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Welcome to the NYLA Voice August 2024 issue! Below is a quick links menus that will take you right to your favorite articles. When you are done simply click ‘Back to menu’ to return to the top. Happy reading!
August is here, which means one thing: it’s NYLA Annual Conference time! Our focus this year is “Leadership at Every Level”, and we have something for everyone at the conference! Whether you work in an academic, school, library system, or public library – there are programs that will speak to you! And of course, there will be plenty of programs for our library supporters: our trustees and friends of the library groups. The conference takes place in Syracuse this year, from November 6-9. NYLA has a goal to break 700 attendees at this year’s conference – so take advantage of our early bird pricing through September 1, and register today!
Leadership takes many forms, and I truly believe that everyone in a library setting, is a leader in their own way. Job titles alone do not qualify a leader. Dedication, advocacy, taking pride in what you do, working well with others and mentoring those coming up the ranks behind you, are all aspects of a leader.
Those new to leadership or library work, should consider registering for the next round of the Library Skills Academy, and later this year, our Developing Leaders program. You can email [email protected] for more information about both of these multi-session classes. They are a great way to meet others around the state, share information about your work setting, and learn from each other while developing your skill set in library work.
Another great way to get involved in leadership activities? Becoming a more active NYLA member by joining a committee! Did you know that the NYLA Sections typically have a representative on most of the NYLA Committees? You can find out more information on the charge and composition of each committee here, and I encourage you to reach out to the President of your section to learn more about becoming involved. Membership engagement is a key component to NYLA’s success, because we exist for our members and their interests. It is rewarding work, and we want to hear your voice! You can always reach out to me directly with questions as well: [email protected]
Now, hurry up and go sign up for conference and help us blow past our goal!
Lisa
I hope everyone is having a safe and happy summer!
Everything is going swimmingly at the office. With planning for our fall event well underway, we continue to add new/past members to our database every day. We are just over two months into our new fixed membership year, but if you have yet to get back into the system, you will want to do that as soon as possible.
WANT TO BECOME A MEMBER?
If you have yet to join, it’s not too late! The Join Form available on the NYLA homepage should be used to complete this. As in our past database, organizational members should make sure that the past rep (Key Contact in the new system) on their account completes the Join form their organizational membership. This should not be completed by any members that are included in the organizational membership.
Just a reminder, the office did not transfer any past member data into the new database. If you have not entered the new system and created any login credentials, you should be entering as a new user.
The Join Form will be creating your new account for the 2024-2025 year and a member fee is required even if you were a previous active member. Members with previous memberships expiring into the later months of 2024 would receive a prorate for the months they will not be receiving membership. All forms are being placed in a “pending” status for the office to review and provide any proration available. We kindly request 1 - 2 business days for the office to review your form. Accounts are made active. Organizational account included members will be sent a welcome email with their new username and instructions to create a password.
REMINDER - Members who have yet to pay outstanding invoices for Joining the new system, please complete payment of your membership. Failure to pay these invoices may result in the deactivation of your membership account. Invoices can be found in your profile and email reminders will include a link to access open invoices.
We appreciate our members’ flexibility as we continue to move through many changes within the organization. The next year is all about trial and error with the new system, so please feel free to email [email protected] with any thoughts, ideas, edits, updates, etc. We will do our best to accommodate!
JOINED THE WEBSITE AND WANT TO KNOW MORE?
The office has developed a Membership and Website Guide available in the Quick Links Menu and in the Form and Guide Center. We strongly recommend reviewing this guide as it provides information about new features of the website and how to use the new Join Form. This guide will continue to be updated as changes are made to the website.
We also recommend you review the new Calendar . Stay up to date on all events, webinars, office announcements and more using this new feature.
The new system provides automated reminders, announcements, etc. Keep an eye out for all communications in your inbox!
LIBRARY SKILLS ACADEMY
Registration is now open for our Library Skill Academy. This program is open to individuals already working or newly hired in libraries, or people interested in working in public and academic libraries. There are no materials required to be collected in advance of the first program. All required materials will be distributed at each session. To receive a certificate, participants must attend all sessions within the program.
Sessions will be held on Tuesdays from 9:30 AM – 11:30 AM. The deadline to register for this program is FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2024.
For more information about registration and this program please visit the NYLA website.
2024 CONFERENCE NEWS
Leadership at Every Level: Fund-Protect-Empower
This year's conference will be in-person at the Oncenter in Syracuse, New York on November 6-9.
The time is now to recognize that all library workers are leaders! Let's work together across our sections and roundtables as we strive towards sustainable funding; empowering library workers to advocate for their libraries and the communities they serve; and protecting our workers and institutions from continued assaults on intellectual freedom. Our academic, public, school and special libraries, and the people that work and volunteer in them, are the mentors and protectors of the core values of our profession.
Let's come together during our 2024 Annual Conference to not only network, but to support each other and continue growing and learning as leaders who show our communities that libraries are welcoming places for everyone, and that every story deserves to be heard!
Registration is now OPEN!
Register today to take advantage of our Early Bird rates. These will be available until September 1st. Please note, to take advantage of member rates, you must have active membership in the system.
NYLA does not provide bulk registration options for organizational members. We require all members login to the registration form using their personal profile credentials to submit their registration form. New users will establish an account by entering their email on the login page.
Members that have their organization pay for their registration fee, can submit their registration form and select the “Invoice Me” option for payment. This checkout option will create an invoice and an email field will be provided where the registrant can provide the contact of their billing entity. Registration and invoice information will also be available in each registrant’s profile.
REMINDER All presenters must register for the event. The discount code for this year's event was included in the speaker agreement you were provided. Primary presenters are responsible for making sure their co-presenters receive this information.
More information about our registration can be found on our website.
Looking to register, but you would like to see what this year’s conference will be offering?
Check out the Conference Schedule for all meetings, programming, special events and more!
2024 Scholarship Bash
Join us on Thursday, November 7, 2024, from 7PM - 9PM as your fellow librarians use their wit, intelligence, and improv abilities to deliver hilarious and unscripted PowerPoint presentations – karaoke-style! We’ll have a panel of esteemed library world judges ranking the presentations and handing out cool prizes. Attendees must purchase a ticket to attend. Tickets will be sold at the registration desk prior to the event, but not at the door, so get your tickets ahead of time! All money raised from this event will benefit the NYLA Scholarship Fund, so you can help us put the FUN in fund!
TICKET PRICING
Scholarship Bash Ticket (No Food and Beverage Included) - $25
Scholarship Bash Ticket (Food and Beverage Wristband Included)- $45
On Site Ticket - $50
Hotel Accommodations
Conference hotel accommodation information is now available on the conference website. We have contracted with several properties that range from $146- $149 a night. We strongly suggest booking your room accommodation as soon as possible to be included in one of our blocks.
Calling all Volunteers!
The office is looking for volunteers to assist with this year’s event. Anyone interested in assisting at the event and getting a discounted conference registration, should submit a form today! Questions can be directed to Anna Varney at [email protected].
NYLA First Time Conference Stipends and Empire State Academic Scholarships – Applications now OPEN!
