 Good morning and welcome to this week's edition of Encompass Live. I am your host, excuse me, Krista Porter here at the Nebraska Library Commission. Encompass Live is the Commission's weekly webinar series where we would cover a variety of topics that may be of interest to libraries. We broadcast the show live every Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. central time. But if you're unable to join us on Wednesdays, that's fine. We do record the show as we are doing today. And it will be posted on our website for you to watch later at your convenience. I'll show you the end of today's show where you can access all of our show recordings. Both the live show and the recordings are free and open to anyone to watch. So please do share with your friends, family, neighbors, colleagues, anyone you think might be interested in any of the topics we have on the show. For those of you not from Nebraska, the Nebraska Library Commission is the state agency for libraries. Similar to your state library. So we provide services to all types of libraries in the state and you will find shows on Encompass Live for all types of libraries. Public, academic, K-12, corrections, museums, archives, etc., etc., pretty much anything. And we do a variety of topics, book reviews, interviews, mini training sessions, demos of services and products. We have Nebraska Library Commission staff that come on and do presentations for us sometimes for services and things we're doing here. Services or projects we're doing here in Nebraska. But we also bring in guest speakers and that's what we have today. Joining us today is, as you can see, Shelly O'Brien. Good morning, Shelly. Good morning. Thank you, Kristen. Yeah, we're glad to have you here. And she's from our neighbor to the south, Kansas. Northeast Kansas Library System. And she's gonna talk to us about chit-chatting in the library. It's a good thing. Thank you so much and good morning, everybody. It was nice to see people from all over the United States this morning on the map. So thank you, Krista, and to the Nebraska Library Commission for this. I want to welcome you and just do a quick introduction of myself. I am a fundraiser by trade. I've been fundraising for nonprofits for about 20 years. And my second career is libraries. And I'm kind of melding the two, fundraising with libraries. I just graduated from San Jose State with an MLIS a couple of weeks ago. And I'm going to talk to you about chit-chatting. All right. Well, so I just wanted to share a quick meme with you. I thought this was funny. This kind of gives you an idea of sometimes how I can be awkward in conversations. And I think that there are many times that we feel awkward and avoid chit-chat. But what we want to talk about today is how important this is for your library. And this is something that we're going to take a deeper dive into. It seems like it's shallow or no big deal. But these small conversations really do have a big impact on what you're doing every single day. So what is small talk? Or as my grandmother used to call chit-chats, it's sometimes defined as inconsequential conversations that I totally disagree with this definition. Instead, I would say that there are gateways to conversations. It's like you're knocking on the door with someone and saying if they're going to invite you in or not. And it's usually a short interaction about a non-meaningful topic. Now, many of us introverts, and I will put myself into this category, I am an introvert even though I may be the most outgoing introvert you'll ever meet. I get it that sometimes you just want to recharge your battery. You want to run into Walmart to use the self-checkout. You want to just sit at the desk and have kind of a quiet day. And I get that, and that's totally cool. And I get that some people feel that they might get trapped, that they have maybe a negative experience where they can't get away from someone. Or you might have been told at some point that it was a waste of time. You should be active and having only deep meaningful conversations. But, and I like this blah, blah, blah. That's a very 1990s common phrase for empty conversation. And even the idea that sometimes micro-conversations can be gossipy, which that is not what we're talking about today. We're talking about the small hellos, how are you, how's your day going, and those small conversations. So now I'm going to ask everybody who's watching, why do you sometimes avoid small talk? And maybe you can put that in the chat. And Krista can tell me some of the share and tell us about why. You can go ahead and type into, everyone can go ahead and type into the questions section of your go-to webinar interface. You should find that in there, click in there, and let us know why would you avoid those kind of chit-chits. Or making small talk. Making small talk is specifically in your library. Why do sometimes you avoid it? And I ask this because I am surprised sometimes when I go to various libraries that sometimes it is the culture of that library, is maybe to be a little bit more quiet. Or sometimes staff members feel like, well, I'm an introvert. This is why I picked librarianship. This is why I work here. And sometimes I have a tendency to be a little bit more on the quiet side. