May 24, 2023

Hi Folks,

Yesterday the Office of the Surgeon General issued a new advisory, Social Media and Youth Mental Health, which focuses on children and teens aged 10 to 19. While social media can be beneficial as a creative outlet, studies show that excessive use is linked to many problems we are all familiar with – cyberbullying, exposure to inappropriate content, disrupted sleep patterns, negative body image, reduced physical activity, and more. Teens average about 3.5 hours on social media per day, and “[a]dolescents who spent more than 3 hours per day on social media faced double the risk of experiencing poor mental health outcomes including symptoms of depression and anxiety” (p. 6). Summer vacation is around the corner, and that will result in more free time for many of our youth. Reading as a summer activity is often promoted as a way to prevent or reduce the summer slide, or loss of some academic gains made during the school year that just ended, but the activity could also be promoted as a tool to support positive mental health, especially if reading time supplants some social media time. 

Here are a few resources to help students keep reading this summer: 

• Summer reading at your local public library – This one should be obvious, but surprisingly, the public library’s summer reading program is not always promoted at school. Be sure to learn about what’s going on at your local public library and to share that information with students and parents. Also, what offerings can students access online, especially those who have no transportation options to get to the library?
• National Geographic Kids (NGK) (elem. thru MS) – NGK is a Gale database geared towards elementary and middle school students, and it has all issues of the National Geographic Kids magazine and over 700 ebooks about science and cultures, including some fiction options. This tip sheet and brief video tutorial can help folks get started. Oregon students can access NGK and other Gale databases on the elementary and secondary Find Information pages of OSLIS. Just enter the name of your school district (2^nd column) or your private school (3^rd column) on the login screen.  
• Free access to ebooks for teens 
  • AudioFile Magazine - Audiobook Sync – Notice the links for FAQ, toolkit, season (list of books to be released each week), and sign-up (annually from late spring through summer)
  • Brooklyn Public Library – Free access to their digital book collection for 13 to 21-year-olds anywhere (not just people in Brooklyn
  • Seattle Public Library – Free access to their digital book collection for 13 to 26-year-olds anywhere (not just people in Seattle)
• Reading lists and recommendations
  • Summer reading lists for children and young teens from the Association for Library Service to Children; four age groups: birth-pre-K, K-2, 3-5, 6-8
  • Book Finder from the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA); database of over 4,000+ books from YALSA’s book awards and book lists for teens from 12 to 18 years old
  • Gale Books and Authors – Use this database’s advanced search function to limit books by audience – children and young adult – to find book recommendations. This is available on the elementary and secondary Find Information pages of OSLIS. Just enter the name of your school district (2^nd column) or your private school (3^rd column) on the login screen.   

If you know of other resources, please share!

Cheers,
Jen

Jen Maurer
School Library Consultant
State Library of Oregon