Attending the American Library Association’s Annual conference is always refreshing and inspiring. I get new ideas and meet new people as well as visit with friends and colleagues from across the country. After getting back home, I always make sure to take some time to reflect on the panels and presentations I was able to attend. This past June, I was honored to take part in a panel sponsored by the Library Instruction Roundtable (LIRT) for the President’s Program. I honestly did not know much about the LIRT before I joined this panel and had assumed that it was mainly for academic librarians. But, the mission of the LIRT is to “empower…librarians, from all types of libraries, to become better teachers through sharing best practices, leadership and professional development, and networking.”
On Saturday, June 28 at Annual, Brad Sietz and Alicia Vaandering, co-chairs of the LIRT Conference Program Committee moderated “Collaboration in Instruction with Other Types of Libraries.” This session brought academic, school, and public librarians together to discuss partnerships between libraries because, as the session description noted, “libraries of all types are facing increasing demands on their resources and requests to handle areas that may be outside their staff’s area of expertise, all while also being asked to ‘do more with less.’”
Academic librarian Morgan Brickey-Jones, Director of Community Outreach from the University of Texas at Arlington, started the panel off with a discussion of the institution’s partnership with the public library of Arlington. Brickey-Jones also focused on how to build and maintain partnerships, recommending that before a library starts a partnership, it is important to check for alignment with your institution’s strategic goals; check for budgetary, space, and staff capacity constraints; and check for demonstrated need and interest. These are quick tips that work for any type of library looking to start a partnership. Brickey-Jones also discussed steps to take during the program and after the partnership program. For example, it is important to observe the audience while the partnership event is taking place and to then talk with staff and take reflective notes after the project is complete.
Next, M’issa Fleming, Youth Outreach Librarian for the New Orleans Public Library and Matt Hassebrock, the Librarian for the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts (NOCCA), shared information about their partnership between a high school library and public library with the goal of fostering lifelong library users. The libraries began their partnership journey through a library card sign-up drive, and the partnership has grown into a series of presentations by the public library for students about library resources for research. The public library also shares SORA, Overdrive’s program that provides ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, and graphic novels, with the school students.
I then had the opportunity to share about my partnerships with the New Orleans Public Library and with the Jefferson Parish Public Library. My school’s partnership with the public library started similarly with a library card sign-up drive. We are now partnering for our second year for our summer community engagement project, Books from the Heart. This is a four-day program during which students entering third and fourth grade learn about the importance of access to books and information. They spend the first day visiting bookstores (a local, independent bookstore, a chain bookstore, and the Community Book Center, the oldest black-owned bookstore in New Orleans). On the second day, they visit two branches of public libraries to learn about the different kinds of information and resources available to the community. I was excited to share that this year, we are also partnering with the Xavier University Archives for students to learn about the preservation of information and access to records.
All of the panelists stressed the importance of meeting the needs and goals of both partners. At the end of the panel, one of the questions posed was about how to start a partnership and find partners. All of the panelists provided good advice about reaching out via email or just making a phone call to reach out and start the partnership. Offer to go to lunch or coffee with a colleague! Sometimes, partnerships form by simply making connections and being in the right place at the right time…
About a month before our panel at Annual, I realized that two of the three presentations for the LIRT panel featured the New Orleans Public Library! While I had attended a virtual conference with Matt, another school librarian in New Orleans, I had to travel to Philadelphia to meet him in person! At the end of the presentation, Matt and I looked at each other and asked why our schools had not partnered before?! We immediately started talking about potential partnership opportunities that we hope to explore this year. For example, my third grade students put on a Women of Character play each spring, so some of Matt’s theatre students might work with my students to share theatre warm ups, character research, and best practices.
And a partnership has begun…!
If you are looking for more information about starting or fostering a partnership between a school library and a public library, check out ALSC’s Public Library and School Library Collaboration Toolkit!
TAGS: #library #librarian #partnership #community #LIRT #public #school #academic
This post addresses ALSC competencies 5.6 Communicates and collaborates in partnership with other agencies, institutions, and organizations serving children in the community to achieve common goals and overcome barriers created by socioeconomic circumstances, race, culture, privilege, language, gender, ability, religion, immigration status, commercialism, and other diversities; 3.1 Designs, promotes, presents, and evaluates a variety of diverse programs for children, with consideration of equity, diversity, and inclusion; principles of child development; and the needs, interests, and goals of all children, their caregivers, and educators in the community; and 3.9 Delivers programs outside or inside the library, as well as digitally, to meet users where they are, addressing community and educational needs, including those of unserved and underserved populations.
Soline Holmes, Preschool/Lower School Librarian and Information Services Department Chair at Academy of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans, is writing this post on behalf of ALSC’s Public Awareness and Advocacy Committee. She can be reached at solineholmes@gmail.com.