[Hill's] writing and her professional activities reflect her passion for the social and community aspects of libraries. While she is sophisticated in her knowledge of technology, she always emphasizes that it is a means to an end. It isn’t the be-all and end-all of libraries, and we shouldn’t get stuck there. “[L]ibrary staff seemed more concerned with fixing their print- ers and arguing about why users didn’t find us as relevant as Google than they were with imagining the incredible op- portunity before us: to lead and facilitate the content creation and discourse of our communities and constituents,” she writes.

***

So what do we get from all this? Libraries are a valuable social commodity and provide social links. If we think we are just for sitting quietly and reading books, we will cease to exist before too long. If we jump into the community mix, get out there, and show off what we do, our communities will benefit and will appreciate our services. Best of all, we will be doing something that really matters.

Hill makes a great case for an expanded role for librarians. We can build social capital within our communities and grow to become an even more important part of the social network. This goes for all types of libraries. This book will inspire you to think hard about the role that your library now plays and where it may stand in a few years.

Thank you, Gwen. I appreciate your full synopsis of the work in your review. What took me a while to get down under a few hundred pages, you’ve summed up perfectly in just one! I hope that even as the work gets “dated” from the years we spent in the rush of user-generated content, it will still be relevant to library staff thinking about how we can evolve into new relevance with our users.

The U.S. Department of Labor announced the results of its Tools for America’s Job Seekers Challenge last week. Top-rated sites in each of 6 categories – general job boards, niche tools, career tools, career exploration tools, web 2.0 and “other” – are now available at www.careeronestop.org/jobseekertools.

From their press release: The job tools postings are the culmination of an eight-week effort to offer members of the public an opportunity to weigh in on their favorite career sites and to provide the sites themselves with a chance to raise awareness about the tools they offer. Government agencies, private companies, nonprofit organizations and many other entities came together to make the project a success. An alphabetical list of all sites will be available on www.careeronestop.org in the coming weeks.

Looks like a tool that may be useful for libraries working with patrons who are just jumping into the online job site world. Let us know if you find this (or other resources) helpful as you’re working to connect the unemployed in your library.

“Alliance Library System and TAP Information Services Announce Trendy Topics  2010:  Social Networking for Libraries! The first conference on Social Software for Libraries is scheduled for Tuesday, February 9.  Meredith Farkas of Norwich University and columnist for American Libraries, will be the opening keynote speaker at 11:00 A.M. Eastern Time, 10:00 Central, 9:00 Mountain, and 8:00 Pacific.  She will address “Building Collaboration, Participation, and Community in Libraries.”  Farkas will talk about how social software is opening up new opportunities for reaching out to patrons, providing library services, and transforming our websites.”

Register at http://www.eventbee.com/view/trendytopics/event?eid=65537
Registration for librarians for the one day conference is $40; for students $30; and for groups $100.
For more information on these workshops please contact Lori Bell at ALS, lbell@alliancelibrarysystem.com or Tom Peters at TAP Information Services at tpeters@tapinformation.com.

Alliance Library System is one of nine regional library systems in Illinois serving 260 libraries of all types in a 14,000 square mile area. TAP Information Services (www.tapinformation.com) helps organizations innovate.

Also, last week’s WebJunction  webinar on workforce resources was excellent! The webinar and all related materials are archived; please check out all the great ideas shared and generated by this gathering.

I heard from Cheryl a few times in the last few months via email as my blog has been on hiatus (if you’re wondering why the hiatus: in part because I didn’t retain my clarity of purpose here after the book was published and in part because I was spending more time than usual worky-working) and each time she planted a new seed about the connection between community librarianship and service to the unemployed. In her most recent email, she shares some of the things she’s working on in her Michigan library:

We’re in Michigan, so while our ‘official’ unemployment is over 15%, our actual is well over 22%. Which means about 1 in 5 people who come to the library are desperately seeking work or social services.
We’ve done some things to respond, like: increasing the number of free computer classes (basic, Office applications, etc.); added a job seeker’s lab for 1-1 help in writing resumes, filing for unemployment, or anything even loosely related to jobs; and increased our 1-1 computer instruction. We’ve also offered lots of programming, including a 4-part ‘boot camp.’ We’re doing a lot more cultural and social programming, including concerts and family-oriented programming. All that is pretty normal. One of the unusual things we did was that, when we were faced with a 12% budget cutback last June, we INCREASED our hours by 10 weekly!!! So that was exciting.

