Route and that will polarize and poison the political atmosphere even more than it is now which is bad enough. To watch the rest of this program and find other episodes, visit our website , booktv. Org and click on the after words near the top of the page. Assistant director of an organization dedicated to unleashing the impact of libraries. We dont have a power point today because we divide this as a guided conversation. I want to be sure we make the most of our time today. I will have each of our experts introduce themselves and i am looking forward to what our panelists have to say and i hope you are too. Be sure to visit the resources page and we will put that link in the chat for everyone. In true librarian fashion we will have everybody introduce themselves in alphabetical order by first name. Go ahead and get us started. That is a curveball, first name. Im jennifer pearson, director of the Marshall CountyMemorial Library have between there and alabama. Ive been here about 5 and a half years prior to becoming the director of this wonderful Public Library, i worked there for 11 years and i am serving as president of the association for the library. Who is next . Im next. Im calvin watson, director of Broward CountyPublic Library in florida so if you know where Fort Lauderdale is it is the Central Point for Broward County, ive been here as director for three years prior to my appointment here, i worked at Queens Library in new york city for five years where i held multiple roles including chief operating officer. Im on the board of directors for the Public Library association and also serve on board of directors for the book Industry Study group. I think michelle cummings. I put you guys on the panel, sharp on a tuesday morning. I am Michelle Michelle jeske from denver colorado. I have been here a little over 18 years which is crazy to think about. Ive been director for five years. I am on the board of directors with kelvin, the president elect for another month before i take on the actual president role of pla. I am Miguel Figueroa from the center for the future of libraries and happy to be here with colleagues that i have so much respect, for making this time available. It should be a great conversation and i am happy to be a part of it. As i mentioned we are having a guided conversation so i will kickoff with the first question. How did your library land on priority in this covid19 time and do you see these priorities extending past the crisis . I can start with that one. I feel really lucky that we just created a new strategic framework before this started and before this happened we were trying to center our work on our values fostering curiosity, strengthening connections, challenging inequity and honoring the Publics Trust for stewardship, we are trying hard for step 2 of our work based on those values during this time. Like a lot of libraries the first thing we did was to stand up virtual programming so definitely flexing our values around curiosity and connection doing metairie capping, book clubs, author talks, story times and things like that. I have been super impressed by what my team has done across the country. We realized that is exciting, some of that work should have been happening already to reach out to people who couldnt come to the libraries in person, by focusing so much on digital resources, programs and services we are sadly leaving out large numbers of people who dont have access to the internet or may be that they do, the training or tools or understanding of how to do things like we are doing, things like that. So we have been thinking a lot if we are going to keep focusing on equity and proclamations and understand that we are in this social distancing period for some time what else can we do . We have been turning more and more to oldschool, the tried and true methodology like the phone, good old analog services. We had a program where kids can call in and get a weekly story, four different languages and during this time we have increased that to a different line for adults so every week you call in and get a poem or story in english or spanish unlike some libraries weve had in online chapters for the whole time, i am glad we have that but thats leaving out a large part of the population so we figured out how to pivot and create the phone queuing system in our buildings available for staff to use from home for their own phones and create privacy for them in the other tool we pulled out of the virtual toolbox extending our reach more and more taking books and puzzles and craft kits to people experiencing homelessness, meal sites at school so Going Forward i have more questions than answers at this point. What do we do about all the folks without digital access, is it sustainable to do that . Should we be looking at more sustainable ways to have connections . How do we use resources in the best possible way to challenge inequities that already existed and exacerbated by all this, what do we stop doing that doesnt matter anymore, those things come to mind. Thank you. A lot of us at this time have more questions than answers. Does anyone else want to jump in before we have responses or anything to add . Michelle did a great job covering things i would have said, the one thing i will say, prioritizing how we would focus our services is not to duplicate services of other agencies are doing. One of the things we have in florida and everywhere across the country is the high Unemployment Rate we are experiencing. One of the Library Systems near the south of us started handing out unemployment forms using staff to do that whereas we in broward saw all our fedex location this were not only giving out unemployment but mailing them back to tallahassee for people. My job was not to duplicate that service but figure that out with customers so they can go to the nearest fedex store to get that