This Month at CLC: October 2019
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DIRECTOR'S CORNER: Out & About
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"A library is much more than a sanctuary for solitary reading but a stage for life and discussion."
--Michael J. Lewis, "
An Altar to Learning at Temple
,"
The Wall Street Journal
, 21 Sept. 2019
This month, I had a chance to visit two recently renovated libraries in Connecticut that are embracing this philosophy.
The September Fairfield County Library Administrators Group meeting was held at the
Westport Library
, providing a wonderful opportunity to see what that continuously innovative library has designed to meet their view of the future. There are plenty of spaces for groups of all sizes to convene, designed to serve a wide range of audiences and purposes. Almost every piece of furniture or shelf on the upper level is mobile. And the next phase of Westport Library's technology evolution replaces banks of public computers with laptops that users can check out. It is a fascinating space that everyone should visit.
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My next stop was the New Haven Free Public Library, where I was hosted by director Martha Brogan. We enjoyed a perfect September day - a delicious lunch in the library's newly reimagined
café
, and a free concert on the beautifully updated terrace. Who would have imagined just a few short years ago that a library would be a destination for this type of outing? I also toured their inspiring innovation space,
Ives Squared
. NHFPL is a model for finding continuously innovative ways to meet evolving community needs. No wonder the Institute of Museum and Library Services named them one of ten recipients of the
2019 National Medal for Museum & Library Service
.
I left these visits with my head spinning with lots of ideas for CLC to develop into programs and discounts, including library pop-up gift shops, podcasts, and large library/author events. You can’t visit with innovators without walking away creating and dreaming. And if you're dreaming about transformation and change at your library, help is on the way. CLC is working on a a potential new service: a pool of vetted consultants. Please help us shape this program by sharing your opinion in our
survey
by October 18.
Jennifer Keohane
Executive Director
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Karla Umland is CLC's new Circuits Coordinator for the eastern region and FLIC, succeeding Kate Bengtson. We're delighted to welcome Karla, and equally delighted that Kate is still in Connecticut libraryland, working as an Instructional Technology Specialist at Connecticut College. Karla has hit the ground running, and she has already tackled her first swaps! Welcome to the CLC team, Karla!
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Hello, my name is Karla and I am a library addict. Seriously, no one can keep me out of the library. When traveling, my first stop is to the local library. I am not picky: public, academic, or even Little Free Library. I have visited libraries from New Jersey to New Zealand, and I believe that libraries are better together. I look forward to collaborating with CLC members to support your media collections. Let’s make our media circuits the best they can be!
Karla Umland
Circuits Coordinator - Eastern Region & FLIC
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We have had two exciting developments in purchasing this month. We have re-opened our existing non-print media contract specifically to add unique products that are popular among school and public libraries, and we are heading out to bid for serials subscription management services for all members.
CLC's
Non-Print Media and Processing Services Contract
, M302, was opened in September so as to add two new categories. The current contracts will stay in place and we will be either adding a vendor or expanding a vendor offering to include these products:
- Audio-enabled book readers: hard- or soft-covered books with an embedded device that includes a full audio recording of the book
- Read-alongs: hard or soft-covered books accompanied by an audio device that includes a full audio recording of the book
Look for an announcement in the coming weeks as to the selected vendor(s) and their offerings, and how you can begin ordering and saving.
The
Serials Subscription Management Bid
will go out this week. We will make awards in these general categories of serials subscription management services:
- Print with or without additional available formats
- Print published abroad
- Additional value-added services
The vendor who receives the award will provide titles suitable for adults, young adults and children; and will provide world language magazine titles, world interest magazine titles in English, world language newspaper titles, and national and regional newspapers, among other requirements.
The bids will be evaluated in October and November and will be in place before the end of the year. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments about either of these bids, or contact your CLC Member Relations Manager (Jen V. or Julie) with your suggestions for products and services. We all look forward to hearing from you!
Jacqueline Cashin
Vendor Relations Manager
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CLC: A UNIQUE MODEL THAT WORKS
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If you’ve tried to get in contact with me during the month of September, you may have noticed my “out of office” message was on often. As much as I missed being able to chat with you regularly, you were never far from my mind: I was out representing Connecticut librarians at back-to-back conferences.
First, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Association of Rural and Small Libraries (ARSL) conference in Burlington, VT. I had never been to ARSL, but I’ve heard in many library circles that it’s one of the best to attend, which I can now wholeheartedly confirm. Not only did they choose a gorgeous setting (seriously, what’s better than meeting colleagues from across the country with Lake Champlain as your backdrop?), but this conference was the perfect mix of fun and educational. The organizers were great at facilitating meetups that fostered a sense of community, a function of the fact that many of the attendees were traveling solo. As so many of us know, small libraries = small staff, and not much wiggle room for desk coverage. I got to know librarians from North Dakota, Minnesota, California, and Alaska, all of them from tiny libraries that are consistently trying to do more with less.
