Sno-Isle Libraries (SIL) debuted Issues That Matter forums in 2010 as a series of community discussions and debates. These forums convene residents from communities across the entire two-county library service area (Snohomish County and Island County, WA) to engage in important community conversations on relevant, high-profile topics. Through these events, the library extends its neutral stance to enable civil, open discussion on controversial topics with the guidance of several panelists and a program moderator. Sessions are recorded and streamed live on Facebook. The forums connect citizens in the communities we serve with local experts, stakeholders, and community leaders.

SIL’s outreach programming for a decade now. It’s also a work in progress. We listen to forum participants and we adapt. They want more than a give-and-take debate, or an informational presentation. 

“They want to know, what are the next steps, what can I learn, how can I participate to help?” said Ken Harvey, SIL Director of Communications. “It’s clearer and clearer that audiences want to do more than attend. They want to engage.”1 As a result, Issues That Matter is evolving and transforming to remain a vital, objective resource that customers value and appreciate. 

Issues That Matter is now a centerpiece of SIL’s strategic priorities and core services: building civic engagement to address community issues, and presenting programs addressing community needs and interests. 

COMMUNITY CONCERNS 

Three of the first four forum topics covered hot-button state ballot measures: an income tax, legalization of recreational marijuana, and same sex marriage. We’ve also discussed more general issues, such as bullying, hate crimes, and drugs in our communities. 

When SIL decided to pursue this type of programming, district officials knew community partners might say, “Libraries check out books. Why are you holding community events on ballot measures or social issues?” We did hear that question along with several similar ones, and for good reason. Ten years ago, this was uncharted territory for SIL. 

It became apparent early in the process that all SIL staff members needed to understand why we chose to engage in this type of programming and be able to explain that decision effectively to our communities. 

While our early forums featured contentious political issues, the Homelessness Here forums in 2017 illustrate how we’ve adapted to provide more audience engagement. We became an information clearinghouse for many organizations, agencies, and professionals who deal with the region’s homeless population. Thanks to these connections and strengthened relationships, we added information to resources on our “Issues That Matter—Homelessness Here” webpage with links to twenty local agencies that offer resources for those experiencing homelessness, plus recommended books and educational materials. 

Issues That Matter events always include time at the end to mingle and connect. With the Homelessness Here forums, staff noticed a strong desire for attendees to find new ways to take action. They connected with the panelists, but also with each other after each event. 

Just because presentation topics are community-generated doesn’t mean there isn’t some controversy. We continue to learn with each new series of forums while embracing the opportunity to facilitate sometimes difficult discussions. For example, this year’s theme is “Looking Forward” and focuses on regional growth-related issues. One customer said Issues That Matter indicates a socialist agenda. SIL Foundation Executive Director Paul Pitkin responded to explain the foundation’s support and where the forum topics originate. 

“We have provided support for these forums for the past nine years in order to enable community and regional conversations around high-profile topics, such as the upcoming issue of population growth and how it is affecting our communities and region,” Pitkin said. “The topics selected for discussion actually come from the communities we serve.”² 

Another customer commented that the panelists on an upcoming Housing and Homelessness forum are biased. “This is not a discussion, this is a lecture series. ALL the panelists have something to gain by low-income housing. What about the people who have to put up with drug-induced felons getting FREE housing in our neighborhoods?” the customer wrote. “It isn’t necessarily a homeless issue, it’s a drug issue.” 

Edmonds Library Manager Richard Suico handled the response: 

“I appreciate your comments that this is skewed and agenda-driven. We are providing this forum to give you and the rest of the community an opportunity to engage in an informed discussion with community experts that have been directly impacted, have studied and researched and/or are providing possible solutions to the housing issue. 

“Even if we feel we have created an expert field of panelists, community members like you are encouraged to attend and participate. The format only works if it is authentic and includes the community sharing, in a respectful, appropriate manner, a wide range of viewpoints like yours that sound like this topic is corollary to the drug issue. I thank you for your comments and concerns and hope you attend.”³ 

However difficult, it is important to find moderators and panelists who have different, even divergent, viewpoints on topics. 

“Some panelists may only represent one viewpoint,” Harvey said. “Libraries must ensure a wide range of political and philosophical views to demonstrate our objectivity. The public will perceive that slant and see the lack of objectivity.”⁴ 

CHOOSING TOPICS 

The primary factors in deciding topics are: (1) that they must be relevant to those who live in the communities we serve and (2) align with our library district’s strategic priorities. SIL staff members use several methods to further identify potential Issues That Matter program topics. 

Canvassing local elected officials for information on current projects or initiatives in their communities and asking if they can share information on their constituents’ concerns is one key component. This has the added bonus of helping to develop conversations and strengthen relationships between the library and local civic leaders. Surveying forum attendees has also helped identify future topics. 

In 2015 and 2016, SIL issued press releases asking for topic suggestions. Each time, we received more than sixty responses from library district customers who shared issues that were important to them and their communities. 

SIL chose Homelessness Here as the 2017 Issues That Matter theme for a number of reasons. Homelessness was mentioned by respondents to a call for topic suggestions in both 2015 and 2016. In 2016, as part of our strategic planning process, we asked library customers to take a short online survey to pick which topics were most important to them and their communities. 

The top four responses were mental-health needs, drug addiction, lack of affordable housing, and homelessness. The combined totals of those four responses made up 71% of all responses. The three responses that were not specifically “homelessness” touched on other issues of concern to persons experiencing homelessness in our communities. 

In Snohomish County, the homeless population is monitored with a count called Point in Time (PIT) (www.snohomishcountywa.gov/2857/Point-In-Time) taken on a single night in January each year. While the PIT count fluctuates year to year, Snohomish County measured a 9.9% increase in its unsheltered homeless population between 2013 and 2018, rising from 344 people to 378 people, according to 2018 data. (The county’s homeless population was 599 people in 2019.) 

The need was apparent and Homelessness Here became an obvious topic choice for 2017. It had more participation than any other Issues That Matter event and was very well reviewed by attendees. 

We asked participants what they liked about this forum. Here are some responses: 

• “Bringing everyone together to help educate, collaborate and brainstorm ideas.”
• “Feeling of community doing something for each other.”
• “Information about resources, encouragement for more engagement.”
• “Well run, organized, timely, and helpful.”
• “The open, heartfelt, intelligent address of a really difficult issue. Good panelists, good moderator, good audience participation. Thank you!”

To the final question on the survey, “What can the library do to improve your learning?” we heard an overarching common theme—do more! Here is a selection of comments: 

• “More forums like this.”
• “More specifics about involvement on this program.”
• “Handouts for people to know more.”
• “I wish there was more of an action plan—it’s a tough, huge problem.”
• “More forums on specific needs in small communities.”

EXPANDING THE CONCEPT 

The feedback from 2017 was used for determining the subsequent Issues That Matter topics under the broad umbrella of mental health. Such a broad category called for trying something new. 

Up to this point, Issues That Matter events had been centrally organized. With mental health, we knew that community library staff members understood their particular community’s needs and interests, so we had each interested library pick its own specific topic related to the topic of mental health. 

Nineteen of our twenty-three libraries held sixteen forums between fall 2017 and spring 2018, culminating with a summit to review action items on the broad array of mental health issues the forums tackled. We had a wide variety of subtopics covered, from “Families and Dementia” to “Teen Depression and Suicide.” 

We’re using what we learned from the Homelessness Here and Mental Health forums to keep Issues That Matter relevant with SIL customers and the people who live in our library district. Forum participants want action items. They want to learn ways to help. It was clear that Issues That Matter could be a wonderful conduit for civic action. 

We are now asking the speakers at each event to share an action item for the audience. We focus on sharing information on topics important to our local communities and providing tools to take an action step with their new knowledge. 

NUTS AND BOLTS 

With each forum topic, SIL staff members identify, approach, and recruit the topic’s panelists and moderator. Knowing good sources of potential moderators and forming a partnership with those people and organizations is particularly important, because locating a moderator can often be more difficult than finding panelists. 

We work with organizations such as the local League of Women Voters and regional media outlets to locate moderators who are comfortable leading a public discussion. Local elected officials are another good resource and we have had several mayors and other elected officials serve as moderators. Library staff members who have a background or training in moderating events are also good options. 

For panelists, many professionals perform community outreach as an important part of their job. Surprisingly, we’ve found these excellent local resources don’t often receive a lot of invitations from other organizations to speak at community events. 

Many librarians may find it unusual or intimidating to cold call prospective panelists or send unsolicited emails about participating in something like a facilitated panel discussion. However, librarians make these kinds of requests all the time, such as approaching a performer to schedule a summer reading program or asking a local business if they would support a library initiative. Reaching out to a prospective panelist for a community forum isn’t that much different. 

Tips 

• Keep it simple. Identify a few key local agencies or organizations, tell them about the planned event, then ask if they can send a representative to serve as a panelist. We’ve heard an enthusiastic “Yes!” more often than “No thanks.”
• We’ve found that panelists frequently help arrange colleagues for other forum panels or provide us with solid references for additional panelists.
• When a program has more speakers than spots on the panel, we ask some speakers to sit in the audience and participate in the audience Q&A. They get to supplement the panelists’ answers and help foster a more robust discussion.
• We make sure that all panelists and our moderator meet before each program. It gives them a chance to discuss what each one will focus on in their opening remarks. Panelists want to avoid overlapping statements, and often want to discuss how certain potential audience questions will be addressed and by whom. A few emails are usually enough to accomplish this, but we have also arranged conference calls for panelists.
• We also make a point to share links to photos and recordings of past Issues That Matter events, along with an itinerary of the event timeline. Keep your panelists and moderator engaged. You can’t communicate too much.
• One of the advantages of having a variety of panelists involved is that they can promote the event to their networks. SIL always invites local government officials and other community stakeholders. They often promote the event and invite the community to come.
• Don’t underestimate the importance of frontline staff members in promoting the events. The best-attended forum events always have local library staffers heavily involved in promotion.

SIL has created some amazing partnerships simply by reaching out to other agencies and professionals who live or work in the library district. That has happened even though SIL doesn’t offer a speaker’s fee or any kind of honorarium to panelists or moderators. We provide a light meal before events for panelists as a way of encouraging them to meet each other beforehand. It also ensures everyone is on time for a sound check with the recording equipment and microphones. 

The Sno-Isle Libraries Foundation supports Issues That Matter by covering these minor costs, along with any rental fees for equipment such as a stage or for venue rental in communities where a community library lacks an adequate meeting room. Other than staff time, these are the only costs incurred during the programs. 

Businesses, nonprofits, professionals, and many others want to support their communities, work with their libraries, and help others. They just need to be asked to do so. 

ONE PANELIST’S JOURNEY TO THE FORUM 

Megan LaPlante, a Monroe High School freshman, was a panelist at the 2016 Issues That Matter series on teenage suicide. One year earlier, a friend committed suicide a few hours after a school field trip. Megan and her classmates learned about the death the next day at school. 

“I got a call from Megan about 8:15 in the morning. It was awful,” Megan’s mother, Susan LaPlante, said. “She couldn’t speak; just sobbing.” LaPlante said she had to convince Megan to speak out about losing her friend. “Megan wasn’t sure,” she said. “It’s so personal and so difficult. We talked about it a lot. I told her, ‘You need to talk about it for yourself. And, it can help others.’”⁵ 

Megan’s voice was charged with emotion when she spoke at three Issues That Matter forums. “It’s such a big issue, but not a lot of people know about it,” Megan said after the series. “People don’t touch on it. Parents don’t learn about this and kids die. They don’t know, but they should know about this.”⁶ 

Megan learned it’s important to be there for someone who reaches out. “If they’ve opened up to you, they are trusting you and thinking you will do something and possibly stop it,” she said. “Just hang out as much as possible and make them feel loved and welcome because they are, they really are. There are things that you can do. Say, ‘Come on over,’ or ‘Go to a movie with me.’ And if they say, ‘Leave me alone,’ tell them, ‘No, you’re hurting, I’m staying with you.’”⁷ 

While choosing to speak about teen suicide wasn’t easy for Megan, the response at the Issues That Matter forum convinced her that it was the right choice. “A girl came up to me after it was over to say how much it helped,” Megan said.⁸ Her mother had a similar experience with a parent. “The father of a boy who died in April [2016] came up and said Megan’s comments were so relevant. It was very confirming,” LaPlante said. “That night was amazing.”⁹ 

PROMOTION 

The SIL Communications Department is deeply involved in Issues That Matter programs and handles all event promotion with online, print, and social-media efforts. 

For every programming series, online content is created. Other items include a banner promotion on the main library website, news blog posts, press releases to local media, articles for newsletters, and email blasts about the events to library customers in the hosting community and nearby geographic areas. Promotional posters and fliers are created and sent to local library staff members to post and distribute in their communities. 

We also promote upcoming Issues That Matter events on Twitter and the SIL Facebook page, always tagging participating or potentially interested local groups. 

At the events, communications staff members livestream it to Facebook, then archive the videos on the Facebook Videos page. Staff members then follows up with video and article links on the website and to local media. 

When the local press writes about an event, we make sure to share that content on the SIL homepage, Facebook, Twitter, and other social-media outlets. 

OUTCOMES 

SIL first employed outcomes-based measurements using the Project Outcome model during the Homelessness Here events in 2017.

The first event, cohosted by four community libraries on Whidbey Island, had 187 attendees. The next three events brought total live attendance to 545 community members. Many more were reached with our Facebook Live feeds. Elected officials attended three of the four events. All of them spoke during the Q&A sessions and stayed after to connect with attendees. 

We had several goals or outcomes for the series. Information on the first four was gathered from surveys that community members filled out immediately after an event using a five-point scale (1. Strongly disagree; 2. Disagree; 3. Neither agree nor disagree; 4. Agree; 5. Strongly agree): 

1. Community members are more knowledgeable about community issues. 
2. Community members feel more confident about becoming involved in their community. 
3. Community members intend to become more engaged on community issues. 
4. Community members are more aware of services and events offered by SIL. 

When asked what participants liked most about the Homelessness Here forums, comments included: 

• A “feeling of [the] community doing something for each other.”
• Receiving “information about resources [and] encouragement for more engagement.”
• “The open, heartfelt, intelligent address to a really difficult issue.”
• The desire to “bring everyone together to help educate, collaborate, and brainstorm ideas.”
• The event was “well run, organized, timely, and helpful.”

The Mental Health forums had similar results. The surveys used a five-point scale (1. Strongly disagree; 2. Disagree; 3. Neither agree nor disagree; 4. Agree; 5. Strongly agree). 

Overall the survey results were quite positive and showed that community members did feel more knowledgeable and more committed to becoming engaged in their community as a result of attending an Issues That Matter event (see table 1). 

Six weeks after the events, we sent out a follow-up survey to measure participant action. 

1. Community members actively became more involved in the community. 
2. Community members used what they learned to do something new or different in the community. 
3. Community members discussed what they learned with others.
4. As a result of attending the program, community members used another library resource, attended another program, or checked out a book.

Unfortunately, survey participation was low and we only received nineteen responses for the Homelessness Here events. Out of those responses, 56% did become more active in their community and 63% used what they learned to do something new or different in their community. All respondents said they had discussed what they learned or experienced with others. And 53% used another library resource or service, checked out a book, or attended another program.

In the follow-up survey to Homelessness Here, comments included: 

• “I work on housing issues through my work and this program helped me know more about the programs in Island County.”
• “We helped organize and held a forum . . . with 24 different active organizations to help us come together and work on issues in a more organized way.”
• “Homelessness—I have always wondered how to address it and this helped.”
• “The meeting was targeted specifically at a mostly invisible problem in my community that sorely needs to be addressed.”
• “This homelessness [forum] was very informational and disturbing. When I hear people talk about these issues, I’m more informed to participate in the conversations.”
• “I did discuss the homelessness issue with several other people. And I am more aware as well as empathetic for those who find themselves in this circumstance.”
• “We discussed the program and shared information with others.”
• “I participate in a regular gathering of friends and talked about what I had learned, particularly in respect to support for homeless youth.”