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. OK, here we have one answer that came in, says, usually I avoid chit-chat because I'm in a hurry or I need to get certain things done. Oh, absolutely. Especially in small libraries, because we're running back and forth so fast trying to do 80 different jobs, I completely understand that. Absolutely. Another answer. I don't know what to say sometimes, also, that I can. Oh, yeah. Oh, absolutely. And that's something we're going to talk about today is some intros and to get you into that. And make it and try to give you some tools so you don't fear it if you don't know what to say. And I don't want to look like I'm goofing off. They may be not acceptable. Yeah, mm-hmm. Yeah, and actually that is what we're going to talk about how this is actually not goofing off if you're in a library. So that is a great point. I'll agree. We're terrific points. And we have a couple more here, some good thoughts here, too. Afraid I'll start talking about something I should not talk about. So those kind of subjects and you never know what is taboo to someone. That could be true. Well, also, yeah, I am always afraid I'm going to put my foot in my mouth or talk about something political when I don't mean to, especially nowadays. It feels like everything is political. So I understand that. Yeah. Yeah. And yes, I want to agree with the one about I'm don't want to look like you're goofing off. Don't want to get in trouble with admin. Yeah. That's a culture thing that. That's a big one. And actually, we're going to talk today about how I am going to say to admin, promote chit-chatting. This can be one of the biggest changes you can make in your library system. And I'll explain more about that. But I am a person who's in an admin position and going to really be advocating for this. Yep. And someone else says, I don't want to come off as being nosy. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I got a couple of tips for you on that one. Yeah. Because yeah, sometimes what if the other person who you're trying to chit-chat doesn't want to from their side? Exactly. And we'll talk about those cues. Yeah, these are great. Thanks for that. When to back off, yeah. Yeah. Well, terrific. I'm going to go on to the next slide. And we'll get into some of these. But thank you, everybody, for giving us those comments. So why is small talk important? And I'm going to start off with the pandemic and say that, for me at least, it reminded me that small talk is really important to our happiness. That lots of research studies, if you go out and look at psychology today and other places, have shown that the research says that these micro conversations are sometimes the key to happiness. And I know that in April or March of 2020, two years ago, I was going to the grocery store and talking to everyone through my mask. I needed human interaction. And I found that it was so important and would have never guessed that before. I had always kind of backed off a little bit, like you guys didn't want to be perceived as duping off or to be nosy. But what we found is that actually it is the complete opposite. Now, also during the pandemic, like many of you, I watched a lot of television. And so when we were locked down at home, I think I went through Gilmore Girls twice all the way through. And I know there's probably other people who did the same because it was the number one Netflix show for, I want to say, like six months, which is amazing to me considering that it was off the air for so long. But I think the reason was because it's about a ongoing conversations between the mom and the daughter and everyone in the town. And there's tons of chit chat in the town. And what does chit chat do? When you have small micro conversations, you're starting to form a community. And so my theory is that people during the pandemic were really missing chit chat and that sense of community. And that's why watching this TV show made them feel good is not just because it was wholesome and funny, but because it gave them that community aspect and feel. Now, Small Talk, I think is a very underrated tool and a vital component in our customer service and because it builds these strong relationships in the community. So why is this important to your small library? And I'm using right there at the bottom, a picture of the Paola Free Library in Paola, Kansas, simply put, your library should be the center of your community. And that's whether you're a small library, a large library, if you're a small library in an urban setting or suburban setting, it doesn't matter. That yes, you are there to help people find books and to answer questions, but you are also there to create community. And this is done by Small Talk. And I know that sometimes, as you've said, it feels clunky or shallow or goofing off, but what you're actually doing is you're showing interest in the other person. And that really can be huge when it comes to some of the larger issues that your library is dealing with. Now, why is this so important, especially for your small library? I'm gonna give you some of the research and facts on this. I know that you've had on this webinar before Jamie Wuru, who I believe now is doing some work for ALA and is a consultant. And he was trying to raise funds for a library, his library in Colorado. And he immediately went to thinking that if I got more people in the doorways of my libraries, they will vote for the bond issue that they were asking for. He assumed that library usage was going to be the most important part of his campaign. But what he discovered and was researched was that it was not library usage that was key in the campaign, but it was the interaction of the staff with people in the community. So when someone met either a library staff member or librarian who was passionate about the library or books or the interactions that were going on there, that is what made that person an advocate for the library. Just the concept of providing resources and assistance was not enough. And it kind of makes sense in a way because some people may feel that it's their tax dollars that are paying for the resources. But the difference between those tax dollars and then advocating for you, that elite in the way of thought is actually you. It is the library staff. And you showing passion and excitement about programming services, just about them being there is actually a really important component. I would say it's so important that I would actually argue that by creating community in your small library, you're creating a grassroots advocacy campaign. And this is going to support your budget and fundraising. And funny enough, all the different campaigns and political campaigns in this country would absolutely die for this kind of grassroots effort that you have going on every single day. And many of us think that either our library should not be in the game of politics or should not be advocating or that you do it just during budget time when you go to