 Good morning, or good afternoon everyone depending on what time zone you're in My name is Dr. Cheryl Stenstrom, and I along with doctors Sue Almond and Deborah Hicks cold each the San Jose State University iSchools leadership and management advisory committee. I Have a couple of years ago that committee had been talking a lot about how one of the things that they struggle with when they're Talking to students or new grads or anyone looking for a job is the need for ongoing development in their leadership and management skills and so to that end We started to develop a series of webinars that focused on how students and new professionals and seasoned professionals could learn vicariously through a series of speakers who talked about Both what it was like on the job in it to be in the shoes of a leader, but also to possess leadership qualities at any position and ran that as a four-part series over spring of Sorry, I forget the year, but I think it was 2017 so since then we have aimed as a committee to put on a couple of wet webinars a year and expand our offerings and expand the wonderful speakers that we've been able to profile and the different angles and Insights that they can bring to the topic of leadership So earlier this year Dr. Almond had the opportunity to meet Rebecca Smith Aldrich who Is a leader in sustainability for libraries, so we're thrilled that she is here with us today and we are able to Feature what she can share with us about sustainability in libraries Before we turn the mic over to Rebecca. We're going to just give you a bit of background information about her and Say that what what our format is for the day is to have her speak and then we'll have plenty of time at the end of the Presentation for questions and comments that we can all share before we log off for the end of the day so Having said that I will tell you that Rebecca Smith Aldrich is the executive director of the mid Hudson library system She currently serves as the co-chair of the American Library Association's special task force on sustainability as an advisory board member for the ALA Center for the Future of Libraries and she's also the co-founder of the both the ALA Sustainability Roundtable and the New York Library Association sustainability initiative She's a frequent international speaker on the topic of libraries and sustainability And she's the author of sustainable thinking ensuring your library's future in an uncertain world and Resilience part of the library future series from ALA additions She's also the sustainability columnist for library journal So you can also find out more about her work at sustainable libraries or G so Without further ado, I'd like to turn it over to Rebecca and hear what she has to Teach us all about sustainability in libraries today. Go ahead Rebecca So hello everyone and thank you so much for inviting me to speak today I had a smile on my face as you described the leadership and management goals of this webinar Because I used to be the president of the leadership and management section of the New York Library Association And it was probably one of the best personal and professional experiences of my career I'm getting a chance to really hear from people in the field who have been I think through experiences that you can't quite predict and figuring out how you hone your leadership skills When you don't know what's coming next sometimes is a very cool thing to learn about And I think that's a big part of what I'm here to talk to you about today in terms of sustainable thinking for the future of libraries I just wanted to give you a little more background about what I've been doing for the past 20 years I have been here in new york for the past 20 years and doing work for the mid Hudson library system primarily with 66 public libraries All of whom are most of whom have public votes on their budget So I've spent a lot of my time in my career as a library development specialist Which is a non-traditional role in the library profession probably And they let me pick my own title, which was probably a big mistake. So in 2008 my title became the coordinator for library sustainability Which made a lot of people think all I did was build sustainably designed buildings But what I was actually working on was making sure my libraries were these three things vital visible and viable because I wanted them to have sustainable funding So I spent a lot of time explaining my title which made me really good at talking about it So just to give you an idea of the type of work I've been doing for the past 20 years We've been taking a look at how vital our libraries are they actually meeting the needs of our communities? Are they visible to people know we exist and that we have stuff they want and are they actually viable? They have the capacity to meet their community's needs and capacity Takes a very variety of forms right that could be the money you need the staff training you need Board education for trustees director coaching to make sure Directors who may or may not have been able to go to library school or who went to library school but never learned how to win a building referendum or design a building or Design new programs and services that respond to the changing needs of their community It meant I've got a lot of exposure to how 66 libraries do things here in my system And then about 10 years ago. I started my own consulting company helping libraries outside of my system throughout new york and the rest of the country And then in the past few years, I've been working on some Very exciting projects related to sustainability in a holistic way that i'm going to spend the bulk of my time talking to you About here today, but I thought it would be important for you to understand the origin of this work And we are going to talk about environmental sustainability no doubt But the truth is that libraries cannot live on love alone We need funding to do what we do and so when I think about being a leader in the library profession I often you know I try to be humble about that But the truth is you do have to own being a leader in the library profession If you want to attract investment financial investment in your library And in most situations at least on the east coast we have public votes on library budgets So you might be doing presentations to municipalities or other decision makers who decide about the funding for your institution This is something that's everyone's responsibility no matter what you do in a library is being articulate about why your library matters Why what you do matters? And really understanding how proactive we have to be about this in the future in light of recent research on the topic Perhaps you saw this report which came out last year from awareness to funding Which updated a report from 2008 Looking at voter perceptions and support of public libraries And this was a report in 2008 that meant a lot to me because I work on Referendums all the time. I've done over 100 campaigns in my career Helping libraries attract both operating funds and facility funding for expansion and renovation And when you think about how hard it is to ask people to tax themselves more for library services You better be doing a pretty good job and being very well spoken about it In order to warrant someone voting yes to tax themselves more And this new report was uh, I'll admit it It was a little depressing because it said in the past 10 years We've seen a 15% decline in the out of the gate number of possible. Yes voters So without doing any education We're further behind the eight ball than we used to be 10 years ago 40% decline in the number of voters who think that librarians are well known in the community So our visibility our connectivity with other people in our communities has declined a great deal Which means you are starting from again even further behind the starting line than we were 10 years ago And then you know a lesser percentage there But a decline in a number of things that really hurt my heart A 20% decline in the number of voters who agree that we're an excellent resource for kids or that We have an excellent public library as a source of pride in the community or that librarians are friendly and approachable So it always makes me think of customer service training I received a number of years ago where they said if you have a bad customer service experience Someone will tell that story seven times. They have a good customer