Listening to Youth Voices as We Develop New Experiences: The Youth Advisory Council at the Library of Congress

This blog post was written with input from our Youth Advisory Council.

“I thought research was just about writing papers. Now, I know I can do so much more”

-Youth Advisory Council member

Last year, we posted asking for your help to develop a space for kids and families – and you came through! We had 22 students ages 8-13 from 15 states participate in our first youth advisory council, playing a key role in the development of the experience concept for the new space the Library is building as part of the Visitor Experience Master Plan.

We are recruiting for the next iteration of the council, for kids ages 8 to thirteen. Tentatively, we plan on holding our meetings on Thursday evenings, 7 PM EST, five times during the school year— October 13, December 8, February 9, April 27, and June 15—on Zoom. You can learn about the experience of this year’s advisory council in the post below – and if you like what you read, register to join us by filling out this form before September 25.

The 2021-2022 Library of Congress Youth Advisory Council

An online miro board filled with Library of Congress photo/prints collections, as well as kids names on post-it notes, indicating collections each child wanted to learn more about, in a collaborative post-it activity. — The Youth Advisory Council’s collaborative post-it whiteboarding activity, where they were able to place post-its with their names over collections items they gravitated towards.

Last year, we piloted the Youth Advisory Council model. The kids on the council met four times virtually with us and our partner Skolnick Architecture and Design Partnership to talk about what they wanted to see in the exhibit, review concept drawings and models, and complete activities that modelled proposed interactives. Before the meetings even began, we knew it was important to show our kid participants that their voices were important and valued. We conducted an entrance survey about their research and library-related interests, and used this to shape our initial concept drawings. As one member shared in a reflection, she was inspired to participate because it was important to her to “provide my ideas to make this space better and more appealing to kids our age.”