WebJunction content and upcoming webinars – July 10, 2024

Highlighted Content

Creating a community-led library: Loveland Public Library's u-lab initiative in action Libraries are increasingly turning to community-led approaches to ensure that their services and resources meet local needs effectively. This process involves actively including community members in decision-making processes, but the path to getting there can look different from library to library. We spoke with Loveland Public Library (Colorado) Director Amy Phillips to learn more about how her library is using a method called u-lab to guide their efforts to better understand community needs and align them with planned outreach efforts.

Library guide to civic engagement: Tools and strategies for voter education Many people already turn to libraries as sources of trusted information ahead of elections, and organizations like the American Libraries Association and the League of Women Voters are hoping to expand those numbers. We’ve curated a selection of resources, tools, and ideas to help inform your library’s approach to this important work.

Advancing IDEAs: Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, 9 July 2024 This is the latest Hanging Together blog post, part of a regular series on issues of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility, compiled by a team of OCLC contributors.

WebJunction Webinars

These upcoming webinars are open for registration. If you can’t attend a live session, all WebJunction webinars are recorded and available for free in the Course Catalog.

Cultural humility in library work

Wednesday, July 17, 2024 ◆ 3:00 pm Eastern / 12:00 pm Pacific ◆ 60 minutes

Registration: https://www.webjunction.org/events/webjunction/cultural-humility-in-library-work.html

Cultural humility offers a renewing and transformative framework for navigating interpersonal interactions in libraries, whether between patrons and staff or staff members with one another. But what is cultural humility, and what does it look like in practice? Join the editors of Hopeful visions, practical actions: Cultural humility in library work, (ALA Editions 2023) as they define and explore the concept of cultural humility, its strengths and limitations, and strategies for applying more inclusive practices to library customer service, policies, and collection development.

Work It Out @ Your Library with the Wombats!

Thursday, August 8, 2024 ◆ 3:00 pm Eastern / 12:00 pm Pacific ◆ 60 minutes

Registration: https://www.webjunction.org/events/webjunction/work-it-out-wombats.html

This webinar will introduce you to Work It Out @ Your Library! a new program for families in your community, built around Work it Out Wombats!, a national PBS KIDS television series for 4- to 6-year-olds. Through hands-on activities, library storytime sessions, animated videos, and a family app, this flexible program helps library staff guide families through the exploration of computational thinking. Computational thinking is a creative way of solving problems in more organized ways. When children make believe they're running a restaurant, they explore sequencing by figuring out the steps for serving a customer a meal. When they play with blocks to make a castle, they can practice the design process by creating, testing, and improving the structure. Library staff are uniquely suited to promote this learning with their library families. The webinar will cover why computational thinking skills are important for young children, how the free resources have been used to run fun and engaging programs in libraries, and how you can, too.

This program is supported in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Thank you,

Cathy Lancaster

Youth Services Coordinator

Library of Michigan
702 W. Kalamazoo St.
Lansing, MI 48915
My Pronouns: She/Her/Hers - See www.mypronouns.org to learn more.

LancasterC5@michigan.gov | 517-335-8129 | www.mi.gov/libraryofmichigan
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Join the MiYouth Listserv, created for Michigan public library staff to share and discuss children and teen programming and services.