We are at the top of our hour, we're going to go ahead and start our recording.
I'm going to introduce you to today's presenter.
We're so pleased to have with us today Susan McClellan, who comes to us as the executive director of the Millvale community library in Pennsylvania.
And we're so excited for her to share all of the excellent work that they've been doing at this small but mighty and very new library in the grand scheme of things.
So welcome to you, Susan, I'll let you unmute yourself and we'll go ahead and get started.
Thank you.
>> Welcome.
>> Hi, everyone.
Can everyone hear me okay?
>> Yep, you sound great.
>> Oh, wonderful.
Thank you.
I'll start by telling you a little bit about myself.
My name is Susan McClellan, I have been here as director of Millvale community library for a little over a year now.
I just celebrated my one-year anniversary here at the library.
It's an awesome place to work, I love it here.
I love my community, I feel very fortunate to be here.
I have been a librarian for over 20 years now.
I came to this library after working at another small library, but it was about twice the size of where I'm at right now.
My current library has about 8,000 items, so it is very small.
We have a very unique space because we are connected to a wonderful tea shop and we have three apartments above our library.
So the yellow building you're seeing in the picture is the front of our library building, and the red building beside us contains to the left, contains Tupelo honey teas, which is a little tea cafe in the back of the cafe is our maker's space.
Above the library we have three apartments, so we are also a landlord, our tenants are wonderful, amazing people.
I can't say enough great things about them.
And about the tea shop as well.
We are unique that we have this wonderful, fantastic relationship with the tea shop, and we do a lot of partnerships with them.
These partnerships have arranged from tea programs, where I have read a story to children at a tea party, we -- I've been here -- one January so far, but we're also planning for the next new year to do what's called a hiewg new year, which is the Scandinavian way of relaxation, which is all about candles, and taking a warm math, and just relaxing and having tea.
So last year for Hygge new year we had probably maybe 15 to 20 vendors in the library and the tea shop, and it was just a very calm, relaxing fun day of different activities.
So we have a fantastic relationship with the tea shop.
So the library's mission, and I did not create this mission, it was here when I started working here mplet the mission is more than a library, an agent of positive change.
I am fully on board with this mission.
The library board has -- is wonderful, I have this fantastic phenomenal library board, I am so  blessed with my library board.
The vision of the library is we envision a happy, engaged community.
I love my community.
They are very on board and very actively involved with everything that the library does.
I realize that not every director is in the same situation as I am, and I'm happy to answer any questions about the library board and community today.
So our innovative space, several years ago we got a grant, and we have 83 solar panels on our roof.
We have community garden plots in back of the library, and we also have a rain garden.
Youing see a picture of that in my show today.
And we also have the photograph you're looking at is our makers' space.
It does look a little bit different than this today, because this was when the makers' space first opened four years ago.
So the makers' space does not look quite as neat as in this photo.
Millvale, PA is the community that I currently work in.
It is 3,744 residents, 48% of our children live below the poverty level.
The median income is $30,000.
So for our demographics, we have about 1800 households, and 959 families.
We're located probably about 10 minutes from downtown Pittsburgh, we are in a very small neighborhood.
The library itself, as you can see in the photo here, is -- we're on like one of what I call the main streets in town.
The per capita income for the burden burough is --  burough is about 37,000, about 11% of families and 13% of the overall population is below the poverty line, and that includes about 5 percentage 65 or over.
We have a very nice riverfront park at the end of our street, so it's about half a mile away.
And it has access to -- it's connected to downtown Pittsburgh, it has a wonderful walking trail.
We also have some very nice music venues in town, a coffee shop, a wonderful French bakery, and some restaurants.
The only thing with Millvale is it's a food desert, so there is no grocery store in our community.
So before I started working here, because I started working here in October of 2017, there was a communitywide assessment done, and this was done via survey, and door-to-door, so they go -- the library got a grant funding for this, and they also did online and in-house surveys to see what the residents really needed in the community.