Interested students can find more information about each scholarship on thewebsite.
Know an organization, business or someone looking to be a sponsor at our event?
Sponsorship Opportunities are now available on the conference website!
Attendees who would like to receive CE past the deadline, should complete all required form and submit a request by email to [email protected]. There will be a $10 administrative fee required.
Just a reminder for all membership, finance and general association inquiries to [email protected] and all event and continuing education inquiries to [email protected].
As always, we appreciate your continued membership with NYLA and stay tuned for more operational updates in the October edition of The NYLA Voice!
Hello, NYLA Members!
As we advance through August and enjoy the late summer weather that it brings, the 2024 legislative session is now two months behind us. In those two months, NYLA has been busy with efforts to secure Governor Hochul’s signature on NYLA priorities that passed the legislature this session, including our Library Construction Aid Update Bill S.7093-A/A.9076-A, and setting our community up for success in the coming 2025 Legislative Session.
With respect to 2024 priorities, NYLA has communicated with the Division of Budget and the Executive Chamber to seek swift action from Governor Hochul on S.7903-A/A.9076-A. Those efforts have been complemented by over 1,300 NYLA members sending Governor Hochul emails and calling her office to demand her approval of the legislation as soon as possible. While we have not secured final action yet, NYLA will keep pressure on all appropriate parties until it occurs. Likewise, we will continue to support all other NYLA-backed bills waiting to be called to the Governor’s desk, including those extending DASNY Eligibility to several libraries across New York and those meant to address portions of Civil Service headaches experienced in our profession and others.
Looking forward to 2025, this summer NYLA has worked to forge new connections with groups both in government and beyond who can help further the budgetary and legislative aims of New York’s library community. We are currently collaborating with elements of the Executive Chamber, Higher Education Services Corporation, Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency on projects that will bring us closer to those groups, crate new opportunities for libraries, and better position ourselves for success when the legislature returns to Albany in January. We are also working to expand our circle of allied organizations, associations, unions, non-governmental partners, etc. to strengthen the coalitions supporting our efforts at the Capitol.
Next week, NYLA’s Legislative Committee will convene in Guilderland to finalize priorities for next year’s legislative session and plan for the coming year. FY 2026 budget conversations have already begun, and should you have any thoughts or considerations pertaining to potential priorities that you would like considered for inclusion in NYLA’s official list, please do not hesitate to contact me or to speak with your representatives on the Legislative Committee to ask them to bring them up during our next meeting.
Thank you to all of you for your continuing advocacy efforts and I look forward to working with you this fall as we lay the groundwork for legislative success in 2025!
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Kerrie Burch Receives 2024 SLSA Distinguished Service Award NYS School Library Systems Association (SLSA) selected Kerrie Burch, the WSWHE BOCES school library system coordinator, to receive the 2024 SLSA Distinguished Service Award (DSA) in recognition of her outstanding contribution to school librarians and the School Library Systems Association of New York. SLSA presents its Distinguished Service Award annually. The person selected has shown exemplary performance in the following areas: professional leadership, professional service, information sharing, collaboration, quality programs and creative service. Rebecca Gerald, 2024 SLSA Distinguished Service Award Chair, said, “Kerrie has genuinely stood out in her role at SLSA. Her exceptional leadership skills, effective communication, and dedication to fostering a collaborative environment have been instrumental in the association's success. Kerrie excels in all the required areas for the DSA award. She's a strong presence and fights for what she believes is best.” The NYS School Librarians honored Kerrie on Friday, May 17th, at the annual Knickerbocker Awards Banquet in Lake Placid, NY. SLSA presented her with the physical award at their Leadership Institute in Saratoga Springs, NY on June 11. The WSWHE BOCES is proud to congratulate Ms. Burch for this prestigious award. |
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Amber Gagliardi named 2024 Library Jouranal Mover & Shaker Amber Gagliardi, Adult Services Librarian, has been named a 2024 Mover & Shaker by Library Journal for her creativity and innovation in librarianship.In addition to Literacy programs, the Adult Summer Reading Club, Crafting for a Cause, Me Time: A Friday Fun Series, and all of the wonderful Take & Makes and crafting programs she has worked tirelessly to bring to the patrons at MCPL, Amber spearheaded the development of the MCPL Seed Library and has become one of the forces behind the Long Island Seed Libraries and Seed Libraries Roundtable. Through her work, Amber has strengthened the library’s partnerships with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County, Hobbes Farm, and the Pollinator Pathways Project, inspiring and encouraging innumerable unique library services and programs. |
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Joyce Maguda Publishes Children's Book Joyce Maguda, retired Eden Library Director, has published a children’s book. Mister Turkey’s Song is available at Amazon.com and NFBPublishing.com. In this retelling, Mister Turkey finds a way to enjoy his own Thanksgiving Day. Sheet music and QR Code are included. |
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The Power of Social Listening
As I’ve said here before, it’s no secret that social media is a great tool that can help us connect with our library communities. As librarians and social media managers, we know all about the challenges and the fun quirks that some of these platforms can have. Enter social listening – keeping an ear out for online chatter about your library! Consider it like having a superpower that can help change the game on how you interact with your patrons and add to how you can go about changing and/or improving your services, spaces, etc.
Social listening goes beyond simply tracking direct interactions. It involves monitoring mentions, keywords, and trends related to your library across the platforms you are using. By listening to what your patrons are saying, even when not directly tagged, you can gain valuable insights into community perceptions, needs, and experiences.
Why Social Listening Matters for Your Library
- Better Patron Engagement: by actively listening to your patrons, you can respond to their needs and concerns more effectively. Engaging in real time can foster a sense of community and trust, showing that feedback is valued.
- Service Improvement: a lot of folks are very open with their feedback and feelings on social media. In that regard, social media can be a goldmine for understanding which services are working well and which need some attention. If patrons are frequently discussing difficulties finding study spaces or accessing certain resources, you are now primed with the information to help address these issues proactively.
- Effective Crisis Management: social listening allows you to quickly identify and respond to potential crises. Whether it’s a negative comment about an upcoming event or a broader issue affecting the library, you can manage and mitigate its impact online before it escalates. Make sure that your response is in line with your social media policy though!
- Strategic Content Creation: understanding what content resonates with your community helps to tailor your social strategy. If you notice a growing interest in specific topics, you can create content that better aligns with those interests, thus driving more engagement.
- Building a Strong Community: simply by participating in conversations and recognizing your patrons’ voices, you can build a more inclusive and engaged community. Celebrating a patron’s achievements or contributions can make them feel valued and connected. For example – sharing about the student researcher that just won an award – that student is frequently in the library using library resources to aid in their research.
To effectively utilize the power of social listening, consider the following strategies:
- Monitoring Tools: take advantage of free, “freemium”, or premium tools like Hootsuite, Sprout Social, or Google Alerts to track mentions and keywords related to your library. These tools can help you stay updated in real time and manage your social media accounts more effectively.
