Futures of Libraries 11.0 and Nina Simon
The Futures of Libraries 11.0 conference happened at San Francisco Public Library’s Main branch on September 29th. Keynote Speaker Nina Simon asked some very relevant questions based on her experience with experimental community engagement in the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History.  Perhaps her most provocative point was made when she posed a question related to community interaction, asking, “How do you build a radically collaborative institution?”

Our Knowledge/Their Awareness
Many libraries are expanding services and trying to create more active community spaces. However, getting patrons and stakeholders to understand how our changes better serve them can be an uphill battle. Fundamentally, this is an issue in communication. The question libraries need to ask when considering new programing is: how do we get our communities and stakeholders to not only understand this is happening, but also to be active participants?

Programming Versus Collaboration
Libraries aren’t always successful at promoting awareness, let alone encouraging community members to collaborate with us. Putting up flyers and sending out emails (our two most typical modes of communicating new goings-on) are often insufficient. Relying on word of mouth, Twitter, or Facebook is great, but these are hardly  consistent systems, and let’s be honest: are any of our Facebook posts going viral? Simon discussed the way building larger programs isn’t just about expanding them (turning one staff member with fifteen patrons into two staff members with thirty patrons) but converting programming into platforms we can provide to large numbers of people. This got me thinking about the difference between those two ideas. Libraries are comfortable providing programs and inviting people to consume them. But programming is, by its nature, a little stiff. It’s . . . well . . . programmed. Platforms are meant to be more involved; they’re meant for use and interaction rather than consumption. Maybe if we try thinking about collaborating with patrons instead of providing them with programing we will be able to reach more of our communities. Maybe the way to increase the reach of our programs is to stop thinking only about programming.

Making It Work
Creating awareness isn’t the same as encouraging collaboration, and, as Simon pointed out at Futures, collaboration is important for expansion. Building platforms for collaboration is one way we can invite new community members inside and interact with communities in a new way. That’s something libraries should be trying to do.

LINKS:

Futures of Libraries 11.0

Santa Cruz Museum of Art and & History

The post Collaboration vs Programming in Libraries 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.

The important thing when answering a listserv inquiry is to consider if the information being supplied actually answers the question being asked. For many years reference librarians were trained in the art of the reference interview, designed to discern what the real information query was in comparison to the actual question being posed to them. Often in these ‘live’ situations the exchange was quick and the person asking the question might not have even known what information they were really seeking.

I would suggest with the advent of online inquiry the reference interview—and subsequently the true focus on the actual question—has become a lost art. Perhaps it is perceived as no longer relevant. With the Internet inquiry the question is posed solidly before us. Because it has been typed out by the inquirer, there is inherently more conscious thought going into it. Further, for those asking questions of listservs, it is very likely that the asker already possesses some Internet skill and has done preliminary investigation, particularly if the listserv is centered on a particular profession or topic.

I have found many times on professional listservs that when a question is poised, there is a myriad of replies, but few that actually answer the question. For example, I recently asked a group of librarians if they had a sample vendor contract for a particular service. The results I received told me information about the service, vendors who performed that service, and how to engage in the service, but none supplied me with a sample contract or even referenced one. Some suggested I search the Internet for information, which of course I had already tried. The internet findings suggested I contact my peers for samples.

The responses were frustrating on many levels. Worst of all, despite having numerous replies, I did not gain the needed information. While I would encourage all to be helpful and participate, I would suggest that it be done with focus.

First, consider the audience. Replying to a general group might warrant a different kind of reply than if replying to a professional group, just as answering a reference question regarding information about animals would be different depending upon the age of the person standing before us. I believe it is safe to think that if answering a question on a professional librarian list, suggesting the Internet search is not needed unless one is suggesting a particular website or unusual resource.

Second, focus on the content. If a poster is seeking contact information for a specific program provider, comments about reference books on the topic are not helpful. If a questioner asks about fundraising ideas to supplement their budget, responses about municipal budgets would not apply. A helpful starting place is to consider if the question is looking for general direction or specific information. It might be helpful to consider the kind of answer you would be seeking if you were asking the question. This is the same process reference librarians apply to the reference interview.

Finally, specifically in the context of professional listservs, I always ask myself why I am reaching for the reply button. Do I truly have content to provide or do I just want to help? Is the reply that I am forming in response to the inquiry or because of something else (a favorite topic, a recent experience, or a slow day)? Before hitting send, I also recheck if the answer I have now typed out has already been posted in the interim.  I focus on whether my information actually helpful. If I answer “not really” or have any doubts, I don’t send.

I believe that if we approach the listserv inquiry with thoughtful consideration we will all save time and become truly more helpful.

The post Making Sure Help is Helpful first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Our committee is a cross-section of talented staff from all departments and all levels, with a vibrant interest in our ACL MakerSpace project. We convened at the end of last year, and began by sharing what we knew. We first focused on gathering information, bringing examples from other libraries who have successfully built their MakerSpaces. After a month of envisioning where our MakerSpace would physically fit best and how we could finance it, suddenly we were stymied. We found ourselves considering a detour from our original direction. Why did we move from a project focused on Come-Do to one that invited How-To?

We couldn’t answer a major question: what would our adult patrons really want in the ACL MakerSpace? We already have some MakerSpace activities in both the Children’s and Young Adult Departments, like squishy circuits and Lego® challenges, but an adult-centered MakerSpace would be far too expensive to mount if based entirely on the philosophy of build-it-and-they-will-come. Our staff reflects the demographics of adults, ages 30 to 50, that we wanted to target, so months earlier we polled them about what they thought our MakerSpace should be. We found that although they showed a high interest in 3-D modeling and other technology-based activities, the majority chose more craft-based topics, more prescriptive and dependent on a set of ordered rules or directions. Would those activities lead to collaboration and experimentation inherent in an ideal MakerSpace? Again we wondered if we were heading in the wrong direction.

How could we reach our patrons easily to find out what they want to see in our library? One of our committee members suggested we hire someone to build a revolving, free-standing, four-sided, white dry-erase board kiosk, on which we would write questions to solicit patron input. It now stands in the space across from the Circulation Desk, and our Adult Programming Librarian monitors it. As appropriate messages are posted, she captures the input digitally and then erases the posts. She writes new questions on each side on a regular basis. We have gleaned a lot of patron opinion this way.

But what about our wider Anderson community? How could we reach them? A new business incubator project, e-Merge@The Garage, was coming to life in the remodeled City of Anderson garage. Its focus is to build and grow local and regional entrepreneurs, and is heavily funded with heavy-duty sponsorships. We invited the founder of e-Merge to share his vision with our committee. He offered his Grain Ideas, an open forum at his local pub, to help us find out what his clientele—who fit our targeted demographics—would like to see in ACL’s future MakerSpace. The forum was fun, and we established another community business ACL supporter, but unfortunately we did not gather enough representative feedback.