So the three key issues were food, water, and energy.
And this resulted in an ecodistrict leadership team to ensure there was resident-supported implementation.
So our community needs, the strategy number one was to maximize the partnerships.
So out of this resulted a library board strategic plan.
Since I started working here, the library was very youth-focused, and I am currently working on bringing in more adult programs, bringing in more programs of all ages, so right now when I started working here, like -- the library is closed on Sundays and Mondays, so on Tuesdays after school we have homework help, and that was already in place.
On Wednesdays after school we have maker programming, and on Thursdays after school we have maker programming for teens.
So one of the things I noticed when I started working here is all the teens have a large interest in -- and also they -- the preteens had a large interest in music.
So I decided, why don't we implement music-related programs?
So I had advertised on social media that I was looking for some donations of musical instruments.
There's a music store about five miles away, so they generously donated some guitars to us, and that started our music collection.
And then my makers' space educator, who is employed here part-time, he also happens to be in a band.
So he started doing some premusic lessons here on Thursdays after school, and that has become very popular.
And we also got some donations of guitars from just some regular patrons, so we now have five guitars, and I was able to purchase a ukulele on amazon, so we now lend out two of the guitars in our county to other residents.
They're open to anyone, as long as they come here and check out the guitar.
And return it here.
So that's one of the partnerships that I created, was with this music center.
So that's become very popular.
I found out that I am not the most -- I had not been the most social person, so I found out that, like, every meeting I go to, if I meet someone new, I would say, hey, I'm from the Millvale library, would you be interested in doing a program with us?
And so that has resulted in some wonderful new programs for the library.
So we have lots of wonderful making going on in the library.
Our maker educator does sewing, fiber arts, he does needle craft, he does a lot of, like -- we are a sustainable library, so we do a lot of things from making with cardboard, making with  recyclable materials that we already have on hand.
One of the ways that we get our donations for our makers' space is that we put out calls in the community, we put out calls in our newsletter, and on social media for donations, because we don't have a large budget being a smaller library.
I just realized that I skipped over some slides here, so we'll go back to those.
So our makers' space is a constantly busy space after school.
We do get about 30 kids at a time coming in after school.
So we try to keep them engaged.
On Friday mornings we have a preschool story time here, and then after preschool story time we have open free play with lots of toys that the kids can get involved with.
We also do a preschool making craft for early literacy.
We -- Friday is our early day, so we close at 2:00 p.m., and then on Saturdays we have a free yoga class in the library, and that is done with a volunteer, and that's also very heavily attended.
And then on Saturday afternoons we open it up to guest authors, basically people that I've met that would like to come in and do a program for us, and then once a month we have a makers' Saturday where people can come in and do a program for us, and makers' Saturdays people can charge $5 or $10, and we try to keep all of our programs for free.
The people on makers' Saturdays do charge like $5 or $10 to cover the costs of their supplies.
I did one this summer where I did upcycled book crafts, so I charged like $5 for the cost of supplies.
But I have plenty of free books here, so I just charged for the ribbon and other supplies we used.
We had -- we have a wonderful pottery studio right down the street from us.
So Dan came in and did ceramic spoon rests.
And charged like $5 for that.
I have a workshop down the street, so the wonderful owner of the flower shop came in and made miniature atriums, so that had like 25 people in attendance.
So I found out that everyone can be a wonderful partner in your community.
You just have to ask and see what they're willing to provide.
Some will do it just for covering the cost of their supplies.
We have strong partnerships with organizations in our region, which we've been able to work with to help move our vision forward.
This is a key strategy in being able to adopt best practices.
We've been able to learn from our residents and organizations internally, but also we've been able to learn from other communities.
One of our key partnerships has been neighborhood allies.
Neighborhood allies has a mission of supporting the people, organizations, and partnerships  committed to creating and maintaining thriving neighborhoods.
