Spring 2021 Newsletter

Be the Spark of Something Great at the "Biggest Little Library Conference" This Fall!

Get ready to see your ARSL friends in October for The Biggest Little Library Conference! #ARSL2021 will be held at the Nugget Hotel in Reno/Sparks, Nevada, from October 20-23. We hope to see you for the full in-person experience, though we will also have select virtual offerings for those who can't make the trip this time.

Our committee is excited to announce our 2021 theme: The Biggest Little Library Conference. Our libraries may be small, but our community is mighty. As we come together to share ideas and learn from each other in Reno, the "Biggest Little City," the possibilities are huge.

The committee is currently in the process of selecting keynotes, building a schedule, and incorporating feedback from previous conferences to make 2021 our best conference yet. Our goal is to infuse principles of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion into every level of the conference, from including diverse perspectives in programs to removing barriers to access.

Do you have an idea for a great program? You are the expert on small and rural libraries. From four-hour preconferences to ten-minute Spark Talks, there's a place for you to share your expertise. Submit a proposal here: https://forms.gle/NY9ccfmNWpkzdy4k7

Watch for updates on the ARSL 2021 webpage!
Holly Mercer and Todd Deck

How to Build a Lighthouse

by Kellee Forkenbrock, North Liberty Library (North Liberty, IA)

When the North Liberty Library was awarded a Libraries Transforming Communities (LTC) grant), we saw this as a gracious opportunity to offer our community a platform for some much-needed dialogue. The image of what could be was clear to me as the event facilitator: hundreds of North Libertarians of all ages, engaging one another with respect, love, and assorted snacks.

Then I remembered two things: we were in a pandemic and chats about our proposed topics – diversity, health inequities, etc. – probably wouldn’t be the love-and-light moment I was imagining.

While I am always up for a challenge, I knew taking on this project would involve the expertise and hard work of my fellow library staff. From the initial meeting with our planning committee, I envisioned that we could be the lighthouse, a beacon of education and conversation for our patrons and residents. But how do we build that base and get the community to join us?

Here is what is working for us as we plan our first community conversation:

Pick a Purpose: Though selecting a topic was an easy first step, fleshing it out required a brainstorm with our planning team. The topic began as health & wellness. Soon, we collectively dug deeper into the health inequities and wellness gaps within the community. What is the difference between the topic and the purpose? Think of the topic as the car and the purpose as the fuel. While deciding on a topic got us on the road, establishing a purpose for the event’s dialogue moved us down the road. Every aspect, from the selection of the panelists to the questions on the agenda, was birthed from the purpose and intention we wanted for the event.

Don’t Do It Alone: Like many librarians, I am grateful to work on a team with a variety of talents to share; when it came time to dole out tasks to make our event come to life, appreciating what my co-workers brought to the table made teamwork a snap. When building your event’s planning committee, think about all the odds and ends involved with your project when assigning responsibilities. Who would be great at getting the word out? At engaging community leaders to be potential attendees or panelists? At leading a potentially challenging conversation? Let your team help you make the event the best it can be.

Center the Community: One thing is for certain: you cannot have a conversation about the community without the community’s involvement. Once you have established your purpose and assigned your committee, it is time to reach out to your neighborhood. Your community’s small business owners, educators, artists, and social justice leaders are your most valuable resources. They can fill in the gaps during the dialogue and provide first-hand experience of what the community needs for continued growth.

Progress Report on OurStoryBridge: Connecting the Past and the Present

by Jery Y. Huntley

Over 400 people attended the OurStoryBridge presentation, sponsored by the Keene Valley (NY) Library, at the ARSL conference.

If you haven’t checked out the website yet, visit www.ourstorybridge.org, a free, online resource that builds partnerships with libraries, and educational and historical organizations across the country to support the production of crowd sourced community-building story projects—from planning to implementation, circulation, growth, and sustainability. These projects result in dynamic, individualized websites that collect and share three- to five-minute, locally created audio stories paired with photographs specific to each community.

Our e-newsletter began in December. To subscribe, contact us at [email protected]

In addition to the support you gave us during those early presentations, we’ve been energized by the fact that the OurStoryBridge User Guide has been downloaded over 150 times and there have been almost 1000 unique users on the website since September 29, 2020!

Communities planning the first projects are diverse in many ways: an indigenous village in Alaska; a Utah city settled in 1888; a Vermont rural town; and not far from where the first story project began, a village in Upstate New York; and more story projects are developing right behind them.

