Closing Equity Gaps with Community Partnerships: Key Resources from WebJunction

At the Public Library Association’s 2022 conference, Dr. Audrey Barbakoff gave a talk on "Digital equity through community partnerships," in which she discussed how community partnerships can be building blocks for sustainable digital inclusion programs. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated already-existing inequities for many communities, amplifying the need for short-term, pandemic-responsive programming. Now, over two years into the pandemic, libraries are shifting focus away from pandemic-responsive programming and toward sustainable, long-term equity work. And the key ingredient for accomplishing this shift: cultivating rich, diverse community partnerships.
So where to begin? Libraries cannot be everything to everyone. Nor should...
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New Justice Gap Study Confirms Problem Persists

The Legal Services Corporation (LSC) released a far-reaching new report on the crisis in civil legal aid, The Justice Gap: The Unmet Civil Legal Needs of Low-income Americans, in April 2022.
This is LSC’s fourth Justice Gap study that documents the volume of civil legal needs faced by low-income Americans, assesses the extent to which they seek and receive help, and measures the shortfall between their civil legal needs and the resources available to address these needs. The deficit between resources and need is called the “justice gap.” This data on the justice gap prompted the Improving Access to Civil Legal... Read more
WebJunction Launches First Courses in Series on Digital Collections Stewardship

OCLC's WebJunction, in partnership with Washington State University’s Center for Digital Scholarship and Curation, has launched the first two in a series of free online courses developed for staff at small public libraries and tribal archives, libraries, museums on digital stewardship and community-centered curation of digital collections. These on-demand courses, adapted from the Tribal Digital Stewardship Cohort Program developed at Washington State University, are rolling out this month.
Creating and sharing digital collections is an important way that libraries can share and preserve unique local history, culture, stories, and artifacts. Digital collections offer an opportunity to represent a diversity of... Read more
Free May Webinars for Library Staff

With so many options for online learning, it's great to be able to see all these webinars and online conferences collected in one place. This list, provided by the Wyoming State Library, comes out every month and is regularly updated on the Free Training page, where you can also view the offerings by topic. This month's list covers 87 webinars and 5 online conferences in 21 different topic areas, from advocacy to volunteers. Take some time to think through your library's priorities and pick those that can help you to focus your learning and to take the practical next steps... Read more
WebJunction at PLA in Portland

The Public Library Association (PLA) hosted its 2022 Conference in Portland, Oregon, March 23-25, and we were excited that members of the WebJunction team and community were able to attend!
Attendees were inspired when they stopped by Community Central in the OCLC booth for short community engagement spotlight talks featuring public library leaders. These 10-minute talks (with time for Q&A after) explored how libraries encourage important local conversations, partner for impact, and create compelling community programming.
Fortunately, for those not able to travel to Portland for the 2022 PLA Conference, many of the sessions were recorded and are... Read more
WebJunction Highlights
Toolkit for Creating Smart Spaces
Taking Care of Self, Staff, and Community (webinar)
Growing Library Garden Programs
Creating Pathways to Civil Legal Justice (course series)
Supercharged Storytimes (course)
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Upcoming Webinars
24 May 2022
Book Challenges and Intellectual Freedom: Proactive Planning for Public Libraries
This webinar will explore ways for libraries to be proactive in developing and sharing policies and procedures around book challenges.
14 June 2022
Break Free from Misinformation in an Escape Room
How can you use an escape room to help inform library patrons about misinformation? Join this webinar to learn about new programming resources for your library!
07 July 2022
Engaging Adults with Low Literacy Levels
This webinar will explore the characteristics of adults with low literacy levels and provide strategies for library staff to support reading literacy in adults.