So four years ago, we were awarded a grant to hire a full-time librarian.
I should mention I'm the first full-time library director here.
And so as a result of this neighborhood allies grant, the library was able to hire a sustainability coordinator a few years ago, and this was a shared community resource person to help us implement our ecodistrict plan.
So as part of this ecodistrict plan, our focus is on healthy food, water, energy, air, mobility, and equity in our community.
This partnership is between our burough, which is wonderful, the Millvale community development corporation, the library and new sunrising, which is a place that helps residents and organizations work together to implement our community plan.
So all of these organizations work together in Millvale to better our community.
Behind our library we have -- we are on a floodplain, so we do some programs in the library relating to water.
This past Saturday, if you look on Instagram or on Facebook, we just did a program with the GIRDY's run watershed association, and we had our first girls' stem day afternoon, and we got money to sponsor this event, and we had two local Millvale teaching artists come in and do the making of a watershed fountain with 13 girls in attendance, and we now have this Girdy's run, and it's an active working watershed fountain, which you can come in, people can come in and test it out.
It's probably about three feet wide, so it was like an awesome working watershed project.
I wanted to say the possibilities are endless.
We're not an expert in everything.
I've done some maker space programming before, but really my maker space educator is the expert on that.
So everyone can be a partner, everyone has a gift to offer, in your community.
Good planning is not just preparing your community for the future, but engaging the residents in discussions of what they want in your library, and decision making that will impact their  lives.
I would say my greatest pleasure in seeing the people that come into our library, especially the young children, learn and grow.
Do what you can do well, and I think the rest will come.
Our maker space creates a joy and learning for our youth, the adults like to come in here and learn as well, and it's great to see them get engaged with the children.
We do some all-ages programming here.
But mostly a lot of our programming is geared towards youth, because we are like the active community hub, because the children really don't have a place to hang out in Millvale after school.
There is a boys and girls club up the street from the library, but it charges a fee to become a member of it.
>> Susan, I'm going to jump in.
It sounds like your maker space really is a key part of everything you do.
And I know that from the early days when the library first was open, you don't really have a lot of space.
So I'm -- can you talk a little bit about how -- was the maker space part of the intention from the very beginning?
Or did you -- did the library make that space -- create that space after the library opened?
>> That was, like, part of the goal in the beginning, is to have this youth space.
So in the beginning, we -- the founder of the library had the idea to create a separate space for children.
So initially it was different groups, and partners coming in to teach in that space until they could get grant funding to have a part-time maker space educator in that space.
So we were like really the first small maker space in our county, and so now there are a lot of libraries in our county that have a small maker space that really have like a full-time dedicated library and person to run that space.
>> Excellent.
And in terms of the layout, is that -- that space is accessible to anyone as long as the library is open?
Or do you reserve that space for when there's activities happening?
>> So we keep the space closed at all times.
The only time it's open is basically for after-school programs.
Or -- well, it's open whenever a maker space educator is here, so that's really his designated work space.
His desk is in there.
So during the week when the kids are in school, he does have a school group that comes down here once a week.
But that's sort of like his work space.
>> Excellent.
All right.
And I'm going to jump us back, because I know that people are interested in hearing about the solar panels.
I'm going to jump back to this slide and have you talk a little bit more about that.
>> So the solar panels are wonderful.
We are actually part of what's called a solar tour.
A lot of groups come in to Pittsburgh just to see our solar panels.
It's wonderful because the library got a grant for this, and we are also working with other communities right now, well, my board member and council member is to help solarize the roof of another library close to us.
And so the solar panels generate all the library's electricity, and we actually get a check back about three or four times a year, which is a surplus of about $15.
So it's very beneficial for the library.
It reduces the carbon footprint, it helps save money, and it's great for the environment.
>> Excellent.
And I'll go back here, I know this previous picture gives a good shot of the panels on the -- from the back -- this is from the back, I assume, correct?
