Teen Volunteering at SPL!

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Teen volunteer applications for summer 2022 are now closed.

Applications for the 2022-2023 school year will be available in August 2022.
If you have any questions regarding teen volunteering, please contact Kelsey Sidwell at Kelsey.Sidwell@wylietexas.gov or call 972-516-6276.

Virtual Volunteering

In addition to our in-person volunteering, we also have a huge list of virtual activities to keep you busy and help you earn those volunteer hours that you still need. You can do these in addition to in-person volunteering if you wish. But they are also available to teens who are still comfortable doing volunteer work from home!

Below are rules and guidelines, descriptions of each of the activities, as well as information on how to submit your activity log. Please direct any questions you may have to the teen librarian at Kelsey.Sidwell@wylietexas.gov. You may also call the teen reference desk at 972-516-6264.

NOTE: 5/17/22 Please read through the guidelines and activities thoroughly as a few items have recently changed. If you have any trouble submitting a log, please contact the teen reference desk at 972-516-6264.

Link to submit a finished log!

Guidelines and Rules

City of Wylie teen volunteers must be at least 13 years of age.
All content needs to be appropriate and respectful. No foul language, sexual content, hate speech, etc. The Smith Public Library reserves the right to refuse your activity submissions and deny volunteer credit if the material submitted is deemed offensive or inappropriate.
Due to the high volume of submissions, not all of your work may get posted to the Instagram account. We will try to post as much as we can, and some submissions may share a post with the submissions of another teen. For example, several “shelfies” may be posted to the Instagram account collectively as one post.
You may turn in as many activity logs as you like. You may turn in several activities per log. Each log accepts 5 file uploads and has an additional space to provide links. A librarian will check your activities that were submitted and then double check your corresponding hours.
After submitting each log, you choose to receive a copy of your recorded responses in your email. These will include how many credit hours you have earned. Please keep track of these for your own records. It is your responsibility to keep track of your hours.
The teen librarian is happy to email your teachers, counselors, directors, etc. to confirm your volunteer credit hours. If you have a form that needs to be filled out and submitted, you may either bring it in to the library or send a digital copy to the teen librarian to scan and send back. If you are bringing the form in in-person, please call ahead (972-516-6264) to ensure a youth services librarian is present that day. We can also verify volunteer hours on Schoolinks.

The library cannot supervise and fulfill court mandated community service hours.

Please email our teen librarian, Kelsey, at Kelsey.Sidwell@wylietexas.gov with any other questions you may have. We are willing to discuss activity suggestions not mentioned above or more long term projects that can be done virtually for more credit hours.

Virtual Volunteer Activities

30 Minutes of Volunteer Credit

1-2 sentence book review with 2-3 readalikes: Write a short book review and include the titles and author names of 2-3 similar books. This should be submitted as a Google Doc or a Word Document. Accepted reviews may be posted on the SPL teen Instagram account.

Take a “bookface” photo or recreate a book cover: “Bookface” photos involve strategically lining up your face or body to match the cover art of a book. See examples here: https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/bookface/?hl=en You can also submit an image wherein you recreate a book cover. Accepted images may be posted on the SPL teen Instagram account. Please submit as a .jpg or a .png

Book Spine Poetry: Line up the spines of your books and create a poem! Examples can be found here: https://www.bookbub.com/blog/book-spine-poetry Accepted images may be posted on the SPL teen Instagram account. Please submit as a .jpg or a .png

“Shelfie”: Show off your bookshelf! Send us a photo of your bookcase at home and your image may be posted on the SPL teen Instagram account. Please submit as a .jpg or a .png

1 Hour of Volunteer Credit

Themed Spotify playlist: Create a playlist based around your favorite books! It can be about a certain novel, an entire series, a specific character, a fandom relationship, etc. Playlists must include at least 10 songs and be available to the public on Spotify. Please submit the link to the playlist in your log. Accepted playlists may be posted on the SPL teen Instagram account.

Themed Virtual Display: Create a virtual display for us! Put together a list of books based on a certain theme. What do they all have in common? Are they all fantasy books with strong female characters? Are they all dystopian novels that include love triangles? Your virtual display should have 8-10 books and be submitted as a Google Doc or a Word Document. Please be sure to explain what they all have in common. Accepted displays may be posted on the SPL teen Instagram account.

Original Artwork or Fanart: Show off your skills! Are you an artist? Submit your original artwork or fanart to be featured on our social media! All artistic mediums are accepted, including photography. Please submit a photo or scan of your artwork as a .jpg image or a .png image.

Original Writing, Poetry, or Fanfiction: Are you a writer or poet? Willing to show us how talented you are? Submit your writing to be featured on our Instagram or Facebook page! All writing should be submitted as a Google Doc or as a Word Document.

Book or Library-Related TikTok: Create a TikTok about your favorite book, series, character, etc. Or, make one about visiting the library! It can even just be you talking about the books you’ve read lately. Check out the hashtag #booktok or #booksuggestions on TikTok for more ideas. Submit the link to your TikTok in the activity log. Accepted TikToks may be posted to the SPL teen Instagram account.

Book-Related Presentation: Make a Google Slides, Canva, or PowerPoint presentation about something book-related! It can be about why you love your favorite character, why you hate this certain book, why this character is the best book villain of all time, etc. Chaos and memes are encouraged! Must be at least 5-6 slides long.

2 Hours of Volunteer Credit

Writing to a Homebound Wylie Resident (Part of our Silver Linings program): Wylie has lots of senior citizens and homebound folks who are staying at home right now with less company and activity than usual. Write them a letter! You can begin with “Dear Friend,” and then introduce yourself. Talk about how your school year or summer is going, or what you’re looking forward to in the next month or so. Talk about your siblings or pets or friends. They may even ask to write you back!

All letters should be submitted to the activity log as a Word Document or Google Doc. Letters will be included in the packages sent to the library's Silver Linings participants. Please keep in mind that in order to receive full volunteer credit for your letters, they should be an appropriate length (2-3 paragraphs) and should contain content that you have not used in previous letters. "Letters" that are only a few sentences long will not receive credit as a submission. These are actually sent to Wylie residents and should reflect the courtesy and friendliness of our city.

Link to submit a finished log!