process. Really good example of the opportunity for us as libraries to have 2 put something down to focus on what we serve. Do you want to add anything before we move on . Theyve done a good job covering everything. I would say the first thing we did here at our Small Library is card free books because we have a lot of people here who dont have access to the digital things we have ramped up and we are doing and would like to continue to do but we had to think about it as what is one thing we can do so when people walk up to the door there is something, there is food there and they take and make crafts there. Two of the other things, that was important to us and it kept us in the good graces of the community, just take this book, it is yours, maybe we just earned it 5 years ago but it is something we can do. That is great especially in terms of access around broadband issues that personally i think may be more prevalent in Rural Communities that something to give people is a big part of it. If you dont have any thoughts i could go to the next question. Do you want to jump in . What michelle, jennifer and calvin embody is a sense where emergency is becoming important. Identifying the most potential things our organization contribute to our community, michelle starts with that, the prioritization of certain values over others in those things happen in our own Institutional Culture and Community Context but the other element of context is important that kelvin illustrate saying we need to continue to look around and ask what are the gaps that might be there that our organization might be particularly wellsuited to fill, some of those steps, the weird thing we experience right now might be the realization that there are gaps that are not aligned to address right now. We might turn to partners or some type of realization the extent and limits of what we do has really changed in this pandemic and that is a difficult reality to confront. Trying to steal my role but we will talk about that later and as he brings up the topic of the next question. What partnerships do you see as a great segue in all seriousness, what partnerships do you see as being needed in the future, the context of emergence and centering on our values moving forward. I wanted to talk about not necessarily a new partnership but strengthening the partnership with our schools, for example when the schools closed there was no coordination with libraries, a much bigger organization than i am but they closed and they decided to provide laptops, students who needed laptops and they also said you could sign up for comcast and comcast had this internet service, one of the gaps, comcast was providing service, not existing customers so that left a lot of students and families not being able to have this necessary utility which is the internet that we have added to our utility bill or as a utility bill to be able to do the work they needed to do. In thinking about this i thought about a program we had in new york city, we provided hotspots and tablets to schoolchildren. One of the things im working on is figuring out how to move ahead of this, how do we take advantage of what the library can do to support the schools and vice versa. How can we be a distribution point with the resources we have to support the schools who dont have Library Media specialty. One of the other things we have is an opportunity to strengthen the relationship with schools in regard to our Community Share program we started three years ago. 3000 School Students in Broward County schools and we only have 75,000 of them who have a Digital Library card that partners them with Library Resources they can access so heres an opportunity for us to partner to make sure every student has a library card because what they experience has shown us, has shown us, we have been able to supplement what the schools have been doing, school resources, childrens resources when we looked at march of 2019 compared to march of 2020 numbers in the Community Share program you had a 60 increase so that is evident that we can go back on. That is a partnership i will strengthen and show a new partnership but how do we make that partnership better Going Forward not just because of the covid19 experience but we need to be ahead of the game in the future. A lot of libraries will speak to that. One little click i want to offer up to those of you who are thinking about what partnerships are needed in the future is also working with other departments in your local government, do you find or have you had to educate them on the strength of the library and what you bring to the table or was it a quick ramp up. Who would like to jump in . Great question. The county that i am in, our local folks, county commissions have some idea of what the library does because i have been here 5 and a half years, my bandwagon has always been lets get them interested in what we do but they dont it is hard for them to grasp what a library compares to when they are talking about reopening, everything we do is a 2way transaction and not a 1way transaction, people are touching everything, the fire inspector came in when we were completely closed to the public, measuring our public face, our public space, the fire code, we normally had 58 people, never fewer than 58 people in here but 50 , we currently have 24 people in the library which to me, very few people but it is talking about where do they go and what do they do and how do you make it work and at the local level everybody has been letting me take the lead of what we do in the library. Im opening a lot slower than the other government buildings are because i would say in tennessee where i live at the state level, there hasnt been any statewide recognition of libraries in terms of the reopening in place. For me, that is a real weve got a lot of work to do on the state level with recognition