While the Mental Health series was well attended, we struggled with collection methods of the follow-up survey and didn’t get enough responses to draw useful conclusions. For the 2019 series, we’re collecting email addresses of attendees at the start of each event. Previously, attendees opted into the follow-up survey by adding it to their day-of evaluation. We’ll use the email addresses to send forum participants a resource and action list from the speakers. By continually engaging with the attendees in this way, we hope more of them will take civic action. 

LOOKING AHEAD 

An overarching theme in audience comments after each event is that our diverse communities want more of this kind of programming. Because of this, the Issues That Matter team developed a toolkit so individual libraries can respond quickly to specific issues with their own localized programs, produced independently of the district’s systemwide Issues That Matter programming committee. 

In 2019, SIL is presenting five Issues That Matter discussions on the theme “Looking Forward.” The forums will focus on four broad issues related to growth: (1) the environment, (2) transportation, (3) employment, and (4) housing. With the region’s population surging, the goal of these discussions is to help communities work on potential solutions to issues related to growth that are happening now and are expected to happen in the near future. 

Communications Director Harvey will continue tweaking Issues That Matter so the forums remain an important, useful, and responsive resource for our communities. It might mean we have a two-tier format with smaller, community-focused forums at individual libraries like those we piloted with Mental Health, and larger forums on broad issues that got Issues That Matter off the ground in 2010. No matter what format Issues That Matter follows, we will always provide ways for forum participants to engage. 

“The challenge for libraries is to pull together a planning team to put on more than an informational event,” Harvey said. “It needs to activate people.”¹⁰ 

We’re excited about being able to expand the program and get more libraries and communities involved in civic discussion and engagement around important topics. It’s clear from the events we’ve held that local agencies, governments, and communities are all eager to talk and work together. At SIL, we believe that being a local leader in creating and hosting programs that promote these types of important community conversations is an issue that matters to all public libraries. 

For a complete list of past ITM programs, visit www. sno-isle.org/issues-that-matter. 

References 

1. Ken Harvey, personal interview with author, April 2019. 
2. Paul Pitkin, personal interview with author, April 2019. 
3. Richard Suico, personal interview with author, April 2019. 
4. Harvey. 
5. Susan LaPlante, “Speaking at Teen-Suicide Forums Difficult, But Rewarding, Choice,” Sno-Isle Libraries blog, July 1, 2016, accessed July 14, 2019.
6. Megan LaPlante, “Speaking at Teen-Suicide Forums Difficult, But Rewarding, Choice,” Sno-Isle Libraries blog, July 1, 2016, accessed July 14, 2019.
7. Ibid. 
8. Ibid. 
9. Susan LaPlante. 
10. Harvey. 

The post Issues That Matter: Forums Build Civic Engagement first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

“Oh, I get it,” said the library patron who had been talking with a library staff member; they’d been discussing why the library was sharing resources and facilitating conversation around civic topics. “These are topics worth looking at closely. You need to have good information in order to make up your own mind. If you have bad information, someone else is making up your mind for you.”

This patron, in the course of a fifteen-minute conversation that started with a discussion about how the U.S. Supreme Court works and evolved to explore more general civic information–sharing, got at the crux of the Civic Lab model for civic engagement here at Skokie (IL) Public Library (SPL). Since its inception in summer 2016, the Civic Lab has offered information and thought-provoking activities to support dialogue and engagement on issues that affect our community. At its heart, the Civic Lab—a team of library staff members from a variety of departments, working in a variety of positions—is about connecting community members of all ages with the information and resources they need to first understand issues that they care about and that are impacting the community, and then, with that foundation of understanding based on reputable information, make up their own minds about how they feel about an issue, and whether and how they want to act as a result. 

Here at SPL, we broadly define “civic engagement” in the library context as the programs and opportunities that promote and facilitate: 

• a deeper, more critical understanding of how civic institutions operate; 
• a broader, more empathic knowledge of how issues, policies, and decisions affect lives; and
• an increased awareness of and confidence in one’s ability to take an active role in civic discourse and participate in community decision-making.

The Civic Lab is one initiative under an umbrella of civic engagement work at the library. 

The Civic Lab came to be in part due to the volume of conversations about the 2016 general election. Library staff working many different types of service points, and in a range of programs, noticed that community members were having more and more conversations about political candidates, policy issues, and platforms leading up to the primary elections. As a library we strive to support our community by taking what we’re hearing in the library and beyond and integrating those issues and concerns into our services. The Learning Experiences team at the library, which oversees all public programs as well as experiential learning spaces for patrons of all ages, regularly asks how we can infuse what we’re hearing our community cares about into our programs and services. When we continued to hear that civic discourse was on an uptick in the community, and that community members were coming to the library with questions seeking to better understand issues raised in political campaigns and coverage, we saw there was opportunity to do more than offer a handful of standalone programs that would each explore a single issue in the news or campaign coverage. We saw an opportunity to think more broadly, at a larger initiative level, about how we might support community members in understanding and discussing important issues. And so, with brainstorming among the Learning Experiences team, the Civic Lab was born. 

STARTING OUT: THE CIVIC LAB BOUTIQUE 

This first iteration of the Civic Lab ran from late August until the general election in November 2016, and it was a semi-static installation with a goal of connecting community members to resources, information, and discussion around six core issues we’d observed as being of particular importance to the Skokie community: 

1. Black Lives Matter 
2. Climate change 
3. Immigration 
4. Income inequality 
5. LGBTQQI+ 
6. Reproductive justice 

For each of these six issues, we curated and developed the following elements to be available— some ongoing, some rotating—in a newly cleared corner of our AV department which became the Civic Lab Boutique: 

• Microcollections of resources on each topic. These microcollections featured multiple copies of six resources on each topic: two for an adult audience, two for teens, one for middle grade youth, and one picture book. The materials included in these microcollections were selected because they provided critical, credible perspectives on the issues. 
• Conversation starters. These open-ended questions were structured to invite discussion and perspective-sharing on the six central issues. For example, conversation starters included “What does income inequality look like in Skokie?” (for the income inequality topic) and “What is your family’s migration story?” (for the immigration topic). Visitors to the Civic Lab Boutique were 
• able to engage in live conversation around a table in the space, or to write their thoughts on a postcard they could add to a mailbox in the space. 
• Voting prompts. These yes/no questions rotated while the Civic Lab Boutique was live, with each question posted atop a large foam board with “Yes” and “No” sides, and sticky notes available for community members to cast their votes. Voting prompts included “Has the Black Lives Matter movement challenged you to think about racism in Skokie?” and “Should employers be required to provide paid parental leave for their employees?” (We also included related voting prompts for children in our Youth Services Department, with prompts like “Have you ever been told you can’t do something because of your gender?”) 
• Curated resource handouts. These handouts, one for each issue and meant to be taken home by visitors to the Civic Lab, included the conversation starters, key definitions relevant to the issue, the resources included in the microcollections, and additional resources for further exploration. 

Throughout the several months that the Civic Lab Boutique was up in the library, we learned a handful of key takeaways that we’ve kept with us as the Civic Lab has evolved. First, we learned that community members engaged with the Civic Lab most when there was a library staff member present. While we had curious browsers explore the space throughout the installation, the only times we observed conversation around the issues was when a staff member was around to participate in the discussion. Facilitation appeared to be a significant factor for engagement. Second, we learned that while plenty of the microcollection materials circulated, the curated resource handouts were the most popular takeaway from the space. Whether that was because not every visitor to the Civic Lab was in a position to check out materials, or they wanted to explore further on their own terms and then return, or another reason, we gathered that curated resource handouts are a great passive tool for civic exploration. 

THE NEXT ITERATION: CIVIC LAB POP-UPS 

While developing the Civic Lab Boutique, we talked abstractly about whether (and how) we’d extend the concept beyond this initial installation. After the 2016 presidential election, we saw the same increase in interest in civic dialogue and participation that communities across the country also experienced. We realized that continuing the Civic Lab wasn’t just something we wanted to try as a library—it was something our community was clamoring for. 

Later in November 2016, we evolved the Civic Lab to its second and current iteration: as a pop-up programming–style model. Using what we had learned about the preference for facilitated activities and desire for connection to resources, we developed the model of the Civic Lab that we still use now nearly three years later. Civic Lab pop-ups all involve some permutation of the same core elements: 

• a central prompt or question that sets the topic scope of the pop-up; 
• supporting visuals, activities, resources, or conversation starters to support exploration of the topic of the pop-up;
• a curated resource handout with credible information on the topic, typically with each resource on the handout including an annotation of one or two sentences to summarize what community members can find using the resource;
• direct staffing/facilitation of the pop-up, with at least one staff member but typically two;
• a sixty to ninety minute pop-up period in a library area chosen because of likelihood of foot traffic, proximity to additional resources, etc.;
• our Civic Lab branded stand-up banner to help identify the pop-up as a Civic Lab appearance;
• some combination of stacking wooden crates to help delineate the pop-up space;
• a rolling whiteboard with dry-erase markers, or sticky notes and writing utensils to facilitate participant sharing; and
• a listing in our online events calendar, which means that Civic Lab pop-ups will appear on the library website homepage on the day of the pop-up.

Throughout the two-and-a-half years we’ve been offering Civic Lab pop-ups, we’ve strived to offer a minimum of one pop-up topic (each appearing at two different times) each month; during some months we’ve featured two or more topics. 

As we evolved from the Civic Lab Boutique to the pop-up model, we intentionally refocused on our goals for this type of civic engagement. Now that all of our Civic Lab installations would involve direct staff facilitation, we wanted to ensure that the staff participating in the Civic Lab—a team of eight to ten from multiple library departments and roles—felt confident in what we’re trying to achieve through the initiative. The Civic Lab is about information, and our goal for the Civic Lab is exploring reputable information on a topic, ideally from lots of different vantage points. To that end, we’re going to look to the source of any information shared in a pop-up (regardless of whether it’s shared by a staff member or a community member), and we’re going to ask questions to get at deeper consideration of a topic at hand (rather than just continuing to hold previously held viewpoints without considering others). It’s also a core tenet of the Civic Lab that we are not trying to persuade patrons to come to a certain conclusion on a topic. We’re operating under the premise that people can make the best decisions when informed, and that libraries are information experts, and so our end goal is to support patrons in considering all the information that they need in order to understand a topic and come to their own conclusions. 

CIVIC LAB TOPICS 

How do we select topics for this current version of the Civic Lab? As we’ve continued to iterate around the Civic Lab since fall 2016, we’ve honed in on four main types of Civic Lab topics that appeal to our community and that we return to as we continue planning. 

TYPE 1: Topics in the News 

Like many across the country, people in Skokie are keyed into topics that they see being discussed in their news sources of choice. It’s been a natural process for staff involved in the Civic Lab to think about the news they consume through a lens of what might make for a compelling Civic Lab discussion. Similarly, we’re always looking to our community and listening to the topics they care about, which has provided plenty of fodder for Civic Lab pop-ups. Examples of these “topics in the news” pop-ups include: 

• “Executive Orders and Immigrants”—a pop-up developed in early 2017 when a series of executive orders was issued enacting travel bans restricting citizens of select Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States; this pop-up was designed to consider this news topic in the context of the 1942 executive order that called for the incarceration of Japanese Americans in the United States. 

• “Narratives of Gun Violence”—a pop-up developed alongside a lot of community conversation about the Parkland shooting and March for Our Lives demonstration; this pop-up was focused on connecting community members to resources and perspectives on gun violence beyond the typical and reductive argument that structures gun violence as simply an issue of gun-owners’ rights versus gun control.

• “Talking About Suicide”—a pop-up developed when there was heightened conversation about mental health in Skokie following the deaths by suicide of Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade, as well as a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report about increases in suicide in the United States; this pop-up was focused on defining terms around mental health to help with de-stigmatization, as well as to connect community members to mental health support resources in the community.

TYPE 2: Basic Civic Literacy 

We’ve seen many indicators that community members are looking to increase their knowledge and confidence around understanding how basics of governance work at all levels. To that end, we regularly develop Civic Lab pop-ups around basic civic literacy topics to help support this understanding, including: 

• “How Does the Supreme Court Work?”—a pop-up focused on exploring why the United States Supreme Court looks the way it does, how justices come to sit on the court, how the court determines what cases it will hear, and more. 
• “What is the EPA?”—a pop-up intended to explore the Environmental Protection Agency, its purview and influence in our country, the reasons for its creation, and the impact of its work.
• “How a Bill Becomes a Law”—a pop-up meant to explore the legislative process and how an idea for a bill becomes a law.

TYPE 3: Timely Topics 

Public libraries are often aware of dates and months on the calendar that are designated for the exploration of particular topics, the celebration of cultural groups, and so on. We’ve engaged with community members beyond materials displays in conjunction with these timely topics by developing Civic Lab pop-ups that can facilitate further exploration and conversation: 

• “Talking About Taxes”—a pop-up during March (in conjunction with tax season) meant to connect community members to information about how taxes function, different types of taxes, and what tax money funds at different levels of government.
• “Blackness in America”—a pop-up during February (in conjunction with Black History Month) that connects community members to resources exploring a range of perspectives on black experiences and excellence in the United States.
• “Actually, She Did That”—a pop-up during March (in conjunction with Women’s History Month) that explores the lives and contributions of women who did not get credit for their work with a goal of enabling community members of all ages to reflect on gender discrimination.
• “What is Pride Month?”—a pop-up during June that features a live information-gathering activity in which community members and Civic Lab facilitators work together using a range of resources to build out a display that explores the who, what, when, where, why, and how of Pride Month.

TYPE 4: News Literacy 

At the core of all Civic Lab pop-ups is a desire to support community members in developing news and information-literacy skills so that they can access, consider, and make informed decisions based on reputable information. We’ve had success popping up around general news literacy topics, including: 

• “What is Journalism? (And What Isn’t?)”—a pop-up that explores different types of news coverage, including straight reporting, analysis, and opinion pieces, with a goal of increasing understanding around how to differentiate between news coverage that shares objective facts and coverage that provides more subjective perspectives.
• “Social Media & Viral News”—a pop-up built around resources to help develop deeper understanding around the interplay between social media platforms and viral news sharing, including connections to resources for verifying news found on social media.

Across all four of these types of Civic Lab pop-ups, we have explored topics that are time-specific—most relevant only in conjunction with a particular news story—as well as those that are more evergreen. We have updated and offered again a number of Civic Lab pop-ups on evergreen topics, sometimes as much as two years after we initially developed a topic. For instance, “How the Supreme Court Works” has continued to be a relevant and engaging pop-up on a number of occasions. 

DESIGNING CIVIC LAB RESOURCES & ACTIVITIES 

As we’ve iterated this Civic Lab pop-up model, we’ve developed some best practices for curating resources and activities that engage community members of all ages in exploring these topics. These best practices speak to strategies for ensuring that anyone is able to explore the topic at hand in a manner that is informative, engaging, and developmentally appropriate. 

Avoid an “opposing viewpoints” model. The idea that there are only two sides to an issue, and that they are opposites of one another, is a fallacy. It’s an appealing fallacy, since it feels like it’s easy to understand an issue if we can frame it in the context of an “either/or” argument, but it’s a fallacy nonetheless. Real-world issues are complex and can only be meaningfully understood when considered from a variety of perspectives. For the Civic Lab and other types of civic engagement programming with a goal of building knowledge and awareness among participants, it’s vital that we include a wide range of perspectives in supporting our community to explore an issue. We encourage staff to seek out, verify, and include (if appropriate) resources that go beyond the most usual “pro/con” perspectives and also include perspectives that provide a global, local, expert, experiential, statistical, personal, historical, contemporary, scientific, economic, artistic, policy-focused, and/or legal lens on the issue at hand. 