service experience They might tell that story one or two times So it really speaks to how much time and energy must be put in To how we talk about ourselves how we advocate for ourselves And the non-verbal cues that we give out in our institutions that tell the story of who we are Which means we have to be extremely strategic about where we're going in the future with our libraries Regardless of the type of library you end up working in I encourage you right now to start honing your vision for the future of libraries because it will take you literally years to articulate that in a way That will make people want to follow you believe in you and invest their time energy and money In the vision that you have for the future So I wanted to give you some tips about that that have been extremely helpful to me in my work So far in libraries and I mentioned that I've worked on over 100 campaigns And I will say that that's all well and good, but did we win? That's what most people ask me next and I can say that in 20 years I have a 93 success rate So I think most of the time things are going pretty good So some of this stuff might be useful to you in the future And one of the most incredibly important things I use with my libraries is this idea of starting with y And I'm sorry if that little graphic is too tiny for you to read But this is based on a book by a gentleman named simon cynic s i n e k He's got quite famous. Thanks to a ted talk. He did it's about 14 minutes along the book is also an easy read But if you're short on time given that you're in graduate school, I could understand that But it's a great read good ted talk. He's a business consultant looking for patterns and businesses And one of the things he pulled out was he noticed that companies that were getting a faster leg up than others back in the 80s and 90s Were those who were doing messaging different than their competitors They were starting with messages of why they do what they do Rather than just itemizing the specifications of a product or itemizing the items you could buy from their company Gives the great example of apple and I bet many of you have an iphone or a iPad maybe you're watching this webinar on an ipad right now And he talks about how they talked about why they made this product They wanted user centered Aesthetically pleasing design and in the 1980s that resonated with more people who weren't techie enough to understand how the other Computer companies were selling computers when they were selling them based on the specifications of the technology faster memory bigger monitors more Capacity and people were like I don't even know what to do with a computer in my house But hey if it's computers and I need to learn it and it's designed for a human That sounds better to me And they got more of the market share faster because they switched the way they did the the messaging and starting with why And so when we do assessments of our library's websites We often see these itemizations of what you have to offer Or programs you have to offer what technology have to offer Very little messaging on why you do those things So making that assumption that everyone understands why libraries are amazing and necessary and essential is one of the number one mistakes We make so as a good leader Really understanding how to articulate the why behind the what is one of the key things that we do And when I think about the why behind the what of the libraries that I get to work with at the end of the day It really does come down to do we care about our neighbors? Are we helping them in their lives and providing resources tools and information that help them enhance their own lives The lives of their children the lives of their community to make the world a better place And that might sound, you know enormous But because it is when you really think about everything we do in libraries whether it's helping somebody Research genealogy or find a job or help their kid do better at school Or they're advancing their own career or making a job shift All of it is really related to life liberty in the pursuit of happiness So when we think about how to deeply embed that messaging the why behind the what we do We have to start at the very top and think about the entire ecology of a community and people's lives in the psychology So in 2014 when I was kind of mulling over this thinking of how we do this work and how we talk about it This report came out from the united nations and it caught my eye in the new york times because the commentator noted That there was many reports that came out from this group the intergovernmental panel on climate change But this was the first one that said Environmentally it was no longer about saving the earth It was going to be about surviving the earth that climate change had wrought enough damage at this point That we were going to see sea levels rise. You will see food shortages You will have air quality control issues and humans now have to figure out how to adapt in the face of that The other reports that were coming out were scarier and scarier talking about The level of devastation we will see in the next few decades as seawaters rise What it's going to look like when air quality control issues are are getting worse and worse and exacerbating existing health problems Looking at food security issues. We actually have food deserts here in upstate new york, which is something I never thought I would say And then the the issue that is just the basic math of our our economy and our world today Which is when there are scarcity issues It means a rising opportunity for conflict amongst people And that might be as many of us have seen in the past few years really at the very civil disobedience or Civil clashing level that we've seen throughout our own country that we're seeing in hong kong right now These are things that are really happening right now. They're not waiting until 2030. They're not waiting until 2050 It's happening right now We experienced this this this summer with with heat waves that are coming and that's going to be coming more and more Frequently, uh, there's a word health organization estimation We're going to see close to 40 000 more deaths a year worldwide because of heat waves So it's not just for people who live on the coasts. It's not just for people who live in a desert or someplace It's already having trouble with agriculture. It's right here in your backyard right now And I think that's the the messaging that we're starting to hear get louder and louder amongst the climate activists in our world And many of you heard of this young lady this year The really the impetus behind the climate marches very recently here in America and across the world And she really kicked things off less almost less than a year and a half ago I actually counted it was 394 days ago This young woman got in front of a bunch of very powerful adults And talking about climate change the impact on her future and she told them point blank I don't want your hope. I want you to act. I want you to do something Act as if the house was on fire because it is So when we think about the future of libraries and what our legacy is going to be We have to incorporate the thinking Surrounding how we're going to adapt in the face of climate change Into our everyday work as well as our programmatic work our service design work Because if we don't the future generations will look back at our institutions and say where were you Why weren't you our ally in doing this work? This is a a diagram you may have seen from psych 101 called mazl's hierarchy of needs We're talking about things that really are going to affect people at the most basic level of their lives food water Their ability to sleep at night if they even have a place to sleep I'm going to see an increasing number of people in strife and in stress So I know a lot of my friends one of my co-presenters matt ballerman He often says, you know, I got into this business thinking I was going to be working at the top of this triangle I was going to be doing classes on Picasso and listening to devorjak in the library and working on self actualization of my community But he finds himself working more towards the middle and bottom of this pyramid More frequently as a library director where he serves in our community So very interesting to think about reshaping Service design program design making sure we're actually responding to real life community needs today