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Collection Development Manual > Libraries & collections > Central Library > Young Adult

Young Adult

The Young Adult collection contains materials that are written for adolescents, including older children and teens (ages 12-18). It is made up of fiction materials and an increasing number of nonfiction materials geared specifically to teens. Materials in the Young Adult collection may be in any format.

This collection has been growing dramatically in the past two years, partly due to public demand and partly due to greater availability of books and other materials geared specifically to teens. The library intends to continue building the Young Adult collection to meet community needs, and with the aim of ensuring that library materials of interest to people of all ages are available.

Most nonfiction materials in the Young Adult collection are specifically related to adolescence, but an increasingly broad number of titles written specifically for teens (in nearly any subject area) are being added. Poetry by and for teens, books on teen sexuality, health topics and drugs, supernatural and new age topics, school success, relationships, homework materials (especially controversial issues in history and current events), teen pop culture and mass media titles are all a part of this collection.

Fiction in the Young Adult collection covers as many subjects and genres as possible, including award-winning fiction, classics, realistic fiction, humor, sports stories, romance, graphic novels, mysteries, science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, horror, fiction about sexual minority teens, media tie-ins, and Christian fiction. The Young Adult collection also includes a selection of reference books on teen readers' advisory.

Teenagers are the primary audience for the Young Adult collection, but it is also used by younger children and by parents, teachers, and adult leisure readers.

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Teenagers will find materials that interest them in many other parts of the library. This is particularly true for nonfiction materials, as the Young Adult collection's nonfiction materials are not intended to cover every subject. Nonfiction materials in the Children's collection may be of particular interest to younger teens doing school assignments, but older teens may require the greater breadth and depth of the adult nonfiction collections for their school projects or to meet their personal interests. Recorded music, materials in languages other than English, recorded books, films and television programs, magazines, and materials in all other formats will also be of interest to many teens.

At Central Library, the Children's collection is in the Children's Library, and nonfiction materials are kept in the Science & Business, Humanities, and Periodicals rooms. Materials in languages other than English are kept in the Children's Library if they are intended for children, and in the World Languages collection in the Humanities rooms if they are intended for adults. Recorded music is part of the Music collection in the Humanities rooms, magazines are kept in the Periodicals room, recorded books are part of the Audio collection in the Popular Library, and films and television shows are also kept in the Popular Library.

Additional materials discussing teen readers' advisory can be found in the Library Science and Literature collections. At Central Library, both of these collections are kept in the Humanities rooms.