Kids are typically drawn to topics with activities they perceive as fun. For Civic Lab topics around which we want to engage youth community members, we strive to include some type of interactive component as part of the pop-up. This may look like a matching game, as with “Actually, She Did That” in which participants were encouraged to try to match the name and portrait of a woman with her accomplishment. Quizzes and challenges are also appealing activities. 

Teens are most engaged when the topic feels personally relevant to them. Whether it’s because a Civic Lab topic is one they’ve touched on in school (or feel like they should have learned in school, but didn’t), or it’s one with which they have a personal interest, teens connect best with Civic Lab pop-ups when they feel a connection or motivation around the topic being explored. Skokie teens have been particularly drawn to topics around social media and general information literacy, and we’ve had teens get really into environmental and science research topics as well. 

Adults want to be respected and intellectually stimulated in civic conversations. We’ve found that adults in general, if they feel they have time to spend at the Civic Lab, are really interested in civic conversations so long as they feel respected in the conversation—they don’t want to feel condescended to, but rather as an equal partner in a discussion. They want for their experiences and existing knowledge to be recognized as bringing something valuable to the conversation. To that end, they’re looking for a robust conversation directed by curiosity—they want to bring their own knowledge, but they also want to learn from the knowledge of others. We may hear reports about people being stuck in their information bubbles and arguing held beliefs without room for considering other perspectives, but by and large that hasn’t been our experience with the Civic Lab. Adults who opt into a conversation about a civic topic generally genuinely want to expand their knowledge, and almost always are open to reconsidering their own previously held standpoints on a topic. 

Remember that credible information—not any particular viewpoint—is the goal. One of the most common questions we get from both community members and colleagues from the library profession is how we handle controversial topics. Our staff members who are involved in the Civic Lab do a lot of work to make sure that we’re always framing credible information as the core piece of any Civic Lab interaction; our end goal is for participants to walk away equipped with reputable, diverse information on a topic, and from there to feel better equipped to confidently hold an opinion on the topic. It is never our goal to get community members to hold a particular belief—what they personally decide based on what they know and learn is up to them. What we do care about is that Civic Lab participants have an opportunity to recognize and explore that information; that thing library staff have been experts in for our entire existence is the key to meaningful civic engagement. 

ACTIVATING STAFF AND INVOLVING THE COMMUNITY

Our Civic Lab team now includes almost a dozen staff members from multiple library departments who hold a variety of roles in the library. And that’s just the core team— we’ve had additional staff opt to participate on a topic-by-topic basis. To support staff interested in contributing to the Civic Lab, we rely on two core lenses for our library services: our customer service lens and a reference lens. From the customer service lens standpoint, we work with staff to recognize that a community member approaching a Civic Lab pop-up is similar to a community member approaching any other service point—we make no assumptions about what they’re coming to do, we seek to make a connection to understand what they’re looking for, and we strive to provide an experience that is engaging and enjoyable. From a reference lens standpoint, we review principles about how to ask questions that seek understanding in order to have conversations on a level playing field. We also review core reference and information literacy concepts like verifying sources, seeking multiple citations in order to verify a piece of information, and similar strategies that allow the Civic Lab to be an experience with information integrity. By and large, these customer service and reference approaches are things that Civic Lab staff members are already thinking about and doing in their work, making application to the Civic Lab model straightforward. 

In terms of involving staff in the Civic Lab initiative, whether it’s for a single pop-up or as a member of the core team, we think about activating staff through a number of strategies. First is through their own personal interests and experiences. For an early Civic Lab pop-up about “What’s Happening at Standing Rock,” a library staff member who participated in demonstrations at Standing Rock (he did so on personal time, not affiliated with the library) helped to facilitate the pop-up conversation by adding the perspective of a participant. Another way we connect staff to Civic Lab pop-ups is through topics that emerge in other program contexts. When a standing library book discussion group started have conversations about content creators who had recently been in the news with allegations of sexual assault, the two library staff members leading the discussion opted to parlay that discussion into a Civic Lab, “Separating Art from the Artist.” We’ve also had staff members whose role at the library relates to collection development identify trends and topics in materials coming into the library, which they then share with the Civic Lab team as potential future topics. We’ll regularly have staff from throughout the library sharing resources they’ve enjoyed—books, articles, podcasts, and more—that they think might connect to a Civic Lab topic. While they might not develop a pop-up themselves, their contributions add to the plans for the Civic Lab team. 

As the Civic Lab has continued to become a more familiar site around the library, we’ve had community members take notice and, in some cases, wish to replicate the model within their own spheres of work. The school librarian at one of our local middle schools approached the Civic Lab team about modifying the model at her school; she wanted to support her Social Justice Club students in deciding on civic topics for conversation and making resources and conversation starters available in the school library. We were thrilled to share our knowledge and our template for Civic Lab handouts, and these student-led topics have been well received at the school. 

WHAT’S NEXT? 

We’ve got plans to take Civic Lab–style pop-ups and discussions out into the community this summer with our new book bike, and we’ve been talking about what type of staff support is needed to pop up elsewhere outside of the library. With the type of community adoption signaled by local schools’ interest in the Civic Lab model, we’re hoping to see more of that type of community adoption as the Civic Lab continues to increase in visibility. And, of course, we’re thinking strategically about how the Civic Lab will lead into 2020, which includes both a decennial census and a general election. It’s our hope that the Civic Lab is one of many ways that the library supports our community in being informed, active, and engaged. 

RELATED RESOURCES 

• “Go-To News Sources”
• “What Is Pride Month?”
• “Narratives of Gun Violence”

The post A Civic Initiative About Information: The Civic Lab At Skokie Public Library first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

What exactly does the term “outreach” mean in the library eld? Outreach represents different services libraries might offer— programming, homebound deliveries, bookmobiles, volunteering, community events—as well as collaboration with schools, Spanish speakers, the homeless, the LGBT community, hospitals, senior facilities, and correctional facilities. When I accepted the position of outreach services librarian at the St. Charles (IL) Public Library District (SCPLD) in February 2015, I did not grasp what outreach fully meant or truly appreciate what an exciting field of librarianship I was entering. Not all libraries have dedicated outreach librarians or departments. So why should libraries become more aware of outreach services?

Growing Senior Population

The Administration on Aging projects that by 2030, 19.3 percent of the population (72.1 million people) will be aged sixty-five years or older, more than twice the number in 2000 and up from approximately 13.1 percent in 2010.¹ The US Census projects the US population aged sixty-five and older to grow to over 83.7 million by 2050.² Libraries need to ask themselves: (1) How does this increasing demographic affect our library and community? and (2) How do we serve this growing population?

“Aging in Place” vs. Care Facilities

In a recent survey completed by AARP, most seniors wish to “age in place,” to live at home and apply for long-term care services rather than reside in a senior care facility.³ All libraries can o er outreach service to this population: homebound deliveries, in- library pickup by caregivers, or books-by-mail are options. Volunteers or local Lions Club or Kiwanis Club members can select and deliver materials to homebound residents. Librarians can develop ideas that work for their library, community, and budget.

Due to the rising aging demographic in the United States, the number of people using nursing homes, alternative residential care facilities, and home care services is expected to grow from 15 million in 2000 to 27 million in 2050.⁴ An increase in senior facilities correlates to new opportunities for outreach programs to grow and create partnerships. When a new senior facility is built, outreach librarians can promote their library’s services and how it can enrich the residents’ lives.

Each facility requires different outreach services, so there is no “one size fits all” approach. At care facilities, we offer room-to-room service to deliver materials to bedridden patrons.

The St. Charles Public Library District

SCPLD serves a population of 55,000 residents in the far western suburbs of Chicago and includes parts of Kane and DuPage counties. SCPLD employs 120 full-time and part-time staff members.

Outreach Services, part of the Adult Services Department, consists of three part-time Outreach Services Assistants (Dana Hintz, Lynda Spraner, and Christine Steck) and a full- time Outreach Services Librarian (me).

The History of the Outreach Services Department

The Outreach Services Department of SCPLD has been delivering library materials to residents for over forty years. What began as one librarian delivering materials using her own vehicle has transformed into a full-scale operation involving four staff members. In 1975, a special services librarian was hired for the tri-city libraries of Geneva, Batavia, and St. Charles in Illinois—a first for the state. Shut-ins and those who were homebound were encouraged to call their local library to sign up for this new delivery service, which was funded through a federal grant and administered by the Illinois State Library, the DuPage Library System, and the three local libraries. When the service began, St. Charles had only one senior living facility. Available materials included regular print and Large Print books and magazines, talking books, phono- graphic records, and a circulating collection of framed art prints and sculptures.

Though the Outreach Services Department has had a long-standing history in the St. Charles community, the number of outreach patrons served boomed from April 2015, increasing from 79 to 183 patrons, a 132 percent increase.

Due to this boom and to new, dedicated staff, we have developed new community partnerships with the hospital, local homeless shelter, and Meals on Wheels, among other institutions, and we have established eight new community book exchanges, expanded services to patrons with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, and launched programming at facilities. Outreach strives to bring new life to a traditional service and to expand our reach in the community.

The Outreach Services Department Today

The Outreach Services Department provides service to residents who are temporarily or permanently homebound in the library district, including those who have low vision, difficulty with mobility, are recuperating from surgery, or have a prolonged illness. Outreach Services visits nine senior facilities, three home care facilities, and twenty homebound patrons a month, all while maintaining thirteen community book swaps. We deliver materials with the library’s program van or our own personal vehicles. Residents who reside in facilities are automatically eligible for outreach service, while homebound residents must contact Outreach Services and complete an application.

We publish a monthly brochure featuring newly released Large Print books. Outreach patrons may check out items for eight weeks (as opposed to the standard three weeks) and they are not charged fines for damaged or missing material. We help eligible patrons apply for service with the Illinois Talking Book Outreach Center, which provides qualified Illinois residents with access to materials from the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), and we register homebound patrons to vote and provide them with notary services.

What We Use

The Outreach Services Department uses the SirsiDynix ILS’s Outreach Module to help us select items, create facility and patron routes, and maintain patrons’ checkout histories. NoveList is used for generating book recommendations, and a library-owned Sprint Wi-Fi Hotspot is used to download e-books to a patron’s e-reader or tablet computer in the com- fort of their own home by someone from Outreach Services.

Outreach Services makes particular use of weeded materials at care and memory care facilities, especially for patrons who might not be able to keep track of circulating materials. The weeded materials that we supply are mostly Large Print books, but additional items are supplied from adult and youth services collections. SCPLD purchases periodicals for all facilities.

The Components of Successful Outreach

Engagement

Engagement is an important concept for outreach success. Coffee table books, adult coloring books, appropriate knick-knacks, and holiday props are used to encourage residents to swing by and check us out during visits. Outreach staff members offer programming at facilities: computer classes, book talks, holiday sing-alongs, and music recitals. Our programs are so popular that facilities and patrons want us to present them on all visits.

Outreach Services engages residents with “Tales and Travel Memories,” a program created by Mary Beth Riedner of ALA’s Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias Interest Group. Each Tales and Travel program discusses the facts, folklore, and two native animals of a country, and we share books, pictures, and souvenirs with the residents. Outreach Services staff always have meaningful interactions and conversations with residents, with many remembering their own travels abroad.

We recently created four new Educational and Engagement Kits, used by staff to engage outreach patrons and specifically developed to assist in memory stimulation. These four sets revolve around specific themes: movie stars, TV stars, mu- sic stars, and cooking. Each kit contains a laminated, larger print informational book- let with background history and photos and small objects that patrons may hold and examine (for example, “Remembering Movie Stars” features movie stars from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s—such as Marilyn Monroe and John Wayne—and includes an Oscar statue, ruby slippers, pink opera gloves, and a fedora hat). Each resident receives a booklet and follows along during presentations by outreach staff at long-term care and memory facilities.

In August 2016, Outreach Services debuted ten new themed Caregiver Kits that contain DVDs, CDs, and coffee table books, located at our Caregiver Kiosk in the library. Themes include: “Laughing with Lucy,” “Classic Comedy Shows,” and “Golden Broadway Musicals and Dance.” The goal of the Caregiver Kits is to promote memory stimulation, inspire meaningful conversation, and encourage continuing education for individuals who have Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. Caregiver Kits are meant to be an enjoyable reminiscence activity for a caregiver to use with someone who has memory loss. The Caregiver Kiosk also features information on caregiving, aging, Alzheimer’s disease, and dementia.

Social Interaction

In addition to the importance of the materials we deliver, and the formal programs we conduct, the social interaction between our patrons and outreach staff can be a meaningful experience for our seniors. Outreach staff members have been told that the visits we make can be a highlight of a senior’s week. A homebound patron humorously offered to pay my outreach services assistant a million dollars if she would visit her daily as she so enjoyed their conversations. The department believes that the best part of our job is getting to know our patrons and developing relationships, and we feel honored that they let us into their lives, so we incorporate time into our scheduled visits for patron interaction. Outreach is an opportunity to make a truly meaningful difference in our patrons’ lives. The impact we have on this specialized community is often outsized compared to the number of people we serve.

Good Collaboration

A positive working relationship with life enrichment coordinators helps ensure that the facility and residents always receive quality services and materials. Collaborate with life enrichment coordinators for facility programming and events. Often facility staff and patrons generate ideas for programs that require research which the library can help coordinate. One of our facilities recently requested a library program series featuring the culture and traditions of Mexico. Working with the facility’s life enrichment coordinator, we developed a presentation and educational handouts on Mexico while the facility provided entertainment and ethnic cuisine.

Senior facilities have a high employee turnover rate. The National Center for Assisted Living states that there is a 24.2 percent annual overall turnover rate of assisted living staff.⁵ One facility we serve had three new life enrichment coordinators in six months. Librarians must continually introduce themselves to the new staff members. Creating a welcome packet for new life enrichment coordinators that explains your outreach program can maintain good collaboration so that outreach services can remain successful during transition periods.

Community Awareness

Community awareness is essential for successful library outreach. Libraries cannot assume the public is aware of any of their services, including outreach programs. Reach out to local papers, which are often interested in featuring stories about libraries. Advertising in the library newsletter with a simple “We Deliver!” is also useful. Word-of-mouth can some- times be the most successful method of gaining new outreach patrons: when I was signing up a new patron for outreach service, she was so enthusiastic about our program that she called her neighbor to come over so we could sign him up as well.

Libraries must be visible at community events. St. Charles Public Library has booths at the farmer’s market as well as a local senior fair, local festivals, and business-to-business events. Our booth at the senior fair specifically displays information about outreach and handouts on our program, as well as other library services. Over six hundred seniors visited our booth in 2015, many inquiring about outreach.

Community Partnerships

Creating new community partnerships helps promote and strengthen your outreach program. For example, we partnered with our local Salvation Army Golden Diners. Golden Diners distributes Outreach promotional materials with meal deliveries to homebound residents, while Outreach Services maintains community book swaps at Salvation Army locations as well as senior facilities, apartment complexes, a grocery store, the hospital, and the local homeless shelter. Book swaps introduce the library to residents who might not ordinarily visit us. Weeded materials, again, come in to use here in addition to donated materials.

We are spearheading a partnership with neighboring libraries to increase service to residents in the hospital, as well as those recently discharged but temporarily homebound. Our Youth Services Department has partnered with the local juvenile detention center, where materials are delivered to teachers. Adult Services provides carefully selected (they have specific criteria) weeded and donated materials to their library.

Conclusion

Outreach librarians have a unique opportunity to improve an individual’s quality of life by providing library services, programs, and materials to these nontraditional library users. It is through these services that we expand the walls of our facilities and bring library services to patrons wherever they may be. Libraries can be at the forefront of serving the aging demographic if they explore new ways of connecting with the growing senior population in their communities. What an exciting time to be an outreach librarian!