your elected officials or maybe it's just the executive director and it's just writing that email to your congressperson. But for a small library, it is the interactions you have every day. And it's creating that sense of community, a welcoming space where really everyone is a VIP. In return, what's gonna happen is you're creating this grassroots of supporters who will support you if you're running a bond issue. If you need a new building, if you need additional resources, they will support you with the city or your elected officials. They will volunteer, they will donate money, they will use the library more. So no matter where they are on the spectrum of how they can help you, building that community and having them maybe know your first name or at least acknowledging you and you acknowledging them hello and that you've seen each other before, that's how important this is. I know that at my last library system, I lived in Maryland outside the Washington, DC area and I was a fundraiser for, I would say, a medium-sized system. And the staff would often ask me, how should we know when a person's a donor or an elected official when they come in? They were wanting like a cheat sheet or something. And asking me like, oh my gosh, what should I do? Like how should I serve them? And of course my response was, well, everybody is a VIP. And that is just absolutely the truth in that every person that comes in has the ability to help your budget, to help you get additional resources and build your community there. And so everyone should be treated like that VIP. Now, that does not mean that they make up the rules. You have terrific rules and policies in your library. But what that means is you treat them with respect and you have a certain level of interaction with them. And chitchatting while it seems like it might be that small talk, your chitchat is actually what's going to build those relationships. So how do I get better at small talk? And a couple of the things you've already brought up and we're gonna talk more about those. And if you have some at the end of this slide, I would love what tips you have for the rest of us and we can kind of share some of those. But number one is just like going to Carnegie Hall, it's practice, practice, practice. And I know that that is a lot to take on for some people, but you really have to make a concerted effort. That this is gonna be now part of your daily life. And that when you are increasing your small talk, you really need to do it every day. And I know for a lot of introverts and a lot of my coworkers, this is hard, but I think it's also something you can build upon. Start with small interactions. Also, one of the things, especially if you're not good at small talk or you feel you're not good at small talk, is really seek out people in your library system who you know need small talk in their lives. That usually I would say are people that are older. For a lot of the older people that come in our libraries, you may be the only interaction that they have and for several days or maybe for this week. So anytime you can put yourself out there, talk to them, ask them how they're doing, really I know you'll get immediate appreciation from that. Number two is to show a genuine interest. And when you ask someone is something as simple as how are you today, make eye contact. Now, I saw something the other day which suggested, and I think I have a bad habit of this. And I realized this during the pandemic is I actually look at someone, I look at their lips. And I think part of that is some of my hearing is going a little bit, too many concerts when I was younger. And someone suggested looking at the irises of their eye when you are leaving an interaction with someone, you should know what their eye color is or have an idea of what their eye color is. That is actually looking them in the eye. And then listening to them. If they respond with something interesting or if they're allowing you in when you knock on the door and ask how they're doing today, follow up with a couple open-ended questions instead of yes or no questions. Allow the person to talk about themselves. People love to talk about themselves. So if you, let's say you're talking with someone who's in their 80s or 90s, asking them that open-ended question, asking them to talk about themselves may really help them and maybe fascinating also to you but take that genuine interest. As we talked about earlier and someone brought up, don't talk about things that are maybe too personal or political. You can talk about the library. You can recommend maybe a book on the lucky day shelf. You can talk about the weather, maybe sports. I am convinced this is why a lot of men like sports is because it gives them something to talk about. That is not too controversial. You can talk about entertainment, things going on in your town, food, hobbies, anything like that. Now of course then we'll talk about more of this in a minute but you want to respect library privacy and so don't forget your library's policies and rules about customer privacy but you do want to open up some conversations. Now if the person starts talking about politics, you have the ability to control the conversation and bring it back around to something else or you can also not react. Now this I will admit is very hard for me. As I said, I lived in Washington DC for many years where everybody talks about politics 24-7 no matter what side you're on or what you do and it's really hard not to get into, oh well this person did this today or this person did that but what I'm finding and I'm learning here in Kansas is that I'm getting pretty good at not reacting and just kind of saying okay and moving on. And I even got tested on Sunday night I went out for dinner and went by myself and so the very kind couple sitting next to me started chit chatting with me which I was open to and about 10 minutes into the chit chat they started going down a road that was political and just it was Sunday, I just wasn't kind of in the mood to take the bite and so I realized very quickly that not reacting kind of shuts it down quickly and just not and