Not what we wish their community needs were but what they actually are So one of the absolute coolest things I have seen in very recent memory is another report from that bizarre organization I just told you about the intergovernmental panel on climate change Because they've issued a report after report with very technical information about the impact of climate change And what it's going to be doing to the environmental world around us and calling for us to adapt our economy at a speed that is Unprecedented and it's overwhelming. We're not even sure where to start So this group of scientists Came up with four things we should all focus on the things the world needs right now And wait till you see what they are because the light bulb is going to go off for you Just like it did for me What the world needs now is locally focused problem solving people working together People who recognize and value diversity because the diversity of opinion and experience is where we're going to get The creative solutions we need to face the future And for all to be heard Now who is perfectly positioned to do this work? That is us. That is libraries. We are excellent at this kind of thing Is anyone writing about libraries in these reports? No, they're not whose fault is that that is our fault So we need to start talking about ourselves and doing things to get the attention they deserve And doing things that actually make a huge difference in our communities with purpose Not just having a cool idea and hoping it works But actually doing the work doing the study collecting the data Translating that on behalf of our communities And i'll share with you that a few years ago actually two years ago I was at my own state conference talking about this issue with youth youth services librarians And I will completely admit I was very tired during the the presentation And I was on my soapbox right where I am in this presentation right now And I said, you know what people we're going to library science the shit out of this And the room erupted with laughter and I was completely embarrassed I couldn't believe I had done that in the middle of a presentation and now I do it all the time Because somebody who I have tracked down put it on a tote bag And as a joke sent it to me as a gift and then without telling me opened up an etsy shop And I found out because I was at the jfk airport and a woman walked by me with this tote bag And I didn't know her and then I kept getting pictures and texts with more and more people who have this tote bag So it's awesome to me to think about the fact that we are getting riled up about these issues and understanding that we are scientists too And we can use the platform we have at our libraries to address some of the biggest challenges facing our communities right now If we choose to own that role in our communities and our campuses and in our schools So that's what i've been working on for the past few years is how do we develop leadership on the topic of sustainability and libraries And you may have noticed in the description of this webinar That ala the american library association in january at their midwinter meeting has now adopted sustainability as a core value Something that low and behold right here today is being exposed to library students library school students It's being woven into curriculum in library schools all over the country I'm dealing with probably six universities right now asking me for advice of how we start exposing this issue teaching it Embedding it in the leadership skill set of our future library leaders So what I want to do for you today is just to give you a taste of some of the stuff that I think is is pretty critical to understand around this issue As you think about your own professional development You put together your own individual professional development plan. These might be things you want to learn more about There's some terminology that's starting to get repeated again and again that you're going to start to see if you haven't already And one of the most important things is that we're all defining the word sustainability using the same language So the american library association has adopted what's called the triple bottom line definition of sustainability Because what we discovered in our work here in new york on the topic of sustainability Was everyone assumes it's just about the environment But nothing on our world exists in a silo as john you're the famous environmentalist said once you pull on one Threat in the universe you find it connected to everything else So we have to have a whole systems approach to thinking about how to address issues related to sustainability And so this definition helps us understand. It's really the intersection of three things It's whether or not a product a building a community a library Has this balance amongst these three things of being economically feasible environmentally sound and socially equitable Now libraries are pretty good on at least two or three of these things Maybe not all three Maybe not equally well But we talk about this sometimes as a three-legged stool Because if one of these things is out of balance the stool will tip over And I think this is the future challenge of library leaders in our profession Is how you make operational decisions for your library programmatic and service decisions that address the whole situation Not just one of these things or the other because within that center spot of this venn diagram Is where we find sustainability and resilience For our communities for our students for the people that we serve and for ourselves as institutions and professionals So this concept we've been talking about this for a long time In libraries for the past five years only This has been the construct that they've been using worldwide for a very long time in one of my favorite reports that comes out every year Which is the world happiness report. I don't know if anyone else geeks out about this report like I do But they have created a metric system to figure out What are the happiest countries in the world? And what do they judge them on this is going to sound kind of familiar now that you know about the triple bottom line They talk about four pillars sustainable and equitable socio-economic development environmental conservation preservation and promotion of culture and good governance Libraries are once again perfectly positioned to assist with these four things And exhibit these four things within their own institutions So thinking about this work from the inside out and betting it into the ethos of how we run libraries How we manage departments how we run our teams how we make decisions This is going to help position libraries as more and more capable to do and help with this work in the wider community So what we've posited here in in new york and it's it's a phrase that I use an awful lot is this idea of sustainable thinking It's not a checklist that you have by your side or you pull out in april for earth day It's not that thing that would be nice if we would remember to do it when we're planning a project It needs to be completely Embedded in how you think all the time it needs to be the lens through which you view the world and you make decisions So i'm sure many of you have been in a situation where you've had to word smith by committee and this is one of those phrases So it's a very long definition in my opinion But the it pulls together the things we've been talking about so far this afternoon Sustainable thinking takes your core values as a library And we're talking about your core values like a commitment to democracy lifelong learning social responsibility access to information All those core values and the resources you have to deliver on those core values Whether it be your staff your collections your facility and align that with the local and global community's right to sustainability resilience and regeneration and really thinking about how to infuse new and energetic life Into our communities through the library And I think just not being a passive organization that waits for people to come to us But we're actively engaged with our constituency Understanding what they're trying to do and making sure our resources and our efforts match with their aspirations in their community So again very big picture, but we have to start getting real about this. How do you actually make this happen? So one of the things i've been watching really