Hyperlinked Community Blog:

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Hyperlinked Community Blog Post

@mariahaeflinger here
I really liked the statement, “Hyperlinks are people too” (Stephens, 2025, Module 5, slide 5).  So often, we as librarians think our world is all about resources. We have to remember that without people, we would not need the resources. We all need each other, and we need to work together to meet each other’s needs. We do not need to agree on everything, but if we can work together and respect each other, we can accomplish much. On a flip thought, we can use people as resources too.

As I read the material for this week and tried to apply it to my present library situation, I came up with some interesting thoughts.

• Who is in my community? First of all, the Family of Faith Christian University is 6 miles away from any neighboring towns. We are in the middle of nowhere. The physical library is positioned on the second floor of the Family of Faith Christian Church and K-12 School building. The FOFCS uses the library sparingly. Kindergarten to 6^th grade use the library every week for their class Library Hour. The 7^th – 12^th grades use the library for study hall or research every once in a while. This is very sad to me. The school kids are my only physical patrons on a weekly basis, but I am not employed by the school, so to enhance the school library community, I would have to personally fund the plan, and I do not get paid enough to do that. So that leaves my online university community, which is all virtual and specific to our university degree programs in education, ministry, and business.
• I thought of reaching out and asking if anyone would be interested in any online community activities like a recipe swap, art, photograph sharing, or virtual dessert or meal times. I would start with sending out an email to all professors and students to get ideas together on what people would be interested in. I would name a few and ask for suggestions of interest. We could do something different every course offering.
• Professor Stephens talks about “fine forgiveness” in his book Wholehearted Librarianship (pp. 78-79). This is something I have chosen to do for years. My administration has not been too keen on my choice, but they have not pushed me to change my stance either. I have had a few students who I have stuck to my rules for paying fines though. If they are just being lazy and not caring that they have overdue books, I tend to remind them once or twice to return the books before giving them a prorated fine that needs to be paid if they want to check out any more books. If they were repeat offenders, I would not allow them to check out books for the rest of the semester.
• Professor Stephens wrote about “Reaching all Users” in his Heart of Librarianship book (p. 41). FFCU, as an institution, went all virtual in 2017 to accommodate our students/patrons. Most of our university students are out of state or virtual. They are also not right out of high school; most have families or are in ministry somewhere in the world. Instead of expecting them to come to us to do their degrees, we decided to go to them. Before that, we were only an on-campus university, and it limited many from around the world who wanted to take our courses to further their ministries.
• To meet our students’ need for resources worldwide, we became part of the Digital Theological Library. I am allowed a percentage of our subscription in free resource additions to the DTL, and I use as close to every penny that I can. I encourage all professors and students to send me resource titles to be added to the DTL year-round to meet the patrons’ needs and the use of the free budget.
• How to “connect with users” and “be present in their lives” (Stephens, 2016, p 41)? – Having 350 patrons, it is hard “being present” in all their lives. I start with a short intro video that is sent out per course offering, of who I am and how I can help them. I offer to meet with them individually to answer library questions. I also offer to be a listening ear if they just need to talk. I mentor a list of students as they go through their adventure with us to obtain their degree.
• Jessica Klinker wrote, “How do we reach the people who aren’t already reading” ( )? In my university community, the question is, “How do I reach the patrons that are not reaching back”? “How do I open their eyes to the myriads of possibilities available to them”? I guess the saying, “you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make them drink”, comes into play. I can offer my services until I am blue in the face, but it is up to them to except my help.
• Jessica Klinker also wrote, “x% report they have not read a book in any format” (2019). In my course offering surveys, I have x% that state they have not used the library resources for their courses at all. To me this is similar in that in both instances, it is not because the resources were not there to be used. The user chose not to use them. There are few places where resources are not found; most stores have a physical book or two offered in them, and most offices have a magazine to read. I guess those are not all books, but they are resources, and I guess communities can frequent places where there aren’t resources to read. But what is the fun in that?

Resources:

Klinker, J. (2020). The healing power of books: using reading to address social and emotional needs. Gale.
https://blog.gale.com/the-healing-power-of-books/

Stephens, M. (2016). Heart of librarianship. American Library Association.

Stephens, M. (2025). The hyperlinked communities [Google Drive Slides]. WordPress, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bW6a8IguTXSbW_WoO7phATxp1HbTQ5wn/view

Stephens, M. (2019). Wholehearted librarianship. American Library Association.