Each committee member had been searching for ideas as to what other libraries are doing to attract more residents to come to the library. Among all the interesting information we gathered was the article in American Libraries about Louisville (Ky.) Public Library’s first How-to Festival. Their schedule of presentations inspired us. If we held a similar venue, would it draw a large attendance? We could use our “How-To” to ask citizens what they thought a future ACL MakerSpace should be. “Yes!” we all agreed. “Let’s stage a How-To-Fair.”

Then cold reality hit us. The ACL calendar was already heavily booked with upcoming major events for the year: our Friends of the Library Spelling Bee, the Children’s Book Carnival, the Summer Reading Programs, the ComiCon, and our Friends of the Library annual three-day Storytelling Festival in the early fall. The only time when all our conference and meeting rooms were available on one day was in late April. We had less than two months to get it accomplished!

What did we need to do first? Find presenters to donate their time and talents? Advertising? Scheduling? All of it! One committee member quickly developed flyers to explain the nature of the event and to solicit presenters. Other members delivered them personally to community businesses as ACL ambassadors of the How-To Fair. We sent out emails to all staff members for suggestions as to anyone who knew someone who could do such-and-such. We made hundreds of phone calls and inquiries throughout the community. Key members of the committee created a presenter application form, a patron survey, the events schedule, plus a mapping of tables and locations, inside and outdoors. Within a month over 30 community presenters made firm commitments, and in less than two months our program was written in stone. With some trepidation and great anticipation, we held our first ACL How-To Fair on April 23^rdfrom 2-8 p.m. .

A local blacksmith set up his forge and made square nails. A local dog trainer demonstrated canine handling. The beekeepers association gave tips on local bee husbandry. Our genealogical staff helped visitors use online databases for family research. Reference librarians in our computer lab showed how to use Novelist and Mango. Rabbits cuddled in a conference room and chickens clucked in the Children’s patio area, as their breeders offered their expertise. Master gardeners talked compost, flower arranging, pruning, and heirloom seeds. Home Depot demonstrated cordless tools, how to make a sink backsplash, and summer garden preparation. Backpackers shared their love of trail walking. Lowe’s helped DIYs with deck treatment. AnMed Health sent a representative who spoke on advanced directives planning. There were demonstrations on making balloon animals, quilting, crocheting, origami, fabric bracelets, scrapbooking, how to brew the perfect cup of coffee, digital photography, how to pack a suitcase, how to repurpose junk, and how to jumpstart your creativity. The local theater group showed how to audition. Yoga sessions, kicking a soccer ball, and salsa dancing lessons added to the excitement! The Teen room ran continuous activity stations, like underwater painting, and the Children’s Department had Lego® challenges. Committee members were assigned areas to direct traffic, answer questions, and provided a hospitality room with refreshments for the presenters. It took every staff member who wasn’t at a service desk—our library maintained normal operations!–to work the Fair.

As one committee member commented, “We didn’t know where we were going, but we sure had fun when we got there.”

But, to where?

In our post-event analysis, we found that we had these positives:

• a collaborative and talented committee, seriously dedicated to staging the event, and newly emerging leaders;
• a successful and fierce social media blitz to advertise the event;
• enthusiastic presenters and attendees—a good start to amplifying community relations;
• a wide-variety of sessions of interest to a large cross-section of attendees;
• encouraging survey responses from both attendees and presenters, with calls for “do it again” next year!

But what about any 2^nd Annual ACL How-To Fair? What should we do the next time?

• Establish a How-To Fair Committee.
• Brand our How-To Fair and develop a logo for advertising, and even emblazon it on staff T-Shirts.
• Consult/contact other library systems that have held a How-To event. There is a lot of practical advice online from other libraries, but we reinvented the proverbial wheel. Learn what they learned.
• Plan far in advance. . . at least six months. Two months is not enough time to advertise effectively, communicate with potential presenters, and allow for last-minute scheduling adjustments.
• Appoint or elect a committee member to be the clearinghouse for presenter applications and contacts.
• Restructure the schedule to avoid clumping events in too narrow a time frame.
• Allow attendees more time to get from one presentation to another.
• Refine the presenter application and questionnaire.
• Encourage presenters to give multiple sessions.
• Consider soliciting local business sponsorships, perhaps to help with advertising, the hospitality room, etc.

Did we find out what our community wanted for the ACL MakerSpace? No, not really. We made the assumption that the public-at-large would know what a MakerSpace is, because we librarians know. MakerSpace terminology is so much a part of our active vocabulary that we neglected to provide something at the How-To Fair to explain it to our public. When we asked our attendees to fill out a survey as they left the venue, their focus and emotional involvement was with this How-To Fair and not necessarily with providing input for a future MakerSpace. We do know, however, that this sort of event truly appealed to them, and that alone was worth the effort.

And our ACL MakerSpace Committee’s future plans? We have refocused and are considering. . . ah, but that’s for me to tell you in a future blog.

References:

1. Kristin Fontichiaro & the Michigan Makers, University of Michigan School of Information, “What’s In Your Patron’s’ Dream Makerspace?” accessed May 20, 2015, http://fontichiaro.com/uploads/2014/booklist-makerspace-list.pdf.

2. “Grain Ideas-Growler House, Anderson,” accessed May 20, 2015, https://roundtown.com/event/2712891/Grain-Ideas-Growler-Haus-Anderson-Anderson-SC.

3. Judy Rosenfield, “Barbecue? Flamenco Dancing? Learning Gets Interactive in Louisville,” American Libraries, October 30, 2012, accessed May 20, 2015, http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2012/10/30/barbecue-flamenco-dancing-learning-gets-interactive-in-louisville/.

4. “eMerge @ The Garage: Driving entrepreneurship,” accessed May 20, 2015, http://www.emergeandersonsc.com/#!about_us/cjg9.

5. Website for Anderson (SC) County Library System: http://www.andersonlibrary.org

6. Link to Anderson (SC) County Library System’s How-To Fair: http://www.andersonlibrary.org/how-to-fair/

7. Facebook event page for Anderson (SC) County Library System’s How-To Fair: https://www.facebook.com/events/1593649477548555/

8. Facebook album for Anderson (SC) County Library System’s How-To Fair: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.952981931400316.1073741828.354814934550355&type=3

The post From Come-Do to How-To first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

New York City has over 730,000 homes without internet or broadband access. Unlike smaller cities like Chattanooga, Tennessee, that are making public broadband a reality through their local government, it is simply not feasible for New York’s large and diverse population to do the same thing. In this day and age, people do expect to have internet access anytime and anywhere, just like other public utilities (i.e. water or power). And although the FCC officially classified broadband as a public utility this past February, it will not involve itself in pricing decisions/negotiations. This leaves the cost of internet to be, on average, $60 per month, fundamentally turning a public utility into a luxury item for many.

New York City is trying to give the largest internet companies a reason to become more competitive. The city developed free wireless access points with mobile computer labs and Wi-Fi hubs, including underground and public spaces as well as defunct payphone booths. Unfortunately, many residents in New York are still being left out of these smart communities.