References

1. “A Profile of Older Americans: 2011,” Administration on Aging, 2011.
2. Jennifer M. Ortman, Victoria A. Velkoff, and Howard Hogan, “An Aging Nation: The Older Population in the United States,” United States Census Bureau, May 2014.
3. Nicholas Farber et al., “Aging in Place: A State Survey of Livability Policies and Practices,” National Conference of State Legislatures and the AARP Public Policy Institute, Dec. 2011.
4. “Long-Term Care Services in the United States: 2013 Overview,” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Dec. 2013.
5. “Findings from the NCAL 2013 Assisted Living Staff Vacancy, Retention, and Turnover Survey,” National Center for Assisted Living, Feb. 2015, .

The post The Power of Community Outreach Meeting the Demands of the Growing Senior Population first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Three times a year, library staff do end up talking specifically about what is happening in the library. This can be new activities and services, but more often it is reminding people of the many resources available at the library. This is often a more interactive presentation because people are asking questions throughout or adding bits of information to what is being talked about that they think is particularly important for the other audience members to know. Sometimes the questions are quick but sometimes they are philosophical. “Why are you doing _______,” or “What was the rationale for doing ________?” Not everyone in the audience wants to ask these questions or hear what turns out to be the long answers, but each question is equally important. Often it is the people who ask these questions that staff end up seeing in the library days or weeks after the presentation.

The remainder of the year, two types of presentations occur. Some are technology-based. Either a staff member with a technology background comes to answer individual questions about devices or they talk about helpful websites and apps. The other type of presentation can loosely be described as “saving money or extending your budget with library resources.” The idea with these programs is that a staff member takes a library resource, either a material to circulate or a service we provide, and presents it to the group to help them save money. There is always a handout with websites on the topic, but there is also a list of books or other items people need their library cards to use.

Sample presentations include:

• What else can you do with a cake mix? Discussion centered around the library’s Cake Mix Doctor cookbooks.
• Container Gardening – Highlighted gardening books available at the library as well as the books on upcycling.
• It’s Time to Insulate –  This program focused on the library’s the home improvement books and DVDs.

Finding books to fit different topics is always a challenge, but it can be fun for staff to find ways to relate different materials to each other. Again what makes these presentations enjoyable for the presenter and the audience is when audience members participate, adding their knowledge and insight to the presentation. Regardless, attendees are always invited to visit the library and are always welcome. It is gratifying to library staff when people they met at the food center seek them out in the library to say hi or to ask about where to find items mentioned in presentations.

The post Food Center: Meeting Food Insecure Patrons Outside the Library first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The communities libraries serve are becoming more diverse. In seeking to move beyond the tired label of being “just about books,” libraries must engage with these communities through outreach and engagement. One way is the implementation of an English as a Second Language (ESL) or civic program which would help immigrant communities better adjust and assimilate to life in the United States. But in today’s volatile political climate with tenuous funding for public programs and social services, the question remains as to how cost-effective would such efforts be to libraries in the long term?

As a former teacher who has taught both elementary and adult education, Melanie Brown offered her perspective from her experience in working as a volunteer with the San Jose Public Library, the largest public library system between San Francisco and Los Angeles. “I think any ESL program would be really beneficial,” said Brown, who has been with the library for more than year. “Programs like that provide for greater sociability, and foster a sense of community amongst people from different backgrounds.”

Conversational classes are a helpful way for English Language Learners (ELLs) to gain skills in the everyday usage of English. Libraries with tighter budgets may want to look into conversational classes as an alternative to the classroom-based model, as it can be facilitated by dedicated volunteers. However Brown said there is a downside to this model of instruction—such as students are not given a structured environment in which they may gain progress. “I find that while it is more relaxed, and people do not feel so nervous when they come for the first time, not having the same people each day and not knowing where the group is as a whole, makes it difficult.”

Our global community is becoming smaller, and libraries can potentially play a key role by further embracing their roles as community hubs, and centers of education and free information access.

The post ESL Programs Position Libraries as Welcoming Places first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

While many were closing their doors in fear, the library stayed open. When local teachers sought a place to tutor students while the public schools were closed, the library opened the “School for Peace.” They provided space, resources, and even meals for students. Library Director Scott Bonner would say later the subsequent media deluge that descended on them came from being able to provide a much needed “good story” amid a seemingly never-ending storm of bad news[3].

The good story became a viral sensation, and donations and financial support for the struggling library soon followed, resulting in a whopping $450,000 total over the last two years. In an e-mail sent late last month to those who were so generous with their support of the library, Bonner provided an update on what Ferguson has been able to accomplish and where he and his staff hope to take the library in the days to come.

His e-mail—which began with the simple and heartfelt, “You are amazing!”—highlighted improvements they have made to the building, including replacing their bathrooms, making the library more accessible to handicapped patrons and allowing for the purchase of an interactive whiteboard and new computers that have greatly improved their programming capabilities[4]. Bonner went on to say that the library’s response to the events following Brown’s death helped them find out “what kind of library we wanted to be.” They are determined to become as community-focused as possible. They have increased their programming budget “tenfold” and hired a children’s services and programming librarian[5]. They’ve worked with StoryCorps to give their community a chance to tell their own stories beyond what has been highlighted by the media and are increasing their efforts “in any way we can think of” to improve the lives of every member of the community[6]. Bonner even provided a video with a virtual tour of what Ferguson Library looks like today.

The Ferguson Library is independent and not part of the city government and thus relies heavily on donations to keep telling their good story. They currently have a PayPal donation page through which you can offer your support.

We’re living through a time when good stories can seem few and far between, when opportunities to offer our assistance are often overshadowed by fears that we’ll be taken advantage of. Ferguson’s incredible work in the face of fear and adversity and their very real need is a cause all of us in the public library world can get behind. Let’s keep telling the good story.

References

[1] John N. Berry III, “2015 Gale/LJ Library of the Year: Ferguson Municipal Public Library, MO, Courage in Crisis,” Library Journal, June 8, 2015.

[2] Larry Buchanan, et al., “What Happened in Ferguson?” New York Times, August 10, 2015.

[3] Steve Zalusky, “Scott Bonner Gives a “Warts and All” Recap of the Events in Ferguson,” Ilovelibraries.org, February 11, 2015.

[4] Scott Bonner in “A Message from Ferguson Public Library by Scott Bonner” by Adam Robinson, Real Pants, December 2, 2016.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

The post Ferguson Municipal Library Shares its Good Story first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Public Libraries: What inspired you to begin reading to homeless children at the Crotona Inn homeless shelter?

Colbert Nembhard: My journey with the Crotona Inn homeless shelter began eight years ago. I received a phone call from my outreach department asking me if I could go to the Crotona Inn shelter and do outreach. When I got there, I saw that they had a lot of young ones in the childcare center raging from about 8 months to 3 years old. I believe that literacy starts at an early age; therefore, I decided to take the library to the shelter. Studies have shown that by the time a child reaches the age of four, 90 percent of the brain is already developed. I wanted to make sure I foster literacy in those children at an early age. Often children in the shelters are forgotten and are not involved in the early literacy experience. With me going into the shelter, reading stories, doing sing-along, finger-plays, and conducting family literacy workshops, helps to foster literacy.

PL: What kinds of changes have you noticed in the children who attend your reading sessions?

CN: I visit the shelter on a weekly basis and I do notice that children participate more during story time. Children will often point to the books that they would like me to read to them. Some of them are able to imitate sound, identify images, and numbers. And the older ones can say their ABCs.

PL: What skills do you utilize as a librarian during your programs?

CN: During my programs, I do like to do lots of songs and finger-plays. I also use a lot of puppetry. I also work with them in identifying their colors, letters, and numbers. I sometimes incorporate musical instruments.

PL: What kind of hurdles have you experienced through the years?

CN: One of the biggest hurdles is to get parents of the shelter to take their child or children to the library to take advantage of our free programs and services.

Photo Courtesy of Ayofemi Kirby, New York Public Library

PL: Do you train others to read to children? If so, what advice do you give them as they are being trained?

CN: I have trained others to read to children. In reading to the young, I remind them that their attention span is very small so don’t read books that are lengthy. Choose books that will be appealing to the children-books that have colorful illustrations and books that are interactive. Children love lots of interactions.  Also, kids love pop-up books. I have also told others to get the children involved in your lift-the-flap books by having them participate in opening the flaps.

PL: Tell us a little about the impact that your programs have on you personally.

CN: Going to the shelters for these many years and conducting programs with these children has left an indelible mark on my life. Knowing that I am able to help develop their pre-literacy skills which will prepare them to become successful readers at an early age, has given me a sense of accomplishment.

PL: What do parents think of your reading services?

CN: Parents are grateful that someone takes the time out to read and interact with their children. They are grateful that their children are included and part of this learning initiative. Parents think that this is an awesome service.

PL: What is one thing you would tell other librarians wanting to start a similar program in their community?

CN: I would say to that librarian, go for it because he or she could make a big difference in the life of a child. I would also say it is a rewarding experience.

The post Educating Homeless Youth in the Bronx first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Libraries are different now than they were then. More than just books and a reference section filled with microfiche, magazines, and newspapers for research, they are community centers. Most offer Internet access and computers. Many offer makerspaces and other educational programs. Ideally, everyone would have access to a library close to home.

It’s happening in Chicago. Thanks to a partnership between the Chicago Public Library and the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA), mixed income housing developments will house small libraries. “This is leadership and creativity at its best,” said Molly Sullivan, senior director of communications and media relations for the CHA. “We follow the lead of Mayor Emanuel on this. We will join a few other cities like Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Brooklyn [and] New York in [building] actual libraries that are co-located in publicly supported housing.”[1]

It’s a good financial decision, as building the libraries will be more affordable and they will be more accessible to patrons. The libraries will not just be mini-libraries filled with books either. They will all sponsor programs in their respective neighborhoods.

Social Workers

As part of the community outreach, social workers who specialize in providing social services for parents and children will conduct parental training and other workshops at the libraries. These workshops are designed to help patrons deal with everyday stresses associated with balancing work, children, and other family obligations. At the same time, libraries face other challenges. The same things that make them great leave them vulnerable, and keeping them safe and drug free can be a challenge. In this effort, social workers are often like first responders, helping detect issues and direct patrons to where they can get help.

Early Childhood Active Learning Spaces

Children will have access to great resources like makerspaces, technology, and the Teacher in the Library program. Undergraduate education students will assist children with their homework during after school hours. This not only provides children with more resources, but also develops a pipeline for “teachers in training” to gain hands-on teaching experiences. Libraries will work with local university teacher certification programs, as well as other programs which require students to acquire a certain number of  service learning hours. University of Illinois at Chicago was the first institution to participate in the program.

Teen and Adult Technology Support

The library will of course offer technology and teacher support to teens as well. Adult programs will also be offered including everything from financial counseling and job search support to writing resources, guides, and classes. Neighborhood artists and authors will be encouraged to showcase their work through events and workshops. Programs will on environmental responsibility also are planned.

Not only are these kinds of libraries good for the neighborhoods where they are located, but they are serving as a model for other library districts all over the country. The days of large central libraries may never be gone entirely, but small satellite branches in the neighborhoods where patrons live certainly seems like an affordable solution to making libraries readily accessible.

References

1. The Columbia Chronicle, “Mixed Income Housing To Be Co-located With Libraries.”

The post Bringing the Library Home: Mixed Income Housing and Libraries first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Libraries have the awesome opportunity to reach these budding novelists by providing space to write, access to the Internet, assistance with research, and informational programming. Libraries can also become Come Write In (CWI) spaces. These are spaces for group write-ins (chunks of time in which Wrimos brainstorm and write). Group write-in sessions allow participants to network and to meet others in the local writing community. Libraries interested in becoming CWI spaces can register at the CWI registration page.

The fun doesn’t have to end on November 30! You can plan to keep the momentum going after November by offering programming like editing workshops; book cover design 101 classes; Q&A sessions with visiting published authors; copyright workshops; self-publishing tutorials; traditional publishing/finding a publisher tutorials; and eBook creation workshops. Libraries that have access to a print-on-demand book machine, like the District of Columbia Public Library (DCPL), can offer Wrimos printed copies of their completed novels.

Finally, you might want to create a special display of any finished books. This will draw attention to the library’s involvement in NaNoWriMo and perhaps entice next year’s participants. It will also give a nice bit of promotion to the newly minted novels. Even though November has already started, it is not too late to get your library involved. Get more information here.

The post November is National Novel Writing Month first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

At first it didn’t look like Rogers Memorial (Southampton, NY) Library’s (RML) Pop-Up Library was going to happen. The staff was prepared and all the equipment was loaded and ready to go but the weather just wasn’t cooperating. It was August 18 and while the heat and humidity typical of a summer on eastern Long Island was going strong, the threat of thunderstorms on the horizon almost put several weeks of planning and preparation on hold. In the end library director Liz Burns and the library’s senior staff decided to place their faith in Mother Nature. By mid-morning the sky was blue and the sun was shining down on Coopers Beach, a public beach popular with locals and summer visitors alike, where staff from reference, teen services, and the library’s family department had set up a tent and settled in for a day of giveaways, story time, and sharing the wide variety of services the library offers to a surprised but excited group of beachgoers.

RML first considered using a Pop-Up event as a means of connecting with the public when Kelly Furnari, the library’s outreach librarian suggested it. Furnari had participated in Pop-Up Libraries at other libraries and was enthusiastic about RML launching one of its own. “Community engagement is so very important in what we do as a library, and part of this is meeting patrons on common ground to discuss ideas, promote services, and find out what the library can do to better serve the public. In my experience I’ve found that patrons are very excited to see the library out in the community,” Furnari said.[1]

Beachgoers perusing books at the Pop-Up Library. Photo Courtesy of Rogers Memorial Library

The people who stopped by to visit RML’s Pop-Up Library would seem to agree. The staff saw more than a hundred different people throughout the day. Some just stopped to chat, others had questions about library services and many took advantage of the free books to take home that had been generously donated by RML’s Friends of the Library group. Teen patrons were invited to make their own key-chains. A special high point of the day was a beachside story time organized by the Family Department. “With all our toes in the sand we shared a story with our younger readers and were able to discuss our future programs and happenings. I believe it was a resounding success!” said Anthony Zutter a staff member from the Family Department.[2]

But this success didn’t materialize out of thin air. There was a great deal of planning behind the scenes before RML hit the beach. “There was a lot of planning and collaboration from different departments.  It was a library-wide effort to get the Pop-Up Library up and running,” Furnari said.[3] First, though the library already had a tent and eye-catching signage available, there was still the issue of where to stage the inaugural Pop-Up. Since Southampton is a major summer vacation destination and a hot spot for the New York City crowds, a nearby popular beach was clearly the perfect choice. “The spot we chose got us to the people who don’t normally come to the library. We chose carefully!” said Director Liz Burns.[4]

Burns said department-wide collaboration turned out to be the key in making the Pop-Up such a success. Having representatives from all departments showcased everything the library had to offer and provided something for everyone who visited. It also fostered a sense of community among the staff that has become a hallmark of what makes RML such a popular and well-loved place in the community. Burns attributes much of the Pop-Up’s success to the great working relationship among the staff and their enthusiasm for their work. “The staff does a great job of being approachable,” she says “They are excited about what we are offering.” That excitement is clearly contagious judging by the reaction of those who visited.[5]

It may seem small but it’s interactions like these that can make the difference between someone choosing to visit the library or not. We can never be too visible in our communities. Steve Alcalde, a reference librarian, summed up the importance of events like Pop-Up libraries. “I think being able to remind them of the library and our services, even if it isubtle, is a great beginning to having them think of us when presented with a question or problem they may not know the answer to. And that’s a great start,” he said.[6]

You may go through some growing pains but it’s worth finding out if a Pop-Up Library might just be the answer to reaching the people in your community who might not know all of the wonderful things you have to offer. We’re already scheduling our next one!