>> Yes, that's from the back.
>> Excellent.
>> We were just -- we just had a group that came in as part of a national solar tour, and different groups will come in from Pittsburgh and tour, there's a few places around us that have solar panels.
>> I love that you talk a little bit about the sustainability position.
And so that position -- that person has been in that role for a number of years, correct?
>> The person now is employed by new sunrising, which is around the corner from the library.
And that person's focus right now is on food and sustainability, and on clean air and water and -- focusing on implementing the second phase of the ecodistrict plan for Millvale.
>> That's fantastic.
And how incredible that the library plays such a pivotal role in that work?
Like I said, in terms of the library coming into existence so recently, it really feels like you all have had the advantage of being a part of all of those community decisions, and I know that some libraries maybe that have been around longer, where these community initiatives are happening, I don't know if you have advice in terms of how to really build into that process for the community when people don't think of the library as necessarily playing a key part of that role.
So -- and I know -- I'm going to jump us to where you were talking about how to make that happen.
I believe --
>> So our community's development corporation joined the ecodistrict out in Portland, Oregon, two years ago, and if you're interest the in finding out more about the ecodistricts, I can ask our council member, and share that information out.
But our -- the Millvale ecodistrict actually won a national award a year ago.
So we are a national award-winning ecodistrict.
>> That's so great.
That's really exciting.
Okay.
Go ahead.
>> So we are a very sustainable, resilient community.
We have great engagement and buy-in with our residents for, like, any changes taking place in the community.
I do go to the council meetings and talk about the library.
But a lot of the residents, they're very vocal about what they like to see in the neighborhood, which is wonderful.
Like, the business owners, like, definitely want to see, like, positive changes taking place in the community.
>> That's great.
So that -- it sounds like it's a combination of that -- your community sort of has that energy about it already, but then the initiatives have really gotten everyone involved and engaged in that conversation.
>> So what's wonderful about our community is everybody is very open-minded to change, and I have worked in small libraries where people are very resilient to change, and I understand that it's really hard to change -- like I've worked in communities where you have, like, I guess I would call it like the old-school mind-set, and I had recently went to my council to request for more funding for next year, and it was an experience like -- unlike any other place I had worked at, because my community is very supportive, but I've worked at libraries where they're like, why does the library need more funding?
People think libraries, you know, are not -- some might think libraries are not relevant anymore.
But people see -- people come in here every day and see how relevant we are, and how busy and thriving we are, and why the library was really needed in this community.
So the closest library to us is, like, one of the largest libraries in the county, and I used to work at that library 10 years ago.
And once the library opened here, there was, like, the day it opened there was a large line at the door waiting to come in, because they knew it was really needed in this community because there is not -- there is bus transportation in my neighborhood here, but it's not the best bus transportation.
For example, it will go from here to downtown Pittsburgh, but there's not a bus to go from here to the next neighborhood, which is like maybe a mile away.
So you would have to take the bus downtown Pittsburgh, and then take, like, two buses to get to that neighborhood, when you could probably walk in 15 minutes.
So one of the things, transportation is a big issue here, even transportation to the next library, so transportation is definitely was really needed here.
So it's great that we're in a walking neighborhood, and I think that's another reason why the library is heavily utilized and was really needed, because people of all ages can come here, plus there is a digital divide here that still exists, so people come here because they can't necessarily afford a computer at home, or don't have Netflix at home.
Are you still there?
Hello?
>> Yes.
Sorry.
I was muted.
Yes.
That's great.
I think we're back -- I think if you wanted to move forward from these slides, I know you've got lots more to cover.
So I'll let you continue on.
>> So I was wondering, I'll ask the audience the question now, what are -- might be building blocks, or their challenges in their community?
>> Feel free, folks, post to chat.
You can certainly post questions and comments, but I know we were also eager to hear from you, and we can move forward.
Susan, would you prefer that I move the slides?