- Data Analysis: regularly analyze the data collected from your accounts to identify trends, measure sentiment, and understand the broader narrative about your library – remember you don’t always define your brand, the community does. This analysis should inform your decision-making and strategic planning.
- Proactive Engagement: make it a priority to respond to mentions and engage in conversations with your community where it makes sense. Acknowledging positive feedback and addressing concerns shows that you are listening and that you care. Make sure that your engagement aligns with your social media policy and that you are only engaging in spaces that make sense for you to engage in. For example – if students are on Reddit talking about the libraries openly and honestly, I would rather them keep an open conversation there and be a fly on the wall. I can still use the information gathered there to inform decisions and actions.
- Departmental Collaboration: share social insights with different departments within your library. A collaborative approach can ensure that everyone is informed and can contribute.
Here are some best practices to help you as you start to use social listening:
- Set Clear Goals: define what you want to achieve with social listening. Are you looking to improve patron satisfaction, strengthen services, or manage the reputation of your library? Clear goals will always help to guide your efforts.
- Be Consistent: regularly monitor social channels to stay on top of conversations. Consistency is key to capturing real-time insights and being able to respond promptly.
- Stay Authentic: be genuine and authentic when you do engage. Personalized responses and a conversational tone can make your community feel more connected to the library.
- Learn & Adapt: use any insights you gain from social listening to adapt your strategies. Continuous learning and adaptation are pivotal for staying relevant and meeting the ever-changing needs of your community.
Social listening can be an invaluable tool to help deepen community connections. Let’s embrace the power of social listening to create more impactful, community-driven libraries. As always, happy creating!
The next series of articles I will write will discuss morale in the library and how I’ve related it to gaming. The library where I work has been very supportive, allowing me to organize unorthodox events with the staff to help boost morale—a common issue in many libraries. Our library has always aimed to foster a sense of camaraderie between departments by encouraging staff to join committees and collaborate on joint programs and projects.
As someone interested in gaming, I have tried to introduce a sense of fun into the workplace to bring together people who might not typically interact, giving them a common activity to enjoy. My most successful project to date was an adaptation of the TV show The Amazing Race. For those unfamiliar, The Amazing Race features pairs of partners competing in challenges that take them around the world. I aimed to preserve the spirit of the show by incorporating many international-themed challenges. With the help of my assistant director, Jennifer Bollerman, we divided the 28 participating staff members into teams of two. These teams were carefully crafted to pair individuals who would not normally interact during their daily routines.
Once the pairs were formed, I held an introduction day to explain the game format. Each week, there would be either an online challenge in the form of a Kahoot quiz—an online trivia game that allows users to create multiple-choice questions—or a live, in-person competition. Kahoot enables live games or assignments, allowing participants to complete them at their leisure. The team with the lowest score each week would be eliminated. To soften the blow, every team received a prize upon elimination, with the prizes becoming increasingly valuable. For example, the 14th-place team received a fake money bill with my face on it, courtesy of our Graphics Department and Makerspace. From there, the prizes improved, including PML Amazing Race Coasters, drink cozies, and culminating in gift cards donated by our Union for the 4th- to 1st-place teams. The Kahoot trivia consisted of 10-15 multiple-choice questions focusing on a specific country, such as Ecuador or Greece. I aimed to cover every continent and make the questions a mix of pop culture (e.g., TV shows set in that country) and geographical facts. For the in-person competitions, I organized a variety of physical games, such as cornhole, where the team with the lowest score would be eliminated.
For the first challenge, I decided to organize a scavenger hunt and hide flags around the library. Each team had to find ten flags, but with only 130 flags hidden, there weren't enough for all the teams. The team that found the fewest flags would be eliminated. The program was ready to begin, and I gathered the staff in the Staff Room for an introductory meeting. I had no idea what was about to transpire and how rough the start of the game would be. To be continued in my next article…
Do you enjoy difficult conversations? Do you live for confrontation? Are you completely ok with explaining to a member of the public that you may not be able to fulfill a need, or telling an employee that part of their job needs improvement? If so, you are a stronger person than I am. This is one of the most challenging aspects of my job and I don’t think I realized how often I would need to do this when I became a director. I think it’s just as hard to be the person delivering information than it is to be the person receiving it. It’s like interviewing – people usually don’t know that the interviewer is just as nervous as the interviewee.
What I try to remember before these conversations is that they are almost never as bad as I imagine they will be. As the saying goes, “Anxiety is like paying interest on a debt you may never owe.”
A member of the public generally accepts an answer when it is provided by a second or third person; they also have the option to write to the Board or attend a meeting. It’s amazing how many times someone wants to vent but then doesn’t follow through on those next steps.
Performance reviews are another area that provokes high anxiety. It’s so different from speaking with a disgruntled member of the public because these are the people we work with every day. Staff members are asked to provide a self-evaluation before their review; it is remarkable how often they recognize what the issues are, especially if they have been discussed during the year, as they should be, but it still isn’t easy.
I have a few principles that I use for performance reviews:
- The employee has a chance to review the evaluation before we discuss it.
- Nothing should be a surprise.
- It isn’t personal.
- It is not punitive, but rather a discussion meant for development and growth.
- It’s a two-way conversation and the employee has the opportunity to provide a written response after the discussion.
From the television classic Rugrats comes the wisdom that “I’m a big brave dog.” I’ve tried repeating that to myself before hard conversations and it does seem to help. If Chucky Finster could be a big brave dog, so can I. I asked some other directors for their advice on tough conversations, whether related to performance reviews or day to day issues. And I got responses from…three people. Clearly, this is hard for a lot of people in leadership positions. If you have suggestions, I would love to hear them. You can write to me at [email protected].
In Dare to Lead, Brené Brown writes: “Daring leaders say the unsaid, unsurface what’s been pushed down, and bring to light the stuff that’s the in corners and shadows.” This may be some of the scariest advice I’ve read, but it is also true.
This article will be back in the October issue.
There are some indications that library partnerships are the way of the future. Basing this observation on the success of the Suffolk Summer Library Tour, which demonstrates people are interested in what's going on at libraries outside of their own district, and partnership programs such as our own zone libraries, Taylor Swift Laser Light Show held at the Vanderbilt Museum and Planetarium. It would seem imaginary barriers are crumbling. Good. Additionally, if your program attendance is down - you may want to consider partnering with one or more libraries. Or, if you have a recurring program that is very successful and ready to grow - you may want to consider partnering with one or more libraries.
On the one hand, we’ve very much gone global as far as consciousness, awareness of trends and technology, politics, etc., thanks to social media. On the other hand, there is a focus, an altruistic effort to “shop local” and nurture immediate community. Where do the macro and micro-communities meet? And how can libraries accommodate? You may have a community of patrons from several different libraries. None alone may be big enough to warrant an entire program or series of programs (the costs, the space, the time and effort, etc.) - yet combined, you’d have a formidable group that could only enhance the library and community experience as a whole, and to each participating library individually. Now may be the time we should be considering partnerships with neighboring libraries for everything from gaming programs, to community service. I’m positive that, to some extent, the majority of you reading this have already dipped your toe in these waters or are currently wading out into deeper trends and more permanent programming patterns. We can globalize and still maintain our local identities. We can share the costs, the patronage, and the stats to build specialized communities of interest - no matter how fleeting a given community (or trend) can be. If we seek to improve the quality of experience, while maintaining the quantity of participants - we’d do worse than to start focusing on partnership programs today.
