PLA Board of Directors
Annual Conference 2017
2017.96
TO: PLA Board of Directors
RE: Legacy Update
DATE: June 8, 2017
ACTION REQUESTED/INFORMATION/REPORT:
Report/Discussion
ACTION REQUESTED BY:
Barb Macikas
DRAFT OF MOTION:
BACKGROUND
This report provides the board with an update on the work PLA has undertaken as part of the legacy grant.
Overview
The legacy grant provides PLA with significant opportunity to be deliberate and strategic about expanding and strengthening existing initiatives. More importantly, it is allows us to consider a range of new endeavors and ways of thinking and working that will help public libraries nationally and internationally become even more vital, successful contributors to their communities.
The goals of the grant align closely with PLA’s strategic plan. We aim to achieve these five interconnected results in collaboration with our legacy partners TASCHA and IFLA, the larger network of library support organizations and external organizations and stakeholders:
· Performance and outcome measurement become standard practice
· Community-aligned service development and advocacy become essential leadership attributes
· Innovation accelerates and impactful practices are iterated and scaled more quickly
· Working collaboratively through networks becomes standard practice
· PLA’s evolution creates a progressive organization that models outcome-based leadership, critical self-assessment, and deep member engagement
Current work related to each of the five result areas is shared below. Note that several of these initiatives (Project Outcome, leadership, professional development) are covered more in-depth in other 2017 board documents.
Performance and outcome measurement become standard practice
1. There is deeper understanding of the importance of outcome measurement and more field engagement as a result of Project Outcome. PO regional trainings and the new portal are reaching even more practitioners. As the initial PO grant winds down, PLA is integrating PO into more aspects of our work (e.g., PLDS) and developing sustainable models, including (longer-term) potential for an international audience.
2. The Legacy Partners (LP) data lead group has been working hard to address global, field-wide issues related to both the lack of data showing impact and benefits of libraries as well as tapping into opportunities that exist for leveraging new methods of integration and analysis of data that could lead to innovations in design, delivery, integration, and scaling of library programs and services to drive community development. LP’s have identified six action areas:
a. Identifying, developing, and sharing data tools, policies, & technologies informed by best practices and innovative models
b. Developing common measurements to demonstrate library impact and align them wherever possible
c. Providing training on analysis and use of data
d. Leveraging data for advocacy
e. Engaging with partners inside and outside the library field
f. Changing the way the field and partners think about capturing impact for advocacy purposes
3. Related, PLA, COSLA, TASCHA, and several LSO’s are participating in the IMLS-funded “Measures That Matter” project.
4. A key grant deliverable, the collaborative LP project “Library Map of the World” is well underway and will launch at the IFLA Conference in August. PLA contributed to the planning effort, reviewing the basic metrics to be collected. The map will serve as an important data and advocacy tool that will promote the map to the US library community.
5. PLA continues to work with IFLA and TASCHA in support of the Development and Access to Information (DA2I) program as well as beginning to make the US library community aware of the global library effort around the United Nations 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals.
Community-aligned service development and advocacy become essential leadership attributes
1. The PLA leadership academy and curriculum model continue to evolve to best meet the field’s needs. Using evaluation results from the first three IMLS-supported academies as well as the work of the PLA Leadership Development Committee and results from the December Ideas Exchange: Leadership, PLA continues to iterate on new and best ways of developing leadership capacity and creating pathways for library staff at all levels to gain needed skills. To accelerate and expand opportunities, the fourth academy and the first funded by legacy grant funds will be held in Chicago in December.
2. Working with OCLC and ALA, PLA will use legacy funds for a survey of the public (voters) that generally replicates the 2008 OCLC From Awareness to Funding report. ALA and OCLC are also contributing dollars and staff time. The new survey results should be available in January 2018. PLA board members and other stakeholders have indicated the 2008 survey was very valuable. New results will be used to support advocacy and leadership training and will be shared widely with the field and stakeholders.
3. Legacy funding will allow PLA to host an invitational policy-leadership summit ahead of the 2018 PLA conference. Details to follow.
4. Working with ALA OITP, ALA President-elect Jim Neal, ACRL, AASL and others, PLA will use legacy funding to support an effort to create a National Public Policy Advocacy Program. Librarians participating in this program would develop sufficient knowledge and ability to advocate in substantive policy areas (e.g., copyright, broadband, intellectual freedom, privacy, future direction of libraries) and developing political savvy in the ways of how Washington insiders and other stakeholders operate.
