Working in Southern Tier libraries for the last two weeks has been fantastic. In addition to my ongoing projects of connecting libraries to Broadband, strategic planning for 2017-2021 and assisting member libraries in obtaining sustainable funds, I have had the joy of visiting many people who make this library system so great.
Sitting down with five library directors, three library boards, multiple library staff, and STLS’ team members and trustees can make for a thought-provoking ten days. I love this element of my job! Learning about the challenges and successes of the greater STLS community helps me understand how best to approach our Region’s library services.
Sometimes the most rewarding part of the job can come from one sentence or phrase. Last night at a joint meeting of the Avoca and Howard Library Boards, Member Services Consultant Margo Gustina asked the board members, “Is this the first time both library boards have met together.” The answer was a resounding, “yes”, followed by laughter. An initial meeting of terrific community-minded people can be all it takes to set a library(s) on the path to transformational work.
One of the ways STLS strives to improve positive impacts on member libraries is by offering NYLA Conference scholarships to member librarians. Last week, I reached out to two of our scholarship recipients to discover what they learned at October’s New York Library Association Conference in Lake Placid.
Our first recipient was Nic Gunning of the David A. Howe Public Library in Allegany County. Nic joined the Howe Library in 2013 as Head of Circulation & Adult Services. In his short tenure, Nic has accomplished much. His efforts include amplified Outreach Services to the Wellsville community for which he received an STLS’ Grass Roots Award and a very cool podcast he co-hosts with Eric Mikols, teen coordinator & technology trainer, at the Howe Library. Click here to listen to their growing collection of entertaining podcasts.
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| Nic Gunning (left) and Michelle LaVoie, library director David A. Howe Public Library, enjoy a moment together after Nic received this year’s Grass Roots Award through STLS’ Coordinated Outreach Services Advisory Council. |
Here is what I learned from Nic…
Nic: No, I was fortunate enough to attend last year in Saratoga Springs.
Nic: Having gone last year, I felt more confident and comfortable participating in group discussions and knowledge sharing.
Nic: At the last minute I decided to change plans and attend the session on Talking Books. This was just so in line with the focus I’ve had recently that it was incredibly helpful. Without the session Talking Books wouldn’t even have been on my radar. It was great to learn about the services they can provide to our patrons. It also helped to remind me to stay vigilant in searching out services that are already out there.
Nic: Yes. Both years, that has been my favorite part of the conference. It’s very invigorating to be in a building full of people who share my same passions and concerns. It’s encouraging.
Nic: I’m always fascinated by how different libraries can be. It’s interesting to hear about things that have worked well for me that were total flops at other libraries, and vice versa. It’s a good reminder to keep trying new things, because you never know what’s going to click for people.
Nic: While at the conference I commented on Twitter that I had gathered a notebook full of ideas. I got several comments from total strangers at the conference feeling the same way. I plan to take the samples I picked up at the trade show and leads I picked up from my sessions and casual talks and see what I can make of them. I’m feeling optimistic.
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| Alex Andrasik took time to speak with both me and Margo Gustina in the past couple weeks about being a librarian in the Southern Tier Library System. Margo got this great picture of Alex while visiting Penn Yan Public Library. |
This is what Alex had to say about attending the 2015 NYLA Conference…
Alex: No, but it may as well have been! In my misguided youth as a LIS student at the University at Buffalo, I decided to get a one-day entry to the conference in Niagara Falls one year. I ended up getting there too late for any sessions and just wandered the floor show, pretending to know what I was doing and eating all the free candy. So, this year in Lake Placid was a lot better! With each day of the conference open to me, there were a lot of sessions and activities to choose from. I was struck by all the varieties of topics represented for librarians of all types, though I ended up sort of unintentionally following a “track” relating to diversity and public service.
Alex: My favorite program overall was “The Care and Feeding of Book Clubs,” which presented a plethora of tips for this most essential of library activities, from the points of view of some seasoned practitioners. I was hoping to get some fresh ideas in this regard since I’ve been having troubling enticing my patrons at Penn Yan Public Library with my book club offerings (it seems like everyone who’s interested is already involved in a private club of some sort).
The presenters offered ideas for building book clubs from the ground up, which is good for someone like me who’s never tried to establish one-seemingly simple things like deciding in advance who’d be running the thing (you or the public), whether to bring food (almost always yes), and so on. More “advanced” tips included offering personal invitations at the circ desk, inviting the high school or college communities to participate, and cultivating a generally welcoming membership. Insights into challenges each club has faced and what has made them particularly successful were also offered-such as anonymous book selection and focusing on a strong core group of members.
Librarians can also look into advanced options like running an online arm of the book club, synchronously or asynchronously, as they please. I will add one more thing I enjoyed from a totally different session-the presenter of “Crafting the Customer Service Experience for People Not Like You” told us that the United States is less like a melting pot these days and more like a salad bowl, each ingredient distinct yet, ideally, harmonious. I thought that was neat.
Alex: I did! It was mainly Chautauqua-Cattaraugus (library system) folks since I had an easy icebreaker with them, being from their territory originally. I was able to catch up with a few former classmates from UB who are doing library work honorably and well in various places. And I was fortunate to finally meet my PYPL predecessor, Shawn, now the director of the Newark Public Library.
Alex: I can’t say I noticed many differences-all the librarians I met seemed equally dedicated to service, though the focus may differ slightly. One librarian demonstrated a dedication to raising the profile of LGBTQ issues in libraries, which is always exciting, especially coming from a rural area.
I did notice, too, an overarching interest in the “lighter” side of librarianship-mainly in the form of pop culture programming for a variety of interests, but also just in terms of having fun and not taking ourselves too seriously. The perfect example of that was the BattleDecks throwdown, where a few brave librarians agreed to give presentations based on PowerPoints they’d never seen before, and which were laced with some…colorful imagery. This may have served as a stealth way of enhancing communication abilities and demonstrating the skills necessary to think on one’s feet, but it was also just a ton of fun.
Alex: The sessions I attended were a little lighter on actionable items than some other conferences I’ve experienced in the past-a lot of them were more about imparting a frame of mind in which to approach diversity, the “people different from us” in the session I mentioned above. There’s no one set of skills or activities that can tick that box; that’s sort of the point of diversity, and as librarians we have to make peace with that, as much as we’d like to be able to announce, “Diversity achievement unlocked!”
The insight offered in these sessions boiled down to “be flexible,” “never make assumptions,” and “don’t be afraid to ask questions”-a trio to live by anyway, to be sure. I’m going to strive to be more mindful of them.
One action I can take is to be more of a presence in the stacks and around the library, to meet people where they are. Coming from a lot of smaller libraries like most of us in STLS, the concept of “roving librarian” can seem a little pointless, but there are more reasons to do it than spatial ones. You never know when someone is intimidated to approach a librarian, or has some other reason to be averse to making that interaction happen. And the worst that can happen is that they give you the cold shoulder or let you know that they’re fine on their own. I bet they’ll be happy we asked! So that’s the main thing I picked up from the NYLA conference that I’ll be trying to put in action.
Kindest Regards,
Brian Hildreth, Executive Director
Southern Tier Library System
Follow me on Twitter: @comlibpartner
Read past Friday Follow-ups: http://www.stls.org/blog
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