Or are you okay moving them from here?
>> I'm okay.
>> Okay.
Great.
>> One of my thoughts is, I was starting to type into chat, I wonder if because the community didn't have a library for so long, maybe they were prime and ready to be active community -- an  engaged community saw round how the library was serving their needs.
So that might be one indicator as to why you've got such a great active community.
>> So the library opened five years ago, we had our five-year anniversary this year.
And like you said, I do agree that -- our circulation is growing a lot, and people just seem like very engaged here.
>> I think on the next slide you had a question for the group about --
>> yeah.
So I'm wondering what are some ways that everyone participating today identified their community needs.
>> We can keep moving as comments come in, we can pause, but feel free to continue on.
>> When our library first opened, we had about 50 visitors a day.
Now some days we have double that amount.
I mean, it just -- sometimes triples just depends on what we have going on.
Questions?
Okay.
We did door-to-door, okay.
>> Strategic plans, survey.
Survey online and on paper.
It looks like one person says they've been watching some of the other community Facebook posts.
A public forum.
Excellent.
Definitely it sounds like folks want in your community just finding ways for people to be able to come together and share thoughts and ideas.
Focus groups can work definitely if you don't necessarily have that structure already in place.
Talking to stakeholders, I like some of these other ones.
>> One of the things I did earlier this year is we did an online survey, what did people want programwise?
It was interesting, because the majority of the people that completed the survey were not Millvale residents, and the top programs they identified were gardening, health, and I think the other one was like poetry or something like that.
So I implemented all of them, and the gardening was very popular.
I did some -- it was not as popular, some -- I'm finding out not to be afraid to experiment and it's also hard in a small library, and I'm sure people find that in a large library as well, that you can't always get people to do programs for free, but when I do I'm very appreciative of that, and I find a lot of people want to come in and do programs here, because that gets the word out about their business, or their book, or whatever they might like to do.
With -- I've tried paper surveys as well.
Cookies is a great idea, people love food here.
>> Do you know if when that -- for the community assessment that was done, is that something that was done through -- how do folks reach the folks to complete them?
Is there -- are they sending them by email, or does every community -- entity have the surveys available?
It sounds like with your tea shop you could have surveys at the tea shop or elsewhere in the community as well.
>> So with the needs assessment, they actually got a permit and they went door-to-door.
Because a lot of people here don't have a computer at home, they get permission to do door-to-door and they did the nonprofit mailing envelopes as well, that way people could send back the -- without having to pay for a stamp, they could mail it back to the library.
But some came to the -- filled it out in the library as well.
They also did some focus groups, they did some in-house surveys, like some meet and greet in the library with cookies and refreshments as well.
And the return rate was very high.
I forget the exact number.
So the needs assessment showed that -- like a few things I didn't expect, when I first started  working here, like the number was really low, people reading to children in their house.
So we do have like story times here.
The story times are very well attended on Friday mornings.
But a lot of them are not residents within our own community.
But I think because we have a lot of working parents.
>> Yeah.
Excellent.
All right.
I think we should continue on.
I want to make sure you get to -- you mentioned the garden, and I know you talked about the tool library too.
Keep posting questions, and we can circle back to them later as well.
>> Identifying the community needs, I attend a council and meet and greet, hang out with the most conversation.
We have a tea shop next door, I attend the council and business meetings, next I wanted to talk about our tool lending library.
So the tool lending library is actually in the basement of a very small building attached to our library.
So I actually have to go physically outside the library to get to it.
So this was started by a former volunteer, and we have over 350 tools available for check-out.
Over 90% were donated from patrons, which is wonderful.
We just had the grand opening in June of this year.
We have bike tools, masonry, electrical tools, plumbing, for anyone wanting to start a tool lending library, would I love to help them online.
I will share out my email at the end.
So we have a waiver for anyone checking out the tools.
The tools must be checked out here, they must be returned here.
