MLA 2018 - Creating and Managing a Human Library

My favorite workshop this year at MLA/DLA 2018 was the one on Human Libraries  “Creating and Managing a Human Library”   sponsored by ACRL-MD and aims to help libraries develop a design or plan for a human library of their own.

One of the hand-outs was A Baltimore Sun article which stated “ ‘Living books’ that can be ‘checked out’ by area residents with a goal of dispelling stereotypes is the basis for a worldwide initiative that will make its debut in Howard County on March 11.”  It was a very practical, informative session with colleagues presenting programs they offered and tips for offering a Human Library program.

Laksamee Putnam of Towson University and Ali Jessing of Howard County Public Library, along with other colleagues shared their experiences starting and offering this program twice each.

Alan Simpson of Howard County was the one who initiated the program there, which was the first public library in Maryland to offer it.  Robert Wetheral, State Dates and eBook Coordinator for the State of Delaware talked about how to get buy-in to start a program.

One of the most valuable pieces of information was a Human Library Toolkit with specifics that could be adapted or used as-is for other libraries. This saves “re-inventing the wheel” in several areas of planning and implementation.  It includes the categories:

 Book Recruitment Resources

 Event Management Resources

 Supplemental Resources

Examples are offered for Recruiting/Marketing, to interviewing and training Human Books, to event preparation lists and  google forms, sample letters to invitees and participants, outlines, and more.

Human Library Toolkit:

www.bit.ly/HumanLibraryToolkit

Human Library would be a good program to offer at multiple branches at Enoch Pratt and have multi-branch marketing.  We’ve done programs at multiple branches and marketed them as a series or wider program, such as Art at the Pratt (including Peabody musicians), films (at several branches) yoga etc.

In the Enoch Pratt Strategic Plan the vision of the library is “The catalyst empowering people and communities.”   Borrowing a Human Book goes along way toward fulfilling this vision.

Jeanne Lauber
Business, Science, & Technology

MLA 2018 - Table Top Gaming in Your Library

For Jacob Hutton, Harford County Public Library, tabletop gaming is a fun and educational way of getting people from various backgrounds to play together. There are tabletop games for every style and every age. The three major categories that work best in the library are: trading cards,t role playing, and board games.

I focused my attention on board games which are numerous and diverse. On the one hand, there are many advantages in bringing board games into the library. The many genres make it fairly easy to find a few that will appeal to our specific users. In addition, they are a relatively low-cost investment. Once you purchase the game, you do not need to buy anything else. More importantly, players are all starting with a similar amount of resources and potential.

On the other hand, even the best board games become stale after playing them for a while. There are lots of potential pieces that can get lost, and they only allow a limited number of participants.

When choosing a game, Jacob’s advice is to keep in mind your target audience (children, teens, or adults, beginners, intermediate or advanced players), and the number of participants. If your audience is made of children and families, it is best to choose simpler games with familiar themes that will last no more than 15-20 minutes.

I noted a few of the presenter’s advice in order to run a successful program:

During the selection phase, ask your customers what kind of games they like, try the games yourself, learn the rules, and go to local stores to get recommendations. Often, they will give out games they cannot sell anymore.

During the program, have one adult in charge for each board game.

Be one of the players. It builds a bond between the players and you.

Try only one type of game at a time (i.e., only trading card games, or only board games), but have both a beginner board game and an intermediate in order to adjust to your audience’s skills.

Have a clear beginning and end time of the gaming session.

For game recommendations, reviews, and additional information, explore the following sites, all recommended by Jacob Hutton:

Exhaustive listing of children’s board games with descriptions and reviews: https://boardgamegeek.com/childrensgames/browse/boardgame

Role playing games, specifically written for young children: http://www.playgroundadventures.net/

Dragon Talk- Official Dungeons & Dragons Podcast by Wizards of the Coast:
http://dnd.wizards.com/dragon-talk/podcast-hub

http://games.ala.org/international-games-week/

Sylvie Merlier-Rowen
Children's Department. CEN

ALSC conference funding deadline

Any staff member who is requesting funding to attend the ALSC conference in September must submit signed and completed paperwork to SD&T by June 8.  