When an affordable internet connection is a problem, it can be extremely difficult to access important online resources from home when someone is unemployed or underemployed. It can be just as difficult for someone’s school-age children to do their homework or do research without online access. Some families struggle with these issues, but find relief in the accessibility of public libraries. However, when the local public library closes at 5pm on some days or doesn’t open at all, the digital divide widens. NYPL decided that all of their patrons should still be able to access online resources, even when they are at home.

Partnering with the Knight Foundation (along with Sprint), which awarded NYPL a $500,000 grant for this purpose, the library rolled out their hotspot lending program this year. And so far so good! A PBS story discusses one family’s journey into digital literacy growth because of the hotspot lending program. Since borrowing a hotspot from NYPL four months ago, a struggling single mother is now working on her nursing degree online, and her children can do their schoolwork at home instead of rushing to the library to complete their assignments before the building closes for the day. It’s clear that for this family and many others, NYPL has given them a sense of stability that most people take for granted.  There are other cities and public libraries developing similar lending programs for their own communities. Look into grants for your library and see your own community’s digital confidence and overall well-being grow!

Source

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/internet-scarcity/

The post Narrowing the Digital Divide: New York Public Library Loans Out Hotspots first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Attending the seminar New Uses of Public Libraries (organized by the Province of Barcelona with the Library Consortium of Barcelona, the IFLA Section on Public Libraries and the IFLA Section on Library Buildings and Equipment), I learned that these two libraries had kitchen and cooking programs. I emailed both library directors a few questions. [1]

Children’s Mexican Cooking Workshop at the Central Library of Castelldefels

Public Libraries Online: What made your library decide to start activities about cooking?

Mariona Chavarria Domingo (Biblioteca del Fondo): Seeing the multicultural context of the neighborhood, the municipality, [and] aiming for social cohesion, [we] thought about the idea of “cooking” as a central point to all cultures, and as an excuse to bring diversity together and build a community by creating mutual trust.

Marta Granel Dalmau (Central Library of Castelldefels): Our library specializes in cooking, [so] these activities are the ideal complement for our specialty. We complete our cooking programs with a collection of books about cooking, for kids and adults.

Children’s Mexican Cooking Workshop at the Central Library of Castelldefels

PL Online: What information, tools, and processes did you need?

Mariona: One of the halls of the library has a complete kitchen installed, prepared to cook and to perform cooking shows. It is equipped with a hotplate, electrical oven, microwave oven, fridge, [and] dishwasher. It is also equipped with enough kitchenware (a list of which was provided by a local Restoration School). We have gathered information about legal points to take into account (related to health and food security, hygiene, and first aid). A Commission has been established in order to think about the project named “Cuines del Món” (Cuisines of the World), which includes the kitchen and a section of the library collection (books and other document types).

Marta: We need professionals to do the activities, normally local collaborators, [as well as] multipurpose spaces and users interested in activities about cooking.

Children’s Mexican Cooking Workshop at the Central Library of Castelldefels

PL Online: How did you determine what activities to organize?

Mariona: The above mentioned Commission “Cuines del Món” (which includes: representatives of the municipality – politicians and technicians; representatives of social, educational, and cultural entities of the neighborhood; representatives of the University of Barcelona Campus de l’Alimentació – Food and Nutrition  and representatives of Fondo trading association as well as a well-known Chef, Víctor Quintillà, whose restaurant La Lluerna has been awarded with one Michelin Star during the last three years). The overall objective of the “Cuines del Món” Project is to be a tool helping to bring together diversity; bringing down walls of lack of trust; and, being a public library, to promote reading habits and skills. We have oriented the activities in three main directions or levels:

a) Academic level – about food, nutrition, science and cooking – inviting cooks as well as university lecturers;

b) Informative level – bringing together people from different backgrounds to share a cooking session while explaining similarities and differences of cooking, for instance about rice, potatoes, or about the use of species or different kinds of oil, etc.; teaching to cook nutritive meals to people with low incomes; teaching children cooking habits, etc.

c) Reading Promotion: the library, in collaboration with educational and cultural entities of the neighborhood, organizes activities connected to its own activities (storytelling for children and families, a reading club for adults, people learning Catalan or Spanish, etc.).

In some cases we offer the kitchen space for activities organised by others: i.e., by a psychiatric center nearby, or by other similar associations; by groups working with children with social risks, etc.

Marta: First we contact the collaborators and look for the activities, we want the activities to be attractive, easy, and possible to be done in the library, without fire. Normally we try to organize the activities in cycles, for kids and for adults.

Cooking Workshop at the Biblioteca del Fondo

PL Online: What challenges did you face?

Mariona: The main challenge is to implement good projects that keep the kitchen lively and used at its best. Linked to that, another challenge is trying to keep with a regular activity in the kitchen while not having enough library staff for that, having to work with volunteers (good on one side, but unstable on the other). Also the follow-up after the activities in the kitchen (the washing up and putting back stuff in the cupboards) is an unsolved problem. I wouldn’t call it a challenge but it’s challenging.

Marta: The challenge is making programs varied, attractive, and cheap.

PL Online: What kind of positive results have you had? (And, any negative ones?)

Mariona: We are “young,” yet the fact that this library, situated in such a popular neighborhood, has a kitchen, has put this place in the newspapers for something good and unseen before. It gives a new/better status to the surrounding area. The kitchen opens us easily to different collaborations (for instance with market stall holders or other commerce in the area, or the University Campus, lecturers, and students).

Marta: The results are very positive, the users are very happy and thankful about these activities. The are usually no vacancies in these type of activities.

Cooking Workshop at the Biblioteca del Fondo

PL Online: About how much time does it take?

Mariona: It takes a lot of time: meetings, contacts, preparation of the space, being close during the activities in case of any need, and collecting and washing the kitchenware.

Marta: We spend a lot of time to program these activities. First we look for the possible collaborators who could do the activities, and sometimes we have to pay for the activities. Then we have to do advertising and registration. Afterwards we send the participants an assessment questionnaire, as we want to know their feedback.

PL Online: What advice would you give a library wanting to do something similar?

Mariona: I feel it is too soon to be able to give any good advice. The only one I can think of is: don’t be afraid to start a similar project!

Marta: At the end of the activities the users are so thankful and happy!!

Sources:

[1] Mariona Chavarria Domingo’s e-mail to author (03/19/2015); Marta Granel Dalmau’s e-mail to author (03/25/2015). The interview questions were inspired by Kate Theimer, Web 2.0 Tools and Strategies for Archives and Local History Collections, Facet publishing 2010

The post Kitchens in Libraries first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Through a project titled Lunch at the Library, the California Summer Meal Coalition (CSMC) and California Library Association (CLA) are supporting the development of public library summer meal programs in California, exploring how these programs can help serve families and provide positive outcomes for the library, and creating resources to help more libraries implement successful summer meal programs.

