Our first cohort of staff members participating in the Skills for Community-Centered Libraries training recently learned about and explored team roles and dynamics. Staff reflected on their own strengths and what attributes they bring to a team. Are they great at keeping everything running smoothly? Do they enjoy providing in-depth knowledge?Â
The Skills for Community-Centered Libraries initiative — a series of trainings meant to build community engagement capacities among staff — launched on Oct. 2, so it’s a good time for the Free Library of Philadelphia’s community organizing team to share what exactly we mean by community engagement. A common definition is a baseline for discussion at workshops and a way to push people’s thinking.
The Aspen Institute’s influential report “Rising to the Challenge: Re-Envisioning Public Libraries” predicts that in the coming years, the most successful public libraries will be the ones with services that prioritize and support local community goals.
On April 13, the Berkshire Athenaeum hosted a Speed Repping program. What is Speed Repping? Much like speed dating, Speed Repping provides community members a few minutes to sit down with their representatives in a one-on-one setting and ask them questions about who they are, what they do, or just voice concerns.
The Memphis Public Library ran a similar program in 2017. Through this program, city representatives engaged thoughtfully with the people they serve in a relaxed atmosphere.Â
Located in the heart of California’s San Joaquin Valley, the Fresno County Public Library (FCPL) serves nearly 1 million county residents at its Central Library and 34 branches.
The American Library Association (ALA) and The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation announce a three-day training opportunity to help libraries strengthen their role as agents of positive change in their communities.
Conversation Cafés are great for helping community members learn more about themselves, their community or an issue, and the process is easily adaptable and requires minimal resources.
This webinar will emphasize how to organize and facilitate these cafés, shifting from small talk to big talk in conversations that matter. Learn more about the Conversation Café process.
The Future Search process enables large, diverse groups to validate a common mission, take responsibility for action, and develop commitment to implementation through concrete action plans. Libraries will gain an understanding of how Future Search can be used in their internal and community engagement efforts. Learn more about Future Search.
Participants in this session will:
Using NCDD’s Engagement Streams Framework and a variety of dialogue resources, participants will learn about the steps for designing successful dialogues that best fit their circumstances and resources. They will also gain an understanding of approaches to dialogue that can help them achieve their goals.
Librarians have always been seen as great sources for information. So when the quarterly community newspaper of Weare, a small New Hampshire town 70 miles outside Boston, closed in 2016, the residents looked to Weare Public Library Director Mike Sullivan for a solution.Â
Yukon Public Libraries is big on geek culture. We collect comics, graphic novels, role-playing game rule books, anime, medieval cookbooks and costuming manuals, and we host a popular weekly role-playing game (RPG) drop-in program for teens. So naturally we saw a place for ourselves at YukomiCon, the biannual celebration of geek culture organized by the Yukon Comic Culture Society.Â
Update 1/9/18: This workshop is now open to library professionals from all library types! Space is limited; please register early. The workshop will include breakout sessions for academic and non-academic libraries. Questions? Contact ALA's Public Programs Office at publicprograms@ala.org.
In this 90-minute webinar — the third in a three-part series exploring dialogue and deliberation approaches for academic libraries — participants will learn:
In this webinar, the program's creators will explore the 18-month development process, delivery and follow-up of the Truth & Reconciliation in Our Community event.
Participants in this session will learn:
The Longest Table, the first of its kind in Maryland, brought together a diverse group of more than 300 guests to share a meal and engage in meaningful conversation about their community. This program was part of Choose Civility, an ongoing community-wide initiative, led by Howard County Library System, to position Howard County as a model of civility. The initiative's mission values diversity and chooses respect, compassion, empathy and inclusiveness as essential to quality of life.
In this 90-minute webinar — the second in a three-part series exploring dialogue and deliberation techniques useful for academic libraries — participants will:
Public libraries that serve small and/or rural communities are invited to apply for a travel stipend to attend a one-day dialogue and deliberation pre-conference workshop at the 2018 American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in New Orleans.
Café LOUIE gives Louisville residents the opportunity to meet with state and local elected officials at their local library branches.
Constituents, legislators and council members gather in each branch for a casual forum and moderated question-and-answer session.
Truth & Reconciliation in Our Community brought together numerous community members to speak their truths around the historical and current treatment of Canada’s Indigenous Peoples, specifically the Nation on whose territory the town of Smithers stands, with a view to moving forward together as a community.
ALA's Public Programs Office, the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) and the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD) invite academic library professionals to attend a free learning series that teaches several dialogue facilitation approaches and helps librarians position themselves to foster conversation and lead change on their campuses and beyond.
