INLLA Past Participants and Projects

Jennifer Taylor, Hagerstown Library
“[My goal] was increasing the number of teen workers at the library, and we’ve hired two more teenagers to work in the library. I’ve increased my involvement at our local high school to get more teen programs occurring in the local high school. I also capitalized on International Games Week to increase the game programs in the library at the high school, which met two times there that week. I had 50-54 high school students at each of those programs. Since then, I have been at the high school once a week, and still kept 48-50 students at each game session. There was also a feature about the gaming programs that I have done, including the junior high school program, in a local paper that was then featured in the Indiana Library Federation newsletter in October about “Great Things in Libraries.”

Because of her involvement with the area schools, Jennifer’s library saw a 60% increase in participation in their Summer Reading Program. She is slated to do three webinars related to gaming for the Indiana State Library this year.

 

Julie Wendorf, Crown Point Community Library
“I wrote and got a grant to fund the TumbleBooks database for the next two years. The use at the schools started in November 2018. I worked with the school’s central office to promote the resource and coordinate adding the database to the school’s integrated one-on-one instruction and content management system. I am thrilled to share that that the use of the database went from 8 views in September, 86 in October and to almost 8,800 views in November. This success will be great as I move forward in the push to get digital library cards for all students in the school system. We will push out staff outreach visits to all the elementary schools during lunch time to issue library cards to all teachers in the district and further share library resources with individual teachers. The successful use of the database will help show the need for more partnerships between school and library. We’re looking at doing targeted visits to the high school to share about INSPIRE when we get those digital cards in place. It would be great to share other databases, too. I’m excited to go to the auto repair class and share Chilton’s. The library also created a bookmark for sensitive teen issues and had the library designated as a Safe Place.”

 

Melissa Hunt, Morrisson-Reeves Library
“My senior library card [project] is going well. I am established at three senior living facilities. The card gives seniors a slightly longer checkout. Staff at the facilities are working with this project and are trained to help the residents place holds so that they are getting items ready ahead of time and between myself and the staff we are getting the books to the members. One facility has declined to participate in the program, but we were able to take some weeded materials and our Friend’s group is allowing me to take some materials from their donations to that center as well. Because of this project, the senior center asked me to give a presentation about Morrison-Reeves Library and its resources. They would also like to set a book club or library help time. We are working out those details. Maybe I will train some senior center volunteers to run the club and a few staff at Morrison-Reeve Library are willing to go and help at a scheduled time about every 4 to 6 weeks at the center. I am also running two book clubs at two of the senior facilities. Going to the senior center sparked a youth services staff member to visit preschools and elementary schools to promote library cards and do story times.”

 

Leslie Sutherlin, South Dearborn School District
“My schools, the middle school and high school in South Dearborn, are hosting author Alan Gratz. I’ve created a packet of resources for teachers on Alan. We are also having a few guest speakers and possibly a panel. I have been in contact with an immigration lawyer as one of the guest speakers. We are also having someone from the Holocaust and Humanities Center in Cincinnati speak. When Alan comes, we may have him present in the evening at our local public library.”

 

Becca Neel, David L. Rice Library, University of Southern Indiana
“The overall goal of my project was to expand online library instruction and research support for students and instructors in Indiana high schools offering dual credit through USI’s College Achievement Program. To accomplish this goal, I’ve been working closely with our infinitely helpful and supportive CAP administrative team on campus to collaborate on training, communication and promotional efforts. This partnership has afforded me a myriad of opportunities to exchange ideas and to share resources and services with a diverse group high school CAP instructors via LibGuides and Zoom instruction sessions. A list of CAP LibGuides resulting from recent instructor collaborations can be found here.

“More recently, this project has connected me with some incredibly innovative and energetic media specialists from CAP partner high schools who have been instrumental in providing me with both a context for approaching information literacy in a non-university environment and an audience willing to listen to incessant gushing over INSPIRE database content and navigation.

“As the result of these various partnerships, and with the support and supreme event-planning expertise of the USI Rice Library’s head of public services, library support for the CAP community will continue its expansion through a day-long Linking Information Literacy Across CAP workshop aimed at bringing together USI librarians, media specialists and public librarians connected with the CAP high schools.

