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In our last Teen Programming post, we outlined the importance of outreach and how to integrate it into your programming arsenal. Since “outreach” can translate to a wide range of ideas and actions, narrowing it down will help you take your next step towards effective methods of community engagement. This is where partnerships come in! This, however, opens a whole new can of worms. How does one establish positive community partnerships? How do you ensure that your goals aren’t lost in translation? How do I secure beneficial opportunities for teens through partnerships?

When I first began working in my position, I was immediately overwhelmed by the need my community has for the library and its community organizations. During my first few months, I had grand plans to “do it all” and open up so many more opportunity and learning experiences for my community’s teens. What actually happened was that I got burned out and became discouraged. I realized very quickly that I was not going to be able to accomplish many of my goals alone. I needed support from others who were positioned in the community to help me achieve what needed to be done.

So let’s break it down. YALSA’s Future of Library Services report states that today’s teens need libraries to connect them to other community agencies, but how do you establish these connections? Network, network, network! This may sound simple, but community leaders need to know who you are. Start by attending committee and board meetings to get a sense of the issues and climate of your community. PTO (Parent Teacher Organization) meetings are another community body that is important to engage with as they are directly connected to the teens that your services will affect. Are there task forces or coalitions that are specifically directed at alleviating a specific need? Don’t be hesitant to insert yourself into the community conversation because you have your library’s resources to back you up. As a library representative in the community, you are an integral voice in the larger network of organizations that are committed to improving the lives of teens. Pinpoint individuals whose resources are in line with your goals and begin a dialogue with them.

When starting this dialogue, how do you make sure that your goals don’t get lost in translation? Communication is so important when you are making efforts to partner with an outside agency. Before any communication begins, make sure that you have your goals and plans clearly defined. What is it that you want to accomplish? What role do you see this partnering organization offering? Additionally, offer your resources and begin a dialogue about how this partnership would benefit both organizations mutually.

How do you make sure that your partnerships bring beneficial opportunities to teens? Last month we discussed ways to discover your community through outreach. During this discovery process, locate areas that your community needs more from your library. Is there a group that’s being under-served? Who can help you bridge that gap? A few months ago, I recognized a gap in the services that we were offering. At the time, we had reached out to just about every group of teens to make sure that our programs and services were reaching our diverse teens’ needs. However, we hadn’t reached out to teen survivors of domestic violence. I made a connection with the director of a local organization that acts as a transitional agency for teens and families who are leaving abusive situations. They offer temporary housing, counseling, and resources to help them take control of their futures and I wanted the library to be a part of this transition. My goal in partnering with this organization was to bring enriching programs to the teens at this facility, as they might not have access to these opportunities during this transitional period of their lives. Upon meeting with the director, my goals were clearly defined and I listened as she described how our organization could benefit these teens. We agreed upon a plan and programs were implemented at their location. We also offered books from our collection that we had discarded. We wanted to give the teens that she serves the opportunity to continue reading since many of them were temporarily not in school. This partnership was a simple way of offering integral library services to a new demographic while still connecting to the larger community.

Ultimately, libraries must work with partners to alleviate their community’s needs. Start small, make connections, and be diligent about following through. YALSA’s Futures Report pinpoints the shift that libraries are experiencing in the 21st century. We have gone from quiet, solitary locations that provided relatively uniform services to spaces, both physical and virtual, that offer a broad range of resources that empower teens and grow their skills, interests, and goals. Partnerships are integral to meeting this standard because they allow us to continue to broaden the services we offer, bridge gaps in your community, and build a better future for teens.

What are your partnership success stories? How do you bridge the gap in your community with partnerships?

In her latest work for young readers, Missing Millie Benson, author Julie K. Rubini discusses the influence of Nancy Drew’s most prolific author. Rubini also describes her family’s efforts to celebrate children’s books through Claire’s Day, in honor of Rubini’s late daughter. Recently, Ohio University Press sent a free Advance Review Copy of Missing Millie Benson to me in preparation for this blog interview.     

