Part Two Is Going Fully Virtual Due to Winter Weather

Missed the December Mock Geisel Workshop? Not a problem! We've added the notes from the event to our website for those who couldn't attend. The messages in the chat were also saved. There's also still time to sign up for the second workshop in the two part series on January 13, 2024 from 10:00am to 3:00pm! It is not required to attend both workshops.
 
Part Two (Jan. 13 10:00am-3:00pm) will center around mock discussions about our shortlist of titles, offering participants hands-on experience using the award criteria to evaluate books in moderated discussion with peers. As a grand finale, vote for Oregon’s Mock Geisel Award and Honor Winners for 2024.

Hi everyone,
 I’m sharing this broadly to ensure it reaches everyone it needs to, please feel free to forward as needed to other library staff! Included in this post are links to the recording from Tuesday’s iREAD Webinar, slides from iREAD and from me, and other assorted helpful summer reading links. I’ll host virtual summer reading office hours first Wednesdays at noon January through May,  Zoom link is in the Announcement slide below. Please let me know if you have any questions! 

• Oregon Libraries Get Ready for 2024 Summer Reading with iREAD! Webinar: Oregon and iREAD webinar from 12/12/2023 
• 12/12/2023 Webinar iREAD Slides: iREAD Slides
• 12/12/2023 Announcement Slides: Announcement Slides 
• General iREAD 2024 Introduction Webinar Link: iREAD 2024 and beyond 
• Summer 2025 Level Up Info Page and Artists:  Summer 2025: Level Up at Your Library 
• Summer 2025 Resource Guide Submission Link: Call for Resource Guide Submission
  • (Jackson County, please submit all your awesome game ideas from this summer!  )
•  FAQS:  iREAD FAQ's 
• Past iREAD Newsletters:  iREAD Newsletter Archives
• iREAD 2024 Facebook discussion group: Read Renew Repeat Facebook GroupThis is a great place to share ideas and ask for suggestions for your 2024 Summer Reading program.)
• Pinterest: 2024 Pinterest board Lots of great program ideas already!)

 

Hello library community!
 
Here’s a quick reminder about learning resources available from the State Library and other organizations:
 
Visit our CE Calendar which also includes links to text and online versions of this month's free events listed by category (compiled by the Maine State Library and the Wyoming State Library and hosted by WebJunction).
 
The following webinars are free from various organizations and may be of interest to you or your colleagues:
 
From WebJunction, free live webinars – register now!

•  Thursday, January 4, 2024, 12:00p PT, Libraries Foster Social Connection: Responding to the Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation
  • Libraries can play a vital role in building social cohesion and promoting community resilience, especially in challenging times. The Surgeon General’s 2023 Advisory on Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation brings even greater urgency to the need for us to connect. This engaging session will explore ways to intentionally design for social connection in library services and programs, from passive to hosted. These innovative and practical strategies can deepen engagement with staff, trustees, local officials, volunteers, and community members of all ages and backgrounds. Through the lens of "social connector," we will explore how libraries can invite the community in with intention, build relationships that enhance social infrastructure, put community at the center of the library, and demonstrate the library’s impact.
• Tuesday, January 30, 2024, 12:00p PT, Building Authentic Relationships with Underserved Communities
  • You know your library could do more to connect with and respond to the systematically excluded communities you serve. But if you're starting with little or no existing connection, how do you build authentic, trust-based relationships? How do you go beyond transactional interactions and guessing at services to effective engagement and participation? This webinar will help you develop a plan for identifying, reaching, and building relationships with communities experiencing oppression. As a result of this webinar, you will be able to:
    • Articulate the connection between relationship-building and equity, diversity, inclusion and social justice (EDISJ) in library services
    • Create, maintain, and utilize a simple asset map to understand your community's ecosystem
    • Apply the principles of asset-based community development to your own projects
•  Tuesday, February 17, 2024, Co-Creating Library Services for Transformative Impact
  • The most relevant and dynamic ideas can grow from collaborating with impacted communities. Co-creation is one of the most effective ways for libraries to turn diversity, equity, and inclusion ideals into real-world services. In this session, you’ll learn about the fundamentals of co-design and explore how to apply them in your library for wildly creative and deeply impactful programs and services. As a result of this webinar, you’ll be able to:
    • Define co-design and its role in creating library services
    • Identify multiple ways of sharing power with community
    • Apply basic principles and techniques from human-centered design to facilitate co-creation
    • Draw on real-world examples for inspiration
•  Additional learning resources are available from WebJunction’s free course catalog – create your free account today and gain access to 100s of courses and recorded webinars.

 
From the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM)
 NNLM classes are offered nationally. Log into your free NNLM user account to learn more class details, including the date and time of the class, and to register.

•  Wednesday, January 31, 2024, 12:00p PT Library Telehealth Partnerships: Lessons Learned and Looking Ahead
  • In Idaho, the Department of Health and Welfare is supporting libraries as they offer telehealth connections for patrons. These services allow residents of rural communities and others who experience health inequities related to the "digital divide" to talk to their healthcare professional over an internet connection right at their local library. Hear from the coordinator of this fledgling program about how it has operated so far. A representative of NNLM's Region 4 will also tell you about training opportunities for professionals who want to explore offering telehealth services at their library.