Despite this very familiar refrain, there was something that became clear to me as I tried to explain my job to these out of state folks: not many people have an organization in their area that functions quite like CLC. A library membership group that not only serves as a purchasing cooperative but also creates professional development opportunities, solicits regular feedback from libraries, and supports over 800 institutional members is quite unheard of in other parts of the country. I say this not to boast about the CLC staff (who are also pretty great) but to iterate that what we have here in CT is unique, and it’s because of all of you. We could not host over 110 roundtable meetings annually without our crew of volunteer chairs, save millions of dollars on products and services without your combined purchasing power, or implement new strategies and programs without the willingness of our members to share their ideas openly and unabashedly.
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REFERENCE USA.
To that end, the other conference I attended was the
ReferenceUSA
User Conference in Omaha, NE. We know many CT libraries already purchase this robust business database and directory, and we are working on finalizing an agreement with Infogroup that will include a discount on the service for both new and existing customers. Stayed turned for more info!
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Jennifer Van Nostrand
Member Relations Manager, Public & Special Libraries
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Have you marked your calendars yet for the
CASL CECA 2019 Conference
? Look for CLC’s booth right away to participate in our superpower activity. Start building bridges and make every connection count by letting everyone know your school librarian superpower! The CASL CECA conference is October 20 and 21 at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford. I'm looking forward to meeting you at the conference. Hope to see you there.
Our membership drive is coming soon. We are in the planning stages now, but be on the lookout for a purple envelope in your mailbox in early November with information about renewing your CLC dues for 2020. Of course, if you'd like to renew sooner (many of our members already have!), please let us know. We are happy to accommodate early requests. K-12 and academic libraries should contact me; public and special libraries, reach out to Jen Van Nostrand at
jvannostrand@ctlibrarians.org
.
I look forward to speaking to and meeting with you soon. Please reach out to me with questions, or just to say hi.
Julie Yulo-Medeiros
Member Relations Manager, School & Academic Libraries
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LET US FILL UP YOUR CALENDAR!
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As busy as September was, October promises to keep pace: on our calendar are 13 roundtables, two conferences, two training events, and two special events that are possible through our partnerships. But before we look ahead, let's look back at what you may have missed last month and how you can use what we learned.
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What we learned at the Advocacy Bootcamp.
CLC held the first of our regional Advocacy Bootcamps last month at Rockville Public Library. Attendees learned how to implement a simple, effective storytelling program to build community support. Key messages from the training:
- It’s not the job of the community to make a good library; it’s the job of the library to help make a good community.
- Advocacy begins with listening to the needs of the community and building library programs that fill those needs.
- It's critical to build community support before asking for financial support.
- Use stories – stories in which your library plays a key role to help solve a problem – to build that community support.
Intrigued? Ready to learn how to tell your library's story? Join us at the
next Bootcamp session
on October 8 at the Westport Library.
LEARN MORE & REGISTER
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What we learned at Meeting Facilitation Training.
September brought another session of this popular CLC training. More than 65 CLC members have now participated in this course and have reported improvement in the meetings they run. If you missed it, here are a few takeaways:
- The key to a successful meeting is the planning, asking questions such as: What is the primary purpose of this meeting? Does this purpose truly require a meeting? What tangible outcomes would you like to see?
- The agenda, created and circulated prior to the meeting, should use questions for each item to help participants focus on exactly what they are trying to accomplish.
- One participant shared the following: I've changed all my meeting agenda items into questions, and it has transformed my meetings! Forming agenda items as questions keeps the conversation moving, and has increased participation, as it serves as an invitation to share.
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Stories of Youth: A Storytelling Showcase
is scheduled for Friday, October 18 from 4:00 – 6:00 pm at Best Video Film and Cultural Center in Hamden and launches an exciting partnership project with the
Connecticut Storytelling Center
. We’ve heard from our members the need to build storytelling skills and the ability to distinguish storytelling vs. sharing of stories through traditional storytime experiences. Come to this free event – open to CLC members and guests – to experience different styles of storytelling, including personal and folk tales from a lineup of local storytellers.
LEARN MORE & REGISTER
. Plus ...
- Join us on October 29 for the first meeting of the newly formed Storytelling Roundtable to learn more about storytelling. More details below.
- Stay tuned to hear more about the third project in this partnership: an upcoming four-part storytelling workshop series led by a professional storyteller!