If you have questions about completing your paperwork, please contact us.

MLA 2018 - More from the Embedded Librarianship workshop

At the MLA Conference, I also attended the “Embedded Librarianship” session, and I wanted to add to Heather’s excellent summary the “Tips for Success” that the presenters gave us.

Have a vision and make sure that vision is shared with other staff, partners, and management.

Make sure you know your system’s policies. For example, do you need a written agreement to enter the partnership or not?

Ask feedback from your partners, and the people you are reaching.

See if volunteers would be allowed to do what the librarians do.

Make sure the relationship does not rely only on one staff member. Have several points of contacts for your partner.

Have ongoing training and meetings to evaluate the strengths of your program and opportunities for growth.

Don’t over commit. Work out the details such as: How many times will you go to the partner’s site, at what time and which days, for how long?

What will your signage and publicity look like.

Look for grant opportunities and long-term budgeting.

Keep track of how many people you talk to, how many books you read and/or give away.

Have hotspots that will allow you to sign up people for a library card.

Expect that some partnerships will evolve or deteriorate, that your staffing level may change, or that you will lose your funding. Always have plans A, B and C to face whatever issue arises.

Sylvie Merlier-Rowen

Children’s Department

MLA 2018 - Got a Minute? Strategies for Time Management and Organizational Skills

I want to share some takeaways from a time management workshop I attended at the 2018 Maryland Library Association conference. The workshop was called “Got a Minute? Strategies for Time Management and Organizational Skills” and was presented by Dr. Marie L. Radford, Professor at Rutgers University.

I am going to focus on Professor Radford’s presentation of the five worst mistakes people make when managing (or not managing well) their time. Marie Radford offered advice on how to correct or avoid these mistakes. People are

1.      Spending time on concerns that are NOT a top priority.

She evoked the Pareto Principle, also called the 80/20 rule, where our amount of work can be divided as roughly 80% trivial, and 20% vital. So, before beginning work, ask yourself what is in your 20%, and what is in your 80%.

2.      Not paying attention to “when?”.

Timing is everything. Know the time of day you are the most productive, and work on what is most important or urgent at that time. Do not check your email during that time.

Also, to fight the distraction that email can be, work on your top priority for 15 to 20 minutes before checking your email.

3.      Saying “YES” too frequently when asked to do an additional task, or to take on another responsibility.

Advice on how to say “NO”:

·         Base your decision on your priorities.

·         Ask for some time to think about it.

·         If your answer is no, say “NO”.

·         You do not have to give a reason.

·         Stick to your decision.

When you cannot say No, you can usually negotiate and ask for what you would need in order to be able to take on an additional task, or to make a tight deadline.

4.      Underestimating time tasks actually take

·         Add 50 % to the amount of time you think it will take to accomplish the task.

·         Beat procrastination by breaking tasks into baby steps with target dates that you actually enter in your calendar. You can also work with a collaborator.

·         Beat perfectionism by asking yourself: “What is ‘least’ I can do at this time?”

5.      Not asking for help, and lack of delegation

·         Ask yourself: “Am I the only person who can do this?”

·         Ask for help, do not demand.

Professor Radford also made suggestions related to paper clutter control, and the insight she offered is more meaningful to me than any method to de-clutter: “Clutter only builds up where you allow it”.

Sylvie Merlier-Rowen

Children's Department, CEN

MLA 2018 - Fake News in a Fact-Averse World.

The 2018 MLA conference hosted a variety of presentations that provided valuable information and practical applications for public librarians. 

One session that was a highlight for me was Fake News in a Fact-Averse World.  This thought provoking class, presented by Andrea Rice from Queen Anne’s County Library argued that librarians are on the front lines in terms of informing their patrons about what she called “media literacy.”  She mentioned a startling statistic that in one poll 64% of the respondents were confused as to what constitutes accurate news.

Ms. Rice also discussed how the ability to fact check can also be seen as a generational phenomenon – with Gen Xers better equipped to verify information sources than Millennials and Baby Boomers. 

