 Good morning and welcome to this week's edition of Encompass Live. I'm your host Krista Porter here at the Nebraska Library Commission. Encompass Live is the Commission's weekly online event. Yes, we are a webinar. You can call us that. We are proud of it. We've been doing it for nine years, so I think it's a good format. Encompass Live is broadcast live every Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. Central time, but if you are unable to join us on Wednesday mornings, that's okay. We do record the show every week and post it up to our website, and I'll show you that after the end of today's show. I'll show you where you can view all of our other archive sessions. We post the recording of the session. If there are any presentations or handouts or slides or things like that, those will be included as well, and links to any relevant websites that might be mentioned during a particular episode. We do a mixture of things here on the show, interviews, book reviews, mini-training sessions, demos of services and products, basically anything library related. That's our only criteria, because it has something to do with libraries. Either something libraries are doing, something we think they should be doing, services and things that we want to show and share with them. Sometimes some of the topics might seem a little outside the box. You may look at the title of a show and say, one, but trust me, it always comes back to libraries. That's my goal, so there's always something happening to do with the library. We do sometimes do some 7 of Rascal Library Commission staff come on the show and do presentations about services and programs that we offer through the commission, and we also bring in guest speakers. And today we have a mixture of that. Let's see here next to me. We're going to have more detailed introductions in one night as we get into the session, but just so you know, next to me is Steve Blair from United from Libraries. And further over there is Rod Wagner, who's the director at the Nebraska Library Commission here. And then remotely is Beth Nolinsky, who's also from United from Libraries. Hi Beth. Hi. Good morning. And they're going to tell us, obviously, as you can see from the screen, about United from Libraries, trustees, friends, foundations, advocates, how you can do some of the resources we have here via Nebraska. So I think I'm just handing over to you Beth too. Actually Steve's going to introduce himself first. All right. Like Kristi said, I'm Steve Blair. Thank you very much for having me today. I'm in charge of sales and marketing for a company called Reference USA. We're a division of Info Group located in Omaha, Nebraska. Reference USA is a public library database. It's a reference and research database. Patrons use it for researching competitors, looking for sales leads, looking for job listings. But I'm also the current president of United for Libraries. Reference USA has sponsored the United for Libraries Gala Author Tee for the last 12 plus years. It's a great event at the end of the ALA. And I'm also a United for Libraries board member for the last five years. Again, thank you for having me. Great. And Steve, just to reiterate, Reference USA has been a wonderful sponsor of United for Libraries and their support really enables us to make the resources and materials available to libraries, friends, groups, trustees and foundations that we'll go through. And I'm really excited to have him as president and he's been a wonderful, very supportive board member. So I am Beth Novolinsky. I am the new executive director of United for Libraries following the retirement of our beloved Sally Reid at the end of July. She was an amazing force for libraries throughout her entire career. She has such a passion for friends and trustees and foundations and libraries in general. So I know we're still going to hear from her and see her. And in fact, I'll be talking a little bit later about a webinar she'll be doing in in October. So just a little bit about me. I'm actually, my daughter's probably going to kill me for this, but I always I like I love to hear people's personal library stories and why libraries are important to them so that you people realize, well, for me that they know that this is really important to me and a passion of mine. So I have up here, Krista, I'm assuming you can see those pictures. So this is my dad was in the military and we moved around a lot when I was a child. And the first thing we always did in every community that we moved to was we went and got a library card. And that was just part of what you do when you move it move to a new place. So many, many different libraries in my life. This one about two years ago, I went to Plattsburg, New York, where I had spent many, many years growing up. And this is me and my daughter outside the public library downtown, where I spent many, many, many hours after school. And I have the picture on the right of the of the telephone because a story I remember is I spent so many hours at the library. My mom forgot to pick me up one time and I use it and say, are you coming to get me? So I always thought that was funny. It was still there in the library. And then this is a picture. This is a picture in the children's room of that same library again, where I spent many, many hours and knew the librarians very well. And there there used to be this big porcelain tub that was lined with carpet that you could two or three kids could sit in there and read books and they no longer have it. But it was always just such a neat thing. And it just demonstrates how how libraries can mean so much to people in their lives. One more picture here real quick. And this this is a picture of the library on the Air Force Base that I would bike to in the summertime. And it was about five miles round trip because of the way that the base was set up for me to be able to bike here. And I