your facial expression also is very important cue that they can take that's just like, oh okay, cool. And then move on to another topic. Number four, avoid why questions. And the reason is the why questions are how you're gonna get into some more personal items and that is also gonna put the person on defense. So if you get into, well why are you doing that? Immediately the person may be okay that's too personal or it may feel like you're entering in some of their space or even if you don't use the word why maybe that just gives the feeling, those type of questions give the feeling of getting into too personal. So you definitely don't want the person to feel like they're getting defensive. Number five, listen, listen, listen. And I know this kind of goes back with number two but it's so important that I'm gonna say it twice and active listening is the best way to engage. That means do not interrupt. That means do not offer advice. And that's hard sometimes for me, especially in a library setting, often it's good to say, would you like a recommendation or can I help you with that? If then you get permission from the person, great. Sometimes a person just wants to vent or just wants to talk about something. They may actually say, no, I'm good. I just wanted to get that out and that makes you feel better. I think I have that problem. I know, I hate, I try to fill the silences too much, I think. I struggle with like let them think, let them do their thing. Don't keep jumping in with your, what you wanna say, let them just sit back and just shut up. Krista, that's a really bad habit I have too. And silence is not the worst thing in the world. You know, feel like you have to fill that void sometimes, but when if you didn't, you still are gonna, you're gonna fill that void with your facial expressions, with your non-verbal expressions. And I think that's okay. And so sometimes letting the other person speak is really great. I'm gonna give you another story. I have a big storyteller, so please excuse me. One time, as I said, I'm a fundraiser and at the beginning of my career, I was living here in Lawrence, Kansas and was doing fundraising for the university here. And I got sent to Hays, Kansas by one of my coworkers and she said, hey, you're gonna go have lunch with this husband and wife. He's a doctor, she's a nurse. You're gonna talk about the new nursing building and I think they're really terrific people. You're really gonna have a lovely lunch. And so we went to lunch and for 40 minutes of lunch, they gave me a list of everything they hated about the university. And I mean, from beginning to end. It was, you know, when I was a student, this was wrong. I saw this in the latest magazine. I heard this in the news. I don't know why the administration does this and it kept going. And I just smiled and was like, okay, okay. I mean, there was no use for me getting defensive. There was no use for me arguing with them. And even at one point, I said to them, I hear you. I, you know, I can understand why you guys want to mess. And I completely understand what was going on. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you're having this bad experience, but more than anything, what I did was listen to them. So I left the luncheon thinking this did not go well. I got back to the office and my boss immediately said, oh, hey, how was your visit in Hayes? And I said, oh, I'll tell you more in a minute. Wasn't that great. You know, I don't think we're gonna raise any money from these people. And he goes, oh, that's funny because they just called and said that there are checks on the way. And I was kind of surprised. I was like, what are you talking about their checks on the way? And it then dawned on me. All they wanted was for somebody from the university to listen to them. And they had years of just wanting someone and to feel like they wanted to be heard. Now, the really funny part of the story was at the end of the conversation with this nurse, she said, oh, and by the way, I wanna talk about my basketball tickets. I'm way up at the top of Allen Fieldhouse. And I just wanna say, I'm too old to be up there. I left it her and I said, you know what? I'm really young and I feel lucky to be up there. So, but they were very sweet couple. They were dedicated to the university. They did make a very nice contribution, but more than anything, they had been waiting for someone from the university to sit and listen to them. And I provided them 40 minutes of my time to listen and that's all they wanted. And so that was a, took me a long time to learn that lesson, but I appreciated them teaching that to me. A couple more here and then we'll open it up to comments. So, number six, try to put the person at ease. So if there's anything you can do to make them feel more comfortable in the conversation, do it. Pretend that you're the host or hostess of a big party and it's called the library. And you are welcoming your guests to the party. You're making sure that they're having a good time. You're helping them get resources, which unfortunately is not usually snacks or drinks, but you're helping them get other resources in the library just like you would go get them a beverage if they were in your home. And making them feel at ease often can get the small talk going or, to give them that eye contact and say, hey, nice to see you again. If people realize that you have seen them day after day, that's how you get the small talk going. I know personally I go to the same coffee shop by my house most days. I don't go because it's the cheapest. I, you know, it's great, but it's, you know, there's other coffee shops in town that are better, but I sat by because the lady named Robin, the stone lady always says, hi, good morning. Do you want the usual? And it's just really nice. It's again, a sense of community. And number seven on here, and some of you are not going to like this, put your phone away. There's nothing worse than walking into a library and seeing someone on their phone because what it says to everyone is that you want to be someplace else. That does not mean you can't have your phone on you