WebJunction

Rural Library Sustainability Update - March 2007

Did you know?.....In the past 14 months, 39 states have delivered workshops in their regions. From Anchorage to Athens, Napa to Niagara, and all points in between, 3,800 library staff (and counting) have participated in the sustainability discussion. Action plans as diverse as these regions have been generated, from Friends Groups to Wish Lists, and Wireless to Websites, folks are realizing that the key to sustaining their technology is through action. Small steps in the direction of sustainability compounded over time will yield great results. Here’s a recent post to that end: "I loved the conference. It gave me the courage to go through with the things I thought would make our library recognized. I have started a training class for myself and my staff on the computer with the help of a trainer who happens to be a patron. We will be starting computer classes for patrons of all ages the first week of February. I have increased my circulation by 60% by advertising and putting myself and my library "out there". I have started 2 new after school programs for kids and 3 for senior citizens. I have increased our wi-fi usage by 2 folds now that people in our community know it is available to them. I just loved that the conference gave me such great ideas and the confidence to go through with it.” Thanks everyone! Keep up the good work.

In Focus Webinar: Tools for Planning

Each month the Rural Library Sustainability Project is presenting an hour-long webinar focused on a particular topic of importance to the work of sustaining Rural and Small libraries. Join us next on March 29, 10:30 AM PDT/1:30 PM EDT for Tools for Planning: Action. Vision. Future. Planning. When lined up with its counterparts, planning seems like the wallflower at the dance - quiet, practical, on the sidelines. It deserves some time in the limelight! In the Rural Library Sustainability workshops, the process of creating an action plan was introduced. We've seen this simple process yield great results! Attend this session to hear about some action plan success stories. In addition, we'll discuss other planning tools and resources that are being successfully used in the library world. Information on joining the webinars, upcoming topics, and all archived sessions are available at Rural In Focus.

Course Highlights

In addition to our webinar, there are a number of online learning opportunities to highlight this month. Our newly refreshed site has a new tab called Courses. Here is where you can access courses available within WebJunction's Course Catalog and via the ever-growing E-Learning Clearinghouse. Each month we like to highlight a few of these great learning opportunities relevant to your work in rural and small libraries including the Course of the Month which is available for the low price of $10! (WebJunction Community Partners may enroll in this course and all others in the course catalog at no cost, thanks to their state libraries). March's Course of the Month is Time Management Fundamentals and coming in April, we'll feature Management Skills Introduction. And remember, any course you purchase through WebJunction will be made available to you for one full year. Since many of you have been focusing on outreach to Spanish speakers in your action planning, we wanted to highlight one of our free offerings, WebJunction's Spanish Language Outreach Online Course. This course provides information on marketing techniques, cultural differences, technology training, and community partnerships.

Diversity Fair

As some of you will be traveling to Washington DC in June, we wanted to highlight this great opportunity to share your successes! Each year, in conjunction with the annual ALA conference, the Office for Literacy and Outreach Services hosts a fair celebrating extraordinary examples of diversity and outreach in action. The 2007 Diversity and Outreach Fair will highlight bookmobile and other innovative services to underserved communities on Saturday, June 23, 2007, from 3 to 5 pm at the Washington Convention Center. The opportunity to exhibit is free and entries are being accepted through April 30th, 2007.

Snapshots and Snippets

We are creating a slideshow on the Rural Library Sustainability Project and would love your input. Please send us any pictures of your library, your action plan outcomes or implementation, quotes on what the project has meant to you, and the like. We will credit all photos/quotes with the library name, city and state. Please send all submissions to rural@webjunction.org.

Message Board Highlights

Refreshed WebJunction!

WebJunction has a new look! A few resources to get you oriented include this quick tour and Getting Around WebJunction Rural, with instructions on posting to the discussion boards.

Social Software and the Rural Library Webinar Follow-up

Thank you to all who joined the February In Focus webinar, and especially to those of you who shared so many great comments and questions! There is a post, Social Software and the Rural Library session listing many thoughts on the topics covered, which included Instant Messaging, Flickr, YouTube and MySpace! Check it out and see if you have answers or additional questions to contribute to the conversation.

Please send an email to rural@webjunction.org either to subscribe or unsubscribe to the Rural Updates. Thank you.