Author Julie K. Rubini (Image provided by author Julie K. Rubini)

1.  Please share about your background as a writer of children’s books.  How have public libraries and reading impacted your professional and personal life?

I have loved both reading and writing since I was a child. As I lived out in the country, the Lucas County Public Library’s bookmobile was my gateway to worlds beyond my backyard. I would fill my bike’s basket up from the mobile collection every week. Reading encouraged my writing in a variety of forms, from essays, to short stories, newsletters, and eventually children’s books. Public libraries have always provided answers for me. Whether for personal enrichment and growth, for research, for a story, or for countless books shared and enjoyed with my children over the years, libraries offer guidance, entertainment and sanctuary.

2. What makes Nancy Drew so appealing to this day?  Why were you interested in capturing the life of Millie Benson, who wrote twenty-three of the first thirty books in this series?

Nancy Drew is independent, smart, and relies upon her own instincts to solve mysteries and to get out of challenging situations. I would like to think that we all aspire to be as such. I know I do. I was blessed to enjoy much of the freedom that Nancy experienced as a child. Sans the roadster! I’ve always admired Millie from a distance, and saddened that I never took the initiative to meet her. I loved her stories in The Blade, and tales I would hear from others about her. Writing and sharing her story offers readers, who, like me, never had the chance to meet her, come to appreciate Millie’s own independence and indomitable spirit.

3.  How did libraries shape your research process as you prepared to write this book?  What was the greatest challenge in finding your information?

I had great assistance from the Toledo Lucas County Public Library, both staff at Main Library, as well as the Maumee Branch. I have the advantage of knowing our awesome library staff through my work with Claire’s Day, the children’s book festival we established fifteen years ago in honor of my late daughter. However, even if I did not have that relationship, I’ve never met a librarian who isn’t happy to assist in a research quest! This was the case with the New York Public Library, where I had the opportunity to spend time in the Stratemeyer Syndicate records in the Archives and Manuscripts division. I literally pinched myself while I was there! I had this incredible feeling while researching, that I was doing exactly what I was meant to do as a writer. I am naturally resourceful (and I don’t mean to sound arrogant in the least bit!) and determined. The greatest challenge, if one would call it that, was how to access information. Source notes from previously published works related to Nancy Drew were very helpful, as was staff both in Ohio and NYC to bring the pieces of the mystery in researching Millie’s life together.

4.  What fun facts do you recommend children’s librarians share with young readers when they highlight this book in their collections? 

Great question!  I will offer them in chronological order:

Millie had her first story published when she was fourteen years old.

She was the first person to obtain a Master degree in Journalism from the University of Iowa.

Millie wrote twenty-three of the first thirty Nancy Drew Mystery Stories.

Her writing career included penning one hundred and thirty five children’s books, and serving as a newspaper journalist for fifty-eight years.

Millie loved aviation and obtained her private pilot’s license when she was sixty-two years old!

She applied for the Journalist in Space Program when she was eighty-one!

(Image provided by Ohio University Press)

5.       Within Missing Millie Benson, “Did You Know?” sections add additional context to chapters.  “Extra Clues” includes even further information regarding Millie and this rich time period.  Why is it important to include this level of documentation in a work for younger readers?

The special sections included within Millie’s story hold true for each of the books in the Ohio University Press Biographies for Young Readers series. I am grateful that these sections are included within the text. I believe that readers will enjoy learning a little more in-depth information about Millie’s life. Perhaps all of the information contained within will spark interest in readers to learn even more about dime novels, Nancy Drew, the Gallup Poll and famous aviatrixes! I know when I read a book, content often encourages as such. After enjoying the novel, Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, I researched books on real American women involved in the French resistance. That’s just how my brain works.

6.       Please share more about Claire’s Day, the children’s book festival you and your husband founded in honor of your late daughter.  Why did you choose to highlight children’s books and what has been your proudest moment as this festival has progressed?

