Two years ago, Jackie and I put together a proposal to present at the 2012 ALA Annual Convention in Anaheim on teen passive programming and passive reader’s advisory. We had our proposal accepted, and we presented in front of an awesomely packed room. All of the presentation notes and the presentation visual itself is available here.

After the presentation, we were approached to write an article about the topic. So we did!

Since Jackie and I are both big proponents of making sure professional information is actually useful, we took our time in writing a very thorough and — we hope — supremely useful tool kit to starting and implementing passive programming. The article took nine months to write and edit.

That is a very, VERY long time to write and edit one piece of work that is not a novel.

But now, you can read our entire article in full at The Programming Librarian. I like to think it’s useful for anyone who works with teens and wants to engage them in productive, intellectual, and FUN ways. It has ideas not only for programming and hands-on activities, but for advocating for reading and readers, too.

If I may highlight the most important thing in the entire piece, it’s this one: be prepared to fail. It’s okay and it’s inevitable.

We’re super eager to hear your feedback on this, and we’d love if you’d contribute your own ideas in the article, too. There’s a space for commenting. Please, please speak up. Spread the word.

It’s kind of amazing to look at the culmination of 2 years’ worth of work, isn’t it? I love Jackie’s post on this, too, enough I have to share it as well.