closely is the well-being pro project out of santa monica in california They got a one million dollar grant from the bloomberg foundation to figure out how to measure well-being in their community And I was thinking this is an excellent way for us to organize our thinking in particular for public libraries as well When we think about the impact of the work that we do Because part of being a leader is not just having a vision and getting people to follow you in that vision But it's also to gut check and actually measure. Did you make a difference with the choices that you made? So I think it's an interesting way to break out how we think about what we do and why it matters And how we're going to measure things in the future to make sure we're actually making a difference for our community And what you work on in particular might look different depending on the region of the country or the region of the world You're in it might look different based on the economy of the community you live in Or the age and demographic issues that you're contending with But I think again a good way to reorganize our thinking and understanding It's not just about education Education does not exist in a vacuum it exists for a purpose and it should be tied to the well-being of those that we serve So each of you will end up in a different library institution and a different role in those institutions But I think some of this thinking and the structured way to view the world could be helpful to you in the future Because what I really see for the future is a role for libraries as catalysts and conveners Catalysts in that we model our choices in terms of how we wish our community was living that we treat our staff Right, we have Living wages and benefits for them that we treat them well and it comes to their own well-being Because that will translate into how we treat our patrons that we build our buildings and operate our buildings The way they should be with the idea of human health in mind both inside those buildings And from where the materials came from to build those buildings as you can tell I could go on and on talking about that aspect of what we do The other idea of being a convener to bring people together just like the united nations report suggested That we need local problem solving to figure out what's going to happen next and how we all respond to that And if it's not locally grown Who's going to do that work and libraries are well positioned to help bring together the right players to provide Meeting space for that work to provide research and information for that work that needs to be done So if we don't start now to position ourselves as players who are going to be helping with these things We're going to get left behind People are going to wonder what the heck we're doing over there and why their tax dollars are going to those libraries So I wanted to show you examples of libraries who are ahead of the curve on this issue who get it Who are really doing the work and embedding this kind of stuff not only in their library operations But in how they're connecting with their constituents And one of the first examples I ever came across that caught my attention Was a canadian library the west vancouver memorial library Who right in their strategic plan has adopted sustainability as one of their core values And if you take a study of this library You will see their values particularly in the area of sustainability Reflected in the choices they make about their facilities about their outreach about their programming about their messaging It is infused and embedded throughout that organization So living your values I think is something as a future leader to really think about How does that come to life you need to embed this stuff in your organization? It can't just be in your head. You have to make it very visible So when you say to somebody that you manage your resources responsibly to maintain the financial social and environmental sustainability For the well-being of our community Who is going to argue with that that is an amazing thing to be working on as an institution That's tax supported and then pro tip you couple that with a picture of a cute kid And you're going to have a golden time with this people are totally going to get it But I will point out that if you make a study of this library They also had adopted sustainability in their previous strategic plan five years earlier However, it was worded differently. It talked about the sustainability of the library And you know what nobody cares about that except for library administration What the community cares about is what are you doing for them? How are you translating a return on investment that they've made in you for their benefit for the benefit of their community So making sure you're always having your messaging face outwards and demonstrate how you impact the wider world This is where we start to build our base of support and people buy into what we're doing They actually use the services and programs we design for them And then everything starts to come full circle and work pretty well for most libraries So the other cool thing that I've noticed about libraries And where I think it's really relevant to this topic of leadership and management is we're so local We're like micro local particularly for public libraries where you get to really find out the flavor of your community The characters who live in your town What people are trying to work together to do and we get to really focus and hone in On supporting that with the resources we have and the creativity we bring to the table as library scientists Because in most people's experiences who have studied this issue in sociology They find that most communities they have everything they need within the community It's just not catalyzed or activated or people don't know each other to bring Together the minds that need to be in the same room to figure things out So we're seeing more and more examples of that in libraries and this kind of mentality When we think about how far away do you feel like I am right now from the topic of environmental sustainability But the truth is the things that are going to happen in your community that are related to environmental sustainability Are different than what's going to happen in somebody else's community So unless the people who actually live there understand the Environmental world around them how the economy shapes the world around them how social equity issues shape the world around them They're going to have a hard time coming together to figure out solutions for the future One of the best programs I see in my region that is doing this work right now is the repair cafe This is a program that was created in amsterdam and the netherlands and it's been brought over to the us We have a very high concentration of these cafes in the hudson valley and I can see it creeping across america Sometimes they're called different things. This is a brand and you have a diy toolkit to do it yourself But the idea behind it is that there are people in your community who know how to fix things And they're willing to teach you how to fix things or help you fix things and by working together to fix things Maybe we don't have to rely on buying more new things and keep some stuff out of the of the transfer station And actually get to know each other and actually respect each other and create more of a neighborhood or community feel Through our libraries and I have to say I've gone to four of these so far in different regions of our state And the characters who are there are all different But the vibe is the same. They're excited to be together They think it's so cool. They're helping out each other and they're so grateful to the library for bringing them together So they could learn something new and meet each other and again at the end of the day Isn't that what this is really all about is to strengthen those social bonds that people have so they can take care of one another And actually be a true community. Not people do this happen to live in the same zip code The other cool thing we're seeing is more and more self-sufficiency, which is exactly related to that repair cafe idea More programming in libraries that teaches people how the world works and how they can control their own food consumption Where their food comes from preserving their own food making stuff last longer. So they're not a slave to the consumer culture I'm really