I became a full-time Adult Services Librarian in July of 2020 during the pandemic. One of the programs that I began that year was the Brown Bag Book Club. It was meant to be one hour of Zoom at lunchtime for people that needed a break from work or for people who couldn’t come to our other book clubs in person. Over the past four years, the book club has averaged about eight to fifteen people, some from the immediate area and others from far flung places, like Chicago and Washington DC.
Brown Bag has become known for its eclectic choices in books. I believe that partly comes from me, who reads just about every genre and the range of ages between our twenty-something couple to our eighty-eight-year-old widow. This new book club also needed a different theme. We have a bestseller club, a mystery club, and an evening club for younger working people. Brown Bag needed a niche. When I say we’re eclectic, I mean books like Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Nineteen Minute by Jodi Picoult, Tainted Moonlight by Erin Kelly (a talented local author who writes stories about werewolves), Dead Wake by Eric Larson, and Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, just to name a few.
With variety in mind, I must find books that are interesting and usually not current bestsellers. As every librarian knows, trying to get enough books for a book club while there are two hundred holds on it, is nearly impossible. So every year in August, I add fifty or sixty books to my already long list of possible book club additions. Among those fifty or sixty are maybe ten books I can offer to the group. There are multiple reasons for this.
We need to have enough copies of a book, so everyone has one to read, a month before the meeting. This takes a little planning. I have a great clerk that sets up the holds and keeps track of what comes in. Having enough books limits what the group can read. That knocks out books like the one I wanted to read at Christmas titled Marley by John Clinch. It has good reviews and sounds like an interesting take on A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. We can’t get enough copies to cover even the eight or so people I have in my group. Other book clubs have twenty or more readers. That makes choosing books a lesson in book counts – how many are available at one time?
Also, everybody has a particular format they like. We usually have four or five regular print readers, at least one or two large print, at least two who like audiobooks on CD, an e-book reader and an audio streaming listener. Most of the time, I can get away with not having a copy on CD if it is available in streaming audio. Even then I might have to ask my audio listeners if they would read something that the group is especially interested in instead of listening. They are amazingly understanding and flexible.
To get those fifty or sixty books, I delve into the “Best of ...” lists for each year, like New York Times, Publisher’s Weekly, Good Housekeeping, The Booker Prizes, Amazon, The New Yorker, Good Reads, and NPR – just to name a few. The list of fifty or sixty books gets added to my spreadsheet, but they aren’t offered as book club options yet. This is where I get help. Taking that list, we look up in our system-wide OPAC and see how many of each format is available. Books with fewer than eight regular prints or no audiobook are immediately deleted. If they have all the formats but an audiobook on CD or large print, it may or may not stay on the list, depending on the reviews of the book and whether it would be interesting to the group.
Book clubs are usually populated by heavy readers, obviously, but also a lot of retired folks. With Brown Bag, the group does contain some retirees, but we also have a few thirty-fifty-somethings, professionals and homemakers, and a variety of ethnic backgrounds and geographic areas, a bit of a micro-representation of our community. This is advantageous for me to have monthly discussions, so I can learn more about the community I work in.
Just as an aside, I was nervous about running a book club back in 2020. I had never created or facilitated one, nor have I been in one as a participant for any length of time. I’m fortunate that the group was willing to discuss just about anything related to that month’s book and compare the book to their own experiences. Now in its fourth year, prep work for each meeting has gotten more routine and I look forward to the discussion. I take copious notes during the meeting, so I can think about what was said and use it to further learn about the people I serve.
Book clubs, while old-school in many ways, have come around to being a useful barometer for the community I live in.
This article will be back in the October issue.
This article will be back in the October issue.
Stop and Smell the Library
“There are two perfumes to a book. If a book is new, it smells great. If a book is old, it smells even better. It smells like ancient Egypt. A book has got to smell.” — Ray Bradbury
What should the library smell like?
The obvious answer is, of course, books. But how do we describe this smell?
It might be easier if a book’s perfume matched the very story it tells. Then Moby Dick would stink of sea air and sweaty shipmates, Pride and Prejudice would fill each breath with the gardens of Pemberley, and The Sun Also Rises would have an overwhelming olfactory profile of Spanish afternoons and alcohol on the breath.
Unfortunately, the actual smell of a book isn’t based on genre or plot and can be hard to describe. What we smell is the breakdown of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the paper, ink, and other materials our books are made from. It’s the smell of books decomposing.
Most of us bibliophiles can’t get enough of that old book smell. That’s why you find everything from candles to perfume that claim to recreate the aroma, so you can take it with you anywhere—it no longer has to be tied to a library or even a book itself. But in order to capture this smell, researchers and scientists need to pinpoint what it is that makes our nostrils tingle with joy.
“A combination of grassy notes with a tang of acids and a hint of vanilla over an overlying mustiness,” is how Matija Strlič, a professor of heritage science and analytical chemistry, described it in a 2009 article he co-authored on the material degradation of historic paper. This may be a general profile for the odor decomposing books give off, but it’s also true that no two books smell (or age) the same. The way a book degrades is tied to its “biography,” Strlič et al.’s article points out, which includes its composition, interventions made to restore it, and past and present environments.
Some of the world’s oldest and most famous texts would make an interesting bouquet if they were put together on a shelf. The 1217 version of the Magna Carter housed at the Bodleian Library in England smells of beach sand, moist wheat bread, and old socks. The scent of Shakespeare’s first folio, apparently, is thought to have traces of moldy furniture and cherries. As for the Dead Sea Scrolls? It’s a stench best not described.
When we try to put this book smell into words, it makes you wonder what makes it so appealing. The importance of having a vocabulary for describing the odor is so librarians and archivists can identify degradation and make a conservation plan. But it also gives us a way to conserve the smell, which could lead to more multisensory cultural experiences.
In a 2017 article for Heritage Science, Strlič and scientist Cecilia Bembibre present an odor wheel of the historic book they developed to help professionals map aromas to the VOCs causing them. Decaying paper, for example, has a scent of chocolate or coffee because they share many compounds. To find the right descriptors to place in the wheel, Strlič and Bembibre asked visitors to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and the Wren Library at St. Paul’s Cathedral to evaluate their sensory experiences. Not only did visitors use descriptors like “woody,” “burnt,” or “earthy,” but they also commented on their “pleasantness.” Our sense of smell is so personal that, it seems, no matter how objective a tool like an odor wheel aims to make describing a smell, it’s still based on descriptions rooted in subjectivity.
But the pleasantness and intensity of a space’s odor is important to how visitors experience it. Part of Bembibre and Strlič’s research was to find how historic smells could enhance a museum exhibit or library. If I expected the New York Public Library’s beautiful reading rooms to smell like mahogany and bound leather books, think how productive my research might be if the library were able to enhance that smell of old academic knowledge.
