The media -- and your relationship with it -- can have a great impact on the success of your community engagement work. It is a tool for bringing new voices into community conversations, sharing findings, and demonstrating the valuable work libraries are undertaking.
But a productive relationship with the media requires more than just dashing off a press release or showing up to an interview. Forethought makes all the difference.
The 2014 ALA Annual Conference is fast approaching.
Among the new offerings this year: a series of learning sessions, offered as part of Libraries Transforming Communities, that will introduce participants to the practice of "turning outward" and putting community aspirations first.
The LTC Public Innovators Cohort -- the 10 libraries being intensely trained in the Harwood practice and putting it to work in their communities -- completed a three-day training in Denver last month. All of their training materials are now available for free download.
The LTC Public Innovators Cohort Training Resources contains 79 pages of instructions and worksheets. Topics include:
Forty-four participants -- library directors, librarians, outreach specialists, trustees, community volunteers and organizational partners -- convened in downtown Denver on May 20 for a three-day training with ALA and educators from The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation. They come from communities as small as Red Hook, N.Y., a village of 1,900 in upstate New York, and as large as Los Angeles.
In this month's American Libraries magazine, ALA Executive Director Keith Fiels describes how the association is supporting library-led community engagement and innovation to spark "increased innovation, increased impact, and ultimately, a more successful community—and a more successful library."
The American Library Association (ALA) today announced the 10 public libraries chosen to undergo an intensive 18-month, team-based community engagement training program as part of the Libraries Transforming Communities (LTC) Public Innovators Cohort.
The cohort, selected through a highly competitive peer-reviewed application process, is part of ALA’s LTC initiative, a national plan to help librarians strengthen their role as core community leaders and change-agents.
Get started with the free e-course, "Libraries Transforming Communities: Facilitation Skills for Small and Rural Libraries."
LTC: Accessible Small and Rural Communities will offer more than $7 million in grants to better serve people with disabilities.
Learn basic facilitation skills with ALA's free guide, "Leading Conversations in Small and Rural Libraries."