“This workshop is intended to foster long-term network of collaboration among librarians and media specialists, and will feature info-sharing and brainstorming sessions, as well as resource and technology training to provide school librarians with editor privileges for school-specific LibGuides. An example of one such collaborative LibGuide can be found here.”

 

Carrie Vrabel, Allen County Public Library
“My project became the creation and promotion of a free, web-based resume generator especially designed for patrons with beginner-level computer skills.

“This resume generator creates a formatted, printable and saveable resume. There are instructions for printing at the top of the page. Many of the fields auto-capitalize for patrons with beginner-level computer skills and there are examples of wording that can be used in the qualifications and skills fields.

“I sent the link to ALA’s ThinkTank on Facebook and received overwhelmingly positive feedback. I also presented this new resource at the ILF Regional Conference in Mishawaka on Monday, April 22, 2019. To my knowledge, Resume Generator is the only free web-based resume generator on the internet, so I hope to get the word out to as many librarians as possible!”

 

Jenna Anderson, Kendallville Public Library
“Following an inspirational conference session on a STEM program for teens in 2017, as the Kendallville Public Library Marketing specialist I thought, ‘What if I took some of these ideas, added more topics, put the program online and expanded it to everyone?’

“In June 2018, the Kendallville Public Library unveiled Design Your Climb, an online, points-based system for learning and fun. At the time, the challenges included library skills, makerspace experiences, robot programming and other library-related activities. It generated some excitement in the community, especially because participants could win prizes as they earned points.

“Once again, that ‘what if’ question took over. What if the library expanded Design Your Climb so people could not only experience the library, but experience the community? Through the Indiana Library Leadership Academy, I learned valuable leadership skills and developed a plan of attack for involving the community in Design Your Climb.

“I approached local organizations and nonprofits, offering them the benefits of the library’s exposure at no cost to them. In exchange for working with the library to develop a challenge track specifically for them and promoting it through their own marketing channels, the library would support the challenge on its online system, promote the challenges as well and award prizes. Many recognized a win-win when they saw it, and took the library up on the offer. To date, three organizations have four on-going challenges among them, while several more are developing their challenges. The number of Design Your Climb participants continues to grow, while the awareness of the services in the community increases, as well.

“Design Your Climb is a partnership between the Kendallville Public Library and the East Noble School Corporation. KPL handles the Personal Growth portion of the initiative, while East Noble is unveiling the Educational Growth portion of Design Your Climb to its second grade students. Design Your Climb Personal Growth can be found here.”

Jenna was so inspired by INLLA, and specifically speaker Cathy Hakala-Ausperk, that she says it literally changed her life. Her approach to her job has expanded, she has pursued additional leadership training and is now moving herself and her library in new and exciting directions. She was also recently promoted to support services manager.

 

Charles Rude, Kewanna-Union Township Public Library
“I am attempting to digitize a collection of my home town newspapers. I have the library’s support with some budget funds, legal ownership of the papers for the library and a loose commitment of funds from the community foundation. At this point, I am still hoping to get other local organizations on board and expand my scope. I am in discussions with the historical society and my library neighbors and towns. I am asking them for contributions or whatever they can do to support the project and they seem very positive. I still feel strongly that we need to preserve our history for future generations so I will be working with these organizations to get the ball rolling.”

 

Katie Lehman, Muncie Public Library
“My educational resource boxes are being built by a local Eagle Scout and will be installed at our south side branch and at a partnering location. Inside the boxes there will be educational tools and supplies that anyone can take and utilize. This will include things like crayons, glue sticks and different educational activities assembled by Ready Readers staff. I am looking at partnering with either the YWCA or YMCA as the second location for a box.

“Many of the children in my program talk about not having items such as crayons, markers, glue, dice, etc. at home. While many locations give these things out at the beginning of the school year, the supplies often must stay at school. Even when they do go home, they are used up quickly, lost or thrown out in a quick move.

“While it is not specific to my INLLA project, I did want to share that since INLLA, I have secured two grants for Muncie Public Library’s Ready Readers Program. One through Psi Iota XI to update the furniture in the room to make sessions more comfortable and one through Delta Kappa Gamma for teaching supplies to use with students in sessions.

“I feel that I gained a lot out of my INLLA experience. One thing that really stuck with me was a response from one of the panel members who said, ‘Keep your head down and do the work. I’ve kept that mantra and it’s paid off! I was recently promoted to director of academic enrichment and now supervise 10 staff and more than 85 kids.”

