October 28-30, 2015
San Diego, CA
Leaders Partnering for Success will provide library CEOs, deputy directors and community partners with the opportunity to engage in open discussions about shared visions and goals for addressing education and social equity, all while helping to build a stronger framework for successful community-wide collaboration.
Join your peers and community thought leaders in San Diego this October to tackle education and social equity challenges and identify innovative solutions.
Visit the ULC website to view the conference agenda, speaker bios and more!
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Apply for ULC Awards Before It's Too Late!
Deadline: Friday, September 4, 2015
"ULC has played an important role in my leadership development [...] most recently with the Joey Rodger Leadership Award, which allowed me to attend the Strategic Foresight Course at the University of Houston. This course enabled me to consider how to prepare for the future. Change is not about knowing what things will happen but rather about knowing the possibilities and anticipating when and how change will happen. In today's world, waiting for change is risky; we must instead sense change and respond."
- Lisa Wells, 2014 Joey Rodger Leadership Award Winner
ULC is now accepting nominations for the Urban Leader Award and applications for the Joey Rodger Leadership Award. Both awards recognize transformative leadership that advances the impact and strategic role of public libraries in communities across North America.
Visit the ULC website to view the award guidelines, past winners and apply today!
Chicago Public Library Becomes First Library to Receive NSLA Summer Learning Award
 On Monday, August 24,
Chicago Public Library (CPL) was named the first-ever winner of the
National Summer Learning Association's (NSLA) Founder's Award for the Library's successful
Rahm's Readers Summer Learning Challenge. Offered in 80 branches and reaching over 83,000 children across the city of Chicago,
Rahm's Readers Summer Challenge works to increased literacy and 21st Century skills and for all young people from pre-kindergarten to twelfth grade. CPL is not only the inaugural recipient of the new Founder's Award, but also the first library to join NSLA's elite group of exceptional summer learning initiatives.
Click
here to learn more about CPL's award-winning summer learning program.
ULC Advances the Role of Public Libraries
at NSLA Conference
 ULC will be highlighting the innovative summer learning programming developed by public libraries during NSLA's Summer Changes Everything National Conference held October 12-14, 2015, in Baltimore. ULC will be hosting Schools + Libraries = Power to Leverage Summer Learning, a working session demonstrating how libraries and schools can leverage resources and develop partnerships to support summer learning initiatives. ULC members Chicago Public Library and Virginia Beach Public Library will also host sessions highlighting their programs.
Click
here to learn more about the
Summer Changes Everything library programming and ULC's special registration discount!
Kansas City Public Library Director Frames Digital Divide as 21st Century Civil Rights Issue
In a recent radio interview, Kansas City Public Library (KCPL) Deputy Director Cheptoo Kositany-Buckner describes KCPL's efforts to make make broadband internet access and information services more accessible to all members of the community. In the interview and accompanying article, Kositany-Buckner emphasizes the role of the library as an essential space for civic engagement and community interaction, particularly across different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.
KCPL remains dedicated to making sure that all members of the community have access to the digital tools and resources that are necessary for participating in 21st century civic discourse. Recently, the Library received a grant to provide mobile hotspots to children in the Kansas City School District. Kositany-Buckner hopes to help KCPL expand this type of service to other community centers in Kansas City, citing the need to ensure certain populations are not left behind as the digitization of resources and services in our society becomes more widespread.
Click
here to learn more about her story and how KCPL is working to bridge the digital divide in Kansas City.
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Strategic Initiatives:
A Hatchery for Innovation
The Free Library of Philadelphia's Strategic Initiatives department serves as steward of the library's strategic plan, an in-house data manager, and the launching point for new and innovative programs. To support the library's focus on statistics and measurable outcomes, Strategic Initiatives has developed a tool for stress testing programs to determine their impact, feasibility, viability, and sustainability. Since its creation, Strategic Initiatives has stress tested seven library programs and reviewed more than 80 staff suggestions for new programs including expanded prison library services, family literacy, health services, and support for new Americans.
"The Strategic Initiatives department has assessed the viability of new and existing library programs and services, cultivated staff-generated ideas for innovative programming, and developed an idea pipeline," said Siobhan Reardon, President and Director of the Free Library of Philadelphia. "I am so proud of this forward-thinking team that is doing great things to improve library services and ultimately enhance the experience of all those who use the Free Library of Philadelphia."
Click here to learn more about this innovative project. Visit the ULC website to view the complete list of 2015 Innovations.
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California Public Libraries Join High-Speed Network
Recently, 125 public libraries in California signed on to connect to the California Research and Education Network (CalREN), a 3,800-mile high-speed fiber network operated by
the
Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC). This public library expansion marks the latest progress made by
Lighting up Libraries, an initiative led by the California State Library in partnership with Califa, a non-profit membership cooperative serving California libraries.
Learn more about the initiative here.
Still Time to Sign
Letter in Support of Lifeline Reform
Since the FCC extended the deadline for
Lifeline Reform until August 31, 2015,
NYPL is still accepting signatories in support of expanding the Lifeline Program to include broadband subsidies. If you would like to sign onto the letter that over twenty ULC members have signed,
please contact Luke Swarthout at NYPL: [email protected].
Click
here to learn more about Lifeline Reform.
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