In 2024 the Institute of Museum and Library Services launched a new website to resources to teach about the different types of literacy there are including information literacy, digital literacy, financial literacy, health literacy, and science literacy. The website includes programming resources to help develop skills in using and understanding information in a quickly changing world. In addition, the website includes training resources specifically for professionals, funding opportunities to promote information literacy, ready-made lesson plans, evaluation tools and more. Please join us for a look at what can be accomplished using the materials available on the website.
Date recorded: April 30, 2025
Format: Archived YouTube Video
Presenter: Kara Cleveland, Professional Development Office Supervisor, Indiana State Library
The League of Women Voters of Indiana will introduce you to The Citizens’ Handbook and discuss ways you can provide this important resource to others, demonstrating its pragmatic use for addressing issues that impact citizens in your community.
Indiana ranked 50th in voter turnout for the 2022 General Election according to the 2023 Indiana Civic Health Index; this is an abysmal statistic and one we must all work to rectify. Indiana Libraries, as the information centers in our communities, can help to educate everyday citizens using this new resource. The Citizen’s Handbook commissioned by the League of Women Voters of Indiana and written by Dr. Darren Wheeler and Stacy Wheeler of Ball State University, is a factual, easy-to-read, short primer on our systems of governance. A QR code in the Handbook and links to resources make this easily accessible for all.
Date reorded: 7/25/24
Format: Archived YouTube Webinar
Presenters: Barbara Tully, Cindy Lorentson Cook, Linda Hanson and Kate Munson, League of Women Voters of Indiana
Programming for adults doesn’t have to be complicated. They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and I have gathered 12 programming ideas, complete with instructions, for your library to use. These programs are adaptable to any budget.
Stephanie Haines, from the Indiana Arts Commission, talks about the Lifelong Arts Indiana a program that teaches the benefits and practices of “Creative Aging.” Creative Aging is the purposeful development of creative experiences to benefit older adults, often in partnership with a local artist. Libraries have a meaningful connection with older adults in their community and the Indiana Arts Commission would like to provide library staff with the tools and funding needed to implement meaningful Creative Aging programs. Check out this great example of a strong creative aging program at a library from our friends at the Delaware Arts Commission https://youtu.be/N-WXvIaKyFw?feature=shared Indiana Arts Commission is offering up to 35 libraries across the state a Lifelong Arts Early Action Grant which will fund a sequential arts-learning experience for a group of older adults in their community. Grants will be for up to $5,000 and will be led by a qualified artist.
Date Recorded: 1/10/2024
Format: Archived YouTube Video
Presenter: Stephanie Haines, Arts Education and Accessibility Program Manager, Indiana Arts Commission
Embracing the old saying “the more you know, the more you grow” holds true for Libraries, but with just a little adjusting, “the more you are known, the more you’ll grow.” Expanding outreach allows the community to know and acknowledge the Library as a thriving community service. Using this idea the Floyd County Library Director Melissa Merida will share their library’s expansion of services over the last 5 years through creating unique service locations including an art museum, a digital library branch, and a satellite library in a local college library. Their approach through a low cost commitment to deliver creative outreach points of service without a bookmobile will be highlighted and tools for successful events will be shared . “Our growth in branches, funding and services is not due to any one thing, it is due to staff being committed to dream big and finding a way to say “yes” to community events and partnerships.” Allowing people to SEE the Library in new and unique ways that has people asking for library locations in their neighborhoods. The ideas that will be shared can be duplicated or may inspire your own creativity.
Date Recorded: 4/12/2023
Format: Archived YouTube Video
Presenter: Melissa Merida, Library Director / Floyd County Public Library
The programming section on the Indiana Public Library Annual Report has always been a bit tricky to navigate – even before recent years saw the addition of virtual programming to the mix. In this webinar, we’ll focus on how to determine if something is considered a program, what statistics to track, and how to break them down for the report. We’ll also address common questions related to programming section and preview the (relatively minor) changes coming in the 2022 report.
Date Recorded: 11/30/2022
Format: Archived YouTube Video
Presenter: Anglea Fox, Public Library Services and LSTA Consultant / Indiana State Library
Description: Join the Indiana Center for the Book and the Rhode Island Center for the Book for “An Evening with Laird Hunt,” author of the 2021 National Book Award finalist, “Zorrie.” This title is being featured by both Indiana and Rhode Island at the 2022 National Book Festival. “Zorrie” tells the story of one Hoosier woman’s life convulsed and transformed by events of the 20th century, specifically the Great Depression. Set in Clinton County, Indiana, Zorrie is orphaned twice, first by her parents and then her aunt. She ekes out a living, eventually finding work in a radium processing plant in Illinois. However, when Indiana calls her home, she returns and works to build a new life, yet again. Laird Hunt’s novel is a poignant study in rural Midwestern life and an exploration of the passage of time through individuals and communities. Join us to learn more about the author and this fascinating novel.
Date Recorded: 8/2/22
Format: Archived YouTube Video
Speaker: Laird Hunt is the author of eight novels, including the 2021 National Book Award finalist “Zorrie.” He is the winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction, the Grand Prix de Littérature Américaine, the Bridge Prize and a finalist for both the Pen/Faulkner and the Prix Femina Étranger. His reviews and essays have been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Daily Beast, the Guardian, the Irish Times and the Los Angeles Times, and his fiction and translations have appeared in many literary journals in the United States and abroad. A former United Nations press officer who was largely raised in rural Indiana, he now lives in Providence, Rhode Island where he teaches in Brown University’s Literary Arts Program.
The Indiana Center for the Book at the Indiana State Library and the Arkansas Center for the Book at the Arkansas State Library partnered to present a program featuring Nate Powell on the theme “The Graphic Arts and the Reading Experience.” This program focuses on the use of comics/graphical arts to communicate as a mass medium as well as how a graphic writer envisions, creates and curates the reading experience. Teen as well as adult librarians will enjoy hearing from Nate.
Date Recorded: 2/17/22
Format: Archived YouTube Video
Presenter: Nate Powell is the first cartoonist ever to win the National Book Award. He is from Little Rock, Arkansas and lives in Bloomington, Indiana. Powell’s work has also received a Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, three Eisner Awards, two Ignatz Awards, four YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens selections and two Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist selections.
You may be familiar with Little Free Library. Those cute boxes that look like oversized bird houses. But they are more than just cute. Join us to learn how to use this low cost, community engagement platform to support your outreach goals. Presenters:
This webinar is eligible for Library Education Units for Indiana Librarians. The following policy applies: Any time a staff member views an online event (or a library purchases a site license for an online event) by any of the Training Providers Approved by ISL for LEUs, the library’s designee in an administrative or Human Resources role shall create and award LEU certificates in-house.
Date Recorded: 2/24/22
Format: Archived YouTube Video
Presenters: Greig Metzger, Executive Director / Little Free Library and Joanna Sproull / Community Liaison / Plainfield-Guilford Township Public Library
Secure big numbers of tweens or teens with a real-life video game where they are the heroes! Live Action Roleplaying (LARPing) games allow for a unique opportunity that youth can’t get anywhere else. Get an in-depth look at this revolutionary event type and even create a mini version of the game on the spot.
Date Recorded: 1/26/22
Format: Archived YouTube Video
Presenter: Brooke Windsor (she/her/hers), Teen Services Librarian / Stratford Public Library