The Need for Summer Meals

The USDA’s Summer Food Service Program, more commonly referred to as a summer meal program, ensures that children and youth in low-income neighborhoods continue to have access to healthy food when school lets out for summer vacation. Summer meal programs enable school districts, units of local government, tribal governments, and community-based agencies to offer free, healthy meals to children and youth age eighteen and under in low-income neighborhoods. Summer meals can be offered at a range of locations, including libraries, and are served to all children, without requiring parents or caregivers to complete any paperwork.

The need for high-quality, accessible summer meal programs is significant. A 2013 nationwide survey of parents found that more than 40 percent of low-income parents had a harder time making ends meet in summer than during the school year, with some respondents reporting that they did not have enough food during the summer break.¹ However, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), while more than 19 million children, on average, received a free or reduced-price lunch during the 2012–2013 school year, fewer than 3 million children participated in a 2013 summer meal program.² Some of the barriers that impede families from participating in summer meal programs are a lack of sites, or of sites that appeal to families, and a lack of awareness of summer meal sites. In addition, cuts to summer school and other summer programs have left many school, city, and community-based organization meal providers with another major barrier—a lack of activities and programming at their sites. Many parents and caregivers are looking for activities to keep children and teens engaged during the summer as well as nutrition support to help where limited summer budgets fall short.

Researchers at Washington University have traced the negative impact of poverty on brain development and highlighted the links between inadequate nutrition, poor education, and other conditions of stress on developmental outcomes.³ Summertime can add to those stressful conditions by creating a perfect storm for risk of food insecurity, obesity, and summer learning loss.
Our collective imagination of summertime is one of children outside playing. Yet for those living in neighborhoods with limited access to healthy food options and few safe places to play, summer can present a very different reality. In some neighborhoods, the omnipresence of unhealthy food options poses additional challenges for families. Research shows that children gain weight two to three times faster during the summer than during the school year; those already at risk of obesity are at even greater risk for excessive weight gain.⁴ The impact of inadequate nutrition on students’ ability to learn is significant. Although the relationship between food insecurity and childhood obesity is complex, both are associated with lower academic gains, increased absenteeism and tardiness, social and mental health problems, and “poor developmental trajectories.”⁵

For many children in families with low income, the learning opportunities they receive in the classroom end along with the nutrition provided by the school lunches when school lets out for summer vacation, leaving them to face uneven access to formal summer learning programs. Youth in families with low income fall further behind in academic skills, particularly reading, during the summer break, experiencing greater summer learning loss than their higher income peers and widening the achievement gap.⁶ Research shows that children in families with low income are nearly three grades behind their more affluent peers in reading by the end of fifth grade as a cumulative consequence of summer learning loss.⁷ Unequal summer learning opportunities during the elementary school years account for about two-thirds of the ninth-grade achievement gap, contributing to a lower likelihood that low-income youth will graduate from high school or enter college in comparison to middle-income students.⁸

Making the Case for Public Library Summer Meal Partnerships

The stark contrast between school year and summer child nutrition program data, and the increasing body of research on summer learning loss, has provided a call to action for many agencies, including libraries, which are proving to be natural spaces for serving meals to children whose access to lunch disappears when school ends. Libraries are community spaces at the heart of the neighborhood. They are rich with learning activities and opportunities, all free of charge to the user. And library staff members share a commitment to providing support to all members of the community, often acting as an equalizing force in communities divided by socioeconomic barriers. Moreover, libraries are trusted and valued by the community. The Pew Research Center reports that Americans believe libraries are important assets within their community and improve the quality of life. Libraries are particularly valued by low-income families and perceived as providing resources that parents cannot provide for their children at home.⁹

Lunch at the Library Program

After learning about communities that were starting to address the intersections between hunger and learning through public library summer meal programs, CSMC and CLA decided in 2013 to explore how to expand these programs across the state and gather a better understanding of what public library summer meal models could look like and achieve. While a small number of library summer meal sites were already scattered across the country, very little had been done to track their experiences and promote the value of libraries as summer meal partners. With support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and with Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funding from the California State Library, CSMC and CLA developed the Lunch at the Library program to support, evaluate, and document summer meal programs in California’s public libraries, and to develop a body of knowledge that could be used to help libraries establish themselves as successful and meaningful summer meal sites.

In California, many communities are still trying to rebound from years of economic decline. Cuts to summer learning programs have meant cuts to school-based summer meal programs, leaving 50 percent fewer school-based summer meal sites between 2009 and 2010.¹⁰ Reflecting national data, in 2012 only 17 percent of children in California who received a free or reduced-price lunch during the school year also participated in a summer meal program; meaning that more than two million eligible children did not participate.¹¹ The state has proven to be the perfect ground for experimentation because of its size, diversity, and severe need. (Not to mention that we found a number of adventurous librarians willing to embark on the exploratory journey with us.)

Lunch at the Library has provided support to libraries in the form of funding, technical assistance, training, and the development of an information exchange. In return, participating libraries have experimented with their summer meal programs and provided us with generous amounts of feedback. In 2013, we worked closely with six branches within Fresno County, Los Angeles Public, Sacramento Public, and San Diego County libraries, and we were guided by staff at the Oakland Public Library who had started serving summer meals the previous year. The Lunch at the Library collaboration partnership expanded to include Alameda County, Contra Costa County, Kern County, and Riverside City in 2014, while also connecting with other efforts being made in libraries in Chula Vista, Redwood City, Riverside County, Salinas, San Diego City, San Francisco, San José, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo County, Santa Barbara, Solano County, South San Francisco, and Tulare County.

Replacing Trepidation with Enthusiasm and Impact

Full disclosure: There has been a fair amount of trepidation among librarians who agreed to participate in the project. There are plenty of legitimate things to worry about, ranging from how the program would work during the already busy summer months, convincing administrators (and staff) that this was really and truly a great idea, following the many rules of USDA summer meal programs, to the myriad “what ifs” of things that just might go wrong. However, libraries’ passion for and commitment to their communities outweighed the anxiety. And we’re thankful to report that the effort has paid off.

Libraries have proven to be very popular summer meal sites with families in California, and in some communities they became a daily summer destination. In 2013, our first Lunch at the Library sites served more than 24,000 meals. This coincided with a modest statewide increase of 11 percent in summer meal program participation in California.¹⁴ In 2014, more than 85,000 meals were served at 62 California public library sites through USDA summer meal programs, once again contributing to a continued statewide growth in summer meal participation overall. The need for such popular summer meal sites is clear. Of the 1,981 children and caregivers surveyed as part of the Lunch in the Library program in 2014, 19 percent reported that, during the summer, they ate lunch only at the library. An additional 11 percent reported that they ate lunch only at the library and at other free summer meal sites.