The Teacher’s Guide has been posted, containing resources to help teachers select stories to use in their classrooms so their lessons come alive; we expect to add additional grades and subject areas in the next few weeks.

If your library wants to explore the possibility of starting an OurStoryBridge project, email [email protected]. Our resources include presentations tailored to your audience and one-on-one assistance as you begin your story project. A recent grant from the Cloudsplitter Foundation is helping us spread the word and we hope to receive additional grants to continue growing OurStoryBridge. We would also like to thank everyone who has encouraged us with your support!

Library Space During the Pandemic and Beyond

by Lauren Stara, Library Building Specialist at the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners

Libraries all over the world are striving to satisfy the needs of their patrons during the COVID-19 pandemic, many in buildings and spaces that were inadequate even before these unprecedented times. The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) has been working to help librarians navigate their physical space needs and address pandemic-related changes that may persist for the long term.

Last November, in collaboration with Sasaki, we released Library Space: A Planning Resource for Librarians, a guide that creates a formal set of best practices for designing library space that can be applied to libraries of all sizes. In December we added a 4-page Pandemic Addendum, which aims to capture the knowledge and lessons learned from experts who have been in the trenches of pandemic library services over the last year.

The core tenet of the main document holds true in the addendum as well: planning with flexibility in mind.

Library services are changing and evolving at an astonishing rate; and bricks-and-mortar buildings are often not designed to keep up. This reality was spotlighted in 2020, as library buildings closed and later reopened with limited services and often jury-rigged barriers and pathways. Librarians improvised quarantine procedures for collections and figured out how to circulate materials with as little physical contact as possible. While we know the pandemic will end, we predict there are some services and considerations that will continue indefinitely:

Curbside is here to stay: It’s so convenient for patrons that we don’t think the public will let us stop it. We need to modify existing buildings or plan new buildings to accommodate amenities such as outdoor pickup lockers and walk-up or drive-through service points.
Outdoor programming: We need to maximize the potential for activities that take advantage of fresh air when weather permits. Even in bad weather, an outdoor area with a roof and/or portable exterior heaters can work for library services, as well as it does for restaurants.
Attention to HVAC and indoor air quality: Virus transmission is enabled by stagnant indoor air. New and renovated buildings will pay much closer attention to the design of their mechanical systems, and existing buildings should assess and upgrade their ventilation and filtration where possible.
Furniture choices: While we look to hospital-grade furniture now, we think there will be a revolution in materials for furniture in the next few years to increase the ability to clean and disinfect easily.

Many aspects of library design will remain the same, regardless of the current extraordinary circumstances. Please visit the MBLC’s website to download both the main pdf and the Pandemic Addendum or to view the Library Space booklet via ISSUU.

WebJunction Smart Spaces Toolkit is Now Live

Libraries continue to evolve and reimagine their role in providing lifelong learning for their communities. They have shifted from passive to active engagement with community members. They are becoming hubs of collaborative learning, providing space and services where people of all ages can participate in hands-on activities, explore and solve problems together, and strengthen social bonds.

WebJunction offers the new Toolkit for Creating Smart Spaces (https://www.webjunction.org/news/webjunction/toolkit-creating-smart-spaces.html) to help libraries take steps towards reconfiguring physical spaces and reimagining services through active community engagement. These resources were developed to support small and rural libraries in the Small Libraries Create Smart Spaces program, and have been collected in this new format to guide libraries of all types—from small and rural to large library systems—through a transformation process. The ten sections of the toolkit explore how to discover community needs, rethink use of existing physical spaces, test ideas with prototyping, create and implement a project plan, activate your space with programming, and more!

ARSL’s Major Committees Enjoy a Renaissance

Article coordinated by Beth Anderson, Director of the Burnsville Public Library, WV, and Co-chair of the ARSL Advocacy Committee

Over the last couple of years, you may have noticed that ARSL has been gradually shifting and expanding in various ways. These changes have made room and provided support for more member involvement and leadership, as well as working to build a more sustainable organization. Since 2019 when the ARSL’s Board of Directors reduced themselves from a 15-member body to the current 9-members, they have continued to take the necessary steps to become a strategic, governing board rather than their former operational body. Their actions are part of an organizational restructuring that has been underway within the association for several years.

As part of the reorganization, the Board has pushed operational management and guidance out to ARSL’s staff and major committees. Since the majority of ARSL committees were not in an active status nor fully outfitted with leadership and current members, this involved a large effort to get each committee under full sail and included the creation of a new committee.