owning and having resilience in the face of whatever the economy happens to throw your way Is a growing area of concern for more and more people in our communities Again, library has almost access to all the wisdom in the world We need to activate that on behalf of our communities to make them stronger in the face of whatever might come in the future So we've got these long-term self-sufficiency issues, but also some very acute self-sufficiency issues related to community resilience We're going to be seeing more and more severe weather throughout the world And our ability to prepare for that and recover from it needs to be a local community effort and libraries should be a part of that Effort whether it be how your building plays a part in the recovery efforts Or perhaps how you're connected to the wider network of people thinking about this stuff and helping people prepare For the future. This is an active project. I have now I've partnered with the new jersey state library And we're working with fema region one So the the federal emergency management Agency and we're working on having libraries. They're testing out with library leaders being preparedness ambassadors People in our communities who understand the most likely things that could happen in your region of the world And know who the players are in your community to be talking to each other to have plans in place So that more people are not as devastatingly affected by something as they could be if no one cared about what happens in your region of the world So we've been encouraging our libraries to connect more fully with the first responder community As an example for one of my libraries in putnam county new york They have a first responder. Thank you picnic every year now Which brings together a segment of the community that normally wouldn't be coming to the library These are people who sometimes feel that the library is a competition for tax dollars But understanding that these are all good people from the library side from the first responder side Who really are trying to do the same thing which is to make their community a better place But they're doing so in different ways So finding common ground by saying thank you and expressing gratitude And not necessarily expecting those people to convert into library card holders But understanding we're all part of the same community and if we all know each other We can work together better to make things work well for us in the face of whatever comes next So this quote from Joe siglitz that we forget the true source of the wealth of the nation is the creativity and innovation of its people The real I think secret ingredient to the future of the health of our communities and the viability of our libraries Are how much attention we pay to the idea of social cohesion? How will people know each other respect each other and have empathy for one another? Because if we can make those three things come to life That's going to solve a multitude of problems that face our communities whether they be economic Whether they be societally related Technological or environmental it would mean more people are willing to work together to figure things out And the power of that cannot be underestimated. I put together a couple examples to show you this Uh idea here of what i'm talking about because it's really very simple We're just talking about bringing people together who wouldn't normally have the chance to become better neighbors That's a great example here out in colorado from the anythingc libraries Where they have block parties and they encourage people to just get together and break bread and and have a conversation Then their first block party they set up this Filming station where they had a little fishbowl there with picture You would pull out a little slip and have a conversation It was a conversation starter and they asked people who had never met each other before to sit down and have a conversation Not about something political or something controversial, but just to get to know each other as humans Another awesome example of that. It's found in maryland and the chew civility programming They were doing down there a couple years ago This is called the longest table inviting people to have dinner together And there's seriously a hundred tables strung together here And you're sitting across from people you might never have sat down with before and getting to know each other a little better And understanding that they're probably kind of just like you at the end of the day Another great example from a rural library up in new hampshire Where there's no more small town newspaper the library decided to be the newspaper They train teenagers to go to public meetings and report on what's going on They solicit news from the other tax-supported agencies to make sure the citizens know what's going on in their own institutions And the newspaper comes from the library a trusted source in the community for factual information So while one system fell apart in terms of the local press and the local journalists We've rebuilt it because people want to know what's going on They want to be informed and the library is a really logical place for that work to be done Another cool example as you're seeing all over on new york here. We've got tons of Farmers fairs going on at libraries places where farmers in our region are saying they don't have a place to bring their products to market So you're seeing farmers markets crop up at libraries, which is a great Marriage the library farm up in cicero new york They actually have a food desert where it's very expensive to get fresh fruits and vegetables And so the library director looked out the back door the library And she realized she had a couple of acres that no one was using and they created a library farm Where you use your library card and you rent space to grow your own fruits and vegetables And there's community supported agriculture or they grow fresh fruits and vegetables to donate to local pantries And for people who are struggling to afford or to grow their own food So very basic things changing perhaps the what people might think a library is going to be doing But building on the exact model we've been using for Hundreds of years the idea of a sharing economy that we don't all have to own everything That we can help each other and teach each other the things that we need So just extrapolating that out in some new ways I put that picture in the upper left hand corner of the Beekeeper to remind me to share with you two things one that I have a library that has a live beehive inside the library I don't go in that library anymore but And another library because they have that there because the beekeeping community they meet at the library And they were very intrigued with how they could connect local people with local experts And I saw a couple years ago There was an imls grant given to syracuse university to figure out how to catalog people Like if you've got a local expert, how could you have them in your online catalog? So when you did that search on beekeeping you got the how-to book the how-to video And a note that uh, joe smith down the road your own neighbor. He's a master beekeeper and willing to talk to you I thought it was a very cool construct Which really speaks to the popularity of programming in libraries these days Because some people like to learn by actually meeting someone and doing something in person and Experiencing something and having your neighbors do that work with you was a pretty cool way to get that done Another big thing we're looking at is how we connect people with the outdoor world This is one of my libraries again in puntinham county actually The butterfield library with your library card. You can get camping equipment bird watching kits Treks so you can go on a hike with your family So looking at how we create experiences with nature the disconnection people have from nature is a big part of the reason We have climate change issues today because people forget the choices we make impact the wider world around us So you're not going to get away from talking with me without me giving a punch here for Greener buildings. This is where I actually got my start in true environmental sustainability work in libraries You'll notice in my bio. I'm a lead ap a leadership and energy and environmental design accredited professional. It's a big mouthful I actually don't care which if you're if you have