did and I checked out so many books and I was there multiple times every week. So just a bit of a bit of history there and I'll go back to the website. So okay. All right. So anyway, again, just sharing that passion for libraries and how important they've been to me. I worked in my college library filing cards in the card catalog. I worked with Barnes & Noble doing community relations and worked with the library and the French group there. Norfolk Public Library in Norfolk, Virginia for six years doing public relations and marketing. And then I went to Friends of Libraries USA. All right. So United for Libraries. Many people remember Fallusa, Friends of Libraries USA. That was the organization when when Rod Wagner first initiated this statewide group membership for Nebraska. Just amazing to do that. And it really opened the door for us for a lot of incredible things that we've been doing. So United for Libraries, we are a national network of enthusiastic library supporters. We believe in the importance of libraries as the social and intellectual centers of communities and campuses. So we encompass the friends, trustees, foundations, advocates, authors, library directors, general people who just want to support and who love libraries. So a little bit about our mission. It's a long mission, so I'm just going to cut it down a little bit. But our mission is to support those who govern, promote, advocate and fundraise for all types of libraries. So we work with groups who work with school libraries, academic libraries, public libraries. The majority are public libraries, but there are definitely some academic and a few schools as well. And we know that when the library director, the board of trustees, the friends group and the foundations work together in partnership, libraries are strengthened and valued in their community. So one of our primary goals is to help all of those people come together and work together on behalf of the library. And to facilitate the development growth of these partnerships, we provide a wealth of training opportunities, resources and support that I'm going to be showing to you in a few minutes. And I just wanted to also say real quick that a key area of focus for us is advocacy. Because no one has a stronger voice for libraries than those who use them, raise money for them and govern them. When you need to contact the elected officials in your community, at your state, federally and you're an employee of the library, they hear that as a self interest of course. But when your neighbor calls or your grandmother calls or the person in a local business calls, that's where the power is. And we know that and that is a key focus for us in developing that and friends and trustees. And Steve's going to talk a little bit more about that. Yeah, thanks, Beth. I would just say that I think we're all aware that the executive branch of our federal government threatened to defund libraries for fiscal year 2018. And we all knew that that was a bad sign and that we were going to need to rally the troops to really kind of get the message out about why that's such a terrible idea about the importance of libraries and you know, according to our data, it's so important that library and our trustees, friends, foundations and supporters advocate on behalf of libraries. And again, according to our data, since mid March, this cause garnered support from so many people that 21,000 emails were sent to the US Senate, 42,000 emails were sent to Congress, and nearly 28,000 tweets using the hashtag save IMLS went out and the newly formed corporate committee for library investment, which I'm a member of promotes libraries as an economic necessity also delivered a letter to the Senate urging them to sign the LSTA and IAL letters. 10 returning senators signed the LSTA letter who did not sign previously. So this was an indication that these efforts paid off. We got new supporters. Other signatures included all five freshman Democrats and six returning senators Senators signed the IAL letter who did not last year. So the message here is that it worked. We got the message out and we got the positive response that we're looking for because as of right now for fiscal year 2018, library budgets are level with previous years. All right, excellent. We are going to continue to expand our work to provide materials and support for friends and trustees to help them become effective advocates. And also we're going to be developing resources to help library directors educate, encourage and engage their friends and trustees as advocates because it's not historically been a role. It certainly has been in the past decade more and more importantly, but in the past, it was not a typical role for friends and trustees to advocate in this way. So we're helping, we want to help directors encourage and engage their trustees and friends in doing that and we will continue to do that as well on a national level. All right, so Steve, you're going to tell us a little bit about your vision for your presidential year with United for Libraries and this transition as Sally's retired and we're doing great things and talk to us a little bit about what your vision and your goals are for this year. Sure, I definitely have some goals. You know, as Beth mentioned, we are in a state of transition going from the old executive director Sally made to best new leadership. I was lucky enough to be part of the selection committee that interviewed candidates for Beth's position and she came through like a shining star. ALA HR agreed that we had a really strong panel of candidates for this position, but ultimately Beth won out and we're really so proud of her work that she's done previously with United for Libraries really shine through through the interview process. So we feel really lucky to be working with Beth. We also uncovered that during the interview process that United for Libraries