for emergencies or to assist people or to keep in contact with your children or whoever, but if you need to talk to a friend or your children, go into the mouth. That having your phone out by yourself does give the view of I'm too busy and doing something that's not library related. And so put the phone away. Now, Christa, does anybody else have any suggestions or tips? Is anybody else typing in? Let's see here. If anybody does have anything, go ahead and type into the question section again. Let us know if you have any ideas about how you, if you've done something that's gotten better, made you better at it. We do have a comment from earlier when you're talking about how you never know who would be a donor. You know, everyone is important in the library. Definitely. Everyone. Never know who's gonna be. Yeah. I'm gonna, you know, it's funny I, when I got my MLIS from San Jose State, I took a class that had us go through Ryan Dowd's training for working with homeless people, which was really good. If you haven't done it, I would highly suggest it or even just sign up for his weekly emails. They're great. But one of the things that Ryan Dowd does that I really am impressed with is he really gets you into that mindset of the more you treat people who are transient or homeless with respect, the better your interactions are gonna be with them. And to some degree, that's kind of what you're doing with VIPs and with people with small talk is you're saying, yes, yes, there are rules here, but I'm telling you respect and giving you that respect and time with our conversation with small talk means that we have that give and take. And it's funny that I was going through the training and thinking, you know, that Ryan Dowd could actually give this very similar talk about dealing with major donors because really it's the same boundaries and respect. You're not asking donors or VIPs or allowing them to have anything more than you would with a homeless person. So it's just, it's giving them attention and respect. And everybody deserves that, yeah. Everybody deserves that. So we did have a few comments that just came in too. Let's see. First one here says, I found that talking about the library in particular, what they think are secrets of libraries, but they really aren't works well for me. That is awesome suggestion. So when I was doing fundraising in Washington, DC, that was one of my tricks to get people more involved was I would call it my inside baseball conversations. If you grew up in the 70s, there used to be a show on television on the weekends called Inside Baseball, where it would give you kind of like scouting reports and things you wouldn't find on regular, the regular news or TV shows. Of course, now ESPN gives you everything inside baseball. But I would have these conversations with donors where I would stop and explain something to them that maybe we weren't letting everyone in DC know or I would explain how we made a certain decision. This was our thought process. And when they got that inside or baseball information, they did feel like a VIP. And so sometimes I would send those out in newsletters or email newsletters of, hey, did you know how and why we do this at the library? Or we made this decision. I think that is a great idea. And that's a great fundraising and community tool that really would help your community understand what you do. Yeah. And then they have some knowledge and some like ownership of it themselves too. If they feel like you're sharing with them how this, you know, exactly, well, let me tell you all about this. Yeah, absolutely. Well, and I'm constantly surprised, and I know you guys get this, but I'm constantly surprised by the questions I get of, oh, you're a librarian so you read all day or, you know, unless you were just sitting at a desk, you know, or sitting at the front desk. And I think giving them that insight of everything we do and the decisions we make actually gives them insight into how complicated running a library is. It actually, and you know this, is so difficult and there's so many things that we do and all the skills that we bring. And it's great to share that because you're actually elevating the status of our profession. Let's see, here's another one that says, I have some patrons that say, oh, I've had a deal with Stu and I worked in a university library. And just when people call me on the phone, they say this, but I have some patrons that say, I hate to bother you, but could you help me? I always say, hey, that's what I'm here for. It's my job to help. How can I help you? I am here at this desk. That's exactly the whole point of this whole setup here. That is the whole point. And you know, I think some of that is them just being nice. They're preferencing the comments by showing that they are kind and they are trying to show that they do acknowledge that you could be busy. But I agree with you. Let them know that it is not a bother that you are there to talk to them. I also have to, right now I'm in a position for a regional library system where I'm helping librarians with their fundraising and PR. And that's also what I have to remind librarians is I have to say to them, hey, don't worry about calling me or emailing me. If you need something, that's my job is to help you. And I'm guessing if you're asking for this resource or for help, others need it too. So please ask me so I can create this fundraising tool or this help for you and share it with lots of people. So even librarians have trouble with it. And I've seen someplace where I think it's difficult if you have like a reference desk or a circulation desk and there's a computer there that you're working on because you're doing something. They assume that you're too busy working because you're on the computer. But that's only because that's what part of the job is is while I'm sitting here, I have something I'm supposed to be, I'm looking up something for someone else. I'm working on someone's circulation record, whatever it is I'm doing. But that doesn't mean I can't also, you know, it's a dual thing, I'm doing both things, but they don't always know that. So I've