72% of 15-24 year olds had visited a library in the past 12 months in 2016, 1.6 times more than those aged 25-69.

If young people use libraries the most, what about teenagers?

A survey conducted by the INJEP among teenagers and professionals in libraries of various sizes has attempted to identify the practices and expectations of young people with regard to libraries, to identify and analyze new approaches to teenagers, to identify and qualify professional practices, changes in professional and organizational cultures, and digital mediation practices at work in libraries.

According to the authors of the survey, "the entry of digital practices into libraries has caused or accompanied a change in them, not only in terms of the offer intended for teenagers but also in the reflection on the spaces made available to them. The practices of teenagers are thus taken more into account".

The survey, after a review of the cultures and digital practices of young people, and their limits, also seeks to understand how these digital practices of teenagers have influenced the offer of libraries and how they have organized themselves in front of this public.

Various uses of the library

• Young people come to the library for a variety of reasons. "For many, it is less about accessing collections than it is about having a space, "having a corner of one's own while feeling part of a space".
• Teens travel, sometimes far, to go to a library where they can concentrate and feel like they are among other like-minded young people.
• In some neighborhoods, the library also serves as a safer place.
• The survey distinguishes two periods (before 15 and after) in the relationship of young people to libraries. "The13-15 year oldsandthe 15-17yearoldsdonothavethesameneeds.The13-15year old scometomeettheir friends,have fun,spendtime,the15-17yearoldscomemoretostudy/work,even iftheyalsomeettheirfriends. "

• Some libraries are trying to change this representation "by adapting to the fact that adolescence is the age of noise, music, and groups, and by offering them places where they can stay in groups and express themselves, where they can adopt relaxed positions and read what is not prescribed in school, for example comics and manga, but also play video games and organize competitions with other libraries.

The difficult search for a digital offer adapted to teenagers

The survey thus highlights the ambivalence of teenagers towards the digital offer of libraries.

• Many of the teens we met have simultaneous use of the library's digital equipment and their own equipment.
• young people do not come to the library primarily to find digital materials, unless they do not have access to them at home
• "young people do not ask for digital resources but they appreciate offers related to their daily practices: access to wifi, possibility to play video games.... "(a library director)
• "While it is difficult to imagine what is "necessarily" attractive to teenagers in libraries," the study's authors note, "we can easily list what drives them away: mandatory registration, limited groups, strict hours, conditions for access, etc."

Teens in libraries more active than we think

When the conditions are right, teenagers can even become driving forces. "They can propose workshops, new video games, creations, animations that librarians can use as inspiration for their offers. Some of them, even very young ones, appreciate being put in the position of facilitator of workshops or activities around the digital world.

According to Anne Cordier, author of "Growing up connected", a digital offer is only relevant if it is proposed within the framework of a mediation: "The edutainment offer does not work in adolescence. The offer works when there is a mediation. The offer in catalog is not enough, what works better is when there is a workshop which supposes that the library opens on the city. There must be communication and a link with other structures.

The place of teenagers in the library, conclude the authors, "should be considered in all its aspects, taking into account their presence in and around the library, their digital practices, their motivations for borrowing, and their interactions with librarians online and offline. This implies a reinforced complementarity with the other professionals of the territory who are concerned by education, youth, culture and social cohesion, putting in music all the specialities without diluting them, so that the whole makes sense for each teenager".

Teenagers, an audience long considered difficult by librarians

In the midst of their search for identity, their way of life is collective (with their peers) and their membership in a group is based on both imitation and distinction.

In the same way that students disappear from conservatories or visit museums by "poaching", the presence of teenagers in libraries is rather ambiguous.

This "restless, noisy, unpredictable " public has long been considered difficult by librarians with the necessary "framing" of their presence and the maintenance of silence in the premises, which in a way continues the school universe and its constraints.

According to a recent study (Roselli, 2014), " regulation by silence and by distinctive cultural codes (knowing how to behave, knowing how to search, knowing how to choose, knowing how to borrow) works against the attendance of teenage audiences and, discouraging profiles far removed from cultural concerns and books, produces an "abandonmentist" attitude."

One of the reasons for these difficulties has also been a limited knowledge of adolescents and their practices. Librarians can often feel caught off guard when faced with a public that is difficult to grasp and that challenges their vision of the library as essentially book-based and "educational."

The same study (Roselli, 2014) concludes, " Beyond age-related factors, the attractiveness policy of libraries constitutes another explanation for the progressive distancing of younger generations: the more libraries display orientations on the side of legitimate and coded culture (literature and elite genres), the more the new generations assimilate them to the adult and academic world."

Adolescents have mixed feelings about libraries because they distance themselves from the institution in general and from formal practices in particular. The library reminds them of the school context, while their leisure practices develop a lot (in peer groups) of conviviality and exchanges.