Claire was just ten years old when she died in 2000. She loved to dance, sing, play with friends, organize games with her younger sister and brother, swim and tell stories. Above all else though, she loved to read. She would often be late for dinner, as she had “just one more page to read” and tried to use reading as an excuse to get out of chores. Sometimes it worked. We felt compelled to remember her in a way that was true to her, and our thoughts always came back to books and reading. Six months after she died, while on a flight to a family wedding, I found an issue of Time in my seat pocket. I discovered an article about then First Lady Laura Bush (I’ve always been a fan!) and the Texas Book Festival. I loved that the festival featured Texas born authors and benefitted Texas libraries. I turned to my husband sitting across the aisle, and with tears in my eyes, I told him that I had discovered what we were going to create in Claire’s honor. Claire’s Day was born.

Proud C.A.R.E. Award Family with Brad Rubini, Claire’s dad (Image provided by Patricia Ball of River Rd Studio)

As Claire was a child, it was apparent we should focus on children’s book authors and illustrators. Initially we featured picture book writers and artists, and eventually expanded to include middle-grade and young adult. We are both proud that the organization merged with Read for Literacy this past year, which allows me to pursue writing opportunities and revisit several partially completed manuscripts. The merger will also support our continued growth established over our fifteen year history. Claire’s Day isn’t just a day any longer!  We support a week of literary experiences, including school visits by our participating authors, and Claire’s Night, a fundraising reception for adults the evening prior to the book festival. Most significantly, a highlight of the day is the C.A.R.E. Awards (Claire’s Awards for Reading Excellence) given to children nominated as being most improved readers in their schools. Each nominated child receives a certificate as well as a coupon to choose a book from the selection Barnes & Noble makes available by our guest authors and illustrators. In 2002 we gave 25 C.A.R.E. Awards. This past year we recognized 800 children!

7.       In your author’s note, you share that you invited Millie Benson to attend Claire’s Day. Please share more about your connection to this author.

I wrote to Millie, inviting her to attend our first Claire’s Day. She responded with a phone call. I was not at home when she left her message, but I recall her sweet, feeble voice on my answering machine offering her condolences, her admiration for what we were doing in Claire’s honor, her wishes for great success. She was in poor health and did not make any public appearances any longer, however, so would not able to join us. Millie died just ten days after our first Claire’s Day. As I learned more about Millie, I found myself identifying with her carefree childhood filled with reading, and her desire to write from a young age. I could relate to her pain through her losses, and her way of dealing with it all…by doing.

8.  Why is it important that children’s books are celebrated in this way?  How can public libraries ensure children’s books receive the recognition they deserve?

Children’s books and their creators should be celebrated, and I believe our avenue in doing so offers many learning opportunities to children, as well as adults. I’ve learned that children’s book authors and illustrators are just people too, incredibly talented mind you, but much like you and me. Successful children’s book authors and illustrators are as such because they dedicate every day to their craft. Writing and illustrating children’s books takes time, talent, and resources. Anything a library can do to support authors and artists, whether by featuring them in programs, or highlighting their books is always appreciated.

9.  Why did you decide to partner with your public library on Claire’s Day?  What guidance can you provide children’s librarians who may wish to recognize families who have lost a child?

We visited our Maumee library branch at least weekly when our children were young. I remember making a rule that each of our three children could borrow as many books as they could carry! We read to them every night before bed, and I would read with them during the day. As they each became independent readers, they read on their own quite a bit. It was only natural to consider the library as the setting for Claire’s Day. The library building is beautiful, the grounds are large and lovely, and the staff incredible. It was and is our library. Every year Claire’s Day has given $2500.00 to the library system, earmarked for books written or illustrated by our upcoming authors and illustrators. This way educators and families have access to the books prior to the festival. Every book purchased by the system through this grant notes that it is a part of the collection as a result of Claire’s Day, in honor of Claire. Purchasing books for the system in honor of a child gone too soon is a lovely sentiment for a family. Or, recognizing children who have worked so hard in improving their reading skills by giving them a book in honor of the child is pretty impactful too.

