With increased homework and extracurricular activities, middle school students tend to use their library less often. To keep youth connected, DML launched Middle Ground, a campaign that “influences the influencers.” DML teen librarians make regular visits to middle school classrooms, connect with teachers and demonstrate valuable tools and services (teacher collections, college prep materials, online resources, assignment alerts) helping teachers do their job more efficiently. As a result, more educators are aware of DML services.

The Middle Ground campaign includes regular outreach by teen specialists to teachers, school librarians and administrators to feature many free library resources available to schools and students. Featured resources include book club kits, assignment alerts, e-cards, student cards and teacher cards, teacher collections and information for college/career research. Rather than overwhelming school partners with packets of information, the campaign includes multiple visits by teen specialists to provide relevant information for each teacher throughout the year.

Our teen specialists are eagerly welcomed when they visit schools; classroom gifts (pencils, posters, post-it notes) are in demand. By offering the resource information in multiple small bites (as opposed to presenting a large portfolio of youth services at one visit), the teachers are better understanding how DML can serve tweens. Students are staying more connected to DML with their teacher’s support, even though they aren’t the direct user of the Middle Ground services.