the opportunity to build a building or renovate a building during your career I don't care which of these things you follow or which construct that you use But I encourage you to mandate at the beginning of any project you work on that you deploy sustainable design And energy efficient design and we think about the future of our facilities and the health of the people who use our facilities This is critical to being a leader in the built environment I'll just share real quick one of my favorite libraries that I've worked on It's in ulster county new york the finisher library They had a fire and so we jokingly said they blazed a trail here But they're going to be the first library in the country to be Certified under the passive house program, which means they didn't use any fancy technology They just built a smarter outer shell of their building and made it more highly insulated And now they're paying a heck of a lot less for their heating and cooling costs And they did in their old less efficient building So we think about long-term sustainability This hits on that issue of environmental sustainability because they're using less heating oil to heat that building It talks about fiscal Environmental, sorry fiscal sustainability and they're paying far less for a much larger building And looking at that picture. I want to tell you it's designed with social equity in mind as well You'll notice that all the collection is on the outer walls of this library And that is throughout the entire building because they designed it to have people space in the middle of everything That was the center of their design So if you're ever in new york, I encourage you to stop by It's a very cool library awesome people and a fantastic pizza parlor called brio's two doors down So two more points I want to make and then i'm happy to take any questions that you might have This is again one of my libraries of the pauling library They had a bunch of kids come in one day and ask if kids were allowed to borrow the library's meeting room And the children's library was a little suspicious. She's like why what are you up to and she said, uh, we want to make the world suck less And the library director the library director told me that our staff person paused and then said, you know what? That's what we do here Let's see if we can make an exception for you And they changed the library's policy to let the teens use the meeting space They signed over the programming budget for the teens to the kids And the kids come up with community service projects that they choose and they implement Using the platform of the library to make that work happen for their vision of how to make their world Right in their own little corner of the world a little better And I just think that really sums up the work that we do in libraries making the world suck less, right? So that really aligns with one the trends you'll hear about from the center for the future of libraries Which is that idea of collective impact But if we all want to make a difference we can't do it in isolation We have to agree on what the biggest problems are that are facing us and we have to all work in the same direction To actually have an impact in this area So we've really taken this idea to heart at the new york library association. We've created a sustainability initiative So over the past four years, we've been developing resources and tools for our peers Which is uh really volunteers a group. I'm a volunteer as are my 20 committee members to do this work We've created something called the roadmap to sustainability, which is free for anyone not just new yorkers You could download it right after this webinar It's available as a pdf as a print booklet Or you can get the mobile app that we had developed and have it right on your tablet or phone But the roadmap the idea here is that it defines some basic terms about sustainability kind of like we did here today But gives you a space to start gathering your own thinking About how these issues impact your work wherever you happen to land in a library or what role you have at the library To start to cohesively define your vision For a sustainable future that your library contributes to You can sign up for our newsletter if you'd like to again, no charge And we also have we're about to launch nationally a sustainable library certification program Because we would go out and do these presentations and talk about these big ideas and how important it was and people Will be so excited and have a huge line of people waiting to talk to me afterwards. They'd be like rebecca I'm in what do I do next? And i'm like wow there's like 10 000 things you could do next. Where should you start? So our team put together a certification program that methodically walks a library through environmental choices Fiscal choices and social equity choices from an operational governance and program design perspective So it's something you can get certified on as an institution as a public library as an institution as an academic library And as an individual as a school librarian So currently available only in new york, but later next year in 2020. You'll see this announced Nationwide we're partnering with the american library association to bring this to all corners of the library world Which i'm pretty excited about So the third fourth thing we're working on is something called community change agents where we've actually created a professional development path for Real-life library leaders to work with real-life community leaders and partner up to figure out what they should join up and work on From a collective impact standpoint So we've done this with four libraries so far We had a library team up with their mayor and it was an area that didn't have good broadband connectivity And through this project they now have good broadband connectivity, which is pretty life changing for a lot of people in that community So we're kind of creating a live laboratory to test out how you actually do collective impact work for libraries of all sizes So if you're interested in knowing more about that signing up for the newsletter is a good spot To figure out what we're up to and follow the work that we're doing If you're interested in learning more about really anything that i've been talking about today I do maintain a facebook page because it's where I save all the ideas I like to integrate into my presentations later So you can kind of see my stream of consciousness the things that are catching my eye That fit with the model that we're working on with the triple bottom line So i'm going to pause to uh, and uh, maybe let me know it was important. We leave time for questions But I did want to make sure you have my contact info I don't know if you can tell but i'm pretty passionate about this kind of stuff I love hearing from people who are doing work in the library field about your ideas on the topic Things you're already trying things you want to try in the future So I hope you will take the time to connect Online and social media i'm on probably all the social media platforms and if you run into me in a conference I hope you'll introduce yourself But i'll i'll stop talking now and see if there's any questions that you might have or comments you'd like to make Oh, thank you so much rebecca. That was um, really informative While we're on this page and before other people get their questions ready and people you can Either type them into the chat or we'll let you take your um Microphones off in a minute. Can you tell us um The difference between the two books that you've written that are here at the bottom the sustainable thinking and the resilience I know you've you've talked about those during this presentation, but yeah, sure the focus of them So in my mind there's three different phases of capacity for a library You're either you're sustainable, which if you look at the definition you have the capacity to endure Which is not very sexy, but it's it is the basics It is the meat and potatoes of actually being a quality library So sustainable thinking focuses focuses on that aspect of being a sustainable library Of really picking apart why you do what you do how you get community feedback how it ties into these bigger ideas of environmental sustainability And it has worksheets at the end of each chapter to help you capture your thinking or do a little homework That will help inform future decisions you make as a library leader