So we are a part of what's called the Allegheny county library, which is 70 library locations in our county.
So items get -- come through a van delivery to our location, so I found out a few weeks ago I had a phone call from our shipping center, which is about 20 minutes away, that someone had returned a sander, and it just had my library initials on it.
I was like, yes, that belongs to us.
We obviously do not, like, want a circular saw, a sander, a lawn mower or anything like that  returned at another library.
So that was the first case of that ever happening since June.
The only tool we don't have, and this is like for liability reasons, is a chain saw.
Our most popular tools are circular saws, we have a carpet shampooer, which is very popular, a pressure washer.
But mostly people come in and just get like small tools for minor repairs in their house.
So the people sign a waiver, and the tools are checked out with like a bar code, just like a book bar code, they go out for a one-week at a time, we do let people renew the tools.
The fine is minimal, like a quarter if the tools are late.
So if somebody would lose the tool, we would charge them like a replacement fee for that tool.
The tools that I have purchased are just very few at this point, I have purchased a few replacement blades for saws, but we have wonderful patrons that have called from all over the city of Pittsburgh to donate tools for us, so right now we have like an abundance of hammers, and screwdrivers, and nails, things like that.
So I would be looking to help someone else in my county start a tool lending library.
So I have -- I see a question here, who maintains the tools?
The tools are alphabetical on the shelf, I have a wonderful tool lending library volunteer, Dan, who comes in and maintains the tools.
He cleans and oils the tools, we also get like one or two adult volunteers.
Right now I don't have a lot of adult volunteers maintaining the tools, but right now the tools are very clean, since we opened in June.
So these are again, like used tools, they're not really brand-new tools, just a few of them.
We have the room to store them because it's in an outside basement place.
Which is like currently only used for that purpose.
So we have like, ladders, in the back area we have five or six ladders.
We do have insurance on the property, we have drrts and officers insurance.
We don't have extra insurance per se on this -- on the tools, we do expect that people checking out the tools, when they sthien waiver, it does say on the waiver, and I would be happy to share that waiver out to anyone that requests it.
You can find tool lending library waivers online, so it's not extra insurance per se, but the waiver says that when you check out this tool, you're checking it out, indicating that you are responsible, a responsible adult user of this tool.
So the tools are generally like circular saws.
Oh, yes, I can share out the waiver.
I see the comment on there.
I would be happy to share out the waiver at the end.
So maybe you could post that online?
>> Yes, definitely.
I'll add that to the event page once we get it from Susan.
>> So there are maybe -- there are lots of tool lending libraries out there that have their waiver online.
So we do not check out or let anyone use the tool lending library if they are under the age of 18.
So we don't have any textile tools.
We have a sewing machine in our maker space and that is used under the supervision of our maker space educator or an adult teaching artist.
We have summer maker camps here.
We have six different maker camps during the summer, and they are free, so children do learn how to use a sewing machine with our maker space educator at one of the camps.
We do have a quilting machine, that's a great idea, I like that.
Children love to learn how to sew here, so this summer a friend of mine volunteered and the children learned how to make a hat, and just do some basic sewing.
So the trend in the United States is to start a library of things, which is something I would love to do here.
As I mentioned, we have the two guitars we lend out.
We have wi-fi hot spots, now I do have to pay for those.
We have radon detectors and air quality monitors, so the thing about the air quality monitors, I took one home and the -- the gauge went up whenever I made bacon in my house.
So the air quality monitors are a great thing to use.
There is a library in my county that lends out cake pans.
There are libraries in my county that lend out American girl dolls, the library that I used to work out, we had a collection of four American girl dolls, and they went out all the time.
Since I have a large pre-teen population here, the -- I asked the girls were not really interested in having a doll collection.
But I know they would go out to other libraries.
I noticed one participant wrote they have a jewelry making kit, that's wonderful.
We have a few science kits here that go out to the kids.
