Wylie teen services librarian highlights author visit, program changes and staffing needs

Kelsey Sidwell, Wylie Public Library’s teen services librarian, outlined current teen programming, an October virtual author visit and a staffing request during a staff-spotlight segment at the Wylie Library Advisory Board meeting on Sept. 1.

Sidwell told the board she has led teen services since 2018 and has worked at the library since 2011. She said she oversees the teen collection and programming and described a forthcoming October book-club visit by author Roshani Chokshi, who agreed to a roughly 30-minute virtual appearance at 6 p.m. to discuss The Gilded Wolves and take questions from attendees.

The visit was arranged after Sidwell contacted the author following an Instagram post. "She was gonna be waiving fees for virtual visits to public libraries and schools, and that if we were interested to DM her and I reached out and quite a few months later got a response and we have her set up now to drop in to our October book club," Sidwell said.

Sidwell described efforts to rebrand a dwindling anime/manga club as "Asia Pop" to broaden appeal across Asian popular culture, citing higher attendance at the first rebranded meeting: "We only had like 2 or 3 kids at our last Japanimation program and we had like 9 to 10 at our Asia pop one." She said the library now requires registration for teen programs to send reminders and build a more stable participant base.

On staffing, Sidwell said her "best case scenario" is adding an assistant teen librarian. She noted that part-time reference assistants currently cover some duties but said a dedicated assistant would help manage the volunteer program and daily teen-room supervision: "If city budget were to be just amazing and like they wanted to add staff members, like, that's best case, like, that's what I would really want because I spend a lot of time, a lot of my time is very consumed by the teen volunteer program."

Board members praised Sidwell's work and described heavy summer usage of the teen room. The board did not take formal action on the staffing request during the meeting.

Sidwell also described other outreach and professional networks she uses to develop programming, including a Central Texas Discord group of teen librarians and a part-time assistant who now helps run the teen Instagram account.

The library will hold a Dungeons & Dragons event Oct. 18 described as all-ages programming running games and short performances throughout the day; Sidwell said the group is rebuilding after a key volunteer moved away.