I’m thinking there must be a more proactive solution, a way that the library could develop partnerships with social service or for-profit entities to help those in need. For instance, could we develop a partnership with a cosmetology school to offer free haircuts/makeovers at the library? Could we somehow create a job fair here? What about regular weekly sessions to practice interview people?

I’m thinking it’s way past time for information/referral for the public library, and that we should take advantage of this opportunity to really meet people where they need us.

Can you think of anyone I could connect with who’s on the same path?

Cheryl’s comments made me think of a project we’ve just started at WebJunction called Project Compass: libraries providing direction in tough times. This project is facilitating conversations and interactions for state library administrators around library services to the unemployed. We’re already learning a lot through this work, but are really looking forward to our five regional summits this spring, where we’ll raise concerns and jointly strategize about how to ensure libraries are making the most of scarce resources by sharing and in some cases even working together. As part of the compass project, WebJunction is also having a webinar on 1/28 that will highlight and facilitate more conversation about what’s happening in local libraries. If your library is struggling with unemployment issues, or has approached challenges of the last year in ways that you can share with others, please join us on Thursday. You can register to attend from the WebJunction homepage at www.webjunction.org. I’ll be there, and hope to learn from you all.

Inside, Outside, and Online: Building Your Library Community. Hill, Chrystie (Author) Jun 2009. 192 p. ALA Editions, paperback, $48.00. (9780838909874). 021.2. In this fluently written how-to manual, author Hill makes a potent case for community building as an essential form of service in public libraries, both for their survival and relevance and also for the needs of those Americans who find themselves “bowling alone.” She outlines five steps in the process she recommends public libraries follow to build communities: assess, deliver, engage, iterate, and sustain. Explanation of the stages is clear, and examples from librarians in the field serve as dynamic illustrations. Although the book was researched and written before the current economic debacle caused library use to skyrocket, Hill’s model remains applicable—and provides libraries with a method for taking full advantage of increased foot traffic as well as connecting outside and online. — Ann Welton, Booklist

at any rate, here’s the third book review.

A library is more than a building that grants access to information. “Inside, Outside, and Online: Building Your Library Community” is a guide for librarians to adapting one’s library to the community around it. Every community is different, and therefore every library should be different to suit local needs. With advice on identifying the needs and desires of the communities, attracting the community, and more, “Inside, Outside, and Online” is of strong recommendation for any librarian who wants their library and their community to be successful - Library Bookwatch, James A. Cox Editor-in-Chief, September 2009.

i checked in with my ALA Editions representative and she said that the book was sent to Library Journal for potential review, but I have not seen it there yet - hoping it makes it, still. i am so grateful for this feedback. it’s really great to hear and gives me quite the boost for continuing the conversation, so, thank you.

This is a special welcome to the students currently taking Kathleen de la Pena McCook’s course on community building and libraries. If you can believe it, Kathleen is using my book as her required text for the class, and this is such an honor for me because it is her book, A Place at the Table, that inspired me to pursue community building as library practice in the first place!

Kathleen has been in close communications as the class has started and then worked through the first few chapters of the text, and I’m just thrilled to have received some of the thoughtful comments that Kathleen has shared from her students. *Continuing* the dialog in our profession about community building was my primary ambition with this project, and I am so glad to see that happening in Kathleen’s class! Can I go so far as to say “mission accomplished”? I don’t think so. We need to keep the conversation going.

I would very much like to meet some of you (online or in person), and invite you to post questions, comments, or ideas on the blog here in the comments section, or send me an email to chrystie(at)itgirlconsulting(dot)com. I am thrilled to have you all engaged in the work and look forward to hearing from you.