Library staff members at our project sites have focused on helping families feel healthy, both physically and emotionally, at the library meal site. They have created welcoming and safe environments, greeted families upon their arrival at the library, displayed kids’ artwork on the walls, engaged families in healthy activities like T-ball and jump rope, and presented programs on nutrition and healthy behaviors, and are achieving positive results. When surveyed in 2014, 77 percent of the 1,981 people surveyed told us that they felt happy at the program, 61 percent felt good about themselves, and 56 percent felt safe. In addition, families throughout the state reported how deeply appreciative they are of the program, saying, for example:

• “I would like to thank everyone for helping me learn to read, eat, and feel safe.”
• “It’s just nice to be part of a program that all-around cares :-)”
• “[This program makes me] feel like the community cares about us.”

Engaging New Families with the Library

The meal service has also positively impacted participating libraries. Library staff members have reported that their meal programs attracted new families to the library and provided opportunities to introduce children, teens, and adults to library services and programs. Lunch at the Library site staff seized these opportunities by engaging families attending the lunch service in one-on-one conversations about the library, handing out library flyers, signing families up for summer reading, and presenting activities and programs alongside the lunch service. Correspondingly, families who came for the meal service  reported having an understanding of the help and essential resources available at the library. At the end of summer 2014, 93 percent of people surveyed said they know they can find books and things to borrow at the library, 79 percent know they can find computers, 70 percent know they can find information, and 69 percent know they can find people to help them at the library.

In 2013, participating libraries reported a growth in summer reading participation at summer meal sites. At the Central Library in Fresno, summer reading participation rose nearly 19 percent from the previous year to 988 participants. Library staff said, “I believe the increase has to do with the summer lunch program and people learning about all the different services the library has to offer.” At the Los Angeles Public Library, 355 people took part in summer reading as a result of the Lunch at the Library program. Library staff said: “We signed a lot of kids up for summer reading and succeeded in helping parents see the library as a place that is multifaceted in its approach to serving families.” Sacramento Public Library’s Valley Hi-North Laguna Branch saw its summer reading program participation almost triple from the previous year, from 744 to 2110 participants. In addition, the branch experienced a 6.6 percent increase in issuance of new library cards over the previous year. The library did not hold a library card drive in 2013 and credits the meal program as the driving force for the increase. Staff said: “The summer meals program at Valley Hi-North Laguna was nothing short of transformational.”

Having a new mechanism to draw families to the library has enabled library staff to introduce previously underserved community members to library resources. Moreover, the program is bringing whole families into the library, which can be key when trying to engage children with both libraries and summer meal programs.

Librarians have also reported that the summer meal program helped resolve behavioral issues among regular library patrons by addressing the often hidden issue of hunger in the community. It is well-documented that hunger can impact attention, concentration, and behavior, and thus academic readiness. Participating librarians have observed improved behavior and attentiveness, a “sense of calm,” among children at their libraries and attributed the improvement to the lunch element.

Food Brings People (and Partners) Together

Library meal programs have also been successful in generating meaningful community partnerships for libraries and elevating the library’s profile as a key community partner when school is out. Libraries’ primary summer meal partners are the meal sponsors (such as school districts, county offices of education, food banks, and community-based agencies) that provide the meals each day and that promote the library through their own networks. In some communities, libraries and meal sponsors have also worked together on citywide summer kick-off events, and sponsors have provided staff to help operate the meal service at the library.

Participating meal sponsors have appreciated that libraries have adeptly followed the many program rules and reported that libraries were among their most well-attended sites. All of the libraries and meal sponsors that participated in the first year of Lunch at the Library extended their relationships to the following summer, and in some cases, extended their partnerships to include new projects such as providing meals to students at homework clubs, expanding to new library branches, and developing joint collaborations with other city and county agencies.

The summer meal service has also fostered other community partnerships. In Sacramento, the library partnered with Vision to Learn, an organization that provides free vision screening and eyeglasses to children in low-income neighborhoods. Vision to Learn’s mobile screening unit, which would otherwise have gone unused in the absence of school, visited the library to test kids’ eyes and distribute eyeglasses during the meal service. In Riverside, the local public utilities agency provided weekly conservation programming during the library lunch service. In San Diego County, the library partnered with the local health and human services agency to offer “Instant Recess” physical activities to keep kids moving. Firefighters and the police chief read stories to kids during the lunch service at the Contra Costa County’s San Pablo branch library. At Fresno County Public Library, the mascot from the popular minor league baseball team, the Fresno Grizzlies, took pictures with kids during the lunch service. And in many communities, partnerships with local health departments enabled libraries to offer nutrition education alongside the lunch service. Community partners were eager to work with the libraries because they too needed a vehicle to reach families and promote their services when school is out.

Partnerships in Rural Areas

Partnerships have been particularly crucial in rural areas, which face the added summertime burden of transportation issues, extreme heat, a smaller pool of organizational partners to work with, and sometimes a complete shutdown of schools, which limits both summer learning opportunities as well as summer meals. In Borrego Springs, a small town located two hours outside of San Diego, kids had very few summer options. The library partnered with the school district, the community pool, a local Boys & Girls Club, and community partners to combine resources to transport kids to different activities throughout the day, landing at the library for lunch and programming. Part of San Diego County Library system, the Borrego Springs Branch Library received meals through Feeding America San Diego, a local food bank. In addition, a food bank volunteer, impressed with the collaboration, drove weekly to the library to supply bags of produce (provided through the food bank’s produce program) for the children to bring home to their families.

Perhaps the most significant outcome of these partnerships is how they helped libraries, partners, and local leaders think more broadly about leveraging summer meal programs to help their communities work smarter and more collaboratively. After reading to children in Kern County’s Beale Memorial Library and seeing firsthand the value of the program, a county supervisor became one of the program’s biggest champions. In San Pablo, a local council member supported the program by regularly visiting the library to read to children and by helping to facilitate relationships with other agencies and leaders. From a local leader’s perspective, Lunch at the Library illustrates a best-case scenario: a city or county working together effectively to support the community.

Volunteerism Turned Youth Development Opportunity

Volunteers are essential to the success of library meal programs, and libraries’ experience and expertise in recruiting and working with volunteers has contributed to their success as summer meal sites. Volunteers have been invaluable for library staff already stretched thin with summer reading programs and activities, and regulars often provided continuity for the program throughout the summer months.

Although some adults served as volunteers (including parents who volunteered along with their teens and library staff), teens are the most commonly used volunteers, and were recruited through schools, community agencies such as Boys & Girls Clubs, library volunteer programs, library regulars, teens looking for community service hours, and teen-to-teen word of mouth. In Sacramento, the coordinating librarian said: “More teens then joined through word of mouth because of the positive environment (they came to work and hang out with their friends).”