She provided a number of resources for information professionals to assist in helping to verify sources.  Some of her preferred tools included:  Allsides, Media Matters, Fact Check, Open Secrets, Politifact, & The Sunlight Foundation.  Ms. Rice also proposed a technique called “triangulation,” or the use of two additional sources to help in verifying a piece of information.

Ms. Rice also discussed the concept known as “click bait,” where sensational stories are fabricated simply because they attract a lot of attention and therefore are popular with advertisers.

She pointed out that the term “fake news” is frequently used by people as a tactic to dismiss something that they are inclined not to agree with in the first place.  “Confirmation Bias” is the notion that we tend to stick to our pre conceived beliefs when it comes to trusting a news source.  This is why Ms. Rice embraces what she calls “media literacy” as a more methodological approach for information professionals (and the public) to help determine the validity of news items – and tell the difference between fact and fabrication.

Greg Fromme
Herring Run Branch

MLA 2018 - Embedded Librarianship, Eradicating Achievement Gaps

I attended the Maryland/ Delaware Library Association’s Annual Conference on May 2 through May 4 at the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake in Cambridge, Maryland. One session that I attended was called “Embedded Librarianship, Eradicating Achievement Gaps” which produced ideas for non-traditional outreach locations within a community. Librarians from three different library systems presented about how they partnered with locations such as local barbershops, movie theaters, social services offices and correctional centers to promote reading and library services at those locations.

At the various locations, the partnerships worked in different ways. The librarians read to children and left books and flyers at barbershops and WIC locations. Some of the barbershop owners became really involved in the program and would offer free haircuts for children that read a book and created a book report.  In the jail, they worked with an inmate to teach him the importance of early literacy for his child, so that he could utilize the skills when he is released.  After working with him multiple times, the librarians recorded a video of him reading a story and played it at the library for his child. At the movie theater, the librarians performed a storytime and projected the pages of the books on the screen. They provided popcorn for participants and a craft after.

The librarians discussed what went well and what challenges they faced while creating these partnerships. It was extremely beneficial to have the barbers be supportive of the program. They realized that at that location they needed to expand the material to include teenagers. One challenge with that partnership was staff availability because most of the children come to the barbershop in the evenings and weekends, which is when most libraries are not fully staffed. There were many challenges when working with the jail, because of safety and privacy issues as well as a high turnover of inmates, which meant finding a participant was difficult. In the end, the library only worked with one inmate, but were hoping to work with more.

The session was beneficial because it gave me some ideas of new ways to reach the families of the Brooklyn community who may not use the library. The librarians spoke about how bringing the library to outside locations, many families realized how many resources that the library provides that they would want to use. Library staff can create partnerships with different businesses and services throughout their community to introduce members to the resources that a library provides.

Heather Yost

Brooklyn Branch

MLA 2018 - The Librarian’s Guide to Homelessness/ Aggressing and Regressing

After attending both the preconference on ways to better interact with individuals who are homeless and the training presented on aggressing and regressing, I found that a number of ideas and concepts overlapped in the two workshops/trainings. A number of key concepts were introduced that highlight the concept of empathy and that we need to be more mindful of our customers’ and staff’s needs.

The most impactful description of what happens is that many of these micro aggressions result in certain emotional responses in individuals because they experience them on a regular basis. You are not the only one who is expressing a prejudice to that individual. It is very likely that they experience it all the time. The summation of all the “stings” may result in customers and/or staff members having a negative response. The homeless population is an example of such a specific demographic that is constantly receiving prejudicial treatment from others, which is why at times we, as public service employees, may experience negative emotional responses. However, this, too, happens even when those who are perpetrating the micro aggressive behavior do not intentionally seek to incite those feelings in the offended party.

The Aggressing and Regressing training was informative and could easily be something that is covered in training for Enoch Pratt Free Library staff members. This class would be excellent to showcase how some of our actions may result in some of our issues we undergo as library staff members serving the public. Overall, the trainings were useful, and I encourage everyone to attend to allow for some better understanding on both subjects. 

Justin C. Switzer

Orleans Street Branch