10.  What advice would you have for children’s librarians interested in beginning their own community celebrations highlighting children’s books?  What do you wish you knew when you began your work on Claire’s Day, almost 15 years ago?

Members of the Rubini family participate in one of the earliest Claire’s Days (Image provided by Patricia Ball of River Rd Studio)

Wow, great question. As Brad and I formed the organization and then approached the library, I’m not quite certain how to answer that. I will offer that without the assistance of our volunteer committee members, we would never have turned the page from concept to reality. I would look to community volunteers who are passionate about supporting the library and reach out to them to assist in organizing a community celebration. We have many organizational documents created throughout the years, including a task list should any libraries be interested!

It would be our hope that perhaps Claire’s Day, or even the C.A.R.E. Awards could be established in other libraries around the country. It could be fairly easy to do. Start small! Invite a children’s book author/illustrator to present a program and sign books following! What I didn’t know then was what an incredible impact we would have on children and families in the community. I’m humbled by the support of the community, and the recognition in various forms for our efforts. I’m not certain I would have wished for anything other than what I have received through this process. Deeper bonds with my family and friends, new friends who lent their time and talents to the cause, and ultimately connections with established children’s book authors and illustrators have helped guide me on my path as a published children’s book author.  Claire would be amazed and proud.

Thank you for sharing your writing process for Missing Millie Benson, your connection to public libraries, and your inspiration regarding Claire’s Day!

The post Interview with Author Julie K. Rubini appeared first on ALSC Blog.

Libraries and schools across the country collaborate to promote library card sign-ups at the beginning of each school year. Annual efforts include blog posts, official proclamations, and lists of schools supplies sent out to parents. Last year, Philadelpha City Schools and Free Library merged databases to give nearly 100,000 students library cards. In April of this year, President Obama announced the ConnectED Library Challenge with the lofty goal of putting a public library card into the hand of every school student. As of August 5, nearly 50 communities had adopted the initiative.

Accomplishing this will be no easy task. When you live in an area (as I do) where one school district serves multiple library districts and vice versa, knowing where to go to get a public library card can be confusing. Unincorporated areas, which often aren't served by any public library, compound this. At least one nearby library has mitigated that issue by signing contracts with local schools that allow students who live in the unincorporated areas to receive a card for use during the school year.

One neighboring community, Skokie, has adopted the ConnectED Library Challenge. The Village of Skokie is a northwest suburb of Chicago, and is home to a little over 64,000 people. The village straddles two different townships, and so public high school students attend one of two different districts. One township, Niles, is also home to a portion of the Village of Niles, which makes up a significant portion of the Niles Public Library District. Confused yet? Students from four different library districts all attend Niles Township High School District 219.

In an effort to sign students up for public library cards with as little confusion as possible, District 219 created a simple form on their student/parent portal. This summer parents could sign their students up for library cards at the same time that they registered for school. They just needed to click a box to agree to release their residency information. From there, the students' information would be forwarded to the library district where they live, and a card would be generated. Cards would be delivered to students during the first days of school, which happen this week.

To promote the portal, letters were sent out to parents over the summer. Staff from all four participating libraries also took turns operating a help desk during the high schools' in-person registration days; both to promote card sign up and assist parents with the log in process. I haven't seen statistics of card sign-ups generated from this promotion, but (anecdotally) many of the students and parents who stopped at the library table while I was staffing already had library cards, had general questions, or needed to retrieve passwords from home before they would be able to sign in to the portal. I did help several families through the sign up process.

I also don't know whether the option to sign up for a library card will remain a part of the portal throughout the school year. This would be helpful, as students move into the district throughout the year. Others may not have been prepared to sign-up over the summer, and will be in the fall. And perhaps others who simply weren't interested will later change their minds.

