In Tuesday’s webinar, It Takes a Community to Bridge the Digital Divide, we heard the perspectives of three key “communities”—libraries, public administrators, and community non-profits. They each have a role to play in the implementation of the digital inclusion vision.

Mary Chute, deputy director for libraries at the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), identified digital inclusion as a major policy area in the same way that transportation and highways are. IMLS is in the process of defining a Framework for Building Digital Communities, which defines the vision, the principles, goals and strategies that will help community leaders take action to foster digital inclusion.

Ron Carlee, chief operating officer, International City/County Management Association (ICMA), has been deeply involved in the development of the Framework guidelines, bringing the public administration perspective to the planning table. Ron acknowledged that digital inclusion is a large and complex challenge, that “no entity can do this alone, but any entity can be the catalyst.” He described the development process as a road map and a product of the best thinking by people from all over the country and from many different sectors.

David Keyes, community technology program manager, City of Seattle, added a more detailed layer from the perspective of a large city and a statewide community technology non-profit organization. At the ground level of implementation, David said that people get the concept but don’t necessarily know what steps to take to get there. Fostering collaboration and partnerships is one important strategy for building capacity and focusing the energy of the numerous organizations already in existence to help the disadvantaged.

An hour is so often too short. Although some participant questions were answered related to funding and the unique needs of rural communities, we ran out of time. If you have any responses to the following questions, please add your comments to this post.

1. What specific examples or case studies can you provide about digital inclusion projects, including what has not worked?
   [The WebJunction/ICMA/TechSoup project will be creating a repository of digital inclusion resources and case studies. Watch for an announcement in the next month or so.]
2. Is anyone tracking or mapping digital literacy programs systematically throughout the US?

Visit the archive page to:

• Listen to the 1-hour presentation.
• View the slides, closed caption transcript, and chat log.
• Get links to data sources, funding resources, community tools and more information shared by presenters and participants (an engaged community in action!).

First, the why.

“If you don’t tell your story first, someone else will.”
When you write your own story, you share your vision and select the elements that convey the vision most vividly. If you let someone else control the narrative, it will probably not be the picture you want to paint about your organization.

“Touch the heart to facilitate change.”
Facts, figures and dry logic don’t convince people to change. We all have “confirmation bias,” but stories can penetrate those entrenched beliefs.

“Stories are sticky.”
The brain is “neurologically organized to remember narratives” better than statistics and bullet lists. Even more so if the story engages the emotions of the audience.

“Stories build community.”
The concept of belonging to a community is powerful for people. When the library tells stories about its role in the community, it strengthens the ties among its members.

What makes a good story?

Most of us are not naturally gifted or trained as professional storytellers. Presenters Kate Marek and Chris Rippel both provided sound and reassuring advice for developing your ability to relate an effective story without formal training.

Kate outlined 7 basic ingredients for creating a good story:

1. Be authentic; speak from the heart; be yourself.
2. Use broad strokes; be accurate but not bogged down in detail.
3. Consider your audience and your goals.
4. Be brief; beware of TMI (too much information).
5. Be consistent.
6. Listen to others and to other stories.
7. Practice!

Chris analyzed some of the key characteristics of story that draw us in and compel us to listen. I recommend reading his full article on How to tell library stories. Some elements that may be surprising include:

• In a library story, the main character is the community member, with the library and staff as secondary characters. So it is not just a description of the good service provided by the library; it’s a story of change and a restoration of balance for the protagonist.
• A good story can be as short as 6-8 sentences. A “springboard story” presents a very short but evocative situation in order to lead in to longer discussion about an issue.
• There are situations for which a story does not need an ending. When the library is enlisting support for a new project or seeking funding, it is an effective strategy to engage the audience in the drama of the effort, asking them to participate in the positive resolution of the “heroic struggle.”

There’s much more to this story. To watch the entire webinar and connect to related resources, go to:
Organizational Storytelling for Librarians: Using Stories for Leadership, Community, and Advocacy

As an introduction to the revised edition of the popular “Small But Powerful Guide to Winning Big Support for Your Rural Library,” this one-hour webinar was indeed “Small But Powerful.” It packed a punch of great insights and ideas that will help small libraries stay strong, relevant, and vital to the communities they serve.

Jennifer Peterson, community manager at WebJunction, ARSL board member and chair of ALA Rural, Native, and Tribal Libraries of All Kinds Committee, kicked it off with suggestions for “amplifying the value” of libraries every day and everywhere through the use of technology tools and data resources. Reach beyond the library walls with cool tools like digital frame slide shows, social “satellite” sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), library calculators, and videos of non-library people expressing what they value about the library.

Susan Hill Pieper, director of the Paulding County Carnegie Library (OH), shifted the presentation into high gear with her no-nonsense advice and first-hand experiences that have built a community of patrons who “cannot imagine life without the public library” and will rally enthusiastically to support it. Counseling that “your library must show excellent service consistently” in order to garner ardent support, Susan discussed a host of strategies and tips for sustaining a “modern library”—no matter how small—and for broadcasting its value loud and clear. She urges libraries to be willing and ready to adopt new technologies but to examine them for relevance and meaning to each community. The audience appreciated her example of scrutinizing “self check-out” for its detraction from the one-on-one interactions that may be the soul of the rural community library.