Book lovers, I’ll admit, tend to romanticize everything about them. Ray Bradbury declared that a book has to smell and described the perfume of an old book as smelling of “ancient Egypt.” Whatever that smells like. But this column isn’t about whether a book should smell—should a library?
Regulating smells in libraries, especially public libraries, is often discussed in academic articles, case laws, and even online forums. Only these discussions around “disturbing” smells in the library are never about books but people. Many U.S. public libraries have rules that ban people with “offensive” body odor from the space. This means that a library can choose to ask a patron with body odor to leave if another patron complains that the smell is disturbing, offensive, or otherwise unpleasant.
These hygiene policies, as they’re known, are typically criticized for being anti-homeless, as the Joint Free Library in Morristown, New Jersey, used its policy to ban a patron experiencing homelessness in the 1980s. The patron filed suit in the Federal District Court of NJ and won, but the ruling was overturned in the Federal Court of Appeal because a library is considered a public forum, and its rules don’t violate First Amendment rights. People experiencing homelessness aren’t the only targets of such hygiene policies—it also “demonizes people with odor-related disabilities,” as Nat Lazakis shows in his 2020 article published in the Journal of Radical Librarianship.
Lazakis directs our attention to how these rules equate all body odor with poor hygiene, and these odors need to be controlled and eliminated when they encounter the library.
The problem with these rules isn’t just that what smells are pleasant or unpleasant is subjective, but that they empower patrons to ban each other in pursuit of an odorless space. People are not odorless, and sometimes how we smell is not in our control. Sometimes they’re temporary like when we sweat or step in dog poop, and sometimes they’re indicative of a permanent condition. The librarian’s dilemma is how to protect all patrons, and it might come down to knowing when a smell is hazardous or when someone’s odor is no one else’s business.
What is apparent to any public-facing library worker is that digital literacy is generally poor, and asking a patron to interact with any technology they are not already familiar with is a daunting task. For the patron, it's an emotional investment to engage with a new system, software, or technology where there is a high probability they will fail, at least at first. For the librarian, it falls on them to manage those feelings while fostering a sense of independence and confidence. I have made an effort to observe and lightly catalog these interactions, noting what type of misconception I needed to address for the patron to complete their task satisfactorily and, ideally, learn something new. Here are preliminary notes.
The Magic Box:
Some patrons think anything that happens on the computer is connected. If you sign into the computer, all their relevant and personal information should be available readily. This patron does not understand that the internet is subject to the laws, quirks, and competitions of offline marketplaces. They may require an explanation of why Facebook and eBay are separate entities, even though the Facebook marketplace sells the same item as eBay. Many people, information workers included, have an idealized vision of the internet as a box of magic, nebulous and traversable in a way it rarely is. Frustrations can be eased by pointing out the nature of the attention economy and that the first or flashiest result might not be the best one.
The Internet of Paper:
A patron may be superimposing the world of print and paper onto the universe of ones and zeros. This patron might benefit from an explanation of the "live" nature of the internet. What appears in one search might change; formatting is specific to a webpage and will probably change if you need to move it. I have watched people painstakingly adjust windows, as if they are reading the script in a tiny pool of light, and are excited to learn you can bookmark, minimize, and tab around. Unlike physical media, technology can be instantly customizable to suit a person’s preferences. Many problems are solved by teaching someone how to brighten their screen or adjust the magnification of their screen.
The Bad Place:
Some people just hate the internet or fear what they think the internet is and refuse to use it. Of course, there are valid legal, social, and ethical criticisms to make of every part of it. This is the most difficult type of patron to serve, as more and more information goes virtual only. The migration to the web is leaving internet-phobic people and their information needs behind. When working with a patron like this, be as helpful as possible while acknowledging the limitations of our library and our systems.
Thanks to one of my professors at Syracuse, I subscribe to Library Link of the Day, which brings a recent news story, video clip, or blurb about libraries to my inbox each day. It keeps me knowledgeable of the Library World happenings all over the country, even internationally. But there are times when I want to unsubscribe. The articles have become increasingly depressing, and sometimes there are too many depressing articles in a row, and I feel burnt out with displaced compassion. What had begun as a method of staying informed about my profession has spiraled into constant reminders of how libraries across the country are under attack by misinformed patrons and state representatives. With each article is the (unintentional) threat that your workplace–you–could be next.
If you don’t subscribe to Library Link of the Day, think of many of the articles as the episode that Last Week Tonight aired on libraries and censorship in May. I’m sure many of us sat there with our significant others, family members, friends, or pets, and nodded along to the facts he stated–or, if you’re like me, elaborated on them–and watched in horror as the fears we all have became a reality for other libraries. As with all other episodes, John Oliver provided tips for making this better, but I was still left feeling rather hopeless, as I often do with Library Link of the Day. After all, many of us are dealing with those same issues discussed in the episode. We are facing material and program challenges, board elections with candidates who can harm the library, and violent threats. On top of that, libraries are increasingly dealing with patrons who push our boundaries in hopes of a reaction, who want to know where our political allegiances lie so they can know if we are friend or foe, patrons who may film our reactions and post them online to attract attention to us.
I wanted to use this column to talk about how we may fix our problems, but I don’t know how to fix an ongoing culture war. What I can try to combat is this worsening dread we’re all feeling, and I’ll do this the only way I know how: with information. Let’s remember that it’s not all bad. The age-old saying, “if it bleeds, it leads” applies to the library world too. We are only hearing about the controversies and scary bills. We’re not necessarily hearing when scary bills fail. According to EveryLibrary, of the 128 “library-adverse” bills proposed this year, only 7 (5%) have been signed into law, and roughly 102 are considered “dead.” In 2023, 158 library-adverse bills were proposed and only 22 (14%) passed.
So why are only a small percentage of these bills becoming law? Library Journal proposes a few reasons. For one, these bills welcome lawsuits, and lawsuits are an expensive and time-consuming undertaking for a state. Last year, Texas passed House Bill 900, which required book vendors to provide a rating for every book sold in Texas. Almost immediately publishers sued the state, and this bill is still in a temporary injunction. Another reason is that some state legislative sessions are too short to consider any bills that aren’t a priority. Some bills are also a pet project of a single representative, or are considered “cut and paste legislation,” borrowing language from other states’ bills doesn’t apply universally.
To further combat the dread, plenty of “pro-library” bills have been proposed in a number of states (including New York), and seven pro-library bills were sworn into law in 2023. This year, Vermont passed Senate Bill 220, which makes threatening public library staff a criminal offense, requires that all libraries enact a policy for reviewing challenged materials, and prohibits schools from removing materials due to the identity of authors or characters or due to discomfort felt by a member of the public or school board staff. It effectively places the authority of collection development solely into the hands of library staff. This bill can, and hopefully will, serve as a model for other states, as many of the protections it ensures are focused on the major threats we are facing in libraries. 76 other bills have been proposed this year, and 10 (including Vermont’s) have been signed into law.