Coordinated by ARSL Executive Director Kate Laughlin, the last known committee chairs were contacted beginning in mid-2020 to discuss their committee’s status and needs. The majority of committees were largely dormant and some had long since ceased any activities or lacked a clear focus. Following this leadership assessment, all last known committee members were surveyed to collect their input as well as their willingness to continue serving on revived committees.

A call to the membership was launched in late 2020, asking for volunteers from across the country to express their interest in various avenues of involvement. More than 100 ARSL members answered the call, after which Kate worked with Board President Kathy Zappitello to identify co-chairs for appointment to each committee and two or more new committee members from each of ARSL’s four regions (West, Midwest, South, Northeast). A Board member was assigned to each committee to serve as a direct conduit of communication between the bodies, and meetings were held with each team’s leads prior to the committees being scheduled for monthly Zoom meetings. By mid-March, every major ARSL committee had begun meeting, drafting or updating their committee charges, and discussing their main goals and activities.

The ARSL office will continue to provide the committees with support to maintain this momentum long term and chart their paths forward.

Here is a snapshot from each committee telling us what they are up to:

Advocacy Committee

Chairs of the ARSL Advocacy Committee are Lisa Shaw and Beth Anderson, and the Board liaison is Bailee Hutchinson. The Advocacy Committee is laying the groundwork and building the scaffolding for expanding ARSL’s advocacy work. Committee leadership and members are looking at other organizations that have strong advocacy and legislative groups to see if we can R&D components from already successful advocacy programs. During this time, we are also interested in keeping aware of any legislation that could impact rural or small libraries. If you know of local, state, or federal legislation that could impact rural or small libraries, reach out to Lisa or Beth. Our voice is stronger when we have friends behind us!

Conference Committee

The 2021 Conference Committee is an enthusiastic group and has been meeting regularly since January, with Chairs Todd Deck and Holly Mercer and Board Liaison Nancy Tusinski at the helm. They are in the early stages of planning and have collectively worked through a few options and selected a theme. Next up is finalizing the logo and keynote speakers. The request for program proposals launched in late March, so start thinking of submissions! The conference committee is also working to infuse diversity, equity, and inclusion into all facets of this year’s conference.

Continuing Education Committee*

The brand new ARSL Continuing Education Committee is chaired by Allie Stevens and Joy Worland, and the Board Liaison is Julie Elmore. The committee has been working to finalize their committee charge and create a list of tasks and projects to focus on throughout the coming year. The committee will advise ARSL on the identification, development, and evaluation of relevant, cost-effective opportunities for continuing education and career development for the ARSL membership. A focus will be on fostering equity, diversity, inclusion, and social justice in libraries with special attention to how these issues manifest in rural settings. The Committee is also committed to helping librarians advocate to trustees and supervisors about the importance of CE. We intend to continue planning and creating programming for the TRAIN (Training, Roundtables, And Informational Networking) series as well as branching out into other projects and undertakings. The committee welcomes any input from the ARSL community on programming needs and professional development that will be beneficial to small and rural librarians.

*The ARSL Scholarship Subcommittee is now an offshoot of the CE Committee, with some members serving on both bodies. The subcommittee is led by Shirley Vonderhaar and Amanda Bundy.

Finance Committee

The Finance Committee is a little different than ARSL’s other major committees in that it’s chaired by Board Treasurer Lisa Lewis. Committee members include both our current President and our President-Elect, as well as non-board members from each of ARSL’s four regions. This committee provides oversight of ARSL’s financial management by the office and our bookkeeper, and advises the Board, committees, and office on any matters related to ARSL’s finances.

Governance Committee

The Governance Committee’s primary focus for the past year has been updating our organizational bylaws to ensure that they are in alignment with the current structure and operations of ARSL. Led by Chairs Mary Soucie and Kristi Chadwick, the committee worked last year with Kate Laughlin and 2020 Board President Jennifer Pearson to update the bylaws in advance of the fall election. The committee is now working with Kate and 2021 President Kathy Zappitello (also the committee’s Board Liaison) on updating the full document. The Chairs extend a heartfelt “Thank you!” to prior committee members who worked so hard getting the election-related updates quickly drafted, as well as the current members for the extensive effort ensuring the bylaws will serve the long-term needs of the association. In addition to the bylaws, the committee worked on collecting policies written and used by small and rural libraries and submitting them to the Colorado Library Consortium for addition to the policy repository, in which ARSL has partnered. Once the bylaws have been completed, the committee will turn its attention to working with ARSL staff to update and/or draft ARSL policies.