Marci Merola, director of the ALA Office for Library Advocacy, wrapped up the session with a quick tour of the substantial aggregation of resources that ALA has amassed on behalf of library advocacy efforts. Their Advocacy University is a potent collection to get you amplifying your library’s value on multiple fronts.

This is just an appetizer for the full meal of possibilities. Go to the webinar archive page for:

• Link to the Small But Powerful Guide (it’s free to download or you can order print copies)
• The archived recording of the webinar
• The webinar chat log (lots of ideas shared and questions answered in the sidestream)
• Links to related resources

From Pamela Thompson, Director, Mason County Library System (WV):

As I attended the Project Compass workshop, I had mixed feelings about what our small library system could do in helping unemployed and small business entrepreneurship. With limited budgets I thought we were doing all we could to help our community. Unemployment rate is high in our county. After a half day in the Project Compass workshop I was wondering why we haven’t done more!! The ideas I brought back to Mason County were affordable and helpful to our community. I have already implemented various ideas at the libraries. I also realized that we are not alone in this “Not enough funding, what more can we do.” As I participated and listened to all the people we met, I realized that we all in rural libraries face the same problems, whether it be West Virginia, Texas, Kentucky, Arizona, or wherever a rural library is located. By the time the day was over, I was more excited about returning to work to start sharing ideas and implementing programs in our system. After talking to the other WV libraries in our group, they felt the same way.

On returning to Mason County, I immediately came up with a game plan and talked to staff about what we intended to accomplish. In a week’s time we have two libraries with couponing stations, a couponing group in two libraries. Also will be attending County and Town meetings more often, allowing patrons to fax resumes free of charge, allowing patrons to print resumes free of charge and we will be starting a Computers 101 class twice a month at each library to help patrons get an email address, learn how to print resumes, or whatever the need is.

Thank you for the scholarship to allow us to attend an awesome workshop!!

From Hope Wilson, Fremont Public Library (IN):

The pre-conference workshop was inspiring and refreshingly well-organized. I had visited the Project Compass website before attending (before I was even aware of the conference) and had downloaded the Project Compass workbook for myself and the other two librarians on staff. The workbook is so resourceful that it can be a bit overwhelming. We were unsure as to where, when, how to begin.

Attending the workshop gave me the big picture.  I now see that the resources are there when/if needed; for example, I don’t have to visit all the links in the manual before proceeding, because proceeding today is the important thing. I was able to return to my library and put some small things in practice immediately. Now, we offer free resume faxes and have purchased a new bulletin board just for local entrepreneurs. We can revisit the resources as we progress.

This workshop came at a great time for me as an administrator. We just added an online, self-paced computer training program and are asking the staff to improve their computer skills. Project Compass reiterated the need for them, as employees, to keep enhancing their own job skills.

I appreciated the positive, encouraging approach of the PC workshop. During my brief staff meeting I found that my employees felt good about what they are already offering and felt validated that their work is indeed a service in ways not considered before. For example, I don’t think that they thought of gardening programs as a help to the un/underemployed. Yet they well might be. This is not to say that the staff does not realize how much more we can do. They are looking forward to seeing the library meet the goals they suggested at our staff meeting.

The PC workshop was so beautifully organized and offered such great discussion ideas that I found it easy to pull out an hour’s worth for my staff.  Next month I’ll be attending a six-county consortium where I’ll present a short summary to other directors.  And next month we’ll have another staff meeting to measure our progress on Project Compass goals.

From Joan Pellikka, Outreach Services Coordinator, North Country Library System (NY):

We are a cooperative library system of 65 member libraries, all separate entities governed by their own boards of trustees. The largest library in our system serves a community of roughly 27,000; the smallest, 121. More than half of our libraries have annual operating budgets of less than $50,000; fifteen have budgets of less than $25,000. We have some of the poorest libraries in the State and everyone works very hard with limited resources. The ARSL conference offers programs tailored to meet the specific needs of the smaller, rural library presented by people who clearly understand that work environment.

My first day in Frisco, I attended the Project Compass workshop, which left me with a more focused direction for collecting and presenting workforce development resources on the NCLS web site. From there, my goal is to offer training for member library staff, who in turn will share these resources with the public. More importantly, I gleaned bits of information that will stay with me for a long time. The following quote was probably the most important thing I saw and heard at the conference:

Lifelong learning is not an option anymore; it’s a necessity. SMART is the new RICH.
~Bernie Trilling, 21^st Century Skills

One librarian pointed out that this statement clearly illustrates the value of libraries at all times, not just in times of recession. Her comment, along with the quote, struck me very powerfully. Also during Project Compass, we viewed the video, Did You Know 3.0, which provided statistics that were, for me, eye opening. I am working on integrating both the quote and the video into advocacy efforts for our member libraries.

In the same session, we were reminded that it is so important to not make assumptions about job seekers. Highly skilled professionals such as physicians and pilots are finding themselves in situations where they must learn to assess their abilities and market them in another industry. We must be flexible and prepared to assist everyone with varying levels of expertise.