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The article focuses on the 2012 Public Library Association Public Library Data Service (PLA PLDS), which aimed to understand library collections, expenditures and services during the year. The PLA PLDS painted a mixed picture of the current state of the Young Adult services and that while many libraries are offering services to Young Adults, only a few have dedicated staff members. On comparison with the 2007 survey, the 2012 PLA PLDS also showed an overwhelming access to library programs for teens but only two-thirds of the respondents in both years had dedicated a portion of their library web pages for Young Adult services.

The article focuses on the flying off young adults fiction bookshelves in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania public libraries. It traces the cultural origins of street literature emerging genre, defines it in detail, and explores why inner-city teenagers at one branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia are passionate about reading it. The authors stress that even though the stories offer little hope for a better life, street literature console the frightened and confused souls of African American teenagers essaying confirmation and validation of their lives, as well as legitimization of inner-city culture. Through urban fiction, they have become indued to employ the library, and thus street literature has reignited the vitality of the urban neighborhood library.