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


The National Book Festival is sponsored by the Library of Congress annually. This year, the events are online and you and your library can join in the festivities. Learn more about this fun opportunity from Suzanne Walker, Indiana Center for the Book and Megan Telligman, Indiana Humanities. The National Book Festival will feature hundreds of author talks, including authors from Indiana, as well as other programs all available remotely. Learn more about how to participate, what’s available, and program ideas for your library in this fun and informative webinar. A tool-kit on how to participate in the National Book Festival will be unveiled. The National Book Festival happens September 17 – September 26. You don’t want to miss it!
“Resilience,” while an over-used term, is a very important scientific concept. Far from being rare, it is common for families to display resilience when faced with adversity. Nonetheless, threats to resilience, trauma among them, are also common. This webinar will review the scientific definitions of resilience and family resilience, and consider factors that may threaten or promote resilience. A new program created at Purdue to support family resilience during the pandemic will be introduced.
GenCon is the largest tabletop-game convention in North America that occurs annually in Indianapolis, Indiana and is contracted to continue happening in Indiana at least through 2023. This webinar will be presented by someone who has attended the convention in a multitude of hats; as a spectator, as a game-player, as a librarian taking advantage of the opportunities of Trade Day and as an event presenter. The webinar will cover a variety of basic information for attending and participating in the convention, whether you consider yourself a gamer or just a curious librarian.
The Heroic Adventure Kids Club (Or HAK Club, for short) is an RPG club of elementary and jr. high aged students that are sponsored by the local library. The H.A.K. Club began in January 2017, formed by 4 students from the Hagerstown Elementary School and a librarian at the Hagerstown Public Library acting as sponsor. The students wanted to learn to play role playing games and there was interest in using it as a play test idea for the community outreach coordinator of the school who was interested in the benefits of elementary students playing role playing games and how it might be used towards social skills & behavior improvement. The club has grown, expanded to two “level” age groups of participants. The group has been written about in newspapers and has been part of three summer reading programs and been featured on the list of “Great Things Happening in Indiana Libraries” by the Indiana Library Federation (ILF). We want to share the origin, the challenges that were faced and the secrets to our success as this group has continued for over three years. We’ll cover what has worked, what hasn’t worked, a few things libraries should always keep in mind & what the plans are for the future.
Teen patrons in every community live lives that are more and more hectic with little spare time and sometimes shrinking awareness of libraries and what they have to offer. It is sometimes the case that to engage them the best thing to do is to go where they are. In the community of Hagerstown, IN, a significant part of that has been accomplished by going into the high school and with the development of a program called the Quick Play Game Club. The program began over three years ago, originally as an International Gaming Day event that was highly successful, working in partnership with the school.
This presentation explores games developed by libraries to support information literacy and internal training. One benefit of creating games is being able to tailor experiences to the culture and needs of libraries and their communities. Some games covered in this session include the University of Tennessee Libraries’ interactive Breakout Game for first-year studies courses, Acquisitions Adventure (which is used for internal training of acquisitions staff), and the Pendergrass Clue board game (which supports one of our branch libraries). This session showcases games created by other libraries as well.