Marketing and Communications Committee

The Marketing and Communications Committee is responsible for curating ARSL’s public voice in print, digital, and social media. Led by Chairs Sherry Scheline and Suzanne Macaulay, the committee has been hard at work! Newsletter editor C.L. Quillen has been working with the newsletter subcommittee to write, collect, and edit content for April’s spring edition. The social media subcommittee is establishing objectives for content and a consistent, effective posting schedule. You can find ARSL on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Together with Board liaison Phillip Carter, the committee is also developing its charge, which will define the purpose, goals, and path forward for the group’s work. The charge is expected to be drafted and sent to the ARSL Board for approval this spring.

Membership Committee

The engagement and retention of ARSL members remains the focus of the Membership Committee, chaired by Molly Schock and Amy Golly. A formal committee charge is currently being drafted which defines the purpose for this committee. This includes examining and expanding on benefits and support for current members and what actions can be taken to reach out to former members. The committee is exploring the option of cross planning with the Marketing and Communications Committee to strategically promote ARSL’s benefits to non-members. Upcoming tasks include advising the ARSL office on member demographic information to collect, assessing membership tiers, and formulating questions for an ARSL member survey. Our Board Liaison is Kathy Street.

Partnership Committee

The charge of the Partnership Committee, chaired by Jennie Garner and Kelly Kreps-Depin, is to cultivate and sustain key partnerships with organizations that complement the mission and goals of ARSL and to support opportunities for professional development or enhanced library services to members working in small and rural libraries. Partnerships with ARSL are typically mutually beneficial, long-term, and sustainable projects in which there is an ongoing relationship with the partnering organization. As ARSL continues to grow as an organization, it is vital to seek out and welcome partnerships that are both regional and national in scope. Members of the committee review requests for support on grant applications and may provide advisors for successful grantees as they pursue their ongoing project. Additionally, committee members act as conduits between partner organizations and the ARSL board as needed. The committee’s Board Liaison is Krist Obrist.

For more information about ARSL’s committees or to reach out to any committee chairperson, email [email protected] and the office will refer you as appropriate.

Leaders & Burnout: Protecting Your Staff From You

by Suzanne Macaulay, Deputy Director, Pioneer Library System (NY)

Volumes have been written and spoken about employee burnout over the past several years. Books, articles, webinars, and conference presentations have taught us how to identify, manage, and prevent prolonged stress that can lead to burnout. However, often absent from the conversation is what happens when external factors—or people—are the cause. Addressing employee habits and preaching the importance of implementing self-care practices are futile if those in leadership roles are not cognizant of how their behaviors may be contributing to staff burnout.

In every industry, even libraries, there are bad bosses whose harmful behavior is easy to identify. But there are also good bosses, well-meaning and well-intentioned bosses, who inadvertently cause stress for their employees. Sometimes administrative blinders prevent leaders from realizing how their habits are adversely impacting others.

I have been this kind of boss, well-meaning and well-intentioned, but occasionally with task-oriented tunnel vision that caused stress for others. During the recent Big Talk From Small Libraries Conference, I spoke about the importance of directors, managers, and supervisors recognizing how they can negatively impact the mental health of the people they have been charged to lead. Aptly titled “Leaders & Burnout: Protecting Your Staff From You,” I outlined items on which I actively work to be a better coworker and leader. By recognizing these behaviors and making adjustments, I—and we—can create happier, healthier work environments.

Here are a few of my don’ts and dos:

Don’t Create a Can’t Take Time Off Culture

Leaders set the example. If you play the role of “Library Martyr,” never taking time off because “Who will do it if I’m not here?” your team begins to feel guilty for taking their entitled time off. Staff may begin to feel as if they need to justify time off or that it needs to be for “a really good reason,” but there is no such thing as worthy or unworthy time off. Libraries have been around since the 7th century B.C. and they will persist even if you or your staff members take a Vacation Day... or seven.

Don’t Email Nights/Weekends/On Personal Time

As technology has increased our access to information, so has it increased our access to each other. While worldwide connection has innumerable benefits, a byproduct of this instantaneous correspondence is the erosion of boundaries between work time and personal time. Mobile access to business email, dashboards, and social media accounts has made many employees feel as if they are never truly off the clock. Help by scheduling your emails and setting away messages on social media accounts. Make sure employees are not receiving communications during non-work hours. That is their time--not yours and not the library’s.