References

1. Email with Kelly Furnari, October, 2016.
2. Email with Anthony Zutter, October, 2016.
3. Email with Kelly Furnari, October, 2016.
4. Email with Liz Burns, October, 2016.
5. Ibid.
6. Email with Steve Alcalde, October, 2016

The post If You Pop-Up They Will Come first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

At Queens Library (South Hollis Branch), I was glad to connect two such groups recently, our Basic English Class and our local Gardening Club. To explain, across the street from our library, an abandoned building was recently converted to a shelter for homeless veterans — it is now called The Hollis Garden Apartments. At that point, I was just a spectator, wondering what would happen. All 120 units got filled in no time. Of course, I was really excited to have more patrons to serve. The more people we can help, the better for the community.

One thing that I learned a long time ago is to take a step back and observe first. To help people, first I need to learn about them. From day one, I made sure that all the veterans and all the workers involved with the shelter felt welcome at the library. I love talking to people and hearing their stories. Every person who comes to the library is like a walking book, just waiting to be opened up!

Since the Hollis Gardens Apartments do not have a meeting space, often their regular events like tenants meetings and special programs like acupuncture are held in the library’s meeting room. Our door count went up as well as program attendance, circulation numbers, and library card registrations. I also attended the special events at the apartments, such as the grand opening ceremony. It was really special to hear workers from Hollis Gardens thank the library for its support.

Members of an English class and a local gardening club worked together to convert a plot of land into a garden near the Queens Library in South Hollis. Photo Courtesy of Kacper Jarecki

Another special thing that Hollis Gardens did was to create a Gardening Club! They converted an empty plot of land into a real garden. They built raised beds with wooden planks and got fresh new soil to create an edible garden in conjunction with trained gardeners. I was there when they first met and I threw some pennies in the soil for good luck. The Gardening Club met twice a week, and I would visit to help out. Even though it was warm in the summer time, it was fun to have an excuse to go outside and work the soil, plant little seedlings, and to water the plants. The veterans were also very friendly and I had a good time working with them.

Our library also has regular English classes ran by a volunteer instructor. I talked to the instructor, and she was showing me pictures of her garden at home. I told her about the community garden and she wasn’t even aware of it. So we decided to go together and we brought along the English Class. The class was excited to be outside.  They walked around and observed all the plants. The gardeners even asked the English Class to make labels for the garden. The class learned about the different plant names in English, and they told us the plant names in their native language. It was a special event and I was happy I could make it happen. Everyone went home with fresh basil!

The library is already a force that connects people with books and movies. The library also connects people with other people, where they make friendships through different clubs and events. The library can bring different organizations and community groups together!

The post Connecting Community Groups at the Library first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

When I was three years old, I was hospital­ized after I broke my arm in a nasty fall from some baseball bleachers. The fracture was such that my arm needed to be in traction, necessitating a hospital stay that lasted a little over three weeks. I have few memories from the stay— receiving a large teddy bear from my grandfather, feeling lonely one night after my parents had gone home and I couldn’t sleep— but my parents remember all of it. Specifically, they remember how often I wanted to be read to.

As I lay on my small back in that big bed, my arm suspended from a fabric sling strung up above me, my book of choice was The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss (1957). According to my parents, they read me that book hundreds of times during my hospital stay. At one point, according to my mom, I tired of it and request­ed The Cat in the Hat Comes Back (1958), which the hospital had in the pediatric department playroom. I was a Dr. Seuss–reading machine. When my parents reached the end of each read-aloud, my response was limited to one word: “Again.”

I don’t remember any of these Seuss readings, but aside from that one lonely night, I don’t remember any kind of trauma from what must have felt like an interminable hospital stay either. I have to imagine that the experience of being read to by people who loved me, of hearing Dr. Seuss’s tale of screwball rhymes and feline tomfoolery, entertained, soothed, and distracted me. It conveyed something of home, comfort, and care. I was safe while I listened to Dr. Seuss being read to me by someone I loved.

But many hospitalized children don’t have it so easy. In her ar­ticle “Creating Bibliotherapeutic Libraries For Pediatric Patients,” Mary Katherine Waibel Duncan writes that “parents’ stress reac­tions to the diagnosis and treatment of pediatric illness, injury, or victimization as well as their increased involvement in the physical care of young patients may tax their coping resources and impact the quantity and quality of psychosocial support they are able to provide to their children.”^[2] Duncan examines the creation of two libraries built to serve pediatric patients and their families in an effort to “support [their] psychological adjust­ment to their exceptional, and potentially traumatizing, circum­stances.”^[3] Duncan notes that access to library collections and the read-aloud interactions between parents and children enabled by the presence of collections returns parents and children to “one of the most comforting rituals of childhood and parenting—the shared experience of reading together.”^[4] She also argues that “stories and story-related discussions may help children under­stand that they are not alone and that someone (the story char­acter or a real-life reader/discussant) understands what they are experiencing.”^[5] Finally, “the libraries were established to support patients’ and family members’ psychological health and healing by complementing existing child life programs or psychosocial interventions.”^[6] It seems that it is not a fluke that the potential trauma of my hospitalization when I was three was alleviated by having my favorite book at hand and people who would read to me.

In 2009, there were nearly 6.4 million hospital stays for children seventeen and under in the United States, “comprising 16 percent of all hospitalizations.”^[7] While 72 percent of the 6.4 million recorded hospital stays were for newborns and infants under one year of age, 28 percent of those visits were for children between one and seventeen years old. Within that age range, children between one and four and teens between fourteen and seventeen accounted for the majority of hospital stays.^[8]

How many of the millions of children hospitalized each year in the United States have access to book collections during their hospital stays? How many are offered treatment plans that include bibliotherapy? Public libraries have a responsibility to know the answers to these questions pertaining to hospitalized children in their communities and also to serve these young, isolated patients.

The Role of Bibliotherapy in Hospital Library Collection Building

Bibliotherapy can be defined as helping one’s self—or helping others—process and alleviate painful experiences or discomfort through reading. It can be as simple as a warm feeling one might get from holding a beloved book. (To a hos­pitalized child, a book may ease anxiety by simply being a familiar object in an unfamiliar setting.) It can be as complex as pairing a depressed teen being treated for cancer, which can feel like an unend­ing series of chemotherapy and radiation treatments, with a fictional book like Roland Smith’s Peak (2008), about the youngest boy to climb Mount Everest and live. Bibliotherapy can guide collection development in pediatric settings by con­necting material acquisition choices with a deep consideration of pediatric patients and families and their emotional needs.

Books can alleviate anxiety for hos­pitalized children by providing fun—and the confidence that comes from learning new skills. Elizabeth Weimer, director of early childhood education and director of bibliotherapy at Cleveland (OH) Clinic Children’s Hospital, writes of her experi­ence with a boy named Gilbert who came to the hospital with no exposure to books or English-language skills. During his hospital stay, Gilbert learned how books work, what they are, and that they bring pleasure and fun. Weimer stresses that the work she did reading to Gilbert eased his pain and stress and that it calmed his parents to see their son so positively en­gaged by reading. Gilbert made cognitive gains during his experiences with Weimer, picking up not only an understanding of books, but an understanding of basic English.^[9]

In her 1992 book, Hospitalized Children and Books: A Guide for Librarians, Families, and Caregivers, Marcella F. Anderson writes, “The long-term and frequently hospitalized patient should be a major focus of concern…. A library program that nurtures the child with enriching materials, as he or she moves through developmental stages while hospitalized, supports the ‘fullest possible development and expression of individual potential.’ … In addition to supporting that po­tential, the library program—with other pediatric therapies—helps to normalize the hospital experience.”^[10]

Anderson’s book is an outstanding, sensitively written resource for anyone seeking to build or elevate the quality of hospital book collections. She offers read­ers a framework for the necessity of the hospital library, finding funding, building the collection, and choosing titles based on the emotional and cognitive needs of patients of different ages. She also pro­vides guidance on successful storytime programming with hospitalized children, bibliotherapy, and working with hospital­ized children with special needs like those with severe head injuries or quadriplegia.

Anderson’s book is full of advice for how to manage a hospital library collec­tion, advice that public librarians, working in partnership with local hospital staff, can follow to create or bolster collections for hospitalized kids. For example, she notes the distinction between collection management in public libraries and the same job in hospital libraries, where it is crucial to meaningfully connect with patients in vulnerable circumstances: “Books that do not circulate, do not de­serve a place in a hospital collection. Hos­pital libraries have limited space that can be better used for holding multiple copies of favorite books.”^[11] She recommends col­lecting books in foreign languages based on local language demographics, multi-cultural literature, and special materials like audiobooks, books in braille, adaptive computer software, and tactile books for children with various neurological pro­cessing challenges and visual or auditory impairments.

In her book and other articles, Ander­son stresses the importance of humor for the hospitalized child: “Studies show that humor helps to reduce stress and to release endorphins, the body’s natural pain blockers that lower pain levels and contribute to a sense of well-being. Also, humor helps patients to relax by the diversion it offers.”^[12] She also emphasizes the effectiveness of what she calls “quiet books” for reaching the child’s heart. To Anderson, humorous books and quiet books offer support and solace.

Beyond the criteria of humor and quiet, Anderson usefully separates considerations for collection building into emotional and cognitive needs of patients. She determines emotional and cognitive needs of patients based on different age groups (zero to thirty months; thirty months to five years; six to twelve years) and recommends staff and volunteers building collections do the same. This involves an understanding of child psychology, as well as the psychol­ogy of the hospitalized child. Anderson conveys some of the basic needs of hos­pitalized children in different age groups and models how to think like a collection developer for these children: “Mastery experienced vicariously through a story can carry over to mastering the difficulties of hospitalization—hard feelings, pain, and the medical environment. School age children respond particularly well to these possibilities.”^[13] She also recom­mends books with language “that flows and rhymes,” that provide escape fromboredom, and notes that “it is better to read a book that speaks to the emotion rather than one that mirrors the specific trauma.”^[14]

Beyond the building of collections for patients, Anderson writes with authority on how to build a family resource collec­tion:

A Family Resource Collection is based on the premise that family centered care is a desirable goal and that knowledgeable parents are resourceful and supportive partners in the multidisciplinary care of their child.

The general purposes of a Family Resource Collection are:

1. To supplement information provided by the health care staff.
2. To help families develop coping skills with respect to the diagnosis of their child’s illness or disability.
3. To encourage and support the family in participating in the treatment process.^[15]

While Anderson’s book could be updated to include information on the use of certain technologies and modern materials such as DVDs, videogames, tablets, and smartphones, her book is an invaluable guide for hospital library collection developers—and anyone who wants to pair books and children together in a hospital setting.

Analysis

“Underserved communities” are de­fined by Tonya Badillo, director of the Long Branch (NJ) Free Public Library, as “groups that do not have equal access to programs and services, or have not been identified as a key audience for library services.”^[16]

Badillo’s definition of underserved populations would seem to include hospitalized children and their families. Children and families in both short- and long-term hospitalization situations are often confined to the hospital building (let alone confined to beds, incubators, or isolation units) in which medical care is administered. Many parents of hospital­ized children rarely want to leave their child’s bedside, preferring to stay nearby and certainly within the building. It is not possible for many pediatric in-patients and their families—members of the public nonetheless—to have equal access to public library programs and services. Nor are these individuals commonly identified as a key audience for library services.

Anderson elaborates further to define hospitalized children as a minority in need of library service:

Chronically ill, frequently hospitalized children can be viewed by themselves and by others as comprising a unique culture group within our larger community. These children can become physically and psychologically separated from family, from friends, from normal growing experiences, from information needed for success in school and job, and from participation in and knowledge of the larger world. Voids in growth and development contribute to a child’s sense of isolation and lowered self-esteem. To encourage, respect, and strengthen these young people is to give them a chance to be an integral part of society. Books can be a powerful tool in accomplishing these goals.^[17]

The American Library Association (ALA) states that “diversity is a funda­mental value of the association and its members,”^[18] and that the association recognizes “the critical need for access to library and information resources, ser­vices, and technologies by all people.”^[19] Hospitalized children and families are not, however, listed as an underserved popula­tion on the ALA’s list of outreach areas.^[20]

Because of the specialized care required by hospitalized children and families that makes them unable to ac­cess regular library services, outreach to these communities should be a priority of public library service. Children’s outreach librarians could identify local healthcare clinics and hospital pediatric departments where children are regularly treated to es­tablish and tend waiting room collections of books. These books could be culled from library book donations and weeded library items in good condition. Librarians could also partner with child life special­ists at local hospitals to create high-quality book collections in family resource centers and play therapy rooms. Reach Out and Read, a national organization that promotes literacy in the context of pediatric care, partners with public librar­ies to reach children who might otherwise lack access to library services because of illness or physical impairments. Their work includes building collections in wait­ing rooms serving low-income children, providing story time read-aloud services, and educating parents on promoting literacy at home.^[21] Because many long-term pediatric patients require academic support and schooling in the hospital, libraries with “school outreach” librarians can support academic services in pediatric hospitals by providing research instruc­tion and delivering public library books and materials needed to supplement research projects.

Public librarians are in a unique posi­tion to bring their professional training and knowledge to bear on book and resource collections in pediatric hospital settings. In doing so, they would satisfy the ALA’s exhortation that we find ways to serve traditionally underserved popula­tions in our community.

Conclusion

Hospitalized children and their fami­lies have particular information needs. Through the establishment and man­agement of carefully curated library collections, hospital staff and librarians can partner to provide children and families with invaluable resources and programming to help them cognitively and emotionally. The work of building rich, comprehensive book collections for young hospital patients can help enable read-aloud work and bibliotherapeu­tic activities that will alleviate anxiety, bolster cognitive functioning, emotion­ally soothe, and provide moments of grace and joy for young patients and their families.

References

[1] Marcella F. Anderson, “Children and Books in Pediatric Hospitals,” Horn Book Magazine 62, no. 6 (Nov. 1986): 788.

[2] Mary Katherine Waibel Duncan, “Creating Bibliotherapeutic Libraries for Pediatric Patients and Their Families: Potential Contributions of a Cognitive Theory of Traumatic Stress,” Journal of Pediatric Nursing 25, no. 1 (Feb. 2010): 25.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] John T. Pardeck, “Bibliotherapy: An Innovative Approach for Helping Children,” Early Childhood Development and Care 110, no. 1 (1995): 83–88, cited in Duncan, 25.

[6] Duncan, 25.

[7] Hao Yu, Lauren M. Wier, and Anne Elixhauser, Hospital Stays for Children, 2009, Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Statistical Brief #118 (Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2011): 1.

[8] Ibid., 3.

[9] Elizabeth Weimer, “The Power of Books in a Children’s Hospital: A Success Story,” Children & Libraries 8, no. 1 (2010): 20–21.

[10] Marcella F. Anderson, Hospitalized Children and Books: A Guide for Librarians, Families, and Caregivers, 2nd ed. (Metuchen, NJ, and London: Scarecrow Press, 1992): xvi.

[11] Ibid., 7.

[12] Ibid., 15.

[13] Ibid., 27.

[14] Ibid., 67.

[15] Ibid.

[16] American Library Association, “Outreach and Diversity,” in “The State of America’s Libraries 2014,” special issue, American Libraries (2014): 53.

[17] Marcella F. Anderson, “Literature in the Pediatric Setting: The Use of Books to Help Meet the Emotional and Cognitive Needs of Chronically Ill Children,” in Anthony L. Manna and Carolyn S. Brodie, eds., Many Faces, Many Voices (Fort Atkinson, WI: Highsmith, 1992): 79–86.

[18] “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” American Library Association, March 18, 2015.