 

Alisa Burch, Harrison County Public Library (pictured in back)

“I am very excited about my project.  We will be having our first ever Pop-Up Library at the Friends of the Harrison County Youth Chicken BBQ Fundraiser.  All players in the league have their team and individual pictures taken that day followed by an exhibition games so all players and their families will be at the ball park.  We have purchased a hot spot, lap top and card scanner so we can issue library cards and register children and adults for our 2019 Summer Reading Program.  The library already owns a canopy, tables and chairs so we will be utilizing those.  We did invest in a “feather” sign with the library logo that we will use to attract attention.  We have been saving weeded and donated books in good condition to have as giveaways.  As the new library director I can’t wait to get out there and speak with everyone about library programs and services.  I want to know what they like about the things we offer and what things they would like to see us add.  I am hoping for a sunny day.  If all goes well, I plan to take the Pop-Up Library to our local farmer’s market this summer at least once a month, to local festivals and to other sports events throughout the county.  Everyone is so busy with activities that they often don’t have time to stop at the library.  I am hoping with the Pop-Up Library we can bring service to where families are already going.  And once the community knows what we have to offer perhaps they will find time to fit us into their very busy schedule. ”

 

Nathan Watson

Nathan Watson, Bedford Public Library

“Elevate is a program that teaches employability or “soft” skills to all sophomores at Bedford North Lawrence High School as part of the Graduation Pathways requirement. Elevate is a six session program that uses project-based learning to define, explore, and master soft skills through the art of interviewing applications for a local job. The interviews happened during the sixth session.

I partnered with Hoosier Hills Credit Union and had a representative from there explain that the credit union was looking to hire a teller – a job that requires very good soft skills – and that the class was going to “hire” that person.

I also partnered with the high schools JAG, Jobs for America’s Graduates, program. The JAG students were tasked with acting like real job applicants and exhibiting certain soft skills – some bad, some good – during the interview. The Elevate students had to submit who they hired, what soft skills were displayed, and the importance of these soft skills.

Here is a brief, chronological walkthrough of my progress with the program.

August (2018) – Coordinated with counselors and teachers. Scheduled time in class.

September – Session 1 (What are Soft Skills?) is delivered into all 10th grade English classrooms.

October – Session 2 (Communication and Team Work).

November – Session 3 (Professionalism & Emotional Intelligence)

December – Session 4 (Problem Solving & Decision Making)

March 2019 – Session 5 (Preparing for Interviews)

April 2019 – Session 6 (Interviews)

Each session consisted of 16 class periods over the course of three days. Attendance for each session was about 360 students. In addition to working with the high school principal and counselors, I coordinated with 11 English teachers to see this program went successfully.

As a result of this program, many sophomores will have completed a graduation requirement under the new Indiana Department of Education Graduation Pathways. Next year, this program will be a part of a new class titled Preparation for College and Careers. Prep CC will bring Elevate to freshman (Class of ’23). Since this year focused on sophomores (Class of ’21), next year, Elevate will not only program in Prep CC but will repeat the sophomore programming in the English classes, so that the Class of ’22 gets soft skills training. In other words, by this time next year, BNL freshmen, sophomores, and juniors (80% of student body, or about 1200 students) will have gone through Bedford Public Library’s Elevate program.

I regularly present overviews and updates on Elevate to the Lawrence County Workforce Coalition, a group of community stakeholders whose goal is to align local education with workforce to promote economic growth in the area, and as a result, our library has been asked to participate in many economic development task forces, trainings, roundtables, etc. I have appeared on local-access television to talk about the program. I have shared the program with representatives from ROI, Regional Opportunities Initiatives, and WorkOne. As a result of this promotion, a representative of the Bloomington Chamber of Commerce contacted me and has used the Elevate curriculum to develop a Chamber-led soft skills program that he is pitching to the Monroe County Community School Corporation.

I have enjoyed working on this project!”


2016 INLLA Participants and Projects

Beth Alyea | Lake County Public Library | All Ability Programs: My project was to create and implement All Ability programs for our special needs patrons and to use this as a transition to encourage attendance and inclusion at all library programs. I have reached out to day-program organizations offering tours of the library, along with instruction on our services. Staff at other branches have also begun Outreach to these organizations. I hope to continue the program and create more programming for adults with disabilities.