Do Let Your Staff Try New Things

Perhaps one of the most deflating phrases is “We’ve always done it this way.” Libraries and the communities they serve are constantly changing, and library policy, procedure, programs, and services have to keep pace. Be open to new ideas and new ways of doing things—especially when it is coming from front line staff. If they have a suggestion that would improve their workflow or the patron experience, take it. Continually dismissing or devaluing ideas stifles creativity and diminishes staff morale. You hired your staff to be positive contributors, not cogs in a machine.

Do Celebrate the Staff

Celebrate birthdays, library-anniversaries, and other milestones. Have theme days, silly days, pizza days. Bring in donuts for no reason. Compliment the efforts of your staff. Acknowledge a job well done even when it is a routine task. Have your staff’s back—always. As the leader of the organization you set the tone, and you have to make the time and effort for support, smiles, and laughter. Make your staff feel valued and make the library a place your staff enjoys showing up to each shift.

Directors, managers, and supervisors are not infallible and can fall into bad habits. This does not automatically make them bad bosses. However, failing to recognize missteps or detrimental behaviors and adjust accordingly can lead down that unfortunate path. Managers should constantly self-evaluate and seek out performance feedback. Ask your staff questions and really listen to their answers. Continuing education should not only include mastering hard skills but should include important leadership training. Communication, mentorship, and honest reflection should be central to this development to ensure a happy, healthy work team.

All off the Big Talk From Small Libraries presentation slides and recordings, including “Leaders & Burnout: Protecting Your Staff from You,” can be found at nlcblogs.nebraska.gov/bigtalk.

Reimaging Summer Reading: Quality not Quantity

by Michael Stohrer, Brandon Township Public Library Youth Library Associate, Michigan

If you are like most avid readers, you have a monologue (or ten) up your sleeve about literature changing your life. Maybe it was your first encounter with Harriet the Spy, The Awakening, or The Fire Next Time. Maybe it was a summer spent immersed in Virginia Woolf or Nora Roberts, or the way you and a close friend bonded over a mutual love for Ursula K. Le Guin. Maybe a candidate’s biography won your vote, or a travelogue convinced you to book a trip.

Now, imagine me, waving my hands, cutting you off in the middle of your monologue. “That’s all well and good,” I say, “but what I really want to know is how many books you’ve read.” Imagine your baffled silence. Imagine my continued prodding: “How about the number of pages then? Or how many minutes you spent reading them?”

Imagine your inevitable reaction: Who cares?

Reading is not a sport. There’s no need to keep score. However, many summer reading programs ask patrons to set arbitrary goals and measure their success in terms of the number of books, minutes, or pages conquered in a set period of time.

Consider who this alienates. An occasional, one-book-per-year reader who hears about a score-keeping summer reading program will think “That’s not for me.”

And it really isn’t, is it?

There’s a chance that the demands of this reader’s life won’t allow for more reading than they already do, which means the program only offers an inevitable feeling of failure. There’s a chance that reading is a difficult or time-consuming process for this reader, which means the program only offers an opportunity to feel frustrated and inadequate. There’s a chance that this person simply doesn’t want to read more than one book per year, which means the program has no appeal at all.

Libraries aren’t just here to serve ravenous readers. We are here to serve everyone, and we are making a mistake if we assume that the literary experience of a one-book-per-year reader are less edifying (or less worthy of support and celebration) than the literary experiences of an avid bibliophile. (A reader can barrel through thousands of pages and come up empty, having felt and learned nothing. A reader can also find their life changed by a Kate Chopin story that doesn’t even hit the 700-word mark.) Quality matters, not quantity, and we are missing an opportunity if our programs are designed to appeal only to certain kinds of readers.

This summer, the Brandon Township Public Library’s summer reading program will focus on the quality of literary experiences, not the quantity. There are no assignments, only invitations. Instead of counting and keeping track, patrons can simply enjoy the experience. No pressure. No expectations. Just opportunities.

Through passive programming and our social media accounts, our staff will interact with patrons, sharing our own literary experiences and inviting patrons to do the same. To get the wheels turning, we’ll use open-ended prompts like these:

What is “cozy” reading to you?
Who read to you when you were little? What did they read? What do you (or will you) read to your own kids?
Tell us about the books or authors you think are underrated. Convince us to give them a chance!
What character do you remember years after finishing the book? Why has this character stuck with you?

Patrons and staff can respond when they feel compelled to do so, but responses are optional. We believe that sharing experiences will open doors to our patrons in a way that tally marks and numbers never could. We believe that our one-book-per-year patrons will enjoy (and benefit from) this program just as much as our ravenous readers.