We have like a little bit -- we have a makey-makey, lots of libraries have the baking tools they lend out, we have a large game and puzzle collection.
I have not started cataloging that yet, because I thought, well, I already have lots of tools and other things to keep track of, but I do want to get more musical instruments and more robotic items in my collection.
I love the state museum ideas, state park passes, that's wonderful.
We do have a hedge trimmer.
We have rakes, we have ladders, they're all wonderful ideas.
Children's museum passes, that's wonderful.
The only thing was checking in some of this stuff, some of it is heavy for me to carry outside.
I want to say how do you get the board on board?
Make time to brainstorm.
My board is wonderful at brainstorming.
Check in on your strategic plan frequently.
Whr I have my director's report I'll often mention what I'm doing in terms of professional development, and what I'm doing that relates to our strategic plan.
I will -- if I -- I'll be like, why don't we do this?
Or I have a suggestion, then they will say, well, bring back an answer if I have a question.
So making time to innovate, brainstorm, network with other people, partner with others, do outreach.
If you don't know, ask.
I didn't used to be the type of person that would ask a lot of questions, now when I meet someone I'm like, do you want to come to my library?
What do you like to do?
Would you like to work with me on a project?
You don't have -- I'm finding out you don't have to reinvent the wheel.
Also I used to go to a ton of meetings.
I still go to a lot of meetings, but some of the meetings I felt like it can be done through email, or do you want to come meet at my location?
I found out collaboration and cooperation is key.
Experiment.
I'm not, like -- I'm not afraid to make a mess, help clean up that mess, I'm not afraid to fail and try again.
If something doesn't work I try something else.
So what is your most innovative project?
For me, I don't know.
I like the -- I think one of the most creative things I've done here is start the music collection, because that's become very popular.
Just reaching out and finding new people to explore with.
One of the things I did this summer was I reached out to someone that I believe I saw on Facebook or Instagram, and I asked that person if he wanted to come to my library.
And his name is [indiscernible] and he is starting a robotic cad.
And his name is -- his company name is called P etoi.
He came to the library twice, and our children got featured in his YouTube video two weeks ago, and he's starting this cat which is hopefully going to be a prototype.
If you look up the cat's name, it's called NYBBLE, on YouTube, and he just started a crowdfunding campaign, a $50,000, he wants to make this cat into like a robotic toy.
And it interact with a real cat.
So that was one of my really cool recent partnerships, because he came in here and the children got to interact and learn like a little bit of robotics.
And that was just a few weeks ago.
So we have some wonderful volunteer groups, we have University of Pittsburgh, a lot of college groups.
We have a lot of organizations we partner with.
This photo is a picture of our back yard.
We participate in a day of giving.
So Millvale is a food desert, we have no grocery store in town, so where do you shop?
People shop at a dollar store, a gas station, and the convenience store.
Which is right across the street from us.
So one of the things that I'm working on now is trying to -- we're constantly raising funds for the kids to come in hungry after school.
We have a rain garden in our back yard.
This will be -- this is a picture of it here.
So one of the things I did this summer, I got a small grant, and I shot a -- taught the children how to make strawberry jam.
So we have -- we are on the floodplain, so my garden plot, which was the first one I had since I was a kid, it got flooded this summer.
So I was not able to use produce from my yard plot, but I got first produce and I did some gardening related programs with the kids.
We also have a partnership with a food bank, the green grocer comes in twice a week and brings fresh produce into Millvale.
So that's a place where all the residents or anyone can come in and buy fresh produce.
We started an after-school program and we partnered with 412 food rescue, which is part of the  greater Pittsburgh food bank.
We partnered with the gardens of Millvale, so children have access to fresh healthy food after school.
So we did a comedy show, and we had an art show, and we did -- I'm sorry, that should say IOB, it's IOBB of -- we did poetry readings, crowdfunding, and we just did a lot of online fund-raising to raise money to feed our kids after school.