seen some libraries or things that have like a sign that says, please interrupt me or please ask for help. It's just something that lets them know as they come up to the desk, they come near you and they see you that it's okay to interrupt, you know, something that will proactively, you know, let them know. I like that a lot. Or even, and I know some of your administrators aren't gonna like me saying this, but get out behind the desk, get out front. Groving librarians, yep, yep. Roam the library. I mean, I sometimes think that we are too attached to our desks as a profession. And I get that, you know, especially during COVID times, I get that. You do sometimes like for there to be something in between you and the other person, but then there's something in between you and the other person. So our profession is to get out there. And so come, you know, come out from behind the desk. I know some libraries are really good at this and some, you know, you would have to pry people away. But if you can practice that, I think that will help your small talk too. I know some library, I've seen, they also have made it an actual like service where they have a tablet that they can go to the library and just, you know, kind of like when you're in a store, which I know some people do and don't like this. Can I help you with anything when you're just browsing the shelves in the, you know, the racks in the store, but they bring a tablet with them and they see if someone looks like they need help and they ask and then they can quickly on that tablet. Well, let me search the catalog. Let me, you know, so you have something right there. I love that. I love that. Now I, now remember though, I'm the person that likes the Walmart greeter. And, you know, supposedly Walmart got rid of the greeter, but at least at my Walmart, they brought it back. I actually feel like something's missing if the person is not there. I just like it. I, there are stores that I go into and some are like, you know, they sell expensive items and I'm shocked that they don't greet me when I'm walking. Because if I don't get acknowledged, I sometimes immediately feel like they don't care whether I'm here or not. And then if that actually I think has an influence on whether I'm buying something or not, which blows my mind, but sometimes it does because we've all been trained that when you walk into a building, someone should be at least a hello, good morning. Hey, how are you doing? Can I help you? And that includes libraries. That is part of the conversational script of walking into a building, a public building or a store. And so if that is not there, people may feel like, oh no, I am bothering someone or I'm in the wrong place. And then another comment here, Gail says, I have my best talks with patrons when I'm shelving books. You're out there in the stags. Yep, and they just come up and say, hi, can I? Let's chat. I love it Gail, because that is really a great example of how you can be working and have that interaction. And I would also say it does not matter who is out there shelving the books. If it's a page, if it's an intern, a volunteer, we should be interacting. And we should be having discussions. And even if you can empower your interns or pages to say, hey, you know what? I don't have the answer to that question, but let me walk over and find that out. Do you wanna follow me or do you wanna stay here? Or, you know, then that gets the small talk going. So empowering your staff with various phrases I think can really help with that. Okay, a couple more slides. I wanna remind you about privacy. That is something that we do wanna keep an eye on because we don't want the conversations getting into weird space. And so please review the privacy rules of your library and remind your staff of this. I think especially at this time, it's really important. Sometimes I forget this, but just a couple of weeks ago, one of the libraries that I work with here in Kansas, we had a situation where the husband came in and wanted to know what his wife had checked out. And we have to remember that that is private information and that, you know, it does not matter if it's a small town, a large, you know, community, that we do need to make sure that we do protect people's privacy and that that is one of the fundamental parts of running a library. So now a couple additional thoughts. I, as somebody brought up, not everyone is gonna wanna talk with you and that's okay. But when you are opening this up and you're giving them the hints and if they wanna move on, it's fine, let them move on. It may take several times for them to come in the library and be engaged. Another item that I want you to think about is you are allowed to end the conversation. And I think that may be one of the top reasons I sometimes avoid conversations is I don't wanna hurt another person's feelings if it's going on too long or if it's veering into a conversation that I don't wanna talk about. So there are things that you can say, like, hey, it's been a pleasure to talk with you. Let's continue this next time you're here. And then start to walk away. Your nonverbals are gonna show where you're going with this. And they'll follow the cues. Very few people will actually not pick that up as a cue. But even if they don't, you are allowed to say, hey, I've gotta get back to work now, but thank you so much and let's talk next time. Just an easy way to get out of that. So I'm gonna go ahead and wrap my slides up, but the bottom line is small talk can be a huge change for your library. When we are dealing with budgets that are getting cut every day, when we are talking with customers who really need our interaction because of the pandemic or because they're getting older and they're not spending time with other people, you are going to create a community by having these small micro-conversations and you're gonna enhance your library. I think you need to look at it as being something that can be fun, it can be interesting. It can talk to your administration, talk to your librarians about how it really can help your advocacy, it can help your fundraising. And think about