The thing that seems to have the biggest sway with these bills is advocacy. When you read about Moms for Liberty, Citizens Defending Freedom, or similar groups backing bills, they and their members are putting enormous pressure (and funding) on their representatives to do their job and represent the will of their constituents. They’re organized and aggressive with their campaigns, effectively silencing opposition, so it can be difficult to remember that these groups represent only a small subsection of Americans. The vast majority of Americans oppose censorship. The ALA, EveryLibrary, Fight For the First, and many small, grassroots efforts are putting oppositional pressure on representatives to represent not just one subset of the population and to understand the long-term effects of these “library-adverse” policies. Defense for Democracy, which is based in Duchess County, has chapters across the country stepping up against Moms for Liberty. If you have the time, this School Library Journal article discusses how to set up your own grassroots organization.
It may not be perfect, but this is where we are. There are a lot of reasons to want to curl up in a ball and hope the bad just goes away. But, even if you have to look a little harder for them, there are many good things happening in the Library World. Libraries, librarians, and diverse books are both wanted and needed in America. Hopefully this column has helped shine a much needed light on the good things, and we can begin to combat that ever-present fear we’ve all been feeling.
This article will be back in the October issue.
It’s Con Season! What are you doing?
What a convention year it is! San Diego Comic-Con gave us a slew of trailers, including DC fare like The Penguin and Creature Commandos; we heard about Transformers One from Paramount and Hasbro, and Robert Downey Jr. broke Hall H when Marvel was announced the new Doctor Doom in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe). Everyone’s favorite serial killer, Dexter, is getting a new life as a prequel series, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is heading to Paramount Plus and have a new video game and movie forthcoming. Korean media continues dominating the pop culture landscape, inspiring comics news source Comics Beat to launch Kcomicsbeat.com to the delight of WEBTOON fans everywhere.
At GenCon, Wizards of the Coast finally revealed its virtual tabletop, Project Sigil (big news for Baldur’s Gate fans); and D&D sourcebooks are getting an overhaul. Star Trek fans rejoiced at the news that we’re getting a Lower Decks card game, there was a Mass Effect board game demo, and the Arkham Horror card game is getting a Cthulhu expansion. New York Comic Con is up next, and who knows what more announcements await us?
It’s a good time to be a pop culture-loving librarian. A little bit of creativity is all you need to bring the excitement of the season to the library. You’re the pop culture pro, right?
- Check your socials and start following key people you’re interested in: creators, publishers, game designers, even other libraries! You’ll know what’s coming and it will help you keep your collection current and your programs interesting while maximizing what you have available.
- What’s coming up? People love a road map. Bookmarks and foldable brochures are so easy to make on Canva; show them a reading pathway so they can figure out where to start reading different comic storylines, especially when storylines have been retconned time and again.
- With all the hype behind Deadpool and Wolverine, you can simply put out some Deadpool and Wolverine trade paperbacks and call it a day, but why? Add some fun word bubbles to your signage or have some Wolvie-type claws sticking up from a book. SNIKT.
- Where are your WEBTOON displays? Get ‘em front and center and put up some Staff Picks to help new readers navigate different titles.
- Video and tabletop gaming programs are always a great place to test drive new games; can you recruit some of your regulars to set up tables and teach a few games, con-style?
The most important thing of all? Have fun with it! Email me at [email protected] if you want to shout out what you’re doing at your library!
ARE YOU READY FOR IT? Yes, this is a Taylor Swift reference. Why? Because I had a very successful Taylor Swift party at my library in July. I had 150 attendees and was interviewed by two different news stations. I have a lot of patrons who love Taylor so I thought it would be fun to have a summer party all about Taylor Swift. I was also thinking that since many patrons can not afford to see her Eras tour, this would be a great way to celebrate her and her amazing music.
The main activity was friendship bracelets. The kids had so much fun making bracelets and trading them with one another. We also had a scavenger hunt based on Taylor’s songs. I had one song from every album that was missing a lyric. The missing lyric was a clue to where I had a paper Taylor hidden. For example, from the album Fearless, I had the lyric “_______take me somewhere we can be alone.” The missing lyric was Romeo, and the paper Taylor was hidden in a graphic novel adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. This activity was not only fun but also helped my patrons discover new items in the library!
Since there would be a lot of people attending, I figured I should have food for them. Since I love puns almost as much as I love Taylor, I had food and drinks based on her songs with a fun twist. I had a cheese and cracker platter with a sign saying, “You Belong with Cheese.”
I ordered chicken wings from Wegmans (everyone knows Wegmans, right?) and had a signing saying, “This is Why we can’t have Nice Wings.” I also made a Bad Blood punch, which was very popular despite accidentally getting all the wrong ingredients. I was supposed to get Cranberry Juice and got Cranapple juice, and instead of frozen limeade, I bought frozen lemonade! The only correct ingredient I bought was Sprite. Even though I bought the wrong items, it still tasted really good, maybe even better than what the actual recipe was supposed to be!
Was I exhausted after the event? Yes. But was it worth it? Yes!! The patrons had so much fun, they made new music and I got to listen to Taylor Swift all day! Almost all the kids and their caregivers thanked me for having this and told me how much fun it was. So again yes, it was 100% worth it. (It also helped knowing I would be seeing Taylor live in Munich in a few weeks. She was amazing - best concert ever!)
Following up on last time with all those differences in communication, let's focus on the nonverbal communications that happen in meetings and any other time we are not alone. Let's look at the use and concept of time to start. Time, in these instances, can relate to the use of time, punctuality, drop-in versus scheduled, to RSVP or not to RSVP, and more. Let's start with small talk, one of the things as a neurodivergent person I just don't get. I know to some of you that small talk isn't something we always want to start with. This can be a cultural preference, where their norm and your norm are not the same. Should we start with small talk or jump right into the purpose of the meeting/program? Are icebreakers necessary? There are patrons who come to the desk, or to any interaction, and they start off with 'hi, how are you, how are the kids' and so on before they get to the point of their contact. Or in the supermarket, when some people chat with the cashier and others just stand and try to get out as fast as possible. Is this being prying into your private life, or is this being polite? How much do you ask of the patron or staff member before asking why they approached you? Are they more likely to return if you remember to ask about the last book they took out or the medical procedure they mentioned, or would they rather you just got to the point? When running into a colleague, do you stop and talk about the weather first, or do you go right into the work-related question? Do you greet each person as they pass (hello / goodbye), or do you only do so when they say it to you first, or do you always have a conversation?
Having worked in retail, I remember having to greet each and every person who came in, and as a person who goes into stores, I encounter this more and more. While this is intended to help create a welcoming atmosphere, quite honestly, I find it annoying and more likely to send me back out without getting anything. There are others who want to be approached and appreciate the efforts so that they do not have to go hunting for someone and feel as if they are a burden. Which is the right way to go? So confusing. There has been talk of some stores around the world having color-coded baskets, for example, white if the customer wants to be approached and black if they do not. I would LOVE this, but it's not a common practice yet. So, how to know? It's hard to figure out, especially since you don't have any cues from the interaction to go by. Some, if you ask them, "How are you?" will feel compelled to stop and converse with you, while others will ignore you and keep going about their business. I've become accustomed to a 'hello' or 'good morning' or 'welcome' and sometimes 'how are you?' if they slow down or acknowledge me. Otherwise, I just let them pass. But is this the best way to approach it? I'm not sure, and wish I had a better answer for you.