 
Upcoming live PCI Webinars
Each Wednesday from 11:00a - 12:00p PT, explore new, relevant topics during a live webinar from People Connect Institute. These webinars will also be recorded and available the following week in the Oregon Library Staff Academy / PCI Webinars category. 
 
Request your registration links for these upcoming webinars. Note: all PCI Webinars (live and recorded) are limited to Oregon library staff, volunteers, board members, Friend and Foundation members. Full descriptions are available on the PCI Webinar CE page.

• January 10: What's Your Bounce-Ability? Thrive In Times of Change
• January 17 (90 mins): Official RDA Review
• January 24: A Model for Spanish Language Services
• Feb 7 (90 mins):  La Hora Virtual: How to Develop a Virtual Program to Promote Spanish Resources
• Feb 14: What’s New in Readers Advisory
• Feb 21: Level Up Your Library With AI: Practical Uses for Library Staff and Patrons
• Feb 28: Best Picture Books Published in 2023 for Ages 1 to 6

 
Niche Academy live webinars

•  Wednesday, January 10, 2024, 11:00a PT, Canva 2.0 for Libraries: Page Layout Design.
  • Based on the webinar Canva and Design for Libraries: Learn Page Layout and Social Media Design, this workshop focuses on page layout design, learning to format your design for social media, flyers, and posters, and formatting for the web vs. print. This training session is a tutorial, focusing 100% on Canva with the most common design and layout topics, and is ideal for beginner-intermediate learners. This webinar is open to all library professionals, focusing on those who are charged with marketing and design for their library. You will learn how to: 
    • Design for the web vs. print
    • Design flyers
    • Design for social media with motion effects in Canva
    • Design consistently across formats for marketing
•  Wednesday, February 14, 2024, 11:00a PT, Cultivating and Sustaining the Relationship-Driven Library
  • We all know that teamwork makes the dream work, but what does that actually mean for the day-to-day work of librarianship? Cultivating and sustaining the relationship-driven library has four steps: 1) planting the seeds of partnership, 2) nurturing co-developed ideas, 3) harvesting and celebrating accomplishments, and 4) resting and preparing for future partnerships.
  • Join Noah Lenstra for this webinar on building the relationship-driven library. You’ll leave this session with renewed confidence in your ability to find partners, cultivate working relationships with them, and keep relationships fresh and impactful, as well as how to tactfully step back from relationships that aren’t working the way you hoped they would. Finally, you’ll learn how to advocate for the time you need for this process.

 

Looking for learning resources on a particular topic? I’m happy to help – please contact me!

Dear Oregon Librarian,
 
Strategies to challenge and remove books from libraries have continued to evolve over the past year. One of the newest approaches was seen last week in Josephine County, where an individual tax-payer petitioned county commissioners to have their property removed from the library taxing district. You can read more about this developing story at:

• Commissioners Approve Library District Withdrawal Petition in Split Decision
• Josephine Community Library pursues legal action after residents opt out of tax district

 
The Oregon Library Association is continuing to monitor this unfolding situation, and will be sharing any significant new developments. If you are a special district librarian and have questions about how this might impact your library, please reach out to the Special Districts Association of Oregon.
 
In the meantime, this is a good time for all libraries and librarians to:
 
Stay informed of IF issues and incidents.  Here are some resources to help:

• Register with the recently formed Parents Defending Schools and Libraries here: https://www.pdsal.org/
• www.EveryLibrary.org  
• ALA OIFC weekly newsletter - https://www.oif.ala.org/
• Stay trained.  OLA IFC has an updated toolkit available to you’re here: https://libguides.osl.state.or.us/iftoolkit/
• Review your policies.  Especially your collection development and reconsideration policies. Here are some sample policies: https://libguides.osl.state.or.us/iftoolkit/policies.  If you want support with your policy, please contact the IFC here: https://www.olaweb.org/contact-ifc
• Develop a plan for building relationships with local elected officials.
• Build a strong support network through local partnerships and outreach.
• And a reminder, please submit challenge instances to the State Library here: https://libguides.osl.state.or.us/oifc/report .  

 
As always, the OLA Intellectual Freedom Committee and the OLA Legislative and Development Committee are here to support you.  Please feel free to reach out should you need additional or specific support.
 
Stay strong Oregon libraries!

Have you (or someone you know) been on a recent book committee?  Do you have new (or almost new) children's books lying around? The CSD Committee is planning for our spring auction!
 
The Children's Services Division would love to use them for our annual Spring fundraiser. Once again, we are looking for new or almost new books.
 
Please contact us at [email protected] about your donation. Thank you!

Recognizing the need to prepare library staff for opposition to programs, ALSC tasked the School-Age Programs and Services (SAPS) committee with creating a toolbox focused on program challenges. On behalf of the SAPS committee, I’m excited to share the result of our work from the 2022-23 term: the ALSC Toolkit for Program Challenges.
 
We split the toolkit into three sections: before, during, and after a program challenge. For each stage, we suggest areas that may need special attention, identify specific steps you can take, and provide adaptable templates for creating a program policy, planning a program, and responding to a challenge.
 
We hope this toolkit will help library staff as they continue to serve all of their community, and we look forward to your feedback for future revisions. We invite the [insert audience here] community to participate in strengthening this evolving toolkit and our service to children by sharing suggestions, experiences, and feedback via email to [email protected].
​
Here is an additional link to ALSC's blog post regarding the Toolkit: A New Toolkit for Program Challenges - ALSC Blog (ala.org)