Libraries Foster Community Engagement

Membership Initiative Group

2015 ALA Midwinter Conference – Chicago, IL

Sunday, February 1, 2015, 8:30 - 10:00 am, McCormick PL West W195

Agenda and Notes from Meeting

AGENDA

  1. Kettering Ecology of Democracy Book Discussion Groups
  2. Naming and Framing Webinars
  3. NIFI/American Commonwealth Partnership: The Changing World of Work -- What Should We Ask of Higher Education
  4. Harwood Institute,/ALA Partnership Community of Practice—Come share your interests/experiences in community engagement
  5. Community/Civic Engagement Activities Around the Country

(Send Other Suggestions to Nancy Kranich)

Join Us. Bring Your Colleagues

Related Meetings of Interest

  • SATURDAY, JANUARY31 - 8:30am-10:00amTurning Outward to Lead Change in Your Community: AspirationsMCC PL W178
  • SATURDAY, JANUARY 31 - 10:30am-12:00pmTurning Outward to Lead Change in Your Community: Turn Quiz MCC PL W178
  • SATURDAY, JANUARY 31 - 1:00pm-2:30pm Turning Outward to Lead Change in Your Community: IntentionalityMCC PL W178
  • SATURDAY, JANUARY 31 - 3:00pm-4:30pm Turning Outward to Lead Change in Your Community: Sustaining Yourself MCC PL W178
  • SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 1– 1:00pm – 2:30pmA Conversation on Equity, Diversity, and InclusionMCC PL W375c/Skyline—Location Change!
  • SATURDAY, JANUARY 31 – 5pm – 6pm Libraries Fostering Community Engagement reception, HRM – Hyde Park/CC 11A
  • Saturday, Sunday, Monday, 8:30 am, 10:30 am; 1:00 pm; 3:00 pmKitchen Table Community Conversations,HRM Boardroom 1 (1½ hour conversations). Click on to facilitate, record, and/or join the conversations.

Follow the ALACenter for Civic Life

Blog:

Libraries Foster Community Engagement ALA Connect:

Subscribe to ALA's CivicEngagement listserv:

Learn to convene and moderate forums at:

Round Robin Reports from the Field

Carolyn Caywood, VA Beach PL, Not in our town dialogue, one book—Fahrenheit 51; developing dialogue around sea level rise.

Shelly Harrick, Red Hook, NY PL, cohort member.

Brett Kowalcheck, Deputy Mayor, Red Hook, NY. Seeing some action, traffic light, ASK exercise. Pedestrian safety, pedestrian friendly historically sensitive community. Bad lights that cause people to drive into neighborhoods. Aspiration exercise brought community orgs outside themselves and started working on common concerns.

Erica Freudenberger, Red Hook Public Library, Harwood LTC cohort member.Conversations got us a crosswalk, facilitate and make things happen and lift up community.

Cheryl Gorman, VP Harwood Institute

Amber Williams, Spokane PL, a cohort library. Huge organizational shift in view and how interacting in community. Not how we are awesome, but what awesome things we can do

Eillen Lupert, Spokane County District, programming looking different. Certified navigators to sign people up for health care. Signed up 600+ people for health insurance.

Carlton Sears, Harwood, coach. Former director of Youngstown-Mahoning County, OH, Public Library where he used Harwood approach, which remains in use with new director.

Monina Hall, VA Tech, better partner with service learning community on campus. Into curriculum in classroom, all Greek life required to do service and sororities, arts community, public library collaborative

Sarah Ostrom, PPO, programming librarian editor.

Amy Paggett, Tippecanoe PL, Lafayette, IN. Came out of building common ground project, conversation circles, with some facilitation from library,

Crosby Kemper, Kansas City PL, Alvin Sykes, funding from community foundation and Harry Potter Alliance, civil rights case, sending Alvin on road, working with Alan Katz, group called the Village Square, brings people together from all sides, civility with Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, Kevin Yoder (tea party member); immigration conversation coming up, work with citizens association, immigration initiative, working with LaRaza, urban education-what works? Google fiber city—library leader looking at digital inclusion. Community learning centers coming out of this—library, computer training, and access through neighborhoods. 70% of kids don’t have home connection; 40% of kids have at least 2 addresses during school year. Deal with in library-focused way. Reading is the fundamental skill—community of readers program; ULC and Kaufman Foundation—importance of academic success is number of books in home.

Alan Kleiman-Keen interest is engaging older adults; train around country; as director of medium sized public library, come back with new ideas. Change of mayor, interested in more transparency. Opportunity for library involvement. In white middle class town, all nice, but not interacting with government.