hasn't done a strategic plan for a while and it seems like now is a really good time to make sure that the members are getting what they want out of the organization that we're providing value so that library trustees and friends and foundations get the support and get the materials and get the resources that they need. It's one thing for us to say we think libraries need this and we think libraries need that, but getting that feedback from from the trustees and foundations and supporters themselves is what's really going to drive that strategic plan. So we want to make sure our missions align with what members seek from United for Libraries. And then, secondly, membership growth. United for Libraries is one of two divisions that had membership growth last year. And that's really a positive sign. And I want to make sure that continues. So again, it's about making sure the value is there for the membership. Because when that's aligned, we think we can experience continued membership growth. And then engagement, you know, it's events like this, making sure that that we are talking to our audience about what we have to offer. Sometimes I've met with lots of different friends, members and trustees, and they just don't know all the great resources that are available to them. And when you take the time to explain that, you can see the light bulb go off in the head and say, I need to do more of that. I need to find out more about that program. So it's just about getting the message out, whatever way possible, to let people know the great resources that are available to them. And then, Beth and I agree that that statewide partnerships are really the way to grow our organization and grow the membership. Nebraska is in Michigan and Texas, all had statewide memberships. This is, and I'd like to say thanks to Rob for that, because it did happen under your under your watch. It did start. Yes. Yes. So thank you very much to that crowd to be a Nebraska when we hear great things like that. But states really benefit when they come in together, because then they're all learning together, they're able to share ideas, figure out ways to capitalize on the resources that are available to them. So those are my goals and my vision, so to speak, but it's really about that strategic plan, which I think is going to help us drive the membership growth, the engagement, and then again, seeking more statewide partners. Yes. Thank you. And truly, Rod was a visionary in in in talking to us about that with that statewide group membership. So thank you and we, your libraries or friends, your trustees foundations, they really do use the resources. So all right, I'm going to jump into what what we have for you and how to access it to make sure that you're really getting to take advantage of all of the wonderful things that we have. So I'm going to do a combination of some PowerPoint slides. I'm not going to read them off, but I actually created them and crystal will make them available because they do detail out the various things that are included. So I'll just sort of pop them up. Touch bait, touch real quick on each of those categories. But primarily, I want to take you through the website and how to get in and access things. So All right, up here, we've passed my daughter's picture. So all right. So your landing page is ala.org slash United slash Nebraska. You can get into all of the resources from various points on the website, which I will which I will show you. But the quickest way to see everything that you have access to is to go to this landing page and log in from there. And I will show you that in just a couple of minutes. So a few things that touch based on with your membership benefits. The first one is the voice for America's libraries and my camera should still be up there. So I'll show real quick just a couple of newsletters there in Nebraska. The way it is set up is that a newsletter goes was set up to go to each board of trustees and a newsletter to each friends group. Sometimes the library keeps one of those copies. I think it just varies around the state, but there should be two copies coming to your library or a combination of your friends, group and trustees. And I will say that if you want, they're both coming to the library currently and you want one to go to the home of the friends president and one to go to the home of the chair of the board of trustees, just let us know will absolutely absolutely have to date those addresses for your current people. And when those people change in the future and the digital version of the newsletter is available online in both the Friends and Foundations Zone and the trustee zone. So even though you have the one paper copy, which everybody loves this, we hear over and over again, don't go all digital. We hear that so frequently. You can log in and access that PDF. You're the whole trustee board, all the friends, your foundation, library director, library staff, everyone, this statewide group membership covers everyone. So everyone can log in and access that. I will show you some of the other resources in there in a few minutes. Online trustee training, additional webinars, digital publications, toolkits, discounts and award eligibility. So I'm just going to run through these real quick and then we'll get over to the website and get into the nitty gritty. So online trustee training, short takes for trustees and trustee academy. So short takes for trustees is a series of 10 videos that are about 8 to 10 minutes each. They, if you have not watched any of them, they're, they're very, they're good because they're in an interview format where I am interviewing Sally, they're very non-confrontational. If you're in a situation with your board and in particular you're having struggling with a board member, not understanding his or her role, showing these videos in particular, the ones about board meetings and board ethics