When embarking on the Lunch at the Library project, CLA and CSMC had not anticipated the extent to which the program would impact youth in the community, yet participating libraries quickly demonstrated that summer meal programs can become meaningful youth development programs. Teen volunteers have helped to plan meal services, greet families, hand out meals, manage meal service logistics, and engage children and their families with activities. In Contra Costa County Library’s San Pablo Branch Library, teen volunteers designed their own nutrition education game to promote healthy eating and engage younger children in physical activity, in addition to helping manage the meal program. Most teen volunteers have come from the community that was being served and many are already skilled in working with younger children, thanks to having siblings of their own. Teens and young adults are indispensable assets to the program, and library staff have seen the program engage teens and spark a passion among them. In Los Angeles, library staff said: “The teen volunteers—in particular, one girl who came regularly every day—were essential. Because we had such a big group of staff working summer lunch, there were many people who only worked one day a week, and so we were constantly training and reminding them about procedures. The volunteers, because they were there every day, provided continuity and stability for the families—and often told staff what they needed to be doing.”

More than simply providing community service, teens are acquiring organization, management, communication, and teamwork skills crucial for a twenty-first century workforce. As a bonus, they are also able to eat the meals being served. In Los Angeles, the library has paid for teens to obtain food handling certificates, which will add to their employer desirability should they choose to pursue jobs in the food service industry. In Sacramento, a meal program volunteer coordinator hosted a workshop to help teens identify and articulate the skills they learned, discussed strategies for pursuing a job, and provided sample résumés and letters of recommendation. The coordinator arranged for the human resources personnel at Target and the executive vice president of a local technology company to give presentations at the volunteer appreciation lunch held at the conclusion of the summer, and library staff said: “That Lunch at the Library turned into a training ground for the teens was an unexpected bonus.”

Publicity

The relative novelty of offering food in the library has helped garner significant media attention for libraries offering summer meals, helping to raise awareness about food insecurity and summer learning loss. Previously, little attention had been paid to the issues facing low-income families when school was not in session. Media coverage has augmented library efforts to promote the service to families and provided opportunities to raise the visibility of the library and highlight library programs and resources. In Oakland, the noted children’s author Todd Parr visited the library on multiple occasions after hearing a story about the program in the local media. In Fresno, library staff said: “The promotion and publicity was great. We had a wonderful response from the media; we were highlighted in various news outlets, both in print and on TV. The media promotion helped draw people to the program and create an understanding of why we were offering a lunch program.”

Adding Programming to the Meal Service Idea

The most successful summer meal sites are those that offer programs and activities to complement the meal service, and libraries are ideally positioned to provide learning and enrichment activities before, during, and after lunch. By offering high-quality programming alongside the meal service, libraries can help to prevent summer learning loss as well as food insecurity within their low-income communities.

The wide variety of programming offered by libraries as part of the Lunch at the Library project includes storytimes, craft stations, art and writing workshops, Zumba, ping pong, nutrition education programs, and container gardening. A key theme that has emerged is the need for libraries to experiment with a range of activities to determine the type of programming that is the best fit for them, given the drop-in context, available staffing, and space. The Los Angeles Public Library has had great success with placing play kitchens in the lunch rooms, which were “ragingly popular with kids ages two to seven,” and with STEAM activity stations. The stations enabled kids to explore weight and measurement, investigate rocks with magnifying glasses, study magnets, build ramps, and predict distance and speed. Different activities were available each day and kids were given the opportunity to create experiments, make predictions, and record observations. San Diego County Library has offered a popular App Academy, enabling kids to use learning-based apps on iPads during the lunch program. Community collaborations have enabled libraries to offer a range of programming that did not require significant, if any, additional funds, and enabled them to tap into other community resources. These types of partnerships have also meant that libraries did not need to stray from their already-planned summer schedules but could add supplementary activities as needed.

It Wouldn’t Be Perfect without a Few Flaws

Even the most perfect diamond has a few flaws. The Lunch at the Library project has demonstrated that a summer meal program can be transformative for libraries in many ways. It has also exposed a range of challenges, some that could be addressed and others that require larger systematic changes.

The primary concerns reported by librarians participating in the project were related to USDA summer nutrition program regulations. Because summer nutrition programs are designed specifically to serve children and youth, there is no flexibility to also offer their adult caregivers a meal. This regulation was emotionally difficult for staff and volunteers in areas where adult food insecurity is also an issue and in an institution that prides itself on access for all. It also prevents families from eating together, a practice that can facilitate children’s healthy eating habits and is an integral part of many, if not most cultures. Some libraries worked around this issue by offering meals-for-purchase for adults or bags of produce for families to take home. Libraries without those options had clear signage specifying the regulation in an easy-to-understand way to help alleviate uncomfortable situations for patrons or library staff and volunteers.

Food quality is a concern in some libraries. In cases where menus became repetitive or food items were not well liked, libraries worked with their food partners to make improvements where possible. USDA summer meal programs operate through a reimbursement mechanism and providers must work within those funding constraints to provide food that is both healthy and appealing. Waste was a related issue. Regulations require that (with some exceptions) uneaten items must be disposed of to comply with health and safety standards. While some libraries were able to find workable solutions with their providers, such as sending fewer meals or improving quality, the issue remains one of greater significance within the food system. It is also a reminder of the unsolvable problem of finding the “right” amount of food for each individual child in a program designed to
feed many.

Some libraries have also had internal challenges to address: How would staff feel about being asked to do “one more thing” during what can be the busiest time of the year? Would library administration be supportive of the program to help ensure effective implementation? Was there really need in the community? Would this program be perceived as an effort only for the children’s librarian? How would other staff see this as part of their job, too? Not surprisingly, exposure was a key strategy to alleviating anxiety and resistance where it existed—providing staff and leadership with firsthand experience of the program enabled them to see its value, both to the community and the library. It was also helpful for all library staff to understand in advance that in many communities, the face of poverty has changed and “need” is not always overtly visible. The meal service provided many librarians with an opportunity to sit down with families and hear their stories, building a deeper relationship with the community.

Practice Makes Perfect . . .Or at Least a Good Teacher

“The project successfully linked healthy meals to summer reading and active play. [It] expanded everyone’s ideas of what happens at a library.”—Librarian

Capturing the experiences of California libraries participating in the Lunch at the Library project, and other California summer meal programs, has enabled CSMC and CLA to develop a knowledge base to help libraries become successful summer meal sites. We have developed a web-based clearinghouse that includes an overview of USDA summer nutrition programs, and information on getting started, programming and planning, working with volunteers, promotion to families, public relations, program evaluation, and troubleshooting. The site also includes a map of public library summer meal sites in the United States and a discussion list for library staff who operate, or are considering, a summer meal program at their branch. All libraries are encouraged to add their sites to the map and join the discussion list, all of which can be found at lunchatthelibrary.org.

Taking It Further in California

The last two years have provided a substantial foundation for library summer meal programs in California. However, there is  much more to learn, document, and share from libraries operating summer meal programs. Next, the California project aims to develop quality standards for summer meal-literacy programs, explore the impact of the learning activities that take place at public library summer meal sites, engage all California public library meal sites in a statewide evaluation effort, engage elected officials and city and county leaders with the project in greater depth, and explore year-round efforts to include afterschool meals.

