It's a fact of life: whenever people get together to talk in a group, people are bound to monopolize the conversation ... or speak over one another ... or otherwise act in ways that are less than productive to your goals.
Ground rules, sometimes called group agreements, are a list of terms that participants agree to follow—and the facilitator agrees to uphold—during a conversation.
LTC: Focus on Small and Rural Libraries is open to libraries in the U.S. and U.S. territories that serve small or rural communities.
ALA is again accepting applications for Libraries Transforming Communities (LTC): Focus on Small and Rural Libraries, a grant initiative that will distribute nearly $2 million to libraries.
ALA invites library workers to apply for the Libraries Transform Communities Engagement Grant, an annual grant supporting innovative and meaningful community engagement efforts in libraries.
Applications will be accepted between Dec. 1, 2020, and Feb. 5, 2021. View the full award guidelines and apply online at www.ala.org/LTCEG.
LTC: Focus on Small and Rural Libraries is open to libraries in the U.S. and U.S. territories that serve small or rural communities.
Over the past six months or so, library workers have bravely plowed into the world of virtual programming. Along the way, you’ve probably picked up more skills than you even realize. (Remember those awkward early attempts at leading a Zoom meeting or recording a story time with your phone?)
ALA has announced plans to award nearly $2 million to small and rural libraries in 2020 and 2021 to help them address issues of concern in their communities.Â
Blog post author Lynn Williamson is the chief of the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Neighborhood Library Services Division, the project manager of Skills for Community-Centered Libraries and a participant in Cohort 6 of the trainings. Read more about the Skills for Community-Centered Libraries project at theirÂ
ALA has announced a professional development opportunity — including funding to attend an in-person workshop at the 2020 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago — to help small and rural library workers develop the communication skills they need to thrive in the 21st-century library.
Claire L. Hand is an adult/teen librarian at the Free Library of Philadelphia's Wynnefield Library and a participant in Cohort 2 of the Skills for Community-Centered Libraries trainings.
Denver Public Library has undertaken wide-ranging community engagement efforts, reaching out to the greater Denver community to discover its aspirations, concerns and needs. The library uses this information to guide its strategic work and to be responsive to the needs of its communities and customers.
Here, Erika R. Martinez, the library's director of communications and community engagement, shares how Denver Public learned about, and worked to overcome, their customers' feelings of disconnect in a fast-changing city.
In 2016, Sacramento Public Library Deputy Director Kathy Middleton took part in a three-day workshop with The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation, a nonprofit organization that helps people and organizations solve pressing problems and change how communities work together.
Middleton hoped to use the Harwood Institute’s approach, called “Turning Outward,” to learn how the library could better serve people with disabilities. Here, she shares how what she learned in the workshop led to concrete changes at her library.
Joe Shemtov is a special collections coordinator and primary source specialist and a participant in Cohort 1 of the Skills for Community-Centered Libraries trainings.Â
A brief look at the history of New York City’s Lower East Side (LES) reveals that this little patch of land has always been an area ripe for intense debate. The portrayal of the neighborhood in books, film and other media is constant — the romance, horrors and bitter struggles. The LES is a place of rare historical significance, a community that has inspired generations of activists, radicals, advocates and new Americans to envision a better future.
The Upper West Side of Manhattan has been one of New York’s most recognizable neighborhoods, featured in dozens of films and television shows; our cultural landmarks run the gamut from Lincoln Center to Zabar’s food emporium. However, visitors and even residents of the Upper West Side might not be aware that the neighborhood has a rich activist history.Â
“We are the leaders we have been waiting for." -Grace Lee Boggs, philosopher and activist
The Free Library of Philadelphia is full of leaders, and so are the neighborhoods in which we are located. To foster collaboration with community members and organizations, we are building staff capacity in two ways:
The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a system of four research libraries and 88 circulating branch libraries that serves the Bronx, Manhattan and Staten Island. The library’s Adult Programming and Outreach Services office works with staff across the circulating branch system to provide centralized resources that support the diverse needs of patrons from all walks of life.
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.
ALA, the Public Library Association (PLA) and the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD) invite public library staff serving small, mid-sized or rural communities to attend a free learning series on how to lead productive conversations.
