SCARBOROUGH — Celeste Shinay walked the students through the basics of operating an electric typewriter.

When it dings, press the return key to continue to the next line. To fix a mistake, there’s a word correct key in the bottom right-hand corner. To move the page up or down, turn the knob.

“Isn’t it crazy?” asked Shinay, the Scarborough Public Library’s manager of programming and development.

Before Tuesday, Abby Corbin and Madison Damon, seventh-graders at Scarborough Middle School, had never used the likes of an IBM Wheelwriter.

“That’s so cool,” Madison said after hearing the heavy snap of keys hitting paper. Both girls laughed at the noisy buzz unleashed by the word correct feature.

The library made the “vintage” typewriter and other pieces of older technology available to students for Teen Tech Week, an initiative of the Young Adult Library Services Association that aims to capture the attention of young patrons and familiarize them with library resources.

Participating libraries are free to come up with their own activities to highlight this year’s theme: “Mix and Mash @ your library.”

On Tuesday, the Scarborough library had “60-Second Stories.” Students could write parts of a story on the IBM Wheelwriter, a manual Remington Quiet-Riter — with Ko-Rec-Tape nearby — and a ThinkPad laptop.

On Thursday, students will be able to use a reel-to-reel recording system and a microphone to create an audiobook.

Retro 1990s video games — home game consoles and hand-held devices — were part of the plan for both days.

More than 40 middle school students are regulars at the library after school, said Youth Services Librarian Louise Capizzo.

Capizzo, who joined the library in January, thought Teen Tech Week activities would provide a good way for her to get to know her regulars.

“It’s also a way to remind them that libraries are cool places,” she said.

Thomas Porada, a freshman at Scarborough High School, maneuvered Pikachu in a cityscape to knock his opponent off the screen. Super Smash Bros., a Nintendo game released in 1999, was the precursor to Super Smash Bros. Brawl, a sequel that Thomas plays these days.

“It’s awesome,” he said. “It’s amazing. This is how it all started.”

Sixth-graders Edie Frederick, McKenzie Keim and Erin McKeown tried their hands at another 1990s Nintendo game — Super Mario 64 — at another TV in the library’s meeting room. They noted how old-fashioned the graphics looked and how clunky the controls were compared with what they use for Wii.

“They’re really different from what we have now,” McKenzie said.

Shinay said the middle school years are a time when students have more required reading for school and may start losing interest in being recreational readers.

“It’s our goal, our hope, that they’ll look to the library for pleasure as well as for school,” she said.

About 1,300 libraries, including 10 in Maine, have reported to the Young Adult Library Services Association that they planned Teen Tech Week activities.

Teen Tech Week, now in its fifth year, was created as a complement to the annual Teen Read Week, in October.

It shows teenagers that libraries are welcoming places with formats and information they want and need, said Kim Patton, president of the association and a librarian for teenagers with the Kansas City Public Library.

“It’s another way to get teens engaged in libraries in different ways and doing activities that are meaningful to them,” she said.

Staff Writer Ann S. Kim can be contacted at 791-6383 or at: akim@pressherald.com