The knowledge gained through the Lunch at the Library project has been limited to a select group of libraries in California. What were the experiences of other libraries operating summer meal programs? What are the best practices for rural communities? How important is it for a library to effectively engage in this type of effort? Many questions remain about how to implement summer meal programs that successfully meet community and library needs. And finding those answers comes from continuing to expand the effort to more libraries. The drive to further that exploration is the knowledge that there are many more communities in California and across the nation that can benefit from offering this type of service so that every child can enjoy a summer feeling nurtured, nourished, and confident, and can return to school in the fall, healthy and ready to learn.

Lunch at the Library is a program of the California Library Association and California Summer Meal Coalition. It is supported by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian.

References

1. Share Our Strength (SOS), “Summer Meals Survey,” Mar. 2013, accessed Dec. 10, 2014.
2. Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), “Hunger Doesn’t Take a Vacation: Summer Nutrition Status Report 2014,” June 2014, accessed Dec. 10, 2014.
3. Joan Luby, et al., “The Effects of Poverty on Childhood Brain Development: The Mediating Effect of Caregiving and Stressful Life Events,” JAMA Pediatrics 167, no. 12 (Dec. 2013): 1,135–142.
4. P. T. von Hippel, et al., “The Effect of School on Overweight in Childhood: Gain in Body Mass Index During the School Year and During Summer Vacation,” American Journal of Public Health 97, no. 4 (Apr. 2007): 696–702; National Summer Learning Association (NSLA), “Healthy Summers for Kids: Turning Risk into Opportunity,” May 2012, accessed Dec. 10, 2014.
5. Diana F. Jyoti, Edward A. Frongillo, and Sonya J. Jones, “Food Insecurity Affects School Children’s Academic  Performance, Weight Gain, and Social Skills,” Journal of Nutrition 135, no. 12 (Dec. 1, 2005): 2,831–839.
6. Harris Cooper, et al., “The Effects of Summer Vacation on Achievement Test Scores: A Narrative and Meta-Analytic Review,” Review of Educational Research 66, no. 3 (Fall 1996): 227–68.
7. Summer Matters, “Why Summer Matters,” accessed Dec. 22, 2014; Karl L. Alexander, Doris R. Entwisle, and Linda Steffel Olson, “Lasting Consequences of the Summer Learning Gap,”  American Sociological Review 72, no. 2 (Apr. 2007): 167–80.
8. Kathryn Zickuhr, et al., “How Americans Value Public Libraries in Their Communities,” Pew Research Center, Dec. 11, 2013, accessed Dec. 13, 2014.
9. Carolyn Miller, et al., “Parents, Children, Libraries, and Reading,” Pew Research Center, May 1, 2013, accessed Dec. 22,
   2014; Matthew Sharp and Tia Shimada, “School’s Out . . . Who Ate? A Report on Summer Nutrition in California,” California Food Policy Advocates (CFPA), June 2011, accessed Dec. 22, 2014.
10. Matthew Sharp and Tia Shimada, “School’s Out . . . Who Ate? Data Highlights,” California Food Policy Advocates (CFPA), June 2013, accessed Dec. 22, 2014.
11. FRAC, “Hunger Doesn’t Take a Vacation.”

The post Nourishing Bodies & Minds When School is Out: California’s Public Library Summer Meal Programs first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

I wrote a few months ago about the data skills that future academic librarians can develop—but what would a data librarian look like in a public library? In this post, I’d like to review a few data concepts, outline potential differences between academic and public librarians, and suggest ways that public librarians could bring data to their patrons.

Data in the Public Sphere

You’ve heard about ”big data,” which I’ll loosely define as enormous collections of raw information. Ten thousand tweets on a given day, a million clicks on a website by 35,000 people, a hundred thousand economic indicators. How would you make sense of it all? That’s big data.

Click the animation to open the full version (via Penny Stocks Lab).

And big data matters, because it’s the method through which our personal life is swept up and analyzed by marketers, law enforcement, and researchers. This analysis of groups and individuals then impacts public policy, the economy, and our chances in life. But data isn’t just a danger—it’s also an opportunity. You and I have more access to datasets (collections of data about many separate people, institutions, or events) than ever before.

America’s Chief Data Scientist defines data science as “the ability to extract knowledge and insights from large and complex datasets” (whitehouse.gov). This resonates with one of our goals as librarians: to help people extract knowledge and insight from books.

In 2013, Obama signed executive order 13642, requiring government agencies to share their data in a way people can re-use, not just in summary reports. It’s a great move: it puts data about schools, the economy, business, and the environment into citizens’ hands. It allows ambitious high school students to do original analysis, journalists to cross-check official statements, community members to run advocacy campaigns, and business owners to evaluate the strength of their market.

And because this data is “open,” it comes at no cost to the community. As Meredith Schwartz writes in Library Journal, open governmental data is big news. Agencies now have to share—but we still need public user interfaces, local workshops, and skills tutorials to make this information truly accessible.

So how can libraries help? Academic librarians are compiling public and private data sources, teaching data analysis and visualization, and sharing how to manage and archive local data. Library schools are even hiring data specialists to train the next generation of tech-savvy librarians.

But there are strategic ways for public librarians to get involved as well. Just as e-books are available online and we help community members to use e-readers, so many types of data are online—and community members will still benefit from a guide.

Case Studies of Public Libraries in the Data Sphere

This spring, the Knight Foundation awarded a major grant to the Boston Public libraries to catalog and make regional data available to the public. Additionally, it awarded another grant to the Library Freedom Project so that public libraries could train citizens how to avoid the worst in data surveillance. Libraries like the Brooklyn Public Library are beginning to use Tableau to visualize their collections and patron needs, finding that visual displays of data capture the imagination of librarians and community members. Amidst thechallenges facing public libraries in the UK, Ben Lee argues that public libraries were created to help the working classes take ownership of their lives and communities—and that training residents to find and use public data fulfills a similar mission in the modern era.

What Would a Public Data Librarian Look Like?

As AnnaLee Saxenian says,

“A data librarian has a special set of responsibilities around stewardship and curation. . . defining standards, storing data . . . and organizing data in a way that makes it more accessible. And it may be a bit of an uphill battle.” 

While we would never want to replace the responsibility of other municipal agencies to care for their own records, data librarians could help patrons access public data, and even teach some of the skills that would allow people to make better use of these new resources. Given the cachet of “big data” in popular culture, publicizing the existence of “data librarians” could reinforce the relevance of public librarians as guides in the internet age.

Data training for librarians

While academic librarians focus on finding and managing research data, public data librarians are more likely to focus on open data: opening up the world of data to the community, helping people to access public data, or hosting workshops on data skills. Here I’m thinking of things like scraping real estate data and visualizing it using infographic tools like impact.io. People don’t need a data genius as much as a data guide—and that’s what librarians are there for.