Small talk isn't only one-on-one. There's the issue of icebreakers or time to socialize before starting an event. Do you plan the socializing time into the program, or do you expect it to stop the minute the program is scheduled to start? Which is proper/polite? This is also hard to figure out – especially when you need to make your timeline ahead of time. How much time do you leave at the end – how long do you book the room for – the exact length of the content of the session, or with room on either end for socializing or connecting? Whether it's an information literacy session or a bridge club, the questions remain the same, although the answers might differ. This makes me think of weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs where there is a cocktail hour – is it required to attend the full cocktail hour, or is that more of a socializing opportunity where you can come early if you want to socialize before the actual event/ceremony – get the energy out (as a parent I would get the kids to be very active right before going on a long car ride – get their energy out before they had to sit still for a stretch – didn't always work, but I tried ). As this can often impact large groups of people, rather than just in a small or one-on-one setting, it is often harder to find the right answer, and sometimes I still get it wrong. Is it okay to be a little late – on either side? What about being a lot late? Is it better to be very late or just not show up or not return the item at all and avoid the library forevermore?
The concept of time ranges along a continuum from monochromic to polychromic. Do you adhere to a clock rigidly, or are you more of a relational planner, or maybe you are a spontaneous person? How long do you spend on the 'social niceties' before getting to the point of the meeting? When is it prying, and when is it being respectful? Why does no one come to 'open' hours, but they will come for an appointment – even if it is scheduled during drop-in times? Why are so many showing up without an RSVP to programming? Why are books being returned late without a care? All these questions have run through my mind, and once I learned about the time continuum, I have become a bit more understanding and a bit clearer in directions for attending programs and such. I also try to leave empty spaces at the back of the room for latecomers to be able to slip in without too much fuss, being mindful of their views of time as well, to the best of my abilities. I also, when possible, try to take my cues from the patron as to how they want to proceed at the start of the meeting – with small talk or jumping right in. While I sometimes still get impatient when a patron starts an interaction with the small talk, I try to remind myself that this is their culture's way of being polite, and rather than being impatient, I should appreciate their manners and return them in kind. And when people don't want to participate in icebreakers (and yes, I'm one of those), I need to remember that their culture might see this as a rude way to open a meeting, and I should respect their desire not to participate.
"I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date," says the White Rabbit. Is this a bad thing? Well, I always thought so until I learned more about this time continuum. Not adhering to deadlines, due dates, or punctuality has always been something that irks me. To be honest, it still does, but I hope that I have more understanding now – that it's not so much a power issue as a different sense of time. Also, I must remember that my starting on time all the time can be perceived as rude as well – rather than waiting, let's say, for a quorum to appear.
I recently spent a few days in Lake Placid and in between ice cream cones and stand up paddle boarding, I–of course–had to stop by the Lake Placid Public Library. There are so many beautiful library facilities in New York State, but situated right in the heart of a bustling Main Street with Mirror Lake in its backyard, this building is a must visit.
Everything about the Lake Placid Public Library was absolutely delightful! The expansive collection–a wonderful spread of diverse new titles and nostalgic offerings–was fun to search (and yes, I did yell “Trixie Belden!” at the Trixie Belden book on display). The Guy Brewster Hughes Art Gallery features local artists and helps to connect seasonal visitors to the past, present, and future talent of Lake Placid. Between the charming nooks and crannies inside and the breathtaking view from the Adirondack chairs on the reading porch, my time spent exploring this small library felt magical.
However, my most favorite part of the library was the Community Care Bags available free to under-resourced community members. An initiative launched at 18 libraries in the Clinton-Essex-Franklin Library System, in partnership with the Adirondack Foundation’s Generous Acts program and United Way of the Adirondack Region, the bags include toothbrushes, toothpaste, combs, shampoo, body wash, tissues, deodorant, space blankets, and menstrual products. There is also printed information about library resources to support individuals experiencing need.
The local support offered by libraries in smaller or more rural communities is often overshadowed by the efforts of bigger suburban and city libraries, but their impact is just as great. Last fall, thirty-two libraries in the OWWL Library System collected similar personal care items during The Great Give Back to donate to local food distribution sites and school groups. Some libraries used the service program to jump start their own Little Free Pantries. These types of programs and offerings center the library as a community resource and a safe space for all. They also help to forge partnerships and remove stigmatization or barriers to access for some residents.
Next time you are vacationing or visiting a new town–especially a small or rural community–I encourage you to visit their library. After you take in the collection, fun seating arrangements, local history displays, and brightly decorated Children’s Room, look deeper to the wonderful and important ways these libraries are supporting their community members. Libraries can truly create a sense of welcoming and belonging for everyone, identifying and addressing the needs of all without judgment–and that, to me, is what makes libraries truly extraordinary.
Happy August dear readers!
As we come to the end of a season, I do hope this summer has been relaxing, and, for those of you working within the children’s departments of public libraries, quick.
This past summer semester I was lucky enough to take two wonderful graduate courses, resources and services for children, and an introduction to grant writing. Since I work in two adult-based makerspaces, I found it really nice to learn about programming for children, since it allowed me the understanding of a different population, I don’t regularly get a chance to work with, (though makerspace patrons are increasingly bringing more and more children to either work on their own projects, or to sit while their adult does one).
Anyway, in regard to these summer classes, for my grant writing course, my semester-long assignment was the process of finding something I, in my own working experiences, saw a need for. After doing some intense thinking and article reading, I decided that, while amazing of a concept makerspaces are, a fundamentally missing component is accessibility training for library staff, and makerspace equipment and programming with an accessibility lens in mind.
Now accessibility training modules has never been something, I as a public library employee, have ever been told to take (vs. annual sexual harassment, active shooter, or Code Adam trainings, etc.), and mind you, these three listed trainings are, in my opinion, incredibly important, and a necessary part of annual employee requirements. However, it always eluded me as to why it's never been a part of my training, especially for a delineated space such as a makerspace, to learn how to work with someone who is neurodivergent, physically handicapped, or legally blind. At the current time, neither of the makerspaces I work at have any protocol or equipment adaptations for these populations, and many makerspaces I’ve visited in Suffolk County, do not either.
I thus made my summer course grant application assignment about a partnership with the Syracuse University-founded Project-ENABLE, (Expanding Non-discriminatory Access By Librarians Everywhere) an incredible, library-based resource offering an entire glossary of resources on different accessibility topics, as well as a free, online, self-paced series of learning modules on accessibility training for library staff. Project ENABLE’s founder, Dr. Ruth Small started the project (with IMLS funding) due to the findings of her 3-year library study on learning and motivation in NYS, where a pretty consistent finding was that most school librarians weren’t given any IEP accommodations or guidelines, nor any institutional-given resources on working with students with disabilities.