Innovation accelerates and impactful practices are iterated and scaled more quickly
1. PLA’s most recent membership survey indicated civic engagement is a very important library service and members look to PLA for support of this ever-more critical community service. The legacy partners also want to expand our partnership role in this area. TASCHA recently held a convening of practitioners, LSO’s, and external organizations focused on civic engagement. ALA’s Public Programs Office exists to support community engagement and programming. PPO provides training for libraries on community leadership techniques like coalition-building and dialogue facilitation and is evaluating a variety of techniques in an effort to provide libraries with the best options. PLA has collaborated with PPO often in the past and through legacy, has the opportunity to build on and accelerate PPO’s work by contributing to the evaluation component of their work. PLA will continue discussions with PPO and the LP’s on collaborations related to civic engagement.
2. The ALA Emerging Leaders program is an example of a tested and successful model of member engagement. This long standing program revived by ALA President Leslie Burger (ALA President 2006-2007) gives librarians with fewer than five years working in the profession the opportunity to learn about and network within ALA, participate in project-planning groups, and serve the profession in a leadership capacity early in their careers. PLA has supported the program since its inception through sponsorships, as well as working with EL teams on PLA-designed projects. PLA has found that EL’s do become more engaged and create a stronger network for the association and field. PLA is in discussion with ALA to use legacy funds to help ALA evaluate and strengthen the program, with an eye toward replication at the PLA level.
3. The legacy grant supports PLA tomove priority research and innovation findings through a process of business planning, production, implementation, and sustainability as new or revised products. To that end, and benefiting from the convergence of an emerging PLA program and the release of some Phase 1 legacy funds to use at PLA's discretion, PLA will invest legacy grant funds in its family engagement work in 2017-2018, to accelerate moving this promising, evidence-based initiative into field adoption.
Working collaboratively through networks becomes standard practice
1. PLA is developing a partnership map of library support organizations so LSO’s can collaborate and provide stronger support to libraries. The map will be a foundational tool for a community of practice among library support organizations, making future collaboration easier and more fruitful. Most of the LSO’s we have reached out to have responded and PLA will be meeting with several of them at this conference to refine results.
2. PLA is expanding efforts at the national level to be more strategic and coordinated in our efforts to reach out to federal agencies, associations and others whose work or focus intersects with public libraries. Increased staffing, especially shared OITP/PLA staffing, continues to provide new connections, ideas and an external focus.
3. PLA member leaders and staff have new opportunities to participate in global library meetings including but not limited to IFLA. These help create new connections that may lead to stronger networks.
4. Additional funding from Global Libraries has allowed PLA to develop stronger connections with libraries across the globe, particularly in Africa. Through participation in AfLIA and shared work related to leadership capacity building in Africa, PLA can increase sharing to/from the US and the world. The AfLIA leadership model has potential for other countries as well.
5. PLA staff participated in the launch of IFLA’s Global Vision Workshop, as well as the North America workshop that followed a few weeks later.
PLA’s evolution creates a progressive organization
1. To inform PLA’s overall strategic planning, we have contracted with a consultant to develop a “PLA Learning Needs” theory of change that will align PLA’s professional development (PD) investments with the field’s priorities. This work will result in frameworks and pathways PLA can use across our PD work.
2. There is potential for sharing the theorgy of change and PD model with other LSO’s to help build alignment across organizations and increase impact. PLA is reviewing options for hosting a convening of LSO’s to share the model developed and get input and buy-in from our network.
3. PLA is using grant funding to support the ALA Development Office in an audit that will help PLA fundraise and sustain legacy outcomes. PLA has led the effort with ALA DO, and other units of ALA have contributed time and dollars to the effort.
4. Operationally related to our legacy partnership, legacy partners have created a communication group to coordinate messaging related to new legacy initiatives to the field. Communication talking points for PLA have been developed and posted to the PLA website, as well as being used in presentations about our work.
5. Grant funds have allowed us to hire a communication manager, giving us more capacity to focus on messaging to the field and external stakeholders. Over the next few months, we will be hiring a program coordinator to support all the new work, as well as a manager to focus on member engagement.
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