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J.M.W. Turner: Watercolors from Tate
is an exhibit on display at
Mystic Seaport Museum
from October through February. It features 100 watercolor paintings from the British master on loan from the Tate in London, and Mystic Seaport Museum will be the only North American venue to host the exhibit. All CLC members are invited to join us for a special
insider’s look at this exhibit
. Expect a curated talk, exclusive access to the exhibit, and beverages and snacks. Mystic Seaport Museum has also generously offered to provide five public libraries each with an annual membership (library pass). You can
enter your library to win
; recipients will be announced at this event, which is timed to coincide with NELA – if you’re going to the conference, join us immediately afterwards. If you aren’t going to NELA, please come to Mystic for this special opportunity.
LEARN MORE & REGISTER
.
Our staff will be out and about this month at all of these events, roundtables and conferences. Look for Julie and Jen V. at
CASL/CECA
, and Jennifer K., Jackie and Amanda at
NELA
. Please stop by our booth and say hello, and don't miss our program at NELA - "Getting the Most Bang for your Library's Buck!" - on Monday at 2pm.
Amanda Stern
Events & Special Projects Manager
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SCHOOL LIBRARIANS - SPEND ELECTION DAY WITH US!
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Election Day is coming up on Tuesday, November 5, and many schools are closed for staff development. CLC is offering a special professional development opportunity for school librarians: a full-day workshop (after we vote, of course!).
Tuesday, November 5, 2019
9:00 am - 3:00 pm
Baci, 134 Berlin Road, Cromwell
Registration opening soon! Learn more at
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For public libraries & K-12 schools
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This offer is so new, it's not even up on our website yet! AWE Learning's award-winning plug-and-play, self-contained learning environments develop early learning skills in an engaging way. CLC members receive an extra $50 off already deeply discounted pricing. We have never been able to offer this additional discount before! Contact your CLC Member Relations Manager (Jen V. or Julie) with questions. To order, contact Juanita Griscom from AWE:
griscomj@awelearning.com
or 267.259.6211. Details will be available soon at
ctlibrarians.org/awe
.
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Princh is the only mobile printing solution designed for - and with - libraries!
It is a user-friendly, cloud-based printing solution that allows library users to print from their mobile devices, laptops, and - if you choose - your public PCs.
CLC members get 14 months of Princh for the price of 12.
Our Princh rep will be at the NELA Conference - all the way from Denmark!
Be sure to stop & visit their booth. Learn more:
ctlibrarians.org/princh
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For public libraries & K-12 schools
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Public & school libraries, join our discounted subscription group and save on all of your favorite Scholastic Digital products:
- Bookflix, Trueflix, Freedomflix, Scienceflix
- GO Suite
- NEW Scholastic Teachables
- NEW Watch & Learn Library
LAST YEAR'S AVERAGE SAVINGS: 55%!
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Thursday, October 3, 9:00am
Otis Library, Norwich
PROGRAMMING SUCCESSES
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Please join us for a discussion of programming and outreach success stories! What programs are working at your library? What's not working? Let's share tips and strategies for programming and outreach.
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Thursday, October 17, 10:00am
Middletown Library Service Center
TO FINE OR NOT TO FINE?
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Join the next Social Justice Roundtable to discuss materials fines. Have you eliminated them? Do you want to? Are you a municipal library and have been told you cannot? Let's discuss philosophy, policy, and practicality.
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(formerly YA Librarians Roundtable Capitol Region)
Thursday, October 24, 10:00am
Windsor Public Library
THE BIG PROGRAMMING MEETING
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Come to our next meeting and bring ALL your teen programming ideas: low cost, passive, pop culture, STEM, school programs, hiring professionals for your programs and more. This is the meeting to discuss them all!
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Tuesday, October 29, 2:00pm
Middletown Library Service Center
FIRST MEETING!
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Join us for the inaugural meeting of this Storytelling Roundtable! We will be discussing different types of storytelling and will have some storytelling demonstrations.
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These are just a few of this month's roundtables - there are 13 meetings scheduled for October alone! Don't miss out ... visit our continuously-updated calendar and make plans to attend a roundtable today!
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"As a Library Director, I know it can be difficult to schedule staff to attend outside training, but the value that returns when someone attends a CLC roundtable and brings back best practices, out-of-the-box solutions, or new ideas from other librarians is invaluable. This is a resource that can be utilized, free of charge, by anyone in our state! Networking, idea sharing, and the opportunity to ask for advice easily equate in value to having a staff member out of the building for a few hours." -
-Jessica Miller, Library Director, Somers Public Library
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