Jennifer Arrenholz | Newton County Public Library | Circulating Hotspots: My project focused on the community’s need for internet at home.  We are in a rural area and have locations that do not have an internet provider for their place of residence.  There are also many families that cannot afford internet access.  Our schools recently implemented iPads into the classrooms, and will be utilizing eLearning days.  Taking all of these aspects into consideration, I decided to explore circulating hotspots.  We are in the beginning stages of this valuable project.

Rachel Baelz | Harrison County Public Library | Connect to the Business Community: I chose to connect the business community to the library.  After returning from INLLA, I joined the Entrepreneurial Committee with Main Street Corydon.  The Entrepreneurial Committee’s mission is to “work toward strengthening downtown’s economic base while finding ways to expand it to meet new opportunities for development.”  My goal is to work with a developer to create an app for downtown businesses to use to increase patronage and tourism to the town.

Courtney Block | Indiana University Southeast Library | Library Awareness: My project was to raise awareness of library programs and services to enhance library awareness and perception, and ensure continued and future support. I hosted the First Annual Librarian’s Meet & Greet, which attracted faculty and staff across campus to mingle with librarians, get to know more about us, know more about library services, etc. I also revamped the library’s audio tour, which is something first year students are required to take.

Courtney Brown | Indiana State Library | Accessible Webinars: My project was to make training content from the Indiana State Library widely available. Because videos posted to the ILS’s website must be transcribed, most content couldn’t be accessed. I worked on transcription, video organization, training coworkers on transcription, and establishing transcription procedure expectations. Now, over 50 LEU eligible webinars are available on our website, with more being added monthly. All upcoming webinars will be archived and available within one month of the presentation date. Archives can be found here.

Kim Brown-Harden | Indiana State Library | The INLLA Leadership Toolkit: My INLLA project was to create a leadership toolkit for librarians and library staff in Indiana.  Many times staff are promoted, but not necessarily prepared to lead.  The INLLA Leadership Toolkit is a free resource that contains webinars, videos, books, and other resources to learn more about leadership or to enhance current leadership skills.  The Leadership Toolkit can be found here.

Kirsten Edwards | Hamilton East Public Library | Language Learning: My project focused on growing resources for non-English speakers, both with the addition of ESL classes and creation of foreign language collections. Through collaboration with coworkers, we established the top spoken languages in our county.  Then we created a World Language Collection of 8 languages, with additional languages coming in 2018.  By reaching out to our community, I found a local, certified ESL instructor for a series of classes, serving over 75 residents this summer.

Karen Evans | Indiana State University | First Generation Student Success: My project focuses on resources for first generation students and their families. Resources will be collected into a LibGuide and will include information on the following; Completing admission and financial forms, How to Choose the Right School for You, What to know before you go, Resources for Parents of First Gen, and Tips for Students on arriving at their school.

Elizabeth French | Monroe County Public Library | Bilingual Storytime:  My project was to develop a bilingual Spanish/English storytime program for preschoolers in order to improve my library’s services to Spanish speakers. I am planning to present the program once a month; the first will be part of my library’s annual Hispanic Heritage Celebration. I am hoping to bring more Spanish speakers into the library and also give English speaking families the opportunity to expose their children to Spanish.

Victoria Gutschenritter | Middlebury Community Public Library | Literary Festival: My INLLA project is to help bring about a literary festival in Middlebury, Indiana called the Middlebury Literary Carousel. Scheduled for May 5, 2018, the festival is a partnership with the library, the Middlebury Community Historical Museum, parks, and other local venues. With funding for a speaker coming from the Indiana Humanities Novel Conversations Speaker program, and other events like writing workshops, book trivia, chalk the block and more, we hope this event will increase library usage and card registrations in following months.

Andrew Horner | Converse-Jackson Township Public Library |  Renovation and More: My project looks at researching and presenting the board of trustees with possible options/plans for renovating and/or adding to the library to address maintenance issues, celebrate our 100th anniversary, and to make sure we remain relevant as a community center in our future.