[19] “Programming to Promote Diversity,” American Library Association, December 15, 2011.

[20] “Outreach to Underserved Populations,” American Library Association, December 14, 2011.

[21] “Reach Out and Read,” Boston Children’s Hospital, January 15, 2002.

Additional Resources

• Bowman, Cynthia Ann, Using Literature to Help Troubled Teenagers Cope with Health Issues (Westport, CT: Greenwood Pr., 2000).
• Calman, Albi, “Are Volunteers Worth the Effort? Maximizing the Value of Volunteers in the Hospital Library,” Journal of Hospital Librarianship 10, no. 4 (Oct. 2010): 395–401.
• Dovey, Ceridwen, “Is Reading the New Therapy?” New Yorker (June 9, 2015).
• Gavigan, Karen, “Caring through Comics—Graphic Novels and Bibliotherapy for Grades 6–12,” Knowledge Quest 40, no. 4 (May/June 2012): 78–80.
• Jones, Jami L., “A Closer Look at Bibliotherapy,” Young Adult Library Services 5, no. 1 (Fall 2006): 24–27.
• Lu, Ya-Ling, “Helping Children Cope: What is Bibliotherapy?” Children & Libraries 6, no. 1 (Spring 2008): 47–49.
• Navsaria, Dipesh, “How Promoting Literacy Is Key To Early Brain and Childhood Development,” filmed Mar. 29. 2015, YouTube video, 59:44, posted Apr. 10, 2014, by Oconomowoc Public Library, https://youtu.be/VG-9BKBcvbo.
• Pierce, Jennifer Burek, ”A Feeling for Books: Therapeutic Connections to Library Practice,” American Libraries (Nov. 22, 2010), accessed Aug. 2, 2016, https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2010/11/22/a-feeling-for-books.
• Reach Out and Read (www.reachoutandread.org).
• Texas Children’s Pi Beta Phi Library (www.texaschildrens.org/Plan/Patient-Amenities/Patient-Library).
• Zaccaria, Joseph S., Harold A. Moses, and Jeff S. Hollowell, Bibliotherapy in Rehabilitation, Educational, and Mental Health Settings: Theory, Research, and Practice (Champaign, IL: Stipes, 1978).

The post FEATURE | Prescriptions for Joy: Librarians, Collections, and Bibliotherapy in Pediatric Hospital Settings first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The public library should be a place of learning, exploration, and enjoyment for children. The library should also offer parents essential resources and tools to successfully raise children. We do provide these services, and we do it very well—and absolutely should continue to do so. But we too often exclusively brand ourselves as a resource for families. In addition to visual promo­tions, much of our narrative is focused on families with children, from newsletter articles to local paper write-ups to board meet­ing talking points. Who could blame us? Those images tug at the heartstrings, and stories of kids creating a craft at a program will appeal to any mom or dad. But, in promoting this impression more than others, public libraries are, to our detriment, alienat­ing a rising population of potential users. It’s time to modify our marketing perspectives.

When we advertise ourselves chiefly as a place for families with children, we inadvertently set up a model where the library not only is less appealing to child-free people, but doesn’t even register as a destination space for them. Why would one decide to venture to a place where they haven’t been invited?

In other words, we are routinely preaching to the choir and we need to do a little more marketing outside the orthodox box. The American Library Association states in one of its “Core Values of Librarianship” that “[t]he publicly supported library provides free and equal access to information for all people of the community the library serves.”[1] This basic principle of providing for all inher­ently includes advocacy of library services to the public. We have the democratic responsibility to spread our message to all. This includes nontraditional users.

But the nontraditional is becoming more and more common in our society as a whole. In her 2013 Time cover article “The Childfree Life,” Lauren Sandler cites a 2010 Pew Research report showing that being child-free has risen across all racial and ethnic groups, adding up to about one in five American women who are child-free today compared to one in ten in the 1970s. Before the recession hit in 2008, the proportion of women ages forty to fourty-four who had never given birth grew by 80 percent since 1976, from 10 to 18 percent.[2]

Sandler further discusses the reasons couples have for not becoming parents, the increasing impetus to not reproduce, and the stigma attached to those who choose not to have children. Laura Carroll, author of The Baby Matrix (2012) and Families of Two (2000), is another writer who has devoted her career to exploring, documenting, and supporting the child-free life and revealing the political and economic impact of “pro-natalist” leanings. Her web­site is one example of hundreds of blogs and websites dedicated to child-free living. Karen Malone Wright, founder and executive editor of The NotMom, coordinated the first NotMom Summit in 2015 in Ohio.

Adults without children are a growing demographic, and we have a duty to advocate for and unabashedly serve this popula­tion. We belong to a largely kid-centric society, where suggesting that children should not have the entire focus is, to many, fundamentally distasteful. It’s a touchy subject for any conversation, let alone one about the public library. But we need to have this dialogue in regard to ex­panding the way we publicize ourselves. It’s about reach. It suggests a promotional paradigm shift. And again, this proposed shift neither discounts or disparages how we currently serve youth, nor is it about subtracting youth services from our cur­rent programming. It’s about looking at and branding ourselves a little differently, with a more balanced eye towards nu­anced societal changes.

The public library user experience is changing along with society. More patrons are using the library as a space for collaboration, higher education, artistic creation, and technological exploration. This new library model makes child-free people prime candidates for library cards. Inviting this population across our thresh­olds is not only smart, it is also our duty.

Underutilized resources and services are common challenges for many public libraries. We’ve all experienced the “Oh my goodness, I never knew you guys had this, you’ve just saved my life!” reaction from a patron. But is that because we’ve been systematically marketing to a specif­ic demographic? I believe if we switch up our scheme just a bit, we’ll see a larger re­turn in terms of awareness and new users. The increasing awareness of child-free living, as shown in part by its appearance on the cover of Time, should at least open our eyes to this growing populace and en­courage us to explore going beyond our natural marketing tendencies. It’s about moving beyond our promotional norms, not our operational norms.

Some libraries are supplementing the natural targets of families with children by programming for singles in their com­munity. Oak Park (IL) Public Library has had successful speed dating programs at their facility. Assistant Manager of Adult/Teen Services Alex Skinner has hosted two speed-dating events in the past year: one program targeting twenty- to thirty-somethings and the other targeting the forty-plus crowd. When asked why it’s important for libraries to appeal to single people, Skinner said, “We want them to know that public libraries are for them too. Yes, we are for families and for aca­demic interests, but we are also a place to socialize, meet people and have fun.” Skinner also mentioned wanting to imple­ment a “Newlywed [Game]–type game . . . trying to reach the same goal; target­ing adults without kids.”[3] A participating single person or newlywed couple may already have children, of course, but the intention of these types of programs is to attract the child-free to walk through the door, learn about the library, and see that it’s a welcoming place for them, too.

If speed-dating sounds a little too out-of-the-box for your library, you might try initiating a series of craft or DIY programs targeted specifically at adults. When most people hear or read the word craft in rela­tion to a public library, they typically think glue sticks, glitter, and (yes) children.

“Crafting is both the predecessor, the companion, and the successor to maker­spaces,” said Xavier Duran, the Lisle (IL) Library District’s (LLD) adult program­ming coordinator. “When one thinks of makerspaces, often times [one pictures] an image of a space dominated by 3D printers, rows of high performing, Adobe Creative Suite computers, and other machinery that inspire both awe and a bit of fear. However, at root, a maker­space is any inviting space for DIY that inspires collaboration among peers of any social status. What’s more . . . adult craft/DIY programs allow adults to rediscover the library, a place they have commonly associated with families with children and rarely with single adults. It goes without saying that these DIY spaces and librar­ies make a lovely partnership, libraries being the democratic modus operandi for individuals to curate their curiosities, and then immediately apply their findings by themselves or, best, in a group that shares that same curiosity.”[4]

LLD seeks to expand what patrons think of when they see a craft program on the event calendar. The library has intro­duced programs directed at adult crafters and for those adults who would like to ex­plore DIY for the first time, from creating terrariums to artful journal making. This library also hosts six (yes, six!) monthly adult discussion groups—five book groups and one film club. These groups are all staff-driven and allow adults an opportu­nity to meet and engage with other film and book lovers. A healthy and steady adult programming lineup is key in pro­viding an attractive place for adults in the community. Of course, trying to expand reach is not just about programming. The library also must commit to branding itself as a welcoming place for all audiences. Explor­ing what your library already does and says and then digging a bit deeper and seeing the deficits is, indeed, a thought­ful task. Are all of your Facebook posts (or newsletters, brochures, webpage features, etc.) geared towards a specific familial demographic? When your library has the opportunity to be featured in your local newspaper, does the library target nontraditional audiences? Bringing in new users requires a revamp of the library’s “invitation,” including verbal, physical, and digital or electronic solicitations. Remember, child-free numbers have risen. These people are out there—is your library providing an invite?

We cannot forget just how important words are, especially when we speak as field professionals. At a recent library conference, I looked for presentations that might address child-free users. I came up empty. Of course I could not attend all the programs, but even in the “Elusive Non- User” presentation I hoped to hear some­thing about targeting users who are not parents. Alas, what I did hear was, “Parents are the important target.” It was said as if there was no other target worth mention­ing. Now, it’s agreed that parents are an important demographic, but they are not the only significant target, especially when discussing “elusive non-users.” I think it’s something we forget because many of us have families with children and it has been our tradition to market to the familiar. In another presentation regarding space in libraries, I heard the routine phrase, “Par­ents and kids are our bread and butter.” Now, there is more than one variety of bread out there. We shouldn’t bank on one demographic to nourish. Public libraries have religiously relied on the bread-and-butter model, but with changing domestic standards, such as increasing child-free family numbers, we should consider devot­ing ourselves to other belief systems. It’s the only way we can compete in a world where the unacquainted question the validity of a public library in a tech-rich and precarious economy.

We must remember to speak beyond the conventional when we talk with our public, at conferences, to our boards, and among ourselves. Narratives matter when you are trying to go beyond the conventional. Looking beyond main­stream domestic standards is a smart way to remain relevant among those who may view public libraries as irrel­evant in this day and age. We know we aren’t irrelevant. We have something for everyone, but how will the general public learn this if we cannot step outside of a predictable promotional paradigm? This moving–beyond–convention scheme applies when libraries want to appeal to any new or growing community group, be they seniors, an ethnic group, the LGBTQ community, or ESL/English Language Development individuals.

The child-free among us are a grow­ing group that should not be overlooked when we write about, program, or speak about public library services. One in five of us does not have children—that’s 20 percent of the population. What does 20 percent look like and mean?

• 5 percent: African-American population in Springfield, IL (2010 US Census)[5]
• 19 percent: American households that owe student debt (2010 Pew Research Center)[6]
• 20 percent: Americans who do not identify with any religion (2012 Pew Research Center)[7]
• 20 percent: Americans who lack access to a smartphone or a broadband Internet connection (2015 Pew Research Center)[8]

From a public library perspective, ignoring one-fifth of your population is just plain illogical. Twenty percent is a significant piece of that potential-patron pie. Continually branding ourselves to one familial demographic limits our reach and segregates our diverse and numer­ous offerings. As an institution, the public library is ever-evolving with technology and innovation. It’s about time that our dated marketing efforts catch up with our high-tech endeavors.

I have focused on child-free individuals for this specific piece, but all that I have suggested is relevant for any peripheral population within your particular local­ity. We must advertise differently. This isn’t just about outreach it’s about overall reach, invitation, and inclusion. Research your unique community and discover another slice of that pie. Actively invite the “unconventional” to your library using innovative marketing and programming, and you might just open some new eyes to a valuable library resource, service or destination place—in addition to increas­ing your patronage. This is our demo­cratic obligation. Let’s extend our reach. We have more potential.

Notable Non-Parents

• Margaret Wise Brown, author (The Runaway Bunny, Good­night Moon, and more)
• Julia Child, chef
• Theodor Seuss Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, author
• Terry Gross, National Public Radio host
• Lorraine Hansberry, author (Raisin in the Sun and more)
• Katharine Hepburn, actress
• Zora Neale Hurston, author (Their Eyes Were Watching God and more)
• Harper Lee, author (To Kill a Mockingbird)
• Georgia O’Keefe, artist
• Rosa Parks, civil rights icon
• Beatrix Potter, author (The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck, and more)
• Condoleezza Rice, former U.S. Secretary of State and educator
• Diane Sawyer, journalist
• Maurice Sendak, author (Where the Wild Things Are and more)
• Gloria Steinem, activist and author
• Betty White, actress
• Oprah Winfrey, media phenomenon

References

[1] American Library Association, ALA Council, “Core Values of Librarian-ship,” June 29, 2004..

[2] Lauren Sandler, “The Childfree Life: When Having It All Means Not Having Children,” Time (Aug. 12, 2013), 40.

[3] Alex Skinner, telephone interview with author, March 2016.

[4] Xavier Duran, in-person interview with author, December 2015.

[5] United States Census Bureau, “Quick Facts: Springfield City, Illinois,” accessed July 6, 2016..

[6] Richard Fry, “A Record One-in-Five Households Now Owe Student Loan Debt,” Pew Research Center: Social and Demographic Trends, September 26, 2012.

[7] Cary Funk and Greg Smith, “’Nones’ on the Rise: One-in-Five Adults Have No Religious Affiliation,” Pew Research Center: The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, October 9, 2012.

[8] John B. Horrigan and Maeve Duggan, “Home Broadband 2015,” Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Technology, December 21, 2015.

The post FEATURE | The Child-Free Factor and Other Fringe Benefits: Moving Beyond Natural Targets first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Our library has a partnership with a day care center for individuals with mental retardation and developmental disabilities. Every week, the center sends these individuals to our library and they help seal our DVDs in protective plastic sleeves; the staff also visits the center once a month to alternate between a cooking and a reading program. I always make time to sit down and chat with the volunteers to see how they’re doing.  One day, one of the volunteers, Lorenzo, was telling me that his twenty-seventh birthday was coming up on a day that he comes to volunteer. He is disabled and uses a wheelchair. I asked Lorenzo what he wanted for his birthday, and he said he wanted to dance with a girl. So I got my librarian thinking cap on. I’m lucky we have a diverse support staff that includes a trained chef. When he does his outreach program at the center, it’s a group activity and he gets all the members of the center involved, having them help him find ingredients and mixing the dough (the center even pays for the ingredients). This time, our chef baked a birthday cake. Meanwhile, at our library, I talked to Lisa, who works for another organization but who has also partnered with our library. She does a weekly tabling event to get people in the neighborhood to sign up for health insurance, and she used to dance competitively when she was younger. I asked her if she would dance with Lorenzo on his birthday, and she said yes. I was so happy because everything was falling in place for Lorenzo’s birthday party. Everyone has some talent or potential. And it’s such a rewarding part of my job to be able to connect people together.

On Lorenzo’s birthday, we decided to forgo the volunteer work and just celebrate during his center’s visit to the library. I brought birthday hats and balloons. Another one of our staff members took on the role of a DJ, so the music was pumping in the library and we got to eat the yummy birthday cake. All the customers that morning were part of the party. Most importantly, Lorenzo got his wish of dancing with a girl on his birthday!

I love the flexibility of working in a library. Our mission is to serve the community, so even with limited budget and resources, I’m so happy that I can draw on the staff and community partners to create new stories with happy endings!