it from this way. Let's say, as I said, I'm a fundraiser, so if a fundraiser came in and wanted to really check you guys out about giving a donation, would they wanna give money to someone who would not chat with them or someone who would not ask questions? So looking at from that perspective, and I think you'll see that you really, really wanna up your game on the chit chat. Now, speaking of chit chat, I would love to connect with you. So here's my information, and I am, as I said, a library consultant for the Northeast Kansas Library System. I do not sell consulting, so don't worry, you're not gonna get a sales pitch from me, but I am here to help and to talk and hang out. So here's my... I'm kind of a consultant that you have to hire. Yeah, it's just like here at the Library Commission here in Nebraska, we're here to help the libraries. Exactly, and I am happy to do it. I'm hoping to have a small website up soon where I'm offering links to things like this and some more information, because what I really wanna see is libraries succeed, because I am so proud of all the libraries we have here in Kansas, and I know that your libraries are just as good if not better. And really so much of it is centered around people, and I want to see you succeed. So any tips or any help I can do, I'd be thrilled to help with. Absolutely, yeah. And I think you mentioned about the administration, that was something that came up multiple times from people being at the very beginning that it seemed to be a more of a concern over anything else of what if it seems like I'm goofing off, what if, you know, they think I'm just getting with something and socializing someone and socializing. So I think I'm glad that you gave like the statistics and data and, you know, proof of like, this is how this is the actual effect and it does need to become part of your service, part of your job, part of your job description, maybe, or something that this is something we do. So either as an administrator, you should get that out there or bring this to your administrator, to your library director, whoever's in charge and say, hey, can we, you know, we should, you know, try and practice this, get this more ingrained that it's okay to be doing these things that it's not goofing off, that it's- Absolutely, absolutely. And also for a lot of people, remember this when you become an administrator, because, you know, I often find that people when they're in more entry-level or junior jobs go, oh, my administrator's known it's, or my boss doesn't understand, but then because you've been trained in that culture or system, you don't change it. So when you become an administrator or if you have an opportunity, remind people or lead by example and say, this is not goofing off, talking with people is an important part of our job and that you are demonstrating that and you never know where it's gonna go or I view it as that person is, you know, a voter, a taxpayer who is paying for our services, they could be a volunteer, they could be a donor, who knows where they're gonna be in a couple months. Here at Neckles the other day, we get the Kansas City Business Journal and I was showing my coworkers, the front cover of the Kansas City Business Journal was a gentleman that was my intern at one point. He was now on the cover of this with Major Magazine. He's running a huge healthcare system in Kansas City that's non-profit and I'm so proud of him, but remember today's intern could be your boss next week. So don't forget to exhibit that and to train and to remind people of those great practices that you wanna see changed and updated with you. Yeah, yep, yep and Gail says, yes, the patrons are a real boss. Oh, absolutely, absolutely. And, you know, in Kansas right now and I'm sure other parts of the country is the same way, you know, budgets are getting tighter. We have here in Kansas kind of this, you know, anti-tax view sometimes. And so you really wanna promote that, yes, community is important and, you know, I don't want to sell the library, but on the other hand, we got a really good product. We have something that is promoting education, promoting jobs, helping job seekers, we're promoting small businesses, we're helping people with lifelong education, we're helping teens and seniors. I mean, we've got some great things to sell. So getting out there and talking more about what we do is really important. And again, it's not listing off necessarily the 600 things that we do, we do so much. But it's really connecting with people on what we do and how we can help them and how libraries really are a really important part of the American experience and they're an important part of our community experience. For everyone, yep. For everyone. For everyone. It's really, I mean, I'm sure most of the people that are watching today, I don't know about you, but I grew up in my library. I'm a mid-continent library kid from Independence, Missouri. And I know that's where I spent so much of my time or maybe other kids grew up on the playground or on the ball fields. I grew up at my library and I'm so grateful that we had really outstanding services. I mean, I'm so lucky. Yep, and someone else Karen says here, it is great to connect with all types of patrons. Oh, absolutely. You will also learn so much from them. If you're a lifelong learner and you really stop and think about it, you're going to learn a lot from people. Some of it may be knowledge that you didn't even know you needed. Some of it may be important things, like how the library is viewed in the community. It may be very important to know what people think of the library and get that information to the executive director or to the administration on public relations, fundraising, whether you're going to have a new building or not. Knowing what people think about you as an organization is very important. You can learn a lot. All right, so as, let's see here, I'm just checking my comments. As Shelly said, this is the wrap up of her slides here. And we have any other, any questions. We still have officially like five minutes left in our show hour. But we'll stick around as long