Hear about the programs that have influenced one library’s community, including diversifying collections, creating spaces for different age groups, implementing food security programs, getting outside of library walls, implementing 24-hour book pickup, and offering take-home crafts, all on a small budget in a small building. You’ll look at how some of the programs were planned and work together as a team to share successful programs and identify other ways to make big changes with small adjustments.
Date Recorded: 5/14/2025
Format: Archived YouTube Video
Presenter: Brenda Hornsby Heindl / Director/Librarian, Liberty Public Library (Liberty, North Carolina)
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.
Over the last decade many areas in the state of Indiana have paid increasing attention to individuals living with dementia, primarily due to the rapid growth of the elderly population. Thrive Alliance and Bartholomew County Public Library have formed a partnership to work with individuals that are experiencing memory issues. This partnership has included working with music, delivering educational programs to the community at large and to the staff at the library, circulating kits targeting this population, and many more services. Come learn about how Thrive Alliance and Bartholomew Public Library evaluated and implemented these services.
Join EBSCO trainer, Lisa Jones, for an overview on the new features in EBSCO databases.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that the employment of social workers will grow 12% from 2020 to 2030 to meet an increase in demand. Further, with the growth of telehealth and telemedicine visits continuing beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals are finding more ways to reach their healthcare providers. However, in rural areas, finding local providers and reliable Internet access can create a barrier to access. As public libraries have long been viewed as the central hub for information, gatherings, and broadband service, their pivot to serve as a place for patrons to meet virtually with social workers comes at an opportune time. This presentation will show how three public libraries developed a pilot program – titled “Because You Matter” – with the Indiana University School of Social Work to coordinate weekly telehealth visits with social work students and library patrons. They’ll share successes, failures, and what they learned to improve the program in the future. 
It’s a daunting tasks for librarians to consider how best to welcome visually impaired patrons into their libraries. However, with a better understanding of what vision loss is, you can make quick, easy, and inexpensive changes to your library that will open the doors more fully to those with vision loss. Learn more about vision loss and how to quickly and easily change your flyers and presentations, physical space, technology, and signage to be more accessible.
This presentation addresses customer service training by growing and nurturing empathy and empowering staff to navigate the gray areas in our policies. Using storytelling and group interaction, we will look at special and challenging situations such as code of conduct violations and difficult patrons. Discover how understanding our own implicit biases and not assuming the worst of our patrons can help you offer consistent customer service to everyone we serve.
