Next in the Boardroom Series...

Policy Watch on November 30

The fourth installment of The Boardroom series for this year turns to policies, with a discussion of some topics not commonly addressed. Policy Watch: Policy Topics Lost and Found is scheduled for Wednesday November 30 (6:00-7:30PM)

Standard #7 calls for library boards to adopt four required policies: personnel, circulation, collections, and Internet use.  All libraries meeting standards at a Tier 1 level have those policies in place and many others.  But there are some policy topics that are not as commonly found. State Library consultants Samantha Bouwers and Bonnie McKewon will point to some of those like determining closed holidays, as well as issues surrounding library programming and the library’s use of social media. 

November’s Boardroom webinar also welcomes guest speaker Rachel Onuf, Program Director with Vermont Historical Records.  Rachel has expertise in disaster preparedness, another topic not often addressed in libraries.  She will talk with trustees about their role in developing disaster-related policies.

Join this webinar to discuss policy topics with trustees statewide.  Attendance at this webinar helps satisfy Standard #8 “All members of the library board participate in continuing education each year … “

Register for November’s Boardroom Webinar

Next Big Library Read

November 2-16, 2022

Held three times each year, the next Big Library Read opens this week with the title A Snake Falls to Earth by Dr. Darcie Little Badger. A Snake Falls to Earth will be available in eBook and audiobook formats for simultaneous downloads from November 2-16.

The Big Library Read is literally a global reading program.  It’s a worldwide digital version of a local book discussion club.  Sponsored by OverDrive, this program represents an opportunity to connect your local readers with book lovers around the world as they read and discuss the same book at the same time without wait lists or holds.

A Snake Falls to Earth draws on traditional Lipan Apache storytelling to weave a tale of monsters, magic, and family.  Published in 2021, it has won the Newbery Award Honor, the American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor, the National Book Award Longlist, Publisher’s Weekly Best of the Year, and Minneapolis Star Tribune Best of the Year, among other honors

About the Book

From the Big Library Read website, here’s more: “Nina is a Lipan girl in our world. She’s always felt there was something more out there. She still believes in the old stories. Oli is a cottonmouth kid, from the land of spirits and monsters. Like all cottonmouths, he’s been cast from home. He’s found a new one on the banks of the bottomless lake. Nina and Oli have no idea the other exists. But a catastrophic event on Earth, and a strange sickness that befalls Oli’s best friend, will drive their worlds together in ways they haven’t been in centuries. And there are some who will kill to keep them apart.”

Promotions

Point your patrons to Bridges on November 2 to download the book and to the Big Library Read website for the discussion guide and discussion forum.  Plus find lots of graphics to help with local promotion at the button below, everything from bookmarks to flyers, social media graphics, and a press release.  Plan to connect your library with others around the world during OverDrive’s next Big Library Read this week

Learn More About OverDrive’s Big Library Read

Big Ideas Book Discussion

Stage (Not Age) on November 18

The fourth and last book in the Big Ideas Book Discussions for this year is Stage (Not Age) scheduled for November 18.  The book’s subtitle lends insight into the contents “how to understand and serve people over 60—the fastest growing, most dynamic market in the world.”

Author Susan Wilner Golden is an expert on innovation and entrepreneurial opportunities created by new longevity.  She teaches this subject at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and advises companies on their longevity strategies. In an August interview with Next Avenue Media, she said this about the later stages of life “We need better language because there's ageism in the language, calling people ‘senior’ or ‘elderly.’

I came up with a concept that we're not in elderhood or seniorhood, we're in furtherhood. That came from a conversation with a friend; we're going further and we're looking forward to it…but you’re going to need to be a continuous learner to keep going forward.”

From Amazon: “In the time it takes you to read this, another twenty Americans will turn sixty-five. Ten thousand people a day are crossing that threshold, and that number will continue to grow. In fifteen years, Americans aged sixty-five and over will outnumber those under age eighteen. The key is to stop thinking of older adults as one market. Stage (Not Age) is the concise guide to understanding that people over sixty are a deeply diverse population…”

The Iowa Dept on Aging Current projects that Iowa’s population of adults aged 65+ will make up nearly 20% of the state’s population by 2050.  What do these demographics look like in your town?  Sure to have programming implications, Stage (Not Age) will reshape your understanding of what it means to be an older person.  And how one-size-service does not fit all people in the boomer+ generation. 

We encourage participants to purchase books used throughout the Big Ideas series for your own collections. And join us for the next good read: Stage (Not Age)

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Happy Halloween

Public Library Annual Survey

The FY22 Public Library Annual Survey is due today.  Find the link to the survey, along with plenty of instructions, at the button below.  Thanks for seeing to this, we appreciate your efforts!

Public Library Annual Survey

Planning Your Library: Post COVID

November 2 @ Greenhills AEA in Council Bluffs.
Repeats November 4 @ Waterloo Center for the Arts
10:00AM-3:00PM both days

Join NYU professor David Vinjamuri, author of Library Space Planning: A PLA Guide (c2019) and architect Joe Huberty to learn how to build or renovate a library that meets your community’s needs. This is a hands-on workshop: please bring a copy of your library’s floorplan to use during exercises.  This daylong workshop has four essential parts:

• Understanding Community Needs == getting past community input sessions and focus groups to uncover community needs 
• Analyzing Space Performance == looking at zone use, circulation data, pathways and usage to optimize space use
• Planning Zones == creating an effective interior space plan
• Hiring the Design Team and Managing Construction == building the right team and safeguarding the integrity of your design through construction

Register in IALearns