The Weyburn Public Library is asking for expert advice from teenagers.

In an effort to help encourage local teens to hang out more at the library, the WPL is putting together a Teen Advisory Group, a volunteer experience bringing together monthly a panel of teens.

"This is a great opportunity to fill in volunteer experience for your Wellness and Phys Ed classes at Weyburn Comprehensive, and it also gives you volunteer experience at a community level that looks great on a resume or a university application," noted Joanne Smith, Teen Program Coordinator at WPL.

She said they are hoping a variety of different types of teenagers will join their teen advisory group.

The opportunity entails helping with the upkeep and decoration of the teen space, brainstorming and helping to plan ideas to make the library more teen friendly, including some events and programs for teens, and helping in the pilot project of a Discord group for teens at the at the library.

It all begins with helping to design the new teen area at the library, but it also includes helping to select movies and books that teens want for the library collection.

"And have a chance to come boss around some adults and have fun," added Smith.

She shared how the volunteer experience opens doors for teens and young adults.

"When you have those skills that show you've done some community service, you've done things that are actually going to show some leadership, those are the types of things [that help]. "You're going to learn some time management, you're going to work on projects, you're going to have to work with others. Those are the skills that employers are looking to see that teens have. And libraries usually do tend to look pretty good on university applications that you've spent time in there, so all those experiences, it's something that you can put us down as references and it just helps helps fill those spots like first jobs for teens."

Smith said once they know what type of interest they have and if they can get a core group of teens together they will set up a date for their meetings.

Contact wplteamprogrammer@southeastlibrary.ca or  call 306-842-4352 and leave a message, and Joanne will get back to the interested parties.

"It's for everybody, so we'd like to see all those teens with all those different types of interests, because the more we know about what they want, the better the services are going to be and the more comfortable they're going to feel coming here and the more they're going to enjoy the time here," she expressed.

"So trying to get the message out that the library is more than just cubicles, studying, books. It's a place to come have fun too."