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|  | | May 2023 | |
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 | Adult Services Notes |
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| | Library of Virginia Training |
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| Marketing Find It Virginia Resources
Join your colleagues on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of the month at 1 p.m. to get tips and suggestions for how to market the Find It Virginia resources that are available from the Library of Virginia. Each session will look at the following topics: How the resource meets user needs and what user problems can it help solve (the value proposition you can use to promote the resource to users) Reviewing the marketing tools available to library staff (print, electronic, social media, etc.) Other marketing tips or ideas Library success stories
Upcoming Sessions
Gale Legal Forms
What: Learn how to connect your users with legal forms, small business forms, and more, all focused on Virginia. When: May 9, 2023 01:00 PM Eastern Time Register: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0ocOmvqzMvGtSgVl9eAOuUjXBnTIvVaHwV
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the training.
NoveList Plus
What: Learn how to connect your users with book suggestions, book group resources, genre studies, author information, and more. When: May 23, 2023 01:00 PM Eastern Time Register: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYkf-mqrTItGdWPwNZJzdVgjWN_6GtwhNC3
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the training. |
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| | News from Library Development & Networking |
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| RUSA Online Training Reports |
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| In partnership with ALA's Reference and User Services Association, LDND is delighted to offer training opportunities for Virginia library staff. In February, we awarded 21 seats in RUSA online training classes and round two of the scholarships will be announced in April.
Scholarship recipients are asked to report out on key points or topics. Read the reports below. |
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| | RUSA Virtual Forum Reports 1. Alyssa Grant, Handley Regional Library
Sessions of note at the RUSA Virtual Forum 2023 included:
Achievement Unlocked: Video Game Collection Development and Reference for Libraries RUSA Achievement Award Presentation One person won an award for a website that collected prices and wages by decade. One award winner is working on a study based on how video games affect everyday emotion regulation. This ties in with the work Blue Ridge Hospice is doing through Adventures Through Grief, and I would love to team up with them for more programs like this if they are interested.
Accessibility: It’s Easier Than You Think My favorite part of this was the focus on seeing the barriers a person faces vs. viewing the person as a problem. E.g. The stairs are a barrier to some of our patrons vs. Some of our patrons can’t walk properly. She talked about putting out sensory kits that include fidgets and noise-cancelling headphones. She also mentioned part of accessibility is making instructions clear. This made me think of how many patrons are unaware that we have the ramp to our front door.
Wrangling Institutional Advisory Efforts: How One Public Library System Created a Platform for All Format, All Ages Advisory Services This one brought up some interesting points on how there was a lot of wasted efforts between branches – every branch was creating different pull lists, their branches didn’t feel like they were all a part of the same system, etc. They started coming up with monthly themes for displays that all branches would follow and came up with short pull lists for each display to give branches an idea of what the display should look like. I’m not sure the way they did this would work for our branches. However, I do think it would be nice to share more information about displays between branches in order to cut down on the work individuals are doing. We don’t really share signage or pull lists with the other branches, and it would be nice to know what everyone else is doing and if what they’re doing might work for us as well. They also mentioned Spanish advisory. I would love to have a (fairly) prominent display devoted to Spanish reading advisory. However, my staff would not be able to do this well without knowing Spanish. Perhaps we could try to get a Spanish speaking volunteer in to help with this.
2. Pearl Derlaga, York County Public Library
The RUSA virtual forum highlights different best practices for a variety of reference-related areas. Though many sessions felt more applicable to academic libraries, I did attend three sessions, two of which I found to be the most informative and relevant to my work. 3. Heather Carter, Smyth County Public Library System
Thank you to the Library of Virginia for awarding me the opportunity to attend the 2023 Reader and User Services Virtual Forum. This year’s theme was User Services Re-Imagined. I appreciate the opportunity to attend this conference and learn from other professionals in my field.
The keynote presentation was delivered by Nicole A. Cooke. I appreciated her talk, and it made me reflect deeper about equity, diversity, and inclusion. Her wisdom gave me a clearer insight into how others who may be different from me in various ways walk through life. At my library, we are preparing to present a summer reading program in June and our theme this year is All Together Now. Many of the topics, Dr. Cooke spoke about are relevant to our upcoming programs.