as people want to chat and have questions. Yeah, happy to. Last minute, desperate questions or comments or thoughts. Get them typed into your question section. Also, I will make a pitch for one of the ways that I got my job here in Lawrence, Kansas, was someone connecting with me the last time I spoke at a virtual conference. So don't underestimate connecting with others within our community. I know it sounds odd, but library and ship is a very small community in many ways. So connecting with each other is really important. And I didn't realize that until I had that opportunity. So do connect with each other. And also, if I can encourage anyone to speak on this forum or other virtual forums, please do. Absolutely, we're happy to have more presenters. As I said, we have, well, we brought you in, but we've had presenters from across Nebraska, our libraries and across the country here. And they do great, yeah. And it gets you out there, especially with our show here. We're free and open to anyone to watch, like I said at the beginning. So, and you saw that map if people were here early of who was registered for today's show. We had 50 something registrations and from 19 other states besides Nebraska. So this is, you know, we're the Nebraska Library Commission where this is a national forum. Get you out there, yeah. And you never know where you're going. I saw lots of people on the East Coast. So a shout out to them. While I love Lawrence, Kansas, it's a gem. I do miss DC a little bit. So say hello to everyone there. All right. So I didn't say anything, just for questions, just one last comment from Gail. So thanks for the great chitchat this morning. Yes. Thank you. I hope I changed your mind on this and please go out and let your coworkers know that we all should be doing this and should be practicing it every day. So thank you, Krista. Thank you to the Nebraska Library Commission. I appreciate it. Absolutely. We're happy to have you with us. And maybe we'll have you on a future episode and talk about some. I would love it. And we can get more into fundraising too. I would love that. Yes, that's definitely gonna be an important topic that everybody is gonna wanna hear about. Definitely. All right. I think we will wrap things up then. Since I'm gonna hit any other questions or anything needed to ask of you. Thank you so much, Shelly, for being with us here this morning. Thank you everyone for joining us this morning. This is great. Got lots of tips and tricks. And Shelly's slides will be available afterwards with the recording. She'll send them to me and we'll have those available so all of her, everything on there, you will have access to afterwards. So I'm gonna pull presenter control back to my screen. So I can show you. There it goes. Here is our page for today's show. Yep. Let you go back to our main Encompass Live page here. If you use your search engine of choice just type in Encompass Live, the name of our show where the only thing that comes up. So nobody else is allowed to call themselves that. So these are our upcoming shows but right underneath there is a link to our archived Encompass Live shows. Today's show will be on the top of the list. We'll have a link to, we post our recordings onto the Nebraska Library Commission's YouTube channel and then a link to the slides that'll be on here. I should have everything processed by the end of the day tomorrow at the latest. That's usually how long it takes me. So everyone who attended today's show and registered and pre-registered even if you weren't able to join us live we'll get an email from me letting you know when it is ready. While we're here, I'll show everyone what we do have a search feature here. If you wanna search our show archives to see what other topics we've had on the show. You can search the full archives or just the most recent 12 months if you want something very current. And that is because for those of you not in Nebraska who haven't known Encompass Live has been around for a while. We, the show premiered in January, 2009. And this page has all of our recordings going back to then. I'm not gonna scroll all the way down cause it would be crazy. But, so just pay attention to the original broadcast date of any shows that you, any recordings that you watch. Some of the topics will stand the test of time. The information will still be good and useful and relevant. But some things will become outdated. Show's information will become, have changed drastically. Some services or products might not exist anymore or have changed or just not exist anymore. Links might be broken. So just pay attention to that date. All of them have that original broadcast date on them. But as we are librarians, we keep things for historical purposes and make sure they're available. We'll always, as long as we have somebody to put them we'll always have our full recordings up here. We do also have a Facebook page for Encompass Live. If you like to use Facebook, give us a like over there. We post reminders about the shows coming up, logging in, when our pre-recordings are available, when new shows been added. We also put things out onto library commissions, Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag Encompass Live. That's our little abbreviation. So give us a like over there. Is that what we're up for today's show? I hope you'll join us next week when our topic is collection development. Can you see me? Collection development for marginalized communities. We are bringing in a librarian, Laura Pitts, who's from the Scottsboro, oh, I think this is Arizona. I got to type all their public library to talk about doing collection development in your library for all sorts of communities. You never know who is going to be wanting to use your libraries. So she's going to talk about that with us next week. So please do sign up for our next week show. And any of our other topics we have here, here's our next two months worth of shows right there on our page. So thank you everybody for being here. Thank you so much, Shelly, for being here with us. And hopefully we'll see you all in a future episode of Encompass Live. Bye. Bye.