My idea for the grant was to work alongside Project ENABLE, to create an online, self-paced module on accessibility and disability awareness for makerspace library staff, as well as to create a working group of local accessibility advocacy groups and community members in creating and getting feedback on accessible modifications or additions to the average makerspace equipment list/model.
The process of writing out the steps of my idea to the format of the average IMLS-based grant was a tedious and complex one, but I learned so much on how important each step is to learn, and most importantly, the benefits of continuously checking out what IMLS and other phenomenal organizations are offering within the expansiveness of emerging technology.
Now, if you are a makerspace in NY that has an accessibility initiative within your designated design, some accessibility ideas, and/or concepts for programming, I sincerely apologize I didn’t include you in this article! I, along with many of us working in makerspaces, would also love to know what has worked for your space, and what we can learn from your process! Please feel free to post a comment to this article below, or bring up this topic within the listserv, so a true conversation can begin on how to open our makerspace doors more widely.
Until next time!
FLS creates a network to connect and inspire Friends groups in all types of libraries to support the New York library community.
A Shout Out!
Congratulations to FLS newsletter contributor Lisa C. Wemett and Judy Grattan, President of the Friends of the Poestenkill Library. Lisa’s article on Annual Appeals, in collaboration with Judy, (Friends News and Notes, July 2024, page 5) was included in the News From United for Libraries August 2024 issue—scroll down the page to Foundations & Fundraising. United for Libraries is a Division of the American Library Association serving Library Trustees, Advocates, Friends, and Foundations. It’s always great to see a reference to FLS in this national publication.
FLS Pre-Conference Session at #NYLA2024
Is your library thinking about starting a Friends group or do you need a bit of a refresher on legal requirements for Friends? If so, this Pre-Conference workshop may be just the ticket for you…
Forming Friends: The Board Game!
Wednesday, Nov 6, 1:30-4:30 pm
Come join in the fun of a new collaborative board game that takes players through all the phases and legal ins and outs of Friends groups. As many Friends and libraries know, a Friends group isn't all book sales and donations...it's planning, formal filings, accounting, and ongoing not-for-profit compliance. With all those obligations, how do we keep running a Friends group fun? Come and play "Forming Friends.” Written, designed, and presented by attorney Stephanie (Cole) Adams, she’ll take players through all the phases of Friends formation and ongoing operations. Everyone wins if a Friends-funded initiative happens in the end!
NOTE: You may register for just this program, a single day, or the whole conference. Visit the NYLA Conference page for more details on programs and registration. For more information on FLS and the NYLA Conference, see the newsletter entry below.
Friends News and Notes, July 2024
The July 2024 issue of Friends News and Notes is now available.
Inside this issue:
FLS to Host In-Person Friends Group Meet-up, Thursday, August 15, page 1
NYLA Conference FLS Preview, page 1, 3, 4
Message from the FLS President, page 2
Transformational Library Stories, page 2, 6
FLS Getting Started Workshop, page 4
Planning an Annual Appeal, page 5 (This is the article mentioned above!)
Tabling, page 6
Visit Syracuse Resources, page 6
FLS Connections! Succession Planning, page 7
2023 NFOLW Award to NY Library, page 7
FLS Board / Auxiliary Volunteers / Info, page 8
FLS Connections! Succession Planning Session Notes, page 9
Cortland Transition Document, page 13
FLS Newsletters:
Read the current issue of the FLS newsletter, Friends News and Notes, at https://www.nyla.org/friends-of-libraries-section---newsletter. (www.NYLA.org/Friends > Our Newsletter) FLS members may read past issues by clicking on Archived Issues and then logging in.
Contact FLS: [email protected] or www.NYLA.org/Friends
Rebekkah Smith Aldrich, Co-Founder & Advisory Board President, Sustainable Libraries Initiative
National Climate Action Strategy for Libraries and Implementation Guide Now Available
The Advisory Board of the Sustainable Libraries Initiative has the privilege of speaking and working with thousands of library folks from around the world about sustainability and a frequent refrain when we first meet them is: “I feel really overwhelmed.”
Climate change is an enormous problem with many root causes spread across economics, political systems, social norms, and long-standing injustice in marginalized communities. As the famous conservationist John Muir is quoted as saying, “When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.”
After a decade of work, the team at the Sustainable Libraries Initiative, along with more than 150 participants engaged in the Sustainable Library Certification Program, have identified patterns and areas of impact to help shape a national climate action strategy.
In partnership with the Executive Board of the American Library Association, the Sustainable Libraries Initiative Advisory Board undertook the urgent project to create a National Climate Action Strategy for Libraries. A working group made up of key leaders across both organizations was convened in 2023, a national survey to inform the strategy further was conducted in the first quarter of 2024. At the 2024 ALA Annual Conference in San Diego, CA – New York’s own Emily Drabinski, outgoing ALA President, announced to the 13,000 ALA members present that a National Climate Action Strategy for Libraries (NCAS) and an NCAS implementation guide were now available. This was thrilling for the members of the New York Library Association who helped found the SLI through NYLA and grow it to an international effort on the biggest stage in our profession.
The strategy itself is one page. To the point, it lists three categories of effort and specific actions to prioritize at your library:
1 | Climate Change Mitigation
Libraries align greenhouse gas emission reduction goals with those that international climate scientists and policy makers have indicated are necessary to prevent catastrophic cascading effects. This strategy recommends a goal for all libraries to reduce their institution’s greenhouse gas emissions by 43%, from 2015 levels, by 2030 and to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.[1]
2 | Climate Change Adaptation & Contributions Community Resilience
Libraries adopt both internal disaster preparedness plans and strategic goals that speak to the most likely climate hazards facing their area to contribute to their community’s resilience.
3 | Climate Justice Work
Libraries harness the transformative power of education for climate justice and develop relationships with local community organizations working on climate justice to embed a deeper awareness of the intersection of human and civil rights with climate stewardship than is presently found.[2]
No doubt, this is big work that will take strategic, deliberate prioritization; focus and energy; and yes – resources. But your library cannot afford to ignore this strategy. This is more than being environmentally responsible. By integrating climate action into your institutional mission, you are ensuring that your library remains a vital and responsive resource for generations to come.
You are not alone.
The NCAS implementation guide is now available and helps unpack each area of the strategy, provides you with simple steps to get started, an introduction to core concepts, and is chock full of resources and examples to help you accelerate your work in this area.
Thanks to your NYLA membership, you are also gifted with a free, one-year membership to the Sustainable Libraries Initiative which gives you access to a strong community of practice where this work is already a priority as well as resource that will help you carry out the strategy.
Don’t delay in familiarizing yourself with the Implementation Guide – the time is now to make your library a climate smart library.
Access the National Climate Action Strategy for Libraries and the Implementation Guide at https://www.sustainablelibrariesinitiative.org/national-climate-action-strategy-libraries
[1] Paris Agreement, United Nations, https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/english_paris_agreement.pdf
[2] Principles of Climate Justice, Mary Robinson Foundation, https://www.mrfcj.org/principles-of-climate-justice/harness-the-transformative-power-of-education-for-climate-stewardship/