My favorite session of the conference was Achievement Unlocked!: Video Game Collection Development and Reference for Libraries. This session was presented by Carmen Cole, the current chair of RUSA’s Emerging Technology Committee along with Diane Robeson, an academic librarian, and Kate Shaw a public librarian. I am not a “gamer” in the traditional sense, and I wasn’t expecting to like this program as much as I did. It was fascinating to see what types of games these two librarians collected, how they organized their materials, and how their collections circulated, as well as the outreach they offered. Their collections ran the gamut of legacy games, to board games, to AI. Our library is considering establishing a makerspace in the near future and many of their ideas were relevant to a makerspace environment. Lastly, it was refreshing to hear one of the ladies say, yeah and sometimes I sit down and play games with the patrons. It’s my job! How fun and how forward thinking. I love that library collections are being reimagined and expanded in this sense. To me, this presentation was the perfect example of a modern library.
One of the most striking things that I learned during the forum came from the presentation Accessibility: It’s Easier Than You Think. During this session, traditional issues one would expect about accessibility were discussed. However, the speaker, Carrie Banks, made a statement that stayed in my mind long after the conference ended. She said, "the majority of people with disabilities are not recognizable." She went on to say for example, someone would not typically come into the library and announce that they are dyslexic. This concept is simple and yet I’ve never stopped to think about it. She explained that library staff should be proactively offering materials in different formats to patrons. For example, some people may have difficulty with their vision but not necessarily ask for a large print book. This concept has stuck with me, and I try to be cognizant of it in my daily interactions with others inside and outside the library. For that reason alone, I am so glad I attended this conference. It was worth my time and hopefully hearing this message will help to make me a better employee.
Thank you again for this opportunity. Reference services truly are being reimagined every day. As Uma Hiremath explained during one of the last presentations, the reference desk may be going away but the number of sources is much denser now in the digital age. Librarians are needed now more than ever to help people make their way through the myriad of offerings and find credible resources. |
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| | Niche Academy Spotlight
Checkout these great self-paced training opportunities in the LVA Niche Academy. |
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ALA seeks applications for “Imagining Tomorrow: Building Inclusive Futures.” "This brand-new series in the Great Stories Club will feature science fiction books that explore questions of equity, identity and alternate futures." Applications are due May 10, 2023. |
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| Readers' Advisory Tips and Tricks |
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| Readers' advisors talk a lot about "appeal factors" as a tool for connecting books and readers and connecting books with similar titles. Appeal looks at how a reader responds to a particular book; what makes the book either enjoyable or not. It can be helpful to have a vocabulary of appeal in mind when talking with readers about books, or when trying to create readalike lists.
NoveList has a great resource to build your appeal vocabulary and strengthen your understanding of how to think about books in terms of storyline, pace, tone, characters, writing style, etc. The Appeal Index explores the terms used in NoveList to describe appeal. Then you can use these terms to narrow down your search, or use the Make Your Own Appeal Mix tool to blend appeal factors. You can find this tool by choosing Broswse By > Appeal from the top menu in NoveList. |
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| | Community Art Swap
The Cranford, NJ, Public Library hosted a Community Art Swap, "an event where new and gently used art materials are exchanged. Community members are encouraged to trade secondhand supplies, all of which are available for free." A great idea for libraries with limited programming budgets, as the only cost is staff time.
Read more about this innovative project. |
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| Featured Virginia Programs |
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| Blackwater Regional Library |
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| Read Across America | BRL's Outreach Services collaborated with a local childcare center and a retirement village to share Read Across America themed stories and activities to a multigenerational audience! The morning's activities included crafts and several live character scenes as the books were read. Some even enjoyed a bit of green eggs and ham! For more info, contact Bonnie Lauver, blauver@blackwaterlib.org |
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| Jefferson-Madison Regional Library |
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| JMRL asked users to bring gently used, all-pieces-included games and puzzles, then swap for something new. All games, friends, and family are welcome to this inter-generational program! Then users could stick around to play their new game, make friends, and enjoy cocoa and refreshments. JMRL also provided printed word, puzzle, math, logic, and guessing games, and a coloring station, as well as BINGO with exciting prizes up for grabs! For more info, contact Abby Davis, adavis@jmrl.org |
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| | | Recent articles on topics of interest to Adult Services |
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| | Book Display Success Stories |
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| Last Month's One Question Survey Results
Just a handful of responses last month that indicate most program funding is coming from library budget lines and support from library friends groups. One person noted that they occasionally pay for things out-of-pocket.
This month's question is about book displays. |
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