Tag: partnerships

Blogger School-Age Programs and Service Committee

Family Hikes with the Simsbury Land Trust

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This summer, the Simsbury Public Library, CT successfully facilitated a Family Hike in partnership with the Simsbury Land Trust. Here’s how we did it, and why we think you should consider planning a family hike too.   Health and wellness programs are always a good idea and outdoor programming has exploded in popularity since the pandemic. After 2+ years, we’ve fully mastered outdoor storytimes, outdoor music and movement, and outdoor art programs, but a hiking program was something relatively new to us. Simsbury, CT has an abundance of beautiful natural places, parks, and trails, but some are more visible and well-known than others. Enter the Simsbury Land Trust. We are fortunate that the Land Trust in our community is an active and thriving organization. Founded in 1976, the Simsbury Land Trust is a federally-recognized, not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Governed by a volunteer board of trustees elected by the membership, the Simsbury…

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Blogger Amy Steinbauer

It’s a Beautiful Day in Your Neighborhood: Creating a Serviceable Service Map

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It's a Beautiful Day in Your Neighborhood

My system is rethinking, relaunching, and rediscovering what our community and neighborhoods are like right now, and how the library can fit into our local communities. It feels like the perfect time to start this work, as our neighborhoods have been pretty closed off the last couple of years to keep us safe. I warned my staff when our fiscal year started in October, that pretty much all they would hear from me this year is the word: Resetting. And that word is perfect as a launch to reset yourself in the community, and reconnect.

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Blogger Children and Technology Committee

Serving Students and Families: A Collaborative Literacy Model in Support of Student Achievement

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Much of my work as a public librarian centered on collaborating with school districts in an effort to connect with literacy and technology initiatives. This work was rewarding when we were able to center the needs of students and families, but building capacity to improve student success could also prove elusive. When I joined ALSC’s Children and Technology Committee one of my aims was to lift up stories of collaboration and achievement, so when I had the privilege of hearing about the efforts of the library and technology services staff at Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) and how they utilized their infrastructure support systems with the Nashville Public Library (NPL) during the pandemic, I knew it was a story worth sharing.

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Blogger Liza Purdy

Do What You Do Best: Advice from a Child Welfare Expert

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I’ve spent the last few months trying to educate myself on Childhood Trauma, ACES, and how to become a trauma informed library. The task is daunting! The learning curve is steep, the information is abundant and there are so many children in need of care. I was beginning to despair. Then an old friend of mine from high school (shout out to the Shaler Area Titans!), Dr. Lisa Schelbe posted her new book, The Handbook on Child Welfare Practice, on Facebook. Dr. Schelbe is an associate professor in the College of Social Work at Florida State University. Her areas of expertise are child welfare and child maltreatment prevention, among others. I knew I had a resource that could help me focus; she literally wrote the book on the subject! I reached out to Dr. Schelbe, and we had an amazing conversation about what practical steps we can take as children’s…

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Blogger Children and Technology Committee

Online Storytimes: an interview about technology and connecting

| ALSC Children and Technology committee|1 Comment

From mid-March through July 2020, the Early Learning team of the Salt Lake County Library (18 branches)–Susan Spicer, EL Team Manager, and Tami Austin, EL Senior Librarian and certified Yoga instructor–lead a team of librarians that created 97 Facebook Live Storytimes, including 12 Bedtime Stories & Songs with special guests from museums and other community organizations and 18 Yoga Storytimes. They also offered weekly interactive virtual storytimes starting in June. I had the opportunity to interview these EL programming stars and ask them about the technology they used and how they faced the challenges of suddenly going online with their ages 0 to 5 programming. Interview start TB: So, what kind of equipment and recording devices have you been using and what seems to work the best? TA: Well, I cry a lot. Does that count? TB: Yes!

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Blogger Building Partnerships committee

Building Public and School Library Partnerships During Covid-19

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Working through the Pandemic has forced all of us to reevaluate, alter, and adjust to new ways of working. With so many uncertainties, and lack of information, it has also stagnated some of the decisions in how to move forward. As many states have closed schools for the remainder of the school year, both school and public libraries need to strategize ways they can best serve displaced students. Cultivating and deepening partnerships between the two is essential, now so more than ever. As many vital teacher librarian jobs have been reduced and deprioritized in systems all across the country over the last few years, public library staff need to recognize the vulnerable positions that teacher librarians are in, and the potential of one’s teacher librarian job outsourced is upsetting. Public libraries need to find ways to support school libraries and staff, and to share resources, so that we can all…

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Blogger Building Partnerships committee

Library Partnerships in a Time of Crisis

| ALSC Building Partnerships|1 Comment

Every month the ALSC Building Partnerships committee is responsible for writing a blog post, normally it highlights a successful program or event that was made possible through a partnership with an outside organization. In light of recent COVID-19 related events, in which many of the libraries across the country have been forced to cancel programs and close our doors to the public for the foreseeable future, I thought it might be timely to follow up on Cecilia McGowan’s earlier post about how we are responding in our communities— specifically as it relates to some of our partner organizations and institutions.  As youth librarians, our most important partners are our schools and educators— which these days also includes many parents who have been thrown into homeschooling for the first time. In my library system, our youth services staff have already been busily trying to figure out ways that we can help…

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Blogger Building Partnerships committee

A Partnership Every Kid Can Rely On: Schools and Public Libraries!

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It’s been a tough time to be a school-aged kid. School libraries are losing their librarians at an astounding rate, and schools with libraries don’t always have the time to utilize their resources. Public librarians can support kids and school libraries by stepping in to help: class visits and outreach into the schools lets kids and teachers know we are here and available, and by working with teachers and school librarians, we can offer kids an expanded selection of books and topics. A lot of time is spent trying to find the right person to talk to in each school. If the school doesn’t have a dedicated librarian, look for other partners. Some schools have a community coordinator or a parent coordinator to work on relationships between the community at large and the school community. Some schools have class trip organizers for each grade. Once you find a person or…

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