and I'll show you the list in a few minutes, a topic that you're struggling with. It's a way to do a series of training where everyone on the board comes together to understand their role and in, in governance and not management. That the library director is the manager and the board is governance. And that's a really key thing for trustees to understand. And when they do understand that, it makes such a huge difference. So library directors, don't be afraid of your trustees being trained because well-trained trustees, they will understand that difference and, and that relationship will improve. So these are just very non-confrontational. No one's speaking directly. I'm asking Sally questions and, and she's answering. And they're short. They are set up to be watched, like one per meeting over a series of months. And then on there are additional resources, a little packet in PDF format that you can print out and give to the trustees to spark discussion. And it can be discussion about what's talked about in the video. It could be sort of a board self-evaluation. How are we doing in this particular area? Advocacy policies, working with the friends, all of these things. So it's really a way for the board to, to not only all be on the same page and understanding their role, but also to do a self-reflection of the individually and as a board as a whole to see where they need to do some training for them, additional training. Now the trustee academy, these are, these are online courses. This is a speaker presenting on a topic. We revamped all of these within the last year. For those of you who have taken the original courses, you know that they were long in the sort of 50 minute timeframe. And we heard loud and clear from trustees and absolutely understand that they are volunteers and they have their own job and commitments and lives that are outside of their support and their work on behalf of the library. So those courses have all been trimmed down and there are about 25 minutes now each and we'll be adding more courses over time as well. So they're really, we've shrunk them down, we've updated them with new trends and, and discussion topics. So, okay, and I want to say you're in good company. All of these states here that you see pictured in regional systems, they have all purchased access while they have not done statewide group membership yet. They have purchased access to either short takes for trustees or trustee academy. So all around the country, library, state libraries see the value of these trainings for their trustees and they're making a difference. Okay, so I mentioned additional webinars and there are a few here listed. The last two, merging your friends group and foundation and with friends like these were both live webinars that we did within the last year and they were, they were fee-based webinars. So to attend them live, folks had to pay and to access the, just the recording afterwards, they have to pay but they're included free of charge. A $50 value each, they're included free of charge for your statewide group membership. So do check them out. Merging your friends group and foundation is a big topic in library world right now and the webinar with Peter Pearson and Sue Hall from Library Strategies. They talk about when is it the right time to look at that, how to go through that process, how to make sure that the friends group and the foundation are recognized in that process and maybe to talk about when it's not the right time as well. So excellent, excellent resource. With friends like these is, and if we have any friends here on listening or listening and later, I know that these are not the groups that we'll be listening in. But with friends like these is based on a book that Sally released that hopefully you can see I'm showing there called The Good, The Great and the Unfriendly, a Librarian's Guide to Working with Friends Groups and the webinar is based on best practices for working with friends groups and what to do when there is there are those issues between the director and friends looking at ways to improve that relationship, get past that and then ultimately what to do if you just cannot repair that relationship. So it is a great webinar whether you are experiencing problems or issues now in that relationship or the friends understanding their role but it's also just great to watch as that sort of best practices and tips to avoid these in the future. And coming soon as I mentioned Sally will be doing a webinar for us in October called Troubled Library Boards Prevention and Survival and talking about when you do have that situation where a trustee does not understand his or her role, a bully on the board, the board trying to manage rather than govern those various situations. Again it'll be one when it's live that it's a fee to attend live. However the recording will be made available free of charge to all of Nebraska within a week after that airs. So if you feel like you have a question you may send the question in advance to me and I'll make sure we address it in the webinar. So if you're not participating live you can still send your question and I will put it there and as we did with friends like these there's no identifying information. No one will know what library who asked or anything like that. We work on the confidentiality of that because we understand that talking about those issues is really difficult. You can ask anonymously. Exactly. I was just double checking to make sure. Sally's book we do have that book in the library commission collection here so if you want to check out some of us you can borrow it through the rest library commission if you need to take a look at that in your library. Excellent and I will say that one of the great great things about this book too and it is great for friends groups to look at as well is that there is a compilation of great ideas in here. Great great things that