For links to resources about community partnerships see the communication, marketing & outreach tools on the YALSA website.

One of my favorite sections of the Teen Programming Guidelines (is it nerdy to have favorite sections?) is "Align programs with community and library priorities." But you have to be deeply involved with community agencies and activities in order to be ready to act on the community's priorities as they arise. This sounds obvious (and it is!), but it's taken me a few years to figure it out.

Several years back my coworker and I began working with the Seattle Youth Employment Program (SYEP). SYEP is a city agency that places youth with barriers in paid internships in a variety of environments in city government and the private sector. It also provides them with job training and academic support. We worked with SYEP staff to design a curriculum that would build the interns' digital and information literacy skills. We were sometimes surprised by the needs identified by SYEP staff and the interns' employers: touch typing, for example, and basic MS Word. We learned a lot about putting our own assumptions aside.

Over the years, we continually evaluated and adjusted the program. We dropped some pieces and added others to make it as relevant as possible to the youth's needs and the needs of their employers. 

This year, Seattle's mayor put forth a huge Youth Employment Initiative in which he asked SYEP to more than double the number of youth placed in jobs over the summer. Suddenly, the community had spoken: youth employment was a major need. Because we already had an ongoing relationship with SYEP, the library was poised to expand the partnership to serve more youth with our trainings. We also helped in other ways, like providing meeting rooms for SYEP staff trainings. Next summer, the mayor intends to make the program five times larger than it is this year (eep!), which will present a huge opportunity for library involvement.

Of course, being in the right place at the time is always partly a matter of luck. But you can't be lucky if you're not out there.

Last spring, a couple of coworkers and I did some outreach at an event called Girlvolution. It was a completely youth-led conference, with sessions on social justice issues ranging from foster care reform to sexual identity. The teens leading each session mixed statistical and factual information with their own perspectives and experiences.

It was the best conference I had ever been to. I was blown away by how poised, informed, and prepared the youth were. But I wondered: how did they do their research? Had they been visiting our libraries every year without us even knowing it?

Our Youth and Family Learning Manager looked into it and found out that this was exactly the case. Although Powerful Voices (the organization that hosts Girlvolution)  had a "Library Day" as part of their program each year, the library had not been providing direct support.

What an awesome organization.

So this year, we collaborated. My coworkers and I met with their staff to hear more about their organization's mission and goals, and to learn how we could help. We arranged for me to visit Powerful Voices on a Thursday afternoon a couple of weeks ago to talk to the youth and their adult allies (mentors) about research. It was a great conversation about everything from whether all the world's information is available on Google (heck no) to evaluating resources.

Results of a survey asking participants to rate the effectiveness of Library Research Day.

That Saturday, the girls and their allies all came to the library. We settled down in the computer lab and got SERIOUS about research. I showed them how to find books in our catalog, and how to decode Dewey. We dug into databases to find the most up-to-date information and the best statistics. We ended the day with pizza, which is never a bad idea.

Powerful Voices ends their sessions with a gratitude circle. That Saturday, many youth and adults mentioned finding out about all the great resources the library has to offer, and how helpful librarians can be. I was grateful for all I learned from them, and to be part of the support network for such talented and engaged young women.

Those Wonder Twins were onto something.

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned the importance of equality. But what does equality really mean in the context of a community partnership?

Mostly, it means power sharing. Because when we library folk enter into a partnership, particularly a micropartnership with a small, grassroots organization, there will almost always be an imbalance of power that favors the library.

I know it doesn't always feel like it, but generally, public libraries are respected organizations. They are highly visible to funders and politicians. Everyone knows (or thinks they know) more or less who we are and what we do. Grassroots orgs, on the other hand, may have less name recognition in the community at large.

Also, libraries have mad bank--relatively speaking. As thinly stretched as we often feel (and are), libraries usually have at least some small degree of budget stability. We have assets like buildings, which tend to come equipped with computers, meeting rooms, and at least a couple of people to staff them. Our partners, on the other hand, may be working with shoestring budgets, few (if any) full-time paid staff, and a whole host of other constraints on their time and resources that are not necessarily visible to us.