The post The Library: Making Stories Happen first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

According to the United States Census Bureau, as of 2014, the estimated Hispanic population is 17.4 percent of the total 319 million U.S. population.¹ Not every one of those individuals who classify themselves as Hispanic or Latino speaks Spanish. However, according to a 2015 report released by the prestigious Instituto Cervantes, “The United States is now the world’s second largest Spanish-speaking country after Mexico.”² The U.S. has forty-one million native speakers and eleven million who are bilingual.³ Those are some serious numbers and public libraries are at the forefront of assisting many of these Hispanics with whatever resources they have available. Many Spanish speakers go to public libraries to look for answers regarding a path to citizenship, questions about the I-90 form, services offered for Spanish speakers, and my favorite, “¿Donde tienes tus libros españoles?” (“Where do you have your Spanish books?”) Publishing companies are doing their best to cater to this large community, but answer this question: Even with more Spanish books readily available, who are the librarians assessing community needs and building these Spanish and bilingual collections? It is one thing to be a Hispanic librarian, as I am, but it is another to truly understand the Hispanic community to know how a collection should be built.

To understand the literacy troubles many—but not all—Hispanic adults face, we first have to take a look at their early childhood education. When considering statistical numbers for illiterate Hispanic children in the United States, it is not hard to see those children are at a disadvantage when compared to their white peers. A lot of the troubling literacy issue stems from “lower maternal education, weaker early reading practices, larger family size, and less exposure to quality preschool.”⁴ A 2007 study conducted by Child Trends Hispanic Institute concluded that “Hispanic children are significantly less likely than white children to be ready for school on all indicators except the ability to hold a pencil. Hispanic children are significantly less likely than black children to be able to recognize all letters, count to 20 or higher, or read written words in books.”⁵

In one of the poorest areas in the United States, a predominantly Hispanic region in South Texas known as the Rio Grande Valley, about 50 percent of its citizens are illiterate. The Rio Grande Valley ranks dead last in the entire state of Texas when it comes to literacy. These people are underserved and many of them do not even realize they are beneficiaries of educational institutions like public libraries. The median household income in that area is $31,077, which means the education level of many of those individuals is destitute. Public librarians in the Rio GrandeValley, and all across the nation, can offer so much to their Hispanic communities and collaborate with educational institutions to assist Hispanics with finding work or meeting their educational goals, such as obtaining a GED, pursuing a trade, or enrolling at a college or university. Hispanics look forward to what public libraries offer them. A Pew Research Center survey found that “overall, Hispanics have strong positive feelings about the role of libraries
in their communities, just as other Americans do.”⁶

I work at a public library that is fully staffed with twenty-five employees. All twenty-five employees are Hispanic and each staff member fully understands the challenges of providing an unmatched service to our Hispanic community. We all speak English and Spanish so our experiences with Hispanic patrons are unique. We are able to connect with our patrons on a much deeper level because we understand the Hispanic culture and have grown up in the same areas many of our patrons have. This in no way means we are better librarians than those who may not speak Spanish or understand the Spanish culture. However, we do have the ability to provide feedback to librarians who may have questions regarding Hispanics and their culture. The most important thing is to make the Hispanic community aware that you do understand their needs and acknowledge their presence. There are so many important cultural differences for Hispanics from all parts of Central and South America, so every approach or tactic will not be bulletproof. However, simply acknowledging that you indeed do have a Hispanic community is already a step forward.

In library school, they teach you about multicultural librarianship and how to cater to diverse communities. But learning something can only take you so far. The application is the key. Libraries should “recruit Spanish-speaking personnel in all job classifications, i.e. librarians, paraprofessionals, clerical workers and volunteers.”⁷ If you know your community has a large Hispanic community, it would be a good idea to hire at least one staff member who can speak English and Spanish well. It will save the rest of the staff a lot of trouble when it comes to communicating with Spanish-speaking patrons. Staffing has proven to be a positive factor for Hispanic students’ morale as well. “It was determined that professional staffing is a significant positive factor in reading scores”⁸ for Latino students. Comfortability with bilingual librarians has proven to help Hispanic students achieve their educational goals. They tend to ask for more assistance if they know the staff understands their needs.

Librarians and library professionals should never underestimate the power of the “door knocking” approach. Get out into the Hispanic community in your area to sit and talk to individuals who wish to have input on the Spanish and bilingual materials in your library; they are stakeholders as well. It is much better to go straight to the source than to assume you have all the answers. These patrons will be receptive and are willing to provide input. There is no denying how important public libraries are to Hispanics when eight in ten say they “strongly agree that libraries are important because they promote literacy and a love of reading. . . and provide everyone a chance to succeed because they provide free access to materials and resources.”⁹

Librarians can no longer sit back and wait for Hispanics to provide them with information regarding collection development. Outreach is the answer! Making contacts and connections throughout the community is an integral part of the collection development process. If this is not accomplished, Hispanics will assume the library does not care about their needs and does not wish to have programs that cater to their community and culture. “The most effective way to reach out to Latino populations is to build relationships with community leaders. Such leaders already have the trust of many Latinos.”¹⁰ It is also a good idea to locate offices or key figures of Spanish newspapers and magazines, to find community members who can assist in reaching out to the Hispanic population about library events.

Whenever possible, advertise and post signage around the library in Spanish. This is a useful tactic that will let Spanish speakers know that the library indeed understands there is a Hispanic community and they are important as well. The signs do not have to be flashy or over the top. They should be as effective as possible while also being concise. The most important thing to consider with signage is simply to get the message across. Social networking is obviously very popular, so posting in English and Spanish gets the word out much better than only posting in English. If you do not speak Spanish, use Google Translate. It is a highly resourceful tool that goes a long way. Libraries should always consider Spanish and English as options when purchasing books, magazines, and newspapers. If possible, providing government forms, financial aid forms, and other informative forms in Spanish really makes Spanish-speaking patrons feel welcomed and appreciated.

One of the most prominent issues that few librarians discuss openly is immigration (certainly an issue during this 2016 presidential election). It should be noted that Hispanics and the Spanish-speaking community have noticed this is definitely a hot topic. Just because someone does not speak English does not mean he or she does not understand an English telecast. The immigration topic and fear of deportation has many immigrant Hispanics fearful of approaching a library’s reference and circulation desks. They may need information but are too afraid to approach the desk because they worry being asked questions about citizenship status will book them a trip to deportation. This is an ongoing issue at the library I am employed at. For example, once a Spanish-speaking patron exits the elevator on our second floor, which leads to our reference desk, he or she often appears timid and afraid. This patron may converse with a family member they are with about whether they should even approach the desk or not. Once he or she finally musters the courage to approach, a sense of relief is felt after hearing the reference employee speak in Spanish.

Conclusion

It is up to all librarians to protect the privacy of all patrons regardless of their origin, age, background, religious preference, or views. A public library should be a safe haven for all who visit. Nobody should ever be afraid to enter a public library. It should always be a place where privacy shall never be infringed upon. Regardless of an individual’s legal status, libraries and librarians should be concerned with assisting Hispanic patrons with all the resources their libraries provide and nothing else.

There are many ways to reach out to the Hispanic community. Do not underestimate the little things and do not assume the Hispanic community does not take notice, because they definitely do. There are many resources librarians can look to for assistance with reaching out to Hispanic communities. As my inspiration, Louis Pasteur, once famously said, “Chance favors the prepared mind.”

References

1. United States Census Bureau, “Quick Facts: United States,” accessed Feb. 8, 2016.
2. Stephen Burgen, “US Now Has More Spanish Speakers than Spain—Only Mexico Has More,” The Guardian, US Edition, June 29, 2016, accessed Feb. 8, 2016.
3. Ibid.
4. Alma Guerrero et al., “Early Growth of Mexican-American Children: Lagging in Preliteracy Skills but Not Social Development,” Maternal & Child Health Journal 17, no. 9 (Nov. 2013).
5. David Murphey, Lina Guzman, and Alicia Torres, America’s Hispanic Children: Gaining Ground, Looking Forward (Bethesda, MD: Child Trends, 2014), accessed Feb. 8, 2016.
6. Anna Brown and Mark Hugo Lopez, “Public Libraries and Hispanics: Immigrant Hispanics Use Libraries Less, but Those Who Do Appreciate Them the Most,” Pew Research Center: Hispanic Trends, Mar. 17, 2015, accessed Feb. 8, 2016.
7. “Guidelines for Library Services to Spanish-Speaking Library Users,” Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of the American Library Association, approved by the RUSA Board of Directors January 2007, accessed Feb. 8, 2016.
8. Jeanne Nelson, “Library Staffing Benefits Latino Student Achievement,” CSLA Journal 34, no. 1 (Mar. 2010), accessed Feb. 8, 2016.
9. Brown and Lopez, “Public Libraries and Hispanics.”
10. Ellyn Ruhlmann, “Connecting Latinos with Libraries,” American Libraries 45, no. 5 (May 19, 2014), accessed Feb. 8, 2016.

The post ¿Cómo puedo ayudarle? Providing the Best Service to Your Hispanic Community first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Communities across the nation face many of the same challenges: lack of high-paying jobs, low civic engagement among residents, and increasing poverty levels. But within the unique fabric of our communities, more specific issues may arise, such as youth obesity, low high school graduation rates, and drug and alcohol abuse. Librarians can help their communities as they work alongside their city governments, nonprofit, and educational communities to find solutions.

If you are looking for a few good ways to get started, select one of the activities below.

Connect with your community today!

1. Connect with your city’s or town’s office of economic development to discuss how the library can support workforce needs and support for entrepreneurs and small business start-ups.
2. Meet with your town clerk or local archivist and discuss possible digitization projects and upcoming grants you can collaborate on.
3. Read recent city council, boards, and commission minutes to identify the pressing needs of the community. Attend meetings if possible.
4. Identify nonprofit, governmental, and educational organizations that share in the library’s mission. Meet with leaders and attend their meetings.
5. Align the goals of the library to that of your town or city’s strategic plan. Ensure library representation during the strategic planning process as well as ongoing participation.

Helpful Resources:

Libraries Transforming Communities: “Communities have challenges. Libraries can Help” Look for lots of upcoming training, case studies, and blogs.

A Step-By-Step Guide to ‘Turning Outward’ to Your Community” (Harwood Institute for Public Innovation, 2015). The tools in this workbook are designed to help libraries strengthen their role as community leaders and bring about positive change in their communities.

Action Guide for Re-Envisioning Your Public Library (Aspen Institute, 2016). This guide is intended to help libraries act on the report, Rising to the Challenge: Re-Envisioning Public Libraries (2014).

The post Five Ways to Connect With Your Community first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Schools, churches, individuals like Ms. Estella and her Brilliant Bus, as well as public libraries are on the forefront of introducing these services to communities, but it’s really public libraries that can take advantage of this as an opportunity to better their community and do something special. This is a chance to partner with other groups and corporations, such as Best Buy or local organizations, that can bring in money, supplies, and mentors for patrons to really help add to the tech lab/mobile lab experience. And public libraries are in the unique position to receive subsidies for providing this service. The article  “Can ed-tech inequality be solved by roving buses with Wi-Fi and loads of equipment?” discusses this in context with comparing programs that schools are now starting to provide as well as outside groups like the City of Chicago’s Destination: Chicago Mobile Van which is run through the Digital Youth Network. “Federal e-rate subsidies for educational Internet can’t be used for buses or other off-campus applications. Oddly enough, bookmobiles are eligible for e-rate, because they’re considered a mini branch of the library.”

This seems like a great time for public libraries to bust out the old bookmobiles and revamp them for the modern digital age. Although this service may not be green in the long run and can be very expensive, it’s a hole for public libraries to fill before hopefully access to the Internet becomes more of a utility like water or gas for all Americans. Examples of public libraries using mobile labs to their benefit include the San Francisco Public Library’s Techmobile that offers classes ranging from Basic Computer Skills, to Intro to 3D Printing and LEGO Robotics. Kokomo, Indiana has a bookmobile that beams out free Internet in low-income neighborhoods, and in Providence, Rhode Island, their bookmobile loans out 4G mobile hotspots.  This is so important when we have what the ed-tech inequality article discusses as “technology deserts” in lower income neighborhoods that often hold minority or immigrant residents. And it’s a great way to connect with and get those patrons to come to the actual library once they understand the types of assets that the public space can provide them. Beyond that, it’s an opportunity for public libraries to advertise just how important and pertinent they still are in these modern times.

Source article:

Berdik, Chris. “Can Ed-tech Inequality Be Solved By Roving Buses With Wi-Fi and Loads of Equipment?” The Hechinger Report. Last modified October 21, 2015.

Further resources:

http://sfpl.org/index.php?pg=2000795701

http://hechingerreport.org/kids-no-internet-home-parking-wifi-enabled-school-bus-near-trailer-park/

http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/mayor/press_room/press_releases/2015/july/mayor-emanuel-launches-destination–chicago-mobile-van-to-bring-.html

http://estellasbrilliantbus.org

http://estellasbrilliantbus.org/about-our-ceo/

http://news.microsoft.com/features/microsofts-super-bowl-ads-feature-the-inspiring-stories-of-estella-pyfrom-and-braylon-oneill/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cw4jmKQs0E

The post From Bookmobile to Techmobile first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

In library school, they teach you about multicultural librarianship and how to cater to diverse communities. Learning something can only take you so far, however. It is the application portion that is key. Libraries should “recruit Spanish-speaking personnel in all job classifications, i.e. librarians, paraprofessionals, clerical workers and volunteers.”[3] Librarians and library professionals should never underestimate the power of the “door knocking” approach. Get out into the Hispanic speaking community in your area to sit and talk to individuals who wish to have input on the Spanish and bilingual material located in your library; they are stakeholders as well.

Librarians can no longer sit back and wait for Hispanics to provide them with information regarding collection development. Outreach is the answer! Making contacts and connections throughout the community for assistance with this process is an integral part of the collection development process. If this is not accomplished, Hispanics will assume the library does not care about their needs and does not wish to have programs that cater to their community and culture. Whenever possible, advertise and post signage around the library in Spanish. This is a useful tactic that will let Spanish speakers know that the library indeed understands there is a Hispanic community and they are important as well. Social networking is obviously very popular in this digital age, so posting in English and Spanish gets the word out much better than only posting in English. If you do not speak Spanish, use Google Translate. It is a highly resourceful tool that goes a long way.

There are many ways to reach out to the Hispanic community. Do not underestimate the little things and do not assume the Hispanic community does not take notice. As Louis Pasteur once famously said, “Chance favors the prepared mind.”

[1] “Quick Facts Beta: United States,” The United States Census Bureau, accessed November 17, 2015, http://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/RHI725214/00.

[2] “US now has more Spanish speakers than Spain – only Mexico has More,” The Guardian, accessed November 16, 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/29/us-second-biggest-spanish-speaking-country.

[3] “Guidelines for Library Services to Spanish-Speaking Library Users,” Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), A Division of the American Library Association, accessed November 18, 2015, http://www.ala.org/rusa/resources/guidelines/guidespanish.

The post Collection Development: Catering to the Hispanic Community first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

After hosting several open community discussions, HPL staff discerned that its users’ chief concerns included “public safety, community violence, and their relationship with the police” (Marcotte). It then responded to this clear need by hosting a series of three open dialogues between the police and Hartford residents of all ages. From these programs stemmed the idea to further bridge the gap between the two groups through less formal activities such as the aforementioned community theater and block parties. As a result of this initiative, residents felt that their opinions and concerns were being heard by the police, and they were more likely to question the mainstream media’s depiction of the force’s relationship with the community.

Because public libraries are typically well-respected and trusted fixtures in most communities, they are an excellent arena to help bridge the gaps between different demographics and community organizations. HPL’s initiatives were successful because of this trust; members of the public felt comfortable voicing their concerns freely and had a very real forum in which they could be heard.

Creating community-wide initiatives such as this one is possible even in the absence of a program such as LTC. The main requirements are an openness to hear your community’s needs and a willingness to interface with outside community organizations. Perhaps your residents are interested in learning more about their governing body and would benefit from a visit by an elected official. Alternatively, collaborating with a CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) group or your local OEM (Office of Emergency Management) could help teach your patrons valuable lessons about emergency preparedness. The options are endless and vary depending on the community. The first step is allowing your residents to tell you about their concerns.