Tasha Hudson | Bloomfield-Eastern Greene County Public Library | Coaching Corner: I want to help the library be a central location for struggling citizens to find life partners who can mentor them through life skills, employment needs, housing and transportation issues, and leaving the poverty cycle and/or drug culture.  The Greene County Ministerial Association is partnering with people in need of coaching through a national program called “Open Table” (theopentable.org).   The library will be a starting point to become involved.

Margaret Marcy | Batesville Memorial Public Library | Drug Free Partnership: The goal of my INLLA project was to partner the Batesville Memorial Public Library with local organization Coalition for a Drug Free Batesville. The partnership was a sucesss and BMPL and the Coalition have partnered with several programs and events so far; the most recent being a community discussion of the book Dreamland by Sam Quinones. Moving forward, the plan is to work with other local organizations and businesses in Batesville.

Susan Melfi | Ohio Township Public Library System | Tween Video Production Club: Libraries often lose tweens as they age out of storytime and kiddy crafts. I developed a series of video production workshops to keep tweens actively engaged with the library.  Over a four-week period the tweens attended hands-on sessions where they learned aspects of video creation including storyboarding, camera angles, shot selection, and interviewing techniques. The tweens filmed with iPads and edited using iMovie. The PSAs they created were used to promote our summer reading program.

Katie Moran | Syracuse-Turkey Creek Public Library | Bringing Technology to Seniors: The purpose of my project was to bring technology knowledge to seniors. I did 2 classes a month here in the library from December 2016 – May 2017 as well as monthly presentations at the Friends of the Library meetings.​ It’s possible that tech classes will be added to my library’s strategic plan in the future.

Jordan Orwig | Sullivan County Public Library | Career Resource Center: What began as an idea to create an adult literacy program at the Sullivan County Public Library now has the potential to grow exponentially. Because the lack of physical space within the library could have a negative effect on my initial plan, I looked to our community for potential partnerships. With the cooperation of a local school corporation, we are now collectively working towards creating a career resource center that will reside in their high school and provide literacy tutoring, career readiness courses, and more to students and the community alike.

Sara O’Sha | The Art Institute of Indianapolis | Brush Ups: New Student Success Workshops: In response to a lack of a formal College Skills course in the school’s curriculum, workshops were developed to improve incoming students’ college readiness skills. After consulting faculty on the most needed topics, the first series of workshops cover time management, study skills, and campus technology and digital textbooks. The project’s next step is to train the campus’s Peer Mentors to deliver the workshops in future semesters.

Carly Schull | Carmel-Clay Public Library | Reaching Adults Through Collection Pathways: With the goal of increasing awareness of resources for adults, three pathway lists were created to assist patrons in the areas of genealogy, creative writing, and language learning. The core purpose was to empower library staff to promote all of the resources we had in these specific areas when helping patrons. This project also opened up additional opportunities – creating a digital literacy resource and speaking to a local senior organization and the Library’s Guild.

Trista Smith | Ohio Township Public Library | Chandler Library: Our Chandler Library had a lot of irrigation issues and was essentially sinking. After researching a brand new building or a different location, I ended up working with our finance committee to put some funds towards building improvements on our existing building. Partnering with others proved to be very helpful so that I wasn’t making so many complicated decisions on my own. We will start the improvements next spring.

Andrea Stineback | Fulton County Public Library | Out of the Library, Into the Community: My project is to develop a comprehensive outreach strategy that will utilize input from stakeholders to develop programs and initiatives to address demonstrated community need.

 

Jane VanBuskirk | Ruth Lilly Law Library | Legal Information Gateway Brochure: The public who come to our library often feel disenfranchised.  They cannot afford to hire an attorney.  Legally, libraries cannot give out legal advice, only resources.  This brochure was created to have a something to hand to the public, a uniform message explaining what the law library can do, and cannot do for them. The brochure has guidance to available agencies and resources, and is something the public can take with them.

Jan Woodall | Ivy Tech Community College | Open Education Resource LibGuide: My project for INLLA was to create a LibGuide for faculty and librarians to use in the creation of Open Education Resources at Ivy Tech Community College. The LibGuide contains a link to the Ivy Tech OER catalog page where the OERs created for Ivy Tech students is hosted. In addition, lists of subject area resources, open resources, licensing information, training resources, and the benefits of OERs are also included.

