(backup Google Drive Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18uAhc1rZ6tyx9gSGeqIIrwGpc9BMsYjz/view?usp=sharing)
Month: August 2026
Virtual Symposium: From Surviving to Thriving
As I reflected upon this semester I found a couple of themes that really stood out to me. One major theme was this dual purpose and pathway of supporting members of our community From Surviving to Thriving. Libraries serve as a place of safety and refuge. I see this often in my own community in how my libraries serve my unhoused neighbors, providing them with space, resources, and a place for them to relax in dignity. Libraries also serve as places to create and explore: STEAM activities for kids, conversation and social activities for adults, makerspaces for people of all ages. It provides users the opportunity to expand their understanding of the world, their skills, and even their sense of self. It is a place of dreaming and a space of possibility.
While all of us need things like shelter, food and water, safety, connection, and fulfillment, every community will have different specific obstacles and resources to actually meeting those needs. Our job is to be curious and flexible. We must understand what our community lacks, and also what strengths it has. If our community lacks public transportation but has many families with mini-vans, could we coordinate carpooling efforts for community events or voting to expand access? If we have a large immigrant population, can we build programs of mutual culture and language sharing? If we have a large population of seniors can we create programming where they can share their stories, get help digitizing their memories (oral histories, photographs, etc.) and contribute to our local historical archives for future generations?
There are so many opportunities to collaborate with our library users and local groups and organizations to benefit many in our community. I think we have to look beyond traditional problem-solving and service providers to see just what our users themselves can do.
This has been such a wonderful journey. Through this class I feel like my mind is bursting with ideas and possibilities. More than ever I want to dive in and help build these kinds of collaborations in my community.
Thank you all for your generous sharing and ideas this semester!
Learning is about living an Expansive Life
We’ve got formal learning down. Books and courses, even online courses with or without live instructors are more numerous than ever. But in today’s fast-paced and attention-demanding world, many people don’t have the time to focus on learning one skill at a time. So learning needs to happen when and where the skills and knowledge are needed.
Attract
Attract patrons to your services and programs by providing collections and programs that appeal to them in settings that they like and enjoy.
Serve
Serve patrons what they need. That may be around health (meditation, yoga, tai chi), connection through discussion, breaks for parents, and play for patrons of all ages.
Everywhere
Be where they are. Available on mobile devices, programs out in community settings like senior homes, laundromats, parks, day care centers, etc.
For more direct learning and teaching, I really loved learning about the collaborative and open experiment spaces in DOKK1. Having real-time sharing and inspiration between two different locations creating something is brilliant and even 10 years later a great use of current technology. Finding foundational skills within evolving technology to focus on can build programs that last and can evolve with the times.
With how fast our world is changing, we may not be able to predict what skills we will need next. As libraries we need to remain flexible, focus on what our patrons need now, and not be overly attached to those services and programs. They may not be relevant at all in 6 months. For this, I really like the idea of rotating themes and flexibility.
Oak Park Public Library (OPPL) did a great version of this with their Idea Box. It’s interactive and evolving, and even behind that there are themes or seasons. Depending on the library, the program, or the space, it might be something that rotates on a monthly of quarterly basis. Maybe it’s a wall that invites people to share what they’ve learned on a topic recently and reply to one another. Maybe it asks them to share fond memories.
All of this rests on understanding our communities and users well. Who are they? What do they value? Where do they spend their time and with who? What problems are they facing? Then we build services that aren’t perfectly packaged solutions, but containers for our communities to fill and decorate.
Living Books
I absolutely love the concept of human books. @lauraskor shared in this post about holding conversations in the library through the use of book clubs and I think this idea exists in the same vein. Cultivating community is more than just having a space that many people inhabit at the same time. Conversation, especially about issues that directly effect us and our communities is vital to growing strong connections. It is also vital to growing communities that care.
I think these are programs that should be considered together. The Human Book concept is a great way to spark conversations around different topics, centered around real people within our communities. These events can be paired with tabling from organizations that support vulnerable groups in our community. Those conversations can then be continued on through things like book clubs, or discussions about upcoming elections or propositions. There is no set order to these things and every community will have unique needs and desires, but when I think about libraries helping to build community, I believe this is the work that must be done. (I also enjoyed hearing from Kylie and Felicity and I believe that librarians and library staff must be included in this on both ends! As people sharing their stories and as people hearing them.)
This module really made me think about how libraries exist to address universal human needs like connection, belonging, and meaning or fulfillment. Programs like these help communities meet these needs. But although the needs themselves may be universal, how those needs get met will be specific to individuals and communities. Like Michael Casey shared when he came to talk to our class, some ideas may not work for all communities. It’s important to try things and learn from them to find what works best for the specific population we are serving.
As a side note about the Human Books concept: I went onto the Human Library Organisation website and was surprised to find that in their model, they not only do not pay “human books,” they strongly discourage it, stating that they “do not believe readers will have the same confidence in the library if books were paid to be there.” (Human Library FAQ) I find this troubling considering that a primary goal for this practice is to help inform people about the lives and experiences of people who are stigmatized. Which means we are talking about marginalized people doing free labor to educate people. I think it would be far more appropriate to –when possible– offer people sharing their stories small honorariums like might be offered to speakers or research volunteers.