of our libraries and i work on my state senator but we have a long way to go at the state level. You reminded me of something that is so important when i did advocacy work in terms of establishing partnerships or stressing them with existing partners as kelvin mentioned, in advocacy you never want your first meeting to be that and what is needed to cultivate and engage these partners and educate them all the time so when unfortunate things like this happen at least there is some base of knowledge. Do you want to jump in and share anything . We are thinking about this in terms of the future of libraries, thinking about the future is thinking about systems, when we talk about partnership we are trying to figure out what is the system into which the library fits in to accomplish different things. The Workforce Development recognizing the range of players out there even if they are for profit like fedex or some other distribution and recognizing how the library can leverage different elements to play in those, the tough thing right now is this pandemic has revealed the systemic issues, deepseated issues that we cannot achieve, distributing hotspots will unfortunately not undo the Digital Divide that is exasperated by this process but we can better understand the system and build coalitions to your point that better position us Going Forward. About systems. One thing i want to bring up, when we had a conversation about this before and i have learned so much about libraries as a sense of place especially in Rural Communities because understanding the system is going to look different even for the same agency in every community. In terms of you, jennifer, focusing on giving people physical resources based on your community, to focus on Workforce Development and all those things being the thing to do as it relates to your community. It is a more custom and approach. Were you going to Say Something else . How about you . Do you want to jump in . There is a sort of harsh reality that none of us, we need what we need to solve these problems, there are opportunities, every civilization is to leave its ego at the door. This notion of collective impact which is a beautiful theory it is a failure because people dont leave their egos at the door. We are being leveled here, for every organization so i feel hopeful im hopeful that we can come together or are forced to come together in a more true collective way to bring our own assets to the table to start duplicating and i dont just point my finger at my partners out there. We do the same things when we talk about last week i talked about we have been doing a lot of yoga classes and things like that back when we were allowed to have people in our buildings and i have seen the Parks Department do virtual storytime and my hackles went up thinking why are you in our wheelhouse and i thought who are you to talk . We are all guilty of this and i hope on the other side of this but we can all just bring the right thing for us to bring to the table and leave the rest of it behind. One thing i have been thinking about is how collaboration can occur between baby competing agencies and one thing as we leave our eagles at the door, wanting to bring to the table is our agenda and what we need to find common ground. Some of us come to the table with we can do everything, we love you, what do you need, when establishing a priority and focusing that effort that builds partnerships because it makes it a more Productive Partnership because it is clear what needs to get done and can get done. Anyone else before we go on to the next question . Okay. You should have all clapped when i said that but we will talk about that. The next thing we want to talk about, what are the equity issues that bubble up for your library ensuring communities have access for who you serve, talking about issues around race, access, income, jennifer, do you want to take the lead on that one . I can do that. A little background on our community. Our county has about 34,000 people in it, thankfully growing. But within the county, our rate of folks with bachelors degree, 14 . Our poverty rate is not terrible but it is around 15 and the main library, the biggest city, 13,000 people, the Poverty Level is higher than it is in the county and we have on high criminal rate as opposed to ownership of houses here as well. When we think about my community, and equity, we are a small community, we dont have social services per se. A lot of people are coming to us. Provided in a much better way from different social service, what is important to meet those needs, immediately of what we are doing with computer access here. Plenty of folks in this community that either one cant afford it or 2 live so high on the top of the hill, cant get internet service, even if they live in a milliondollar mansion. The first thing we did to allow people in was to start scheduling appointments, we are only allowing eight to come in for an hour of it time, people who need that service filling out job applications, skyrocketing as we know right now. Access to apply for the jobs. We are doing taxes and i feel that is the greatest need for us, with broadband and poverty to do that sort of that sort of thing. The library at place, at the universal issue, a place where some people come because they have nowhere else to go. I see the folks usually in the library all day every day at the park. The elderly folks in the summer, they have airconditioning or come to the library and stay all day and kids that dont have another outlet, their parents are home or come to the library, we cant do that this summer so what happens to these kids, Summer Reading like we were talking about earlier is mostly online. How do we create something that works for people with access, sharing of books and things like that but getting the word out to them is difficult if they are no