Building connections within your community not only helps your users, but it can help your library as well. By networking with other groups, you may begin to attract a new patron base or draw in residents whose library usage has waned over the years. Such connections offer a tangible positive to your community, which in turn provides good public relations and reminds your residents why the library is still relevant. These partnerships are also likely to improve your library’s relationship with the governing body and other local organizations, a feat that can never hurt when it comes to advocacy.

What has your library done to foster community relations?

Resources

Marcotte, Alison. “Hartford Public Library Builds, Strengthens Community–Police Relationships.” American Libraries. August 3, 2015. Accessed September 21, 2015.

The post Community Connections at the Library first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

One of the great aspects to this program is that not only are they reaching out to young girls, but they are also inspiring the girls’ mothers, providing an opportunity for both generations to learn in a fun environment. This ten-part workshop series provided opportunities to learn about circuits, engineering, architecture, art, and more. Many of the classes had the participants considering ways to better their worlds, like the first program where attendees considered how to make human experiences better in public spaces, or the workshop where they worked on posters highlighting shelter animals up for adoption.[1] Looking at the pictures in the Make-HER blog shows a glimpse of the fun had by attendees while learning.

Leading the instruction was a group of ladies who all have myriad experiences that enabled them to teach various skills to the attendees. Looking at their bios, one of the impressive things about the instructors was that they all had different backgrounds; some of them had studied their field of expertise, while others were self-taught.[2] What a great way to showcase the wide variety of ways you can learn and be excited about a topic!

While writing this post, I was thinking quite a bit about why a program like this is important. Providing an opportunity for girls and their mothers to work and learn together is a huge benefit. However, knowing what I’ve heard about girls and women studying and working in careers in STEM fields, I decided to see what kinds of articles I might find on the topic. Several pieces came up regarding girls and the maker movement, many of which focused on using making as a way to get girls interested in STEM studies.

One article that provided some insight came from Kristin Houser for iQ by Intel. The article mainly discussed findings from a report called, MakeHers: Engaging Girls and Women in Technology Through Making, Creating, and Inventing. This report says that the maker movement “could help bridge the gender gap in STEM fields.”[3] By hosting programs for girls, Sunnyvale is contributing to closing this gap. Houser also had information from Forbes stating that girls don’t often have female mentors or role models in the STEM world.[4] By having all female instructors for the Make-HER program, Sunnyvale Public Library has provided the participating girls with women they can look up to as examples.

Not only did Sunnyvale hold all these programs, but they put much of the information on their website. Check out the activities at home (or maybe in your library, too). A listing of some of the major materials used for the various projects is also included. I know looking at the different projects definitely got ideas flowing for me!

[1] “Blog.” Make-HER. 2015. https://sunnyvalemakeher.wordpress.com/blog/ (accessed August 19, 2015).

[2] “#LadyMakers.” Make-HER. 2015. https://sunnyvalemakeher.wordpress.com/ladymakers/ (accessed August 19,      2015).

[3] Houser, Kristin. “Girls in Technology: Maker Movement is a Natural Entry Point.” iQ. January 16, 2015.

http://iq.intel.com/report-shows-maker-movement-natural-entry-girls-women-technology/ (accessed August 20, 2015).

[4] Ibid.

The post Make-HER at Sunnyvale Public Library first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Although the article addresses economic infrastructure, Thompson brings up some interesting points that made this librarian ponder about the evolving role of public libraries in our communities. To begin with, Thompson quotes that “most people want to work, and are miserable when they cannot. The ills of unemployment go well beyond the loss of income.”² He relates this to an inherent need for humans to have a consistent routine that is filled with a sense of purpose, productivity, and regular socialization. Thompson continues to explain how changing technology will make the way for “communal creativity” in order to fulfill these needs. As 3D printers, laser cutters, vinyl cutters, and other maker objects become increasingly available to the general public, more people will be able to tinker, create, design, and even develop their own businesses. Even without tinker toys, our current addiction to social media proves that people enjoy creation through uploading home grown music and videos, sharing pictures, and pinning crafts on Pinterest. Thompson explains that we will move from an economy based on consumption to a “new artisanal economy…an economy geared around self-expression, where people would do artistic things with their time.”³

While this may fulfill the need to be productive and creative, Thomspon writes that we would still need to address the issue of loneliness and isolation, both as individuals and as a community. Therefore, he proposes that “local governments might do well to create more and more ambitious community centers or other public spaces where residents can meet, learn skills, bond around sports or crafts, and socialize.”⁴ This aligns with many public libraries that not only provide instruction and community events, but also maker opportunities.

Public libraries must evolve with society. Public libraries are no longer needed to look up basic information that can now be found on Google; instead libraries are in a position to have more meaningful, deeper relationships with our communities as their economies, needs, and goals change. No longer are public libraries simply repositories for information, but places for learning, creation, exploration, and relationship building. Above all, public libraries will become a place for people to form a sense of identity with their community.

References

1. Thompson, Derek. “A World Without Work.” Atlantic 1 July 2015: 53. Print.
2. Thompson, Derek. “A World Without Work.” Atlantic 1 July 2015: 56. Print
3. Thompson, Derek. “A World Without Work.” Atlantic 1 July 2015: 56. Print
4. Thompson, Derek. “A World Without Work.” Atlantic 1 July 2015: 59. Print

The post Public Libraries in a Jobless Society first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

One way of connecting with people interested in comic conventions is through partnerships. San Diego Public Library worked with convention organizers to host the Art of Comic-Con, which contains forty-five years of Comic-Con art. This free show includes art work from some of the best known illustrators and comic writers in the business, including many works that haven’t been seen before.[1]

Another way to become more involved is to be at a convention in whatever way you can. During 2015, many Colorado libraries were able to do outreach at Denver Comic Con (DCC) through a booth arranged by the Colorado State Library (CSL). With attendance of over 100,000, this was a fantastic opportunity for participating libraries.

Ashley Kazyaka from the CSL explained that the inspiration for getting libraries into DCC came out of the 2014 Colorado Association of Libraries Conference (CALCON). “Library staff from multiple districts expressed interest in Comic Con, but were unsure about how to coordinate the effort,” explained Kazyaka, so she took it on. DCC is run by a non-profit called Pop Culture Classroom, which focuses on literacy, and they were supportive of having libraries involved. To highlight some of the new technology that libraries have and people don’t necessarily know about, Kazyaka specifically talked with libraries involved in the maker movement, as well as people who had expressed interest at CALCON 2014. Kazyaka also put together a Google map of Colorado library makerspaces and handed out information for people to access it.[2]

When asked about the experience, Kazyaka said, “Nearly all of the interactions that I witnessed between library staff working the booth and DCC-attendees were not just positive but enthusiastic…There were times that people would be drawn to a particular activity, get engrossed in it, then suddenly have an excited realization, ‘THIS is the library, really?!’” Kazyaka is convinced that being at DCC is worthwhile, and all the participating libraries are interested in doing it again in 2016. If you’re interested in trying to get involved with your local comic con, Kazyaka recommends planning early and making sure your promotional materials reflect everyone involved.[3]

Some libraries have taken this kind of event a step further and started offering their own conventions. Just do an Internet search for ‘libraries and comic con,’ and the results pile up. Libraries all across the country are experiencing great success with everything from panels, to signings, to cosplay! Publishers Weekly even had a 2014 article called, “How to Throw a Comic Con at Your Library.” If that’s not enough, Diamond Bookshelf of Diamond Comics also has an article to provide ideas for libraries.

Connecting with people is one of the specialties of libraries. What better way to connect with new users and add a new service for those who are already library lovers than through comic cons!

Sources

[1] Yarbrough, Beau. “Comic-Con 2015: Comic Art Show at the San Diego Library, No Badge Required.” Los Angeles

Daily News. July 8, 2015. http://www.dailynews.com/arts-and-entertainment/20150708/comic-con-2015-

comic-art-show-at-the-san-diego-library-no-badge-required (accessed July 15, 2015).

[2] Kazyaka, Ashley, email interview by Becca Cruz. Project Manager (July 16, 2015).

[3] Ibid.

The post Comics, Super Heroes, Pop Culture, and Libraries first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

• Public library program attendance increased 54.4% over the last 10 years—in 2012, 92.6 million people participated in any one of 4 million programs offered at a public library.^[1]
• Public library services run the gamut—from toddler story time to teen centers to homework assistance programs. Today, many libraries provide career assistance with access to federal funding for effective job training centers and job development sites.^[2] Public libraries serve their communities in many different ways.
• During the past year, public libraries touched many different people in their communities:
  – 97.5% offered free wireless internet access
  – 98% offered technology training
  – 9.5% had education and learning programs
  – 98.4% had summer reading programs
  – Almost 80% offered programs that aided patrons with job training skills.^[3]

That’s some report card!

School Libraries

School libraries, too, stand ready to ensure American students develop 21^st century information literacy skills. As the educational demands for inquiry based learning and research increase, the 2015 report emphasizes the importance of collaboration between certified school librarians and classroom teachers. “School librarians [need] to develop engaging learning tasks that integrate key critical thinking, technology, and information literacy skills with subject-area content.”

The 2015 report provided some good news—94% of education professionals noted that they saw improved learning and achievement when technology was integrated into the curriculum. Half of high school students surveyed looked for information online to gain better understanding of topics studied in class. Access to information services is a key component to blended learning environments. Overwhelmingly, 82% of school librarians identified themselves as teachers of what the report references as “digital citizenship.” The consensus is in: School librarians have become a part of an expanding and integral component of the educational environment.

Academic Libraries

In higher education, academic libraries provide a supportive environment for learning, teaching, and research within a university culture. This is true today more than ever. Academic libraries today are re-purposing space to optimize budgets but also to build digital collections, to collaborate with inter-collegiate databases, and to offer e-library resources. The 2014 National Survey of Student Engagement reported that 33% of 1^st year college students found that their experience with an academic librarian “contributed ‘very much’ to their knowledge, skills, and personal development in using information effectively.”^[4]

Academic libraries have traditionally been the central access point for research in a university and college community. Big data poses new challenges. Academic librarians have helped researchers share, analyze, and reuse it effectively.

Issues and Trends

Digital literacy, equitable access, and assessment remain high on the the list of issues and trends in the changing landscape of the library world. According to the 2013 Program for the International Assessment for Adult Competencies report, 36 million people, ages 16-65, struggle with basic tasks such as completing a job application or reading a story to their children. Coupled with these individuals are the one in six American adults who struggle with Basic English proficiency. Equitable access, digital literacy, literacy classes, service planning, and delivery as well as recruitment are all key issues that can impact a library’s ability to serve these individuals, those with limited English proficiency or low literacy skills—an ongoing challenge.

The ALA as Advocate

The American Library Association remains a strong advocacy organization to uphold the tenets of intellectual freedom and promote the importance of individual rights. In its role as advocate, the ALA supports the USA Freedom Act as it strives to protect patron privacy. The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom tracks challenges to books. In 2014, 52% of the books challenged or banned included diverse content—non-white characters, LGBT characters, issues about race, issues about religion, and issues about a disability or mental illness, including suicide.

The ALA continues to work in developing children’s collections that promote the diversity of a community. Jamie Campbell Naidoo explored this issue in The Importance of Diversity in Library Programs and Material Collections for Children.  In turn, YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) issued its report, The Future of Library Services for and with Teens: A Call to Action,–it called for connected learning to 21^st century jobs as a learning approach that would move beyond the formal classroom as a platform for the development of teen services at the library.

Exemplary scores: New issues, continuing trends, new approaches—librarians ready to provide programs, seek solutions, and collaborate with one another.

Libraries as Anchor Institutions in Their Communities

Libraries engage every segment of our society—from early literacy through lifelong learning, through digital literacy to college study spaces. Libraries assess their individual communities’ needs and are ready to respond. In 2014, the Ferguson Municipal (MO) Public Library stood as a shining example of a library’s pivotal role as an anchor institution within its community. The Ferguson Municipal Public Library provided information, internet access, and children’s services. Perhaps most importantly it provided a quiet space amidst a storm to anyone who chose to use it. It stood as the American Library Association defines a library—as a “protectorate of the tenets of a democratic government.”^[5] Ferguson’s community, along with many communities in America, cherish the services of their community library.

References

[1]American Library Association. The State of America’s Libraries 2015: A Report from the American Library Association.

[2] Ibid, 6.

[3] Ibid, 11

[4] Ibid, 8

[5] Ibid, 2

The post The State of America’s Libraries 2015 first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

SELF-e

One example of this is the partnership of SELF-e and Los Angeles (CA) Public Library (LAPL). LAPL combined resources for writers that the system already had but weren’t centralized. “We decided to create a portal pulling everything together in one place,” says Catherine Royalty, LAPL’s acquisitions manager. As a result, LAPL Writes was born. “We want the LAPL Writes portal to serve both as a useful resource for LA’s aspiring authors and also as a means to facilitate a writing community centered at the library. We hope to incorporate additional programming including a speaker series and projects promoting use of the SELF-e platform and the Indie California collection.”

On the other side of the country, the Cuyahoga County (OH) Public Library (CCPL) had a prominent place in their writer community. “We already have a robust schedule of free writing programs and workshops, as well as an active author visit program featuring both local and touring authors. We see SELF-e as part of the larger picture of libraries moving into facilitating our patrons’ content creation,” says Laurie Kincer, reading communications specialist.

In addition, one of CCPL’s branches will cater specifically to writers, including a computer lab set-up so patrons can learn SELF-e, laptops with writing software, and meeting spaces used for writing classes and author visits. The newest branch in the system, opening later this year, will have a dedicated Writers Center that houses writing reference books, magazines, a meeting space, and a full-time librarian. The center will also have a separate page on the CCPL website. “We see author and writing events as being vitally linked services. While author events increase the visibility of and excitement around reading, the Writers Center will provide a place where writers at all levels (as well as readers of all interests) can find and form community,” says Kincer.

Both systems have gotten positive feedback from their patrons about their writer-geared services. If thinking about starting such a program at your own library, Royalty has some suggestions. “I would suggest first spending time thinking about what you already have to offer in terms of useful resources for writers, across all your formats and platforms. Most of what is featured on our page was already available through the library, it just needed to be organized in a useful way. I would also caution libraries to take a close look at any of the outside author resources they may link to on their site—we evaluated all our linked web resources for transparency on any fees, etc., and linked to several helpful blogs that address common scams and legal pitfalls in the self-publishing industry.”

The post Libraries Help Writers Succeed first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

I know that I am not alone in this perspective. Many voices are behind the push to add art and design into the educational mix. We need to convert STEM to STEAM.[1] And public libraries can certainly contribute. Through our collections and programming we can create models for more well-rounded education. We can supplement what is becoming core education by offering a venue to teach the skills that are becoming obsolete. In other words, we can put the flowers on to the stems.

Here are some off-the-cuff suggestions for libraries to explore:

• Offer a program on the science of cooking that explains both the chemistry and the artistry involved
• Create a display of nature photography
• Ask an architect to discuss form and function of buildings
• Run a sci-fi book group
• Make hardware jewelry
• Have a sculpture contest
• Do an art program based on spirals
• Offer a program on electronic music

In fact, the possibilities can be endless. I would suggest a brainstorming session. Search your cataloging for key terms in the STEM disciplines and see where it takes you. Google terms you don’t normally put together to see where it leads: technology painting, creative mathematics, biological art?

I, for one, do not want a world that consists of only scientists. Nor do I want a world without science managed by artists. After all the years spent talking about left brain and right brained individuals, multiple intelligences, and diversity, education seems to be taking a step backward. I hope public libraries do not fall into the same trap. I truly believe that we need to cultivate the flowers so that we can have full, healthy plants. I also believe that this approach can create beautiful bouquets.

References

[1]See also: http://stemtosteam.org/, http://steamedu.com/, http://steam-notstem.com/.

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