2:30 p.m. - 3:15 p.m.
Get plenty of tips and ideas from our three partnership experts! Baldwinsville PL has adopted this philosophy and built unique community partnerships as a result. Staff are facilitating audiobook clubs for Alzheimer’s patients who find reading frustrating, marketing and handling social media for the local organizations, offering “wildly popular” tech help drop-in and, yes, even weekly “vendors” at the local farmers’ market. As a result of their efforts, local organizations contact the library when they need a partner. The Chesapeake PL provides the means between partners and the community to offer programming that makes a difference. Learn about three very different types of educational opportunities the library has been able to organize and deliver to their surrounding area through the use of technology, all reinforcing the library’s core initiative of workforce development that has also opened doors to new partners, library outreach, and opportunities for library members. Irvine Valley College has a large veteran community seeking secondary degrees or certificates after serving their country. Meanwhile, research tools and resources have changed at such a rapid pace, many returning veteran students feel left behind, intimated, or confused by what’s expected of them for college research. Additionally, an increasing number of veterans are suffering from PTSD, learning, and/or physical disabilities that make sitting in traditional classrooms stressful, if not close to impossible. While the library has provided in-person workshops and orientations to help students with college research, it has now moved to the web. Staff work with the veterans to find out how and when they would most likely use the library; what prevents them from using the library or its online resources; and what they would find engaging in an online workshop. The goal is to provide library services where and when they are needed and in a format that is comfortable, easy to use, and meaningful to them (and not just to other librarians).