Resilience is a much shorter smaller little booklet almost Which is part of a series from the the future the center for the future Which miguel who runs the center for the future identified community resilience issues as a very Top trend that libraries need to be thinking about So that booklet does a little bit of overview of the sustainable thinking model But takes a much deeper dive into resiliency in terms of how do we build in The ability for our libraries in our communities to bounce back in the face of some shocks to the system We might experience whether they be from an environmental issue or a technological issue like hacking in ransomware Or an economic downfall like we had in 2008 with a recession So really just thinking about the elasticity of planning for the future and being more resilient In the face of that so i'd say they're almost building on each other I'd recommend you start with sustainable thinking and then go to resilience Thanks for that clarification And i'm just going to take over one more question and i'll let others have it But we've got a couple faculty here as well as some students What would you think would be the best way to inform our students? About these different issues of community impact and How have you the two part? The examples that you have of these different libraries Did they come to you or did you seek them out? And i'm just wondering if Because I know some libraries have done the beekeeping have done the urban farming Is that a grassroots thing or or What can you tell us about that so I guess what can we do to prepare our students for these things? You know a special course and then how our people professionals Um gaining traction with these different projects I mean, I might be biased But I do think some of these issues should be threaded throughout almost every course in a library school program For people who are working on a use services track or an administration track to really understand The triple bottom line and the impact that the decisions they make Wherever they are in the community. I'm sorry in the organization How they make better decisions using this lens of the triple bottom line Is it a full semester long class given how much I talk about it probably? I think it's a big issue and it's an overwhelming topic for people So I think as students to see where the entry points are to get started to have impact to understand their scope of Authority and influence in their library regardless of what their role is And to really understand that bigger vision for what libraries can mean to a community or on a campus or in a school setting I think it's it's pretty important to give people context for the work And to have our traditional library education embedded in that as it's a core value in the future of our profession So I think that this construct or vision that we have about how we will play a role in the future sustainability of our communities And in the lives of the people that we serve It really does need to be a core aspect of the development of future library leaders And we've been focused on that in new york through our leadership and management academy that we have here And it's been working really well So now people send me examples of what they're doing and what they're working on But I'll say that for 20 years as someone who does a lot of consulting. I'm constantly scanning I'm constantly looking and I'm reading the journals and I'm watching on social media And I'm hearing from peers about cool things they're seeing or I'll ask a bunch of my colleagues like I'm looking for a library that does something like this. Have you seen that? And then what I'm doing is looking for patterns. I'm trying to see Our library's picking up the pace on something is it is it effective because we you know We're all library scientists trying to figure out will this work Will this make a difference and if we can connect more and share more information about what worked and what didn't When you figure out what's going on in your community And you know, this is the challenge facing the people that I serve As a consultant if I'm able to recall. Hey, I've got four examples of another community It might be out in oregon, but here's how they manage this this might work for you So I just I feel like it's part of my own professional development to constantly be checking out what the other libraries are up to That's great. I do have one more question and then I will turn it over Do you have an example of What an academic library would do and I can see the school libraries in the public libraries And you gave some really great examples for that But what what are academic libraries doing? Yeah, we're seeing academic and academic libraries who are Creating subject specialists in their libraries who are working with professors throughout the university on topics related to sustainability Most academic institutions themselves not just the library, but the institution of the university or the college They are usually more progressive on the topic of environmental sustainability than the public libraries in the school libraries So I think they actually have a leg up in having campus sustainability teams And making sure the library is part of that work is something we identified in new york wasn't happening So not only having services at the library, but being part of that wider campus conversation About sustainability the choices the university might be making and how the library plays a role in that Helps the library better position itself to be useful to campus administration to professors who are working on new curriculum related to sustainability As well as modeling good choices in the administration of the academic library So it does in a weird way follow the same model as the public's right You're you're leading by example in the library You're developing services and programs that respond to the needs of professors and students who are making a study of these issues And you've also got that wider connection with administration who has some very big decisions to make in the future We our first step for our academic libraries and our certification program is to find out if their college or university president Has signed the climate pledge To reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the footprint of the university And if not for the library staff to advocate for that for their university, which can really change the conversation campus wide So I think the biggest thing that's across all three types of libraries Is that library leaders understand they can step into a space and be a sustainability leader as well And they often might be the first person in their institution talking about that Which I think brings the library a lot of great attention raises profile and gives the library more respect in terms of being a future focus leader Give me some great ideas. Cheryl. I'll turn it over to you and then If anybody has a question or a comment, please raise your hand or type it in chat Thank you, sue. Um, thank you, rebecca so much. What a powerhouse. You're a great speaker. And like Sue said, obviously care deeply about these issues, but also have A huge amount of information to share with everyone and and to share it so freely. It's wonderful I have a question For our students or maybe our recent grads who maybe are thinking about this or thinking They're working on this in their first jobs And I know you said and of course every library is going to be different every situation is different all of the You know, the issues are inherently local But would you be able to suggest The top two or three partners that public libraries should be seeking out to further their sustainability efforts within their local communities If you could give us, you know, kind of in your opinion the ones that are pretty uniform to go after I think always aligning with your municipality to find out, you know, read their master plan Understand if they've been doing some thinking on the topic of sustainability and how they're thinking about approaching it Because hopefully they've based their master plan on community input Um Sometimes they don't but if they have that's a huge amount of market research already done for a library So what I've noticed in my region is when libraries have done that work and aligned some of their efforts with their municipality It has brought great deal of PR for that library sometimes money to the library