class visit or reading group.
Offering simple ways of sharing their recommendations: 'book-bite' sheets up on notice boards, comments slips in books, slots on the library website.
Making sure young people are comfortable in their own space in the library, spending time there and meeting friends - then that talking-about-books buzz will be happening in the best way of all. (Treating People Well and Making the Library Welcoming skills coming in here!).
Making the most of day-to-day opportunities to talk with children and young people at the counter, or at the shelves.

These days reading and writing isn't limited to the world of books. With the advent of the Internet, young people have the world at their fingertips. Blogs and sites such as MySpace and Bebo mean that every young person can be an author and the world wide web has become a place for discussion, friendship, fun, learning and community. To the uninitiated it can all seem like a minefield but the opportunities for promoting literature are extremely exciting.

Sharing reading

There are lots of sites that children and young people use to find out about the latest good reads and to share their thoughts about the books that they're enjoying. Useful sites include

www.cool-reads.co.uk , a site written by young people for young people with reviews of stacks of books for young people aged 10-15

www.boox.org.uk - this site, which is about to be relaunched, features Boox, a project which promotes reading for pleasure for 13-16 year olds. Watch this space!

www.storiesfromtheweb.org is a site for young people, by young people, and by libraries working with young people. It is very interactive, with book reviews, stories and activities, all encouraging young people's reading and their input to the site.

There are also special interest sites for young people who read graphic novels or manga, including www.tokyopop.com which is a popular Manga site.

In the Links section of this site you will find lists of more websites like these.

The annual CILIP Carnegie/Kate Greenway awards for children's books involve a Shadowing scheme where children 'shadow' the judges and read and discuss the shortlisted books, posting their reviews on the special site www.ckg.org.uk and voting for the books they think should win the medals.

Sharing writing

Many young people are interested in creative writing and the web offers a great opportunity for self-publishing. Sites that welcome young people's contributions include www.kidsonthenet.org.uk, a writing site for children, and www.teenink.com, a magazine site written by teens for teens.

Sharing friendship and ideas

Young people have always been keen on chatting to friends but these days they're as likely to be chatting by MSN and through online chatrooms and blogs as they are on the phone. But what are they really doing on there and is it safe?

MSN: MSN is an instant messaging service through which users can chat in real time without any delay a bit like instant email. Young people usually use MSN within 'friendship groups' - ie they usually only talk to their mates and can have numerous conversations going on simultaneously.

Chatrooms : Chatrooms are places where young people congregate to talk to their friends and sometimes to strangers. Usually chat rooms are integrated within other websites such as the chat section on www.deviantart.com
However there are some you can create yourself solely for chatting such as www.chatzy.com/

Blogs : These days anyone can set up a blog in a matter of minutes. A blog is like an online diary or personal website in which you can post pictures and daily thoughts. You can also link to your friend's sites and create an online friendship community. Many authors have blogs which they use to keep up with their fan base, to publicise events and to muse about their writing. One example is the popular blog by teen vampire author, Darren Shan www.darrenshan.blogdrive.com

Podcasts: are streaming audio files online. They are either self-produced or you can download a podcast for eg, of your favourite radio programme, or get your news delivered by podcast. See www.bbc.co.uk for more information on podcasts.

MP3s: these are down/up-loadable audio files, made known through the use of the Ipod and Itunes - see www.itunes.com . Gnarls Barkley (the band) made history this year in the UK by becoming the first band to reach no 1 in the charts purely through online purchases of the mp3 of their single 'Crazy' - the CD didn't appear till afterwards. There are now more sites appearing which offer mp3 as the medium for delivering spoken word - eg: www.audible.co.uk - and in Autumn 2006you'll be able to buy and download individual poems from www.ipoems.org.uk

Role-playing : Young people meet with other young people to play virtual role-playing games such as Runescape. Young people create their own 'ativars' - their own online virtual presence and personality. Most of these games have age restrictions and do not allow participants to divulge any personal information, but if you are unsure you may want to check this out. These games can have a literary content with young people creating stories together online.

Again they are often integrated into forums, but there are various forums dedicated solely to role-playing eg http://s11.invisionfree.com/Illusional_Realities/index.php

Free websites : Bebo, MySpace, Facebook and many others are free sites where young people can paste personal information, blogs, photos and other material. They can join online friendship communities and link to schools and geographical areas. These sites are known as social networking sites. Through the sites, young people can keep with each other's antics and send messages to their friends. Habbohotel is a virtual community where you can hang out with friends, design your own unique space and create your own games and competitions.

To see what's going on look at:

www.bebo.com - currently one of the most popular sites used by young people with 25 million members world wide. Tends to be used by school age young people with Facebook being used by young people at university.

www.myspace.com - create your own space on the web, become part of different communities (there are reading based blogs), has a dedicated music section where new bands/musicians can showcase their talent (it's where the Arctic Monkeys were discovered

www.youtube.com - a place to put up your own streaming videos and check out what other people are filming

www.flickr.com - a site where you can manage your own digital photographs. (Note the site name spelling - Flickr)

Forums : Forums are chat areas for people who share an interest. On forums young people might take part in discussions about the latest films, philosophy, creative writing techniques or anything else that interests them. Our own TRF discussion page on this site is an example of how this works.

Online Safety

There is a lot of talk in the media about the danger of young people chatting online and, when we're not sure what they're doing, it can all seem rather scary. The temptation is to ban young people in libraries from taking part in these activities and thus risk alienating the very population that we are trying to attract.

Being safe online is important; however most young people have grown on with the internet and are careful about their behaviour. Display clear safety guidelines in the library and, if you are worried about what they're doing, ask them politely to explain it to you. It might not be as worrying as it first appears.

Safety tips to check out with young people

Make up user names rather than giving out your real name
Be careful when posting or texting photos - once in cyberspace you've lost control of who sees them
Never give out your phone number or address online
Never meet up with someone you've met online without taking someone else with you and letting other people know where you've gone

For more safety tips look at:

www.kidsmart.org.uk where you can try out games to check your safety online
www.thinkuknow.co.uk which gives advice for being smart and safe online

For further ideas for websites on all the above themes look at the Links section on this site - and keep everyone up to date through TRF Coffee Break, the online discussion forum, if you hear of new sites for young people sharing their reading and writing.