So how could we get started? I would advise starting with School of Data to learn baseline concepts, and work through the Data Journalist’s Handbook to be able to teach how to work with public data in Excel.  Online study programs like Coursera and Edx run free classes on statistics, as well as more advanced courses on data science and data analysis.

Library schools are also likely to gear up and offer continuing education certificates in this area. As Sandy Hirsh writes from SJSU:

“We need people working in areas like big data who are coming in with the perspective that you get with an MLIS degree. . . it’s very different when you develop skillsets for big data from an LIS perspective.”

I’d suggest that this is true not only for LIS students going into software and tech development, but also for those who go into their communities and teach people how to find and use data. It fits our original mission so well: to bring knowledge to the community.

The post Data Librarians in Public Libraries first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The founder of Smashwords (Mark Coker) graduated from Los Gatos High School, making it the logical choice to begin a new chapter of libraries and e-publishing joining forces. Through a variety of connections, Henry Bankhead, the current acting director of Los Gatos Library, got in touch with high school English teacher, Tonya McQuade. They worked together to create an opportunity for students to not only write their own material but also be a part of the process of getting it published.  Thanks to a grant from the Pacific Library Partnership, two mobile labs were used to create these books. Each lab included 10 iPads, 1 MacBook air, a charging station, and Microsoft Office for all of the devices. The lab components were used mostly for creating art work but also for some of the actual writing.

“Last year’s students were the first to try this, and they really enjoyed being able to see their own work published,” says McQuade. Even more, the students enjoyed being able to be part of the process of seeing the whole book come together, from learning about self-publishing from Coker and Bankhead; to choosing a title and cover design; selecting poems to include and organizing them into sections; adding artwork; marketing the book, promoting the book through social media and news campaigns; and then finally, having our book launch party at the Los Gatos Library. There, several students read their poems for an audience of parents and students, as well as explained the process used to create the book. What’s more, on the day of the launch party, our book went to number one on Amazon’s Poetry Book List! The students were also eager to help out their freshmen class by contributing the funds raised to help support upcoming class activities.”

And the positive reactions didn’t stop with the teacher. A number of students during that first year learned not only writing and editing skills, but learned how the library can be an excellent resource. Aididh Finlayson said, “I’ve always loved the library, and this made me feel like the library was really trying to support our educational endeavors.” Another student added, “I do feel more connected to the library now.”  The success of the program is best summed up by Nitin Srivivasan, a sophomore who was in Ms. McQuade’s ninth grade English class last year. “Because of this project, I have developed a greater appreciation for literature in general, and I have grown more connected the Los Gatos Public Library.”

The tangible results of this collaborative work included the poetry anthology Windows to the Teenage Soul (available on Overdrive), as well as two short story collections, Stories to Remember and Collection of Inspirational Teenage Stories, both available on Smashwords. Due to the success of this project, Bankhead and crew will be working with the next class of ninth grade English students this year.

The post Teaching Teens Self-Publishing @ the Library first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The true beauty of the initiative was the freedom for sites to design any type of Maker activity. After bouncing around several ideas at my library (Lee Memorial Library in New Jersey), we opted to hold our first annual Inventors’ Fair. This program hit on an unfilled need in our community: a science fair-like activity that would promote strategic research and experimentation, alongside important engineering skills local students may not be learning in school. Offerings from some of our neighbors included a Maker Faire; workshops with technology such as MaKey MaKey, littleBits, 3D printers, and Arduino; myriad craft sessions; and cooking lessons.

Because this was my library’s first true Maker event, the initial planning process was slightly overwhelming. Fortunately, the NJ Makers Day Committee was comprised of librarians from around the state who have already had hands-on experience with Makerspaces. Numerous planning webinars and trainings were offered in the months leading up to March 21, and participants received free literature to aid in preparation. Once we figured out the logistics of actually holding the event, reaching out to some of our dedicated volunteers helped tremendously in spreading the word. They were able to publicize the fair to various community organizations, in addition to putting us in contact with local science teachers who were willing to promote the program to their classes. Some were even willing to serve as guest judges.

Our next step was to enlist community partnerships. This turned out to be far less difficult than we thought. The first two businesses we approached, a tutoring center and children’s museum, were more than willing to jump on board. In return for putting their logos on our promotional materials and allowing them to have tables at the library on the day of the fair, they helped promote the program to their customer bases and offered free prizes to the winners. This was a great way to help both of these relatively new businesses feel more included in the community, as well as garner some potential new customers. For us, not having to spend money on prizes and accessing patrons we may not have otherwise reached was a huge boon.

NJ Makers Day was a huge success, not just in my library, but across the state as well. It brought the public new awareness of the Maker movement and how public libraries can fit into it. I am proud to say that my library was a part of it, and I look forward to running more Maker events in the future.

*Editor’s Note: The author of this article, Gretchen Kaser, was the director at the Lee Memorial Library in Allendale, NJ, at the time when this article was written. She is now the director at the Worth Pinkham Memorial Library in Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ.

Photo Credit: Lee Memorial Library, NJ

The post New Jersey Hosts First State-Wide Makers Day first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

By working with SCCLD, JukePop is able to connect the public to independently published content, one chapter at a time, and allows readers to provide feedback and ratings. As it says in the ULC award website, SCCLD and JukePop wanted to provide a new route to independent eBooks because of the cost to libraries and challenges to library patrons. This new platform cannot replace demand for comprehensive commercial eBook services, but JukePop is able to offer a twist on ebook content: self-published fiction in an easy to use and highly interactive platform.

The public can view the JukePop platform by visiting the SCCLD website. Clicking on the cover icon for each book takes you directly into the first chapter of the book, for quick reading. Each book can be tagged for content and genre. JukePop provides analytics that will help quality content be showcased, including through reader retention and reader rating. A recent browse in JukePop led me to works in a wide range of genres, including adventure, dystopian, and paranormal—content runs eclectic, but appears to be family friendly.

Some libraries might be reluctant to provide broad access to self-published fiction, or even to promote access to a new platform from the main library website. While it is understandable that libraries want to be cautious about new technologies or forms of content, SCCLD appears to benefit from working with a company that can mediate these concerns. All of the content in the platform is separate from the SCCLD catalog, and, according to their website, all comments regarding content or technical problems should be directed to JukePop.

While digital content will continue to shift with available technologies and modes of expression, libraries should consider the possibilities of providing new ways of sharing self-published and independent fiction, especially in an era that delights in serial media. SCCLD should be recognized for taking an experimental leap into providing patrons access to a new writing landscape, which may help readers—and public libraries—better support creative communities.

References

Barack, Lauren. “JukePop Opens Kickstarter to Get Indie Ebooks into Libraries” The Digital Shift. September 27, 2014.

The post Santa Clarita Library and JukePop: A New Collaboration for Independent, Self-published EBooks first appeared on Public Libraries Online.