Because I found out the kids are eating lunch at like 10:30 in the mornings so they are hungry when they come here after school.
We have three -- four part-time staff.
So I have a high school student who works at the desk nine hours a week, two other employees who now work about 20 hours a week, and then I have my maker educator who is about 20 to 25 hours a week.
And they all work -- except for the high school students, they all work other part-time jobs as  well.
So there's tons of work to get done always.
And I'm constantly writing grants, my maker space educator helps me write grants.
My outreach person also helps to like do poetry readings, she's an artist, she helps with fund-raising.
So we're all involved with pretty much everything in the library.
So our long-term food solution is more partnerships, we want to seek long-term sponsors, we are a summer lunch site, so this summer we fed probably about 20 area residents a day, and that was the children under 18 summer lunch.
You too can en0 vait.
I would say move beyond gathering information.
See what other libraries and businesses are doing.
So I am always out there on the internet looking at what other people are doing in my community.
And the state, and at a national level.
Don't be afraid to try.
And embrace innovation.
Don't be afraid to fail.
Sometimes it might be a challenge to get other people in your community on board, the best way I found to do that is to tell them like what other people are doing, and why.
And when you talk about the positive results that have resulted in other places in the country, that doesn't mean that it can't help in any community too.
You have to -- sometimes it's -- like the only mind that you can change is your way of thinking, you really can't change another person's way of thinking, and I found that out, of course over the years.
But it's really hard to get people on the same page sometimes, but -- like sometimes you just have to be persistent and be patient and a lot of it is trial and error sometimes.
And a lot of it is I found that a lot of people here are just very open minded and very community oriented, and a -- I believe libraries are here to stay, they're not going to go away.
And I think people need libraries now more than ever.
People have access to the information, but people don't really know how to interpret that information, because there's a lot of, like, garbage out there on the internet, and a lot of fake news, and people see things all the time and don't really know if it's news or not.
And sometimes come into the library and ask me that question.
Or don't know, you know, how to get the best result.
So I sit down with them and we still see a lot of people every day that need help looking for a job.
So the library is a wonderful place to go for that.
And as I said, we are a community hub, and I think that every library needs to be that community  hub, and have that community place to go to.
>> You definitely have shown us that your library is a community hub.
Truly.
Incredible, all that you have going on, and such a tiny staff, obviously lots of vested community members, volunteers, and I know -- I just put a link to the VISTA volunteer Pakistani, I know you've had success with VISTA volunteers as well, and some even staying on after they've completed their stint.
So that's really great.
And Susan is sharing her contact information, so if there are specific things we'll definitely follow up on getting a few more resources from her to add to the event page, so that you all can see for the tool library, what that waiver looks like.
And if you have other questions, certainly reach out to her.
And as we wrap up, a couple reminders that I'll send you an email once the recording has been  posted, later today, and we'll send you a certificate for attending and I'm going to send you as you leave this room, I'm going to send you to a short survey and we encourage you to provide feedback.
I'll share with Susan and it also helps us guide our ongoing programming.
Thank you so much, Susan.
Really truly an inspiration.
Lots of things going on, and your community is really lucky to have your library there and we look forward to seeing what sort of innovation comes next for you all.
>> Thank you so much.
We're right now our -- our next big thing is our holiday drink tour, and Yuletide tour, and we're going to be a stop for Santa on November 24th, and last year was the first time during the holiday drink tour, and it was a fund-raiser for the Millvale fire department.
So I made like spiced cider and it was every location in Millvale that wanted to be a participant, we serve like a drink and the fire department made a lot of money.
So it was a very successful event for the community and for the library.
>> Yeah.
That's fantastic.
Really, everyone is pitching in for everyone else in the community.
Excellent.
Have a fantastic holiday season, and thank you all for being here today.
And thanks to our captioner as well.
Everyone, have a fantastic week!
>> Thank you so much, everyone.
Thanks for listening.
>> Bye bye.