Join Us at ConnectedLibFEST 2023

Rotem Landesman, ConnectedLib Team Member /

Join Us at ConnectedLib FEST 2023

Have you heard about connected learning, but wondered what it is and how it relates to libraries? Have you thought about how you might bring connected learning to small and rural libraries or your local community?

Come join us at ConnectedLibFEST, a free virtual convening that will take place on March 15–16, 2023, 1–5pm Eastern Standard Time.

This first-of-its-kind event focuses on bringing connected learning to small and rural libraries and communities. Each day will bring together library staff, researchers, and community members to learn from, and with, each other.

ConnectedLibFEST will feature speakers from a range of rural libraries and communities across the country and researchers from diverse universities. Through participating in open workshops and brainstorming spaces, attendees will leave inspired and capable of bringing what they learned back home to their library.

Register today!

Why ConnectedLibFEST?

As the world changes, libraries big and small continue to be places of learning, community growth and resourcefulness. Libraries work to empower teens to participate, explore, and collaborate with their community.

Connected Learning is a framework used by libraries and practitioners across the country in communities big and small, rural and urban, to support rich learning experiences for youth. The practice centers around three main principles: (1) connecting teens to their personal interests while (2) fostering meaningful relationships and (3) real world opportunity.

How does that theory translate in practice, and where should you start? Excellent question.

For the last seven years, researchers at the  University of Washington iSchool and the University of Maryland College of Information Studies, with support from the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) co-created the ConnectedLib Toolkit. The Toolkit offers youth-serving library staff a free, customizable, and self-paced resource to design and implement CL-inspired teen programs and services.

ConnectedLib Toolkit with nine areas of focus and corresponding icons

The ConnectedLib Toolkit was designed with libraries of all sizes in mind and was recently updated to address both urban and rural contexts. The Toolkit contains a series of modules that teach library staff about connected learning and walks them through the steps to implement connected learning services through their libraries. The activities are designed to help library staff evaluate their current teen services and their library’s existing capacity for connected learning; identify community resources that could support teens’ connected learning experiences; and develop a plan for implementing and evaluating their own connected learning program. WebJunction hosted a webinar in 2019, Supporting Connected Learning for Youth in Libraries with the ConnectedLib Toolkit, providing an overview of the resources, and we look forward to sharing updates and additional learning in March.

Want to learn more?

Register for ConnectedLibFEST today!