This webinar will discuss foresight (or futures thinking) and how strategically thinking about the future can support the people that work in libraries, the library organization, and the community the library serves. With insights from a group of library staff across the state of Idaho, library consultants at the Idaho Commission for Libraries have been investigating how to incorporate thinking about the future into library work and developing fun ways to share what they’ve learned. Their newest toolkit, the Things From Future Libraries Toolkit, provides a guide for anyone to put on a creative, participatory design workshop where attendees imagine and prototype an object from a library in a future they select.
Annie Gaines is the Continuing Education Consultant for the Idaho Commission for Libraries, where she connects the people who work in all types of libraries to provide training and support to reach their future goals. She has experience working in academic and public libraries (her very first job was as a teenage library page in her local public library) and has earned certificates in strategic foresight, facilitation, and instructional design.
Date Recorded: 2/25/2026
Format: Archived YouTube Video
Presenters: Annie Gaines, Continuing Education Consultant / Idaho Commission for Libraries
Recent property tax reform will have a significant impact on library budgets. But, what is that impact, exactly? And, how can we make a plan if we don’t know what we’re planning for? This presentation will detail how you can ensure your library’s financial stability by staying informed and having a clear course of action when reality hits. We will start with a brief overview of gathering data for expected revenue streams. Next, we will touch upon specific evaluation measures to help determine if the return is worth your investment. Finally, we’ll look within each major budget category to share specific suggestions for realizing actual cost-savings.
ILF Advocacy Committee co-chairs, Vanessa Martin and Julie Wendorf will talk about the importance of advocacy and will give updates for the coming 2025 legislative session. Vanessa Martin – ILF Advocacy Committee, co-chair & Director, Greensburg Decatur County Public Library.
This session will focus on an overview of recognizing what causes conflict in the workplace, understanding our responses to conflict, and strategies for better conflict resolution. This is a high-level view of conflict resolution but participants should leave with a few solid, actionable strategies for dealing with conflict in their workplace. There will also be time to practice some of these strategies.
As the pressure to remove and censor books from our libraries increases, librarians have to be prepared to defend everyone’s right to read. Learn how one school corporation has dealt with several recent challenges to their school library collections and has been able to educate their staff and community on the tenants of intellectual freedom. While challenges can be stressful situations, the presentation will offer you several tools, resources and guidance to help you find some unintended positive outcomes when these contentious situations find their way to your library.
Rebuilding and serving after catastrophic events at the Eckhart Public Library in 2017.
Good policies are an essential part of library operations. They help to create and enforce expectations and rules as well as serving as a guiding framework for decision making. Unfortunately, writing policies can sometimes be very stressful and time consuming. In this session, we will go over the basics of writing policies and learn tips and tricks to making them as painless as possible. We will also talk about how we can ensure that our policies are fair and equitable. We will have hands-on practice with writing a simple policy.