friends groups have done around the country. In fact the chapter is titled ideas to steal taking your friends from good to great. So there is that incredible resource in there for friends as well and yes this is a touchy subject it's a little tricky to have these conversations when there are struggles between the director and the friends of the director and the board and they are they are difficult. So yes that the what I will do is we will we have a form that I will I'll get that link out to you Krista. So what what you can do is if you want to ask a question to be addressed in that webinar the troubled library boards webinar there's a form that you can fill out that has that completely anonymous and then we'll we'll pose that question in the webinar and have it answered and again all of Nebraska will be able to access that webinar afterwards. Alternatively you can email me I would then know who was asking the question but again it would be confidential in the webinar and that information would not be shared at all. So digital publications these are available for download in either the friend zone or the trustee zone those first five library boards practical guide they're all in the trustee zone the four after that are actually in both zones and I will show real quick I believe Nebraska also has the 101 plus great ideas and even more great ideas for libraries and friends in your collection too and Krista can confirm that this is we still actually have this book even more great ideas for libraries and friends it is still being sold however you all get to log in and download the PDF it is a large file because it is the entire book but you can download it and have access to it right there and it is a recipe book of great ideas that for friends on marketing membership programs fundraising all kinds of things. I actually looked up Sally Reed to look up to find the title I'm going to guess we probably just buy everything she writes because we've got like 10 or 11 different entries here. Yes again as I said before she has just been an amazing advocate for libraries her entire life I've said this many times so I always joked that I just wanted to follow her around with a microphone because she had such passion and it came through so clearly and all that she did and I just wanted to catch all those snippets of the important thing she would say about the value of libraries so excellent all right well so you can borrow those there from the Nebraska Library Commission and obviously that even more great ideas if you really want your own hard copy we are still selling it at a significant discount to our members and but also you can download it for free. Okay so toolkits I'm not going to read all of these off but there are 11 toolkits here and again some are available in the trustee zone some of the friends and foundations zone and some in both so these excellent one I would like to point out that I think is really good because we were talking a little bit about these apart getting everyone on the same page as partnership but understanding the separate but complementary roles for friends library director and trustees and that really goes through about six different areas and details out what is the library director's responsibility in the management side of thing what is the board of trustees role in governance if they have one in that area and then what is the friends role in supporting so it's a very great there's a chart and then it goes into detail for all three of those groups it's excellent excellent toolkit so I mentioned discounts if you are a personal member of ALA or your library is a organizational member of ALA you already get that 10% discount in ALA online store but friends trustees and if you are not a personal member of ALA you can still get that there is a coupon code which you find in both the friends and foundation zone and the trustees own that is the coupon code you use to get that 10% unfortunately they don't go together you don't get the 10% automatically with your ALA membership and then be able to add the extra one but this is the process for the friends groups and trustees and any libraries out there where you either directors not a personal member you're not an organizational member of ALA directly you can still get that discount and when I mentioned the up to 40% that is on this this book even more great ideas for libraries and friends and the complete library trustee handbook which also I believe Krista you all have as well the new one from Sally is sold a little differently and you have to buy that through the ALA store we do also offer Skype consulting either with a staff member or a member of our board based on the specific needs of your library so that is set up where it is fee-based and it's affordable the the person who assigned for whatever your situation is need a board member or a staff member will do a phone consultation to find out what's going on and what are the issues and concerns and then a one-hour Skype session with your group of people so if it's your board of trustees or your friends or maybe you want to do this with your friends president your board president and the director however that group is it's at one-hour consulting session and we have people who can help with foundation issues friends issues trustee issues so if that's something you want to explore reach out to us and and talk about that alright award eligibility we do give two thousand dollar Baker and Taylor awards annually and two two hundred and fifty dollar National Friends of Library week awards and I would say that the Holdridge area friends of the library in Nebraska one one of the National Friends of Library week awards in 2016 so congratulations to them and we do have information on our website about what they did as well as what a lot of other friends groups out there have done as well to celebrate and libraries because national