Richard Frieder—Harford PL, Community Engagement Director, part of cohort, having great experience. Learning a lot. Learning about turning outward. All involvements are partnerships. The People’s budget, public participation process in annual budget process; doing every year now. Mayor has really bought into it. Work with Hartford 2000, coalition, break into small groups and they’re supposed to decide on budget. Engaged Public—company that uses online simulation tool. Want to make Hartford showcase. Participatory budgeting project in NYC. Important public programs: minor league baseball stadium—controversial, development proposal now for downtown north. Sponsored first public meeting, in collaboration with a coalition of neighborhood organizations and the city. Community violence—strategic results oriented approach. Moving towards community dialogue on issues. Public choose issues most concerned with and form action teams. Longevity project—violence among youth to move forward. Youth forum. Hartford Votes—formed coalition, doing forums; committed to increasing voter engagement. Do community dialogue from Everyday Democracy, incorporating Harwood tools. Mental Health dialogue, creating community solutions.org. Learned with action teams that you must nurture them. Some need lot of help, and others not. Education dialogue led to time bank, like bartering—exchange of services. Focused one education dialogue on one neighborhood. How action going to happen? Partners can make action happen, library facilitates. How to bring immigrants and non-immigrants together. Kansas City follows immigration model. Hartford Public Library

Michele Bradley, Midwest Collaborative for Library Services, doing community conversation using Harwood tools. 3 staff went to public innovators lab. Started as way to get in closer touch with members. Get a better sense of what they needed our organization to be. Librarians love and hate webinars. Found ways to get librarians within regions to come together for continuing ed. School librarians down 60%, resulting problems with information literacy and critical thinking—whole library community within Michigan responding. Librarians unsure how to get started. Applied for grant from IMLS to do cohort similar to Gates project. Looking for funder in Indiana.

Ed Remus, Adult programs at Chicago Public Library, want to learn more about this work. Modern lives and movements series. Range of topics. One off debates. Health care reform and minimum wage. Having 3 sides of position.

Richard Kong, Deputy director of Skokie PL, went through Harwood training. Have entire department focused on community engagement. Good response from wide variety of community members. Innovation space tool to work through staff related issues on what happening with realignment. Innovation spaces with 14 or 15 people each. Give staff at least one hour per month to get together to talk about what learning.

Sarah Lawton, Neighborhood supervisor, Madison, WI, Public Library. Working with community and government groups on racial equity issues. Finding positive solutions to problems we’re facing. Developed survey tool on racial equity issues. Need more librarians in conversation.

Pat Wand, chair of BARC. Watching movement with interest.

Marsha Iverson, PR Specialist, King County PL, new director, Gary Wasdon,

MaryAnn Van Cura, in Minneapolis State Library. Care deeply about digital inclusion and equity. Twin Cities have active effort. Engaging people with government information.

Nancy Kranich, Rutgers University Libraries, Using Harwood tools to engage the campus community, focusing on Undergraduates, Graduate Students, and International Students (so far). Has helped them restructure, change job descriptions, engage more actively with various communities, develop new partnerships

Aspirations for Community of Practice

Brainstorming Session to Discuss Future Directions for Community Engagement MIG/Community of Practice

Vibrant, online, practical discussion

  • How to’s
  • Story sharing
  • Specific stories—library engagement that leads to real change/insights for the profession
  • Topic-based (e.g. participatory budgeting)

National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation (NCDD)-style exchange of ideas through listservs and/or social media

Forum to brainstorm—across library types

Idea bank:

  • Help us to articulate what engagement is
  • Scrapbook of achievements/experiences
  • Proof point for library executives

Turnaround techniques for difficult situations—identify positive responses (e.g. democracy)

  • Quick Response Team
  • How can wisdom and resources of this group be brought to bear in these tough issues (e.g. Ferguson)
  • Resolution of intense situations

Share wisdom in the room out to the library field—build together

Create structure to mobilize action

  • Practical ways to engage
  • Connect new people with work
  • Topical, process
  • Mentoring

Share how to make time for community engagement—good starting point

Involve community

  • Let go of library—instead of communicate my value, be of value to community

Bank of useful documents

  • E.g. Job descriptions
  • Draft policies for doing community engagement programs
  • Civic engagement continuum—easy entry points
  • Colorful tool kit

How to disseminate

  • Conference stream
  • Short tips/tools/etc.

Move this from choice to part of our work

+Why we exist, what is our mission, what are the aspirations of our community?

Operationalize

Big Aspirations

Find place for discussion, samples, proof points and cases

Brainstorm opportunities, work together and share what’s working.

Place to collaborate on work about role of libraries in the community

Sustainability post- LTC grant

Identify and strengthen key partnerships for ALA and among librarians

Follow up actions:

  • Conference call
  • Meet at conferences
  • Create agenda for action

Prepared by Nancy Kranich with flip charts produced by Cheryl Gorman

-1-