2014 INLLA Participants and Projects

James Bell | Anderson University / Eleanor Nave |Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library | Demystifying Distance Education: Create a means of communication and translation of student’s needs for accessing academic institution’s online resources through a customizable template and a website with basic information and best practices.

Lauri Chandler | Vigo County Public Library / Katie Springer | Indiana State Library | Let’s Do Lunch: A year long project facilitated by Katie Springer Indiana State Library and Lauri Chandler Vigo County Public Library. The mission is to help more libraries in the state of Indiana collaborate with local agencies to provide summer meals for youth in need. Here is our blog for more information: Libraries Do Lunch.

Beth Davidson |Dunkirk Public Library / Emily Ellis | Greenwood Public Library | Library Lifeline: The Library Lifeline will provide first response social services assistance according to need and region. Areas of information will include: Homelessness & Hunger, Substance Abuse & Addictions, Family Support & Parenting, and Housing & Utilities.  

Angela Eck | Allen County Public Library / Cheryl Smith | East Chicago Public Library | The Library Academy Awards: To recognize excellence amongst library staff– not just librarians– throughout Indiana’s Libraries.

Jonathan Gaskill | Fulton County Public Library / Austin Stroud |Bloomfield Eastern Greene County Public Library | LiteBoxIN: Technology training and education of library staff is like the elephant in the room. We all struggle with getting staff up to speed with technology to assist patrons, but none of us have the resources or time to deal with it. That is where LITEBoxIN comes in.   LITEBoxIN.wordpress.com

2013 INLLA Participants and Projects

Chanitra Bishop | Indiana University / Monica Casanova |Monticello-Union Township Public Library / Nancy Disbro | Andrews-Dallas Township Public Library / Carolyn Martin | St. Vincent Hospital Library | THIS is MY Library: Customizable publicity tool to broaden the public’s perceptions of all types of Indiana libraries.

Dianna Burt | Allen County Public Library / Leigh Anne Johnson | Indiana State Library / Denise Smith | Andrew Academy / Madelyn Shackelford Washington | Indiana University Purdue University of Columbus | Creating a Culturally Competent Library Workforce: Cultural competency training materials aimed to assist Indiana library directors assess the cultural competencies of their employees.

Julie Elmore | Oakland City-Columbia Township Public Library / Joseph Fox | Indianapolis Public Library / Sherry Gick | Rossville Consolidated Schools / Vincci Kwong | Indiana University South Bend | INSPIRE – PASS It On!: To raise awareness and usage of freely available public databases available through INSPIRE.

Jason Fields | Tipton County Public Library / Mary Hartman | Peabody Public Library / Addie Matteson | White River Elementary School / Brad Reel | University of Southern Indiana | Indiana Library Out Loud: Indiana Libraries Out Loud will collect and curate resources which instruct, inform, and empower librarians in Indiana to tell their library’s stories OUT LOUD!

2012 INLLA Participants and Projects

Tina Baich, IUPUI
Jamie Beckman, Carmel Clay Public Library
Brandon Bowen, IUPU Fort Wayne
Jennifer A. Brower, New Haven High School (EACS)
Marie Brown, Lebanon Public Library
Donna Browne, Muncie Public Library
Brenda Campbell, Jennings County Public Library
Alexis Caudell, Mitchell Community Public Library
Darcy Davidson, Eckhart Public Library
Susan David DeMaine, IUPUI
Georgeann Doan, Lawrenceburg Public Library District
Lael DuBois, Plainfield High School
Susan Eberhardt, Warsaw Community School Corporation
Julie Elliott, Indiana University South Bend
Ruth Frasur, Hagerstown-Jefferson Township Public Library
Heather Gallagher, Poseyville Carnegie Public Library
Heidi Huff, Indiana University East
Katherine Marschall, Saint Mary’s College
Amanda Mawhorter, Noble County Public Library
Lynn Mehringer, Lincoln Heritage Public Library
Margaret L. Moutseous, St. Mary’s Medical Center Library
Pamela Overbay, Western Wayne Schools
David M. Peter, Vincennes University
Carrie Sanders, Indianapolis Public Schools
Gigi Shook, Center Grove Community Schools
Jacob Speer, Hussey Mayfield Memorial Public Library
William H. Weare, IUPUI
Christina C. Wray, Indiana University, Center for Disability Information & Referral
Jennifer R. Wyatt, Jeffersonville Township Public Library