And more often than not, the staff who are leading the partnerships on the library’s side are often white, middle class folk (like me)—in other words, part of the dominant culture.

In order to make our partnerships truly equal, we have to make it easy for grassroots organizations to work alongside us. That means conscious power-sharing on our part. It’s up to us to create the time and space for partners to tell us what their organization and their clients need out of the partnership to make it worthwhile for them. And then of course, it's up to us to deliver what they've asked for--or to be up front about why we can't.

We also have to be serious about sharing our concrete resources: budgets, staff time, building space, marketing channels, and more. It’s not enough to show up to a grassroots organization and offer a few resources that are easy for us to deliver, or to occasionally reach out to community groups to ask for feedback on an existing plan. Partners should be working with us to create the plan.*

After all, these orgs are helping us do something that would be incredibly difficult or even impossible without them: provide quality library services to the communities they work with. Community-based orgs are well-known and well-trusted in those communities in a way the library often isn’t, and may never be.

For example, think about how difficult and expensive it would likely be to use a traditional marketing campaign to reach a population of underserved immigrants in your town. Or to convince low income teens to come to a drop-in digital literacy workshop.** By working with community partners, you can reach those audiences at their point of need. Working together, you can create services that are tailored to their specific interests and goals.

When you look at that way, an investment in micropartnerships starts to look like a screaming bargain.

* A non-profit leader in my city has a great and also very funny blog post addressing this issue from the community-based org’s point of view. I highly recommend taking a look.

**If teens in your area would show up for a digital literacy workshop on their own time and without incentive, please know that they are magical and should be treasured.

Volunteers from a partner organization help students with college applications.

Last week we talked about finding your perfect community partner, the one who can make all your dreams come true. Once you’ve met a few potential partners and really gotten to know them, you may be ready to choose one and move forward on a shared program or project.

As you’re working with the partner to formulate the project, here are some questions to consider.

1. Do the partners play equally important roles?

This could shake out lots of different ways. Maybe you provide the space, the pizza, and the marketing, and the partner provides the expertise. Maybe you’re creating all of the program content, and the partner is bringing the audience. (Although ideally, you’d probably want to check in with the partner to make sure your content is relevant. If you can create the content collaboratively, even better.)

What matters most is that roles are clearly defined and both sides are making significant, meaningful contributions. If that isn’t happening, you may be doing something cool, but it’s not a partnership.

2. Does the project deliver something important to both partners?

Just as both partners have to put something in, both have to get something out. Outcomes should be clearly stated and deliver something that each side needs to further its mission. For the library, outcomes will often be concerned with promoting equity.

3. Does the project have an end point?

It took me a while to realize how important this is. Even if a project is relatively small and low-impact, set a firm date to pause and examine how things are going. If things are going really well, pat each other on the back and agree about how awesome you are. Make minor adjustments if necessary, then dive right back into it.

If things are not going so well, or if circumstances have changed for one of the partners, you’ll be glad to have a built-in opportunity to make big changes, start all over, or quietly pull the plug. Even in this worst case scenario, you'll have learned something valuable that you can bring to your next partnership.

4. Do the partners agree about how the project will be evaluated?

What are the top priorities? What kind of evaluation tool will you use: pre- and post-tests? Surveys? Interpretive dance?*

Who will design the tool? If you can, work with the partner to create evaluation tools collaboratively or, even better, empower the youth themselves to design the tools and evaluate the program.

And one last tip: Write it all down! We use a Memorandum of Agreement form to make sure that everyone knows what’s up with a new project. Better to tackle misunderstandings before you begin than in the middle, when it’s hard to adjust expectations, or at the end, when disappointment or resentment may have set in. Communication is key throughout the process, but good communication late in the game can’t make up for a lack of it up front.

*Note: Don’t use interpretive dance.