great example is one of mine the kingston library They were really paying attention to what the plan the town was planning the city was planning They have a huge issue with stormwater runoff that they have completely paved surfaces in the whole city So where does all the water go and it was becoming a real problem for the stormwater management system Which wasn't designed for that amount of pavement and so the town the city was focused on that issue So the library aligned their facility planning with that issue as well saying we're going to be a partner In figuring this problem out We'd like to be a demonstration site for how to do landscaping that absorbs more water onto our property And the city was just so grateful that another institution recognized the importance of the issue They came and consulted on it. They got a lot of in-kind services from the city as well as a partial Part of a main street grant that the city had gotten for themselves They unprecedentedly gave some of that money to the library, which is a separate entity So I think municipalities are really critical and I think the public schools are really critical To find out what teachers are are struggling with to help connect kids with some of these issues Sometimes they are viewed as politically sensitive and libraries can help desensitize them That's one of the biggest fallacies out there that there's all these climate change deniers and they're anti-tax people And they're going to cream you if you talk about this kind of stuff That is a fallacy. There is less and less people who deny this is an issue And so that's a big excuse we use sometimes to not expose our kids to some of these issues But if you ever want to see a very cool speaker on the topic of sustainability Rebecca Miller who's the executive editor of library journal and school library journal She speaks so eloquently about inviting children to do this work with us to help problem solve for the future with us right now Not waiting till they're 16 or 18 But right now and introduce the issues help them understand why it is the way it is and ask them to get creative about it So municipalities and schools really natural partners in some of this work and really I think pays off for the library to demonstrate leadership With those two entities and then you'll find I think more niche agencies depending on where you are in the country You might have um an environmental conservation department or a resource recovery department That could be a natural partner in some of this work, but that varies from region to region in the country. I've discovered Wonderful. Thank you. Um Deborah. I can see that you've had your hand up. Do you want to grab the mic? Yeah, and it actually the question I have bounces really nicely. I think rebecca off of what you were just talking about In your uh, your presentation you you use that really great example of everybody working in the same direction that have those really vivid images I was just talking wondering if you could talk a bit more about how you do that Particularly around sustainability that has you know, this as you said this sort of The feel of controversy around it, even though it's not a particularly controversial topic But but it is something that you know sort of you know It's a little sometimes it can feel well regardless of the initiative you're trying to do it Sometimes it can feel a bit like hurting cats and so I was just wondering if you could talk a bit about how you do that I think the the in my experience first you have to identify if you're the right Agency to be in the lead on something you have to do a very good environmental scan to understand Who else might be doing work in that area or thinking in that area? And then deciding what is your role as an institution or a library leader? Is it to join a group that's already doing some of that work? Is it to convene several groups that are doing the work in isolation and get them all together? Is it to actually identify what we should be working on? Sometimes communities are all over the place and not focused enough Really cool example here in new york from the rochester public library in central new york Where the entire community from the mayor to the schools to The library and all the other social services agencies agreed the number one thing we should work on is alleviating childhood poverty And they have gone at it with a vengeance from every angle they can think of So it could be I think three of it could be any of those three models where you have to figure out where to Kind of jump into the stream and find your way forward to be part of collective action I will if I could just amend that I would say that the um The library transforming community communities tools from the american library association Particularly the turning outwards toolkit, which is freely available on alie's website We use that like crazy here in my system We use it to help our libraries Figure out what the key issues are and who the key players are Which helps libraries do strategic planning and figuring out where to direct their efforts So if you want to talk about doing it from the ground up, that's an amazing place to start Thank you I see we've got one question rebecca in the Chat I know we're right again at the top of the hour So I understand some people might have to sign out. We'll continue recording for another minute or two And I'll ask if you've got the time to address this question. I think there's just so many that we have Taken up all of your time Without even realizing it. So Would that be okay if you just stayed for another minute to answer a question that's shown up in the chat? Yeah, absolutely. Okay, and then after that we will Wrap it up and suggest people can follow up with you If they have further questions because this is such an exciting topic So the question comes from karen and she says it seems like local churches Also need to work on sustainability. Have you seen successful partnerships the library and churches Maybe in the areas of using educational programs such as youth technology use or helping them home homeless I'm so glad you asked that question So karen one of the cool things I've seen is that the pope Has come out as an environmentalist And has called on the his catholic parishioners to take climate change seriously and to work locally to figure this out So there is a call in the religious community to do work in this area. I can't point to any Examples of programming Per se that's being done in conjunctions. I think many libraries are careful public libraries at least careful not to be seen as sectarian But I am seeing churches being invited to meetings. They weren't invited to before on collective impact projects So oddly enough tomorrow in here in new york, we're piloting a new statewide program called the great give back And you can learn more about it at the great give back org But it's encouraging our every library in the state and this is our pilot year And we got to 20 of our libraries, which was way beyond our goal But we've got 20 of our libraries in the whole state doing community service projects Which are taking all types of shapes and forms And I found one actually just last week where they partnered with a local church to do a food and coat drive So I think you've got community minded people who care about their neighbors And again, just like the example with the first responders They want to make the world a better place and they're using their church as the platform to do so Just like we use our libraries to do it. Um, just like the first responders use their firehouse to do it Thank you, rebecca. Wonderful. Um I again, I hate to cut us off, but we're now pushing beyond the hour And I know you're incredibly busy That's clear from the work that you shared with us on behalf of the leadership and management committee at the iSchool We um want to thank you Very much for taking the time to talk with us today for allowing us to record this so that people can download it and hear it for months and years to come and For being again so generous to share in sharing The wealth of information that you accumulated over the um decades that you've been working on this And showing your um absolute expertise in this area. It's very inspirational. So thank you so much, rebecca And um, thank you everyone for coming to our live recording. Uh, and hopefully We will see other people in the downloads Cool. Thanks for having me