friends of libraries week is really a two-fold opportunity for the friends to promote themselves but also for the library to say thank you to the friends alright so assistance and I'm going to go show you all the stuff on the website so we're going to get there in a minute but weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern you call our main number there or you email united at ala.org and we try our best to always answer the phone live we are a small staff I like to joke some times about it sort of being the wizard of Oz that that people often think that there's a large staff here but because we're currently two and we'll have a third staff member soon there are days that there's only one person answering the phone so you make it a voicemail but we'll get back to you as soon as possible and email our general united at ala.org email box evenings weekends and holidays we know that trustees and friends are volunteers and often they're trying to access these resources in the evenings on the weekends and yes even holidays so send us an email if you're having problems logging in you forgot the pet login and password something's not working for you email it may be you email on Friday night and we don't get back to you until Saturday but we will do the best weekend we check those emails up periodically throughout the weekend and several times in the evenings and I try and most holidays to check at least twice I was telling Krista yesterday that this past year and on Christmas there were a handful of people on Christmas Day who were watching trustee Academy or short takes these videos and I get I get an email whenever someone accesses one so that if I get two or three emails in quick succession with the same email address I can reach out to you and I can say are you having problems what can I help you with so it's amazing dedicated people out there taking their their time on their weekends and holidays to to be better informed and better trained to support the library it's really amazing okay so let's jump to the website so all of Nebraska uses one login and password to access all of these resources through United for Libraries and it is not linked if there's a library director who has a personal membership in ALA this access is not linked to your personal membership so you'll have a separate login for your own personal membership and then this one here for all of the statewide group membership benefits I do want to say that if as a library director or trustee or friend you have a personal membership in ALA and you're tired of the logging out of one logging into the other shoot me an email because I can put this access on your personal membership I can do that so shoot me an email and I'll do that and then you can use one login for everything but unless you've contacted us for us to be able to do that for you then these resources are driven by the login and password that's available from United for Libraries or available by contacting the Nebraska Library Commission and often those emails that are coming in those outside of business hours are people asking for that login and password and that's a quick response we can give that out so when you come here to this landing page oh and Beth I just wanted to and hear the Commission Holly do get our CE coordinator that should be the person to contact to get that password for yourself if you want to get into here for anything great and of course contacting us too and we get back to folks real quickly with that and if you're having problems logging in your trustees or your friends foundation we will help people as well because we do understand that that not everybody is used to to working in this kind of environment and additionally with both trustee academy and short takes for trustees we are also very aware of the fact that many libraries are rural and their internet access may not be sufficient for the streaming so if that's an issue and the streaming is is hanging up on you is choppy it's not it's not working properly reach out to me because we have other ways of making sure that you can access those resources as well so it's not a stop or if that if that webinar cuts out and when it's not working for you because of your internet speed will make it work for you we will figure it out so when you when you come here and you click this login button in the upper right corner of the screen to log in also all of these links as you go down the page also force a login meaning when you click it the login screen comes up so when that screen I'm actually already logged in but when you when you click that login button the login screen will come up and logged in on another page so it actually just took me right there to that so sorry about because I was already logged in on another page but you if you click the my account in that upper right corner you will actually get this screen because it's a profile in in the membership database and I this is early on we had a couple of times that we had to deal with this in Nebraska but I had to say you guys are great there and this is smooth sailing for you the key to remember is even though you can get to this because there's no way I can block it if you try to change the username and password you'll lock out everybody else in the state from accessing those resources so do not attempt to change the login and password that we give you and again it is not happened in in years years in Nebraska because you guys you guys are on it but I also do have those coded up with a separate email address that I get a ping if someone changes that username and password so if it other if it ever does happen if I'm near a computer I can go in and fix the issue pretty quickly there is a balance here between not showing this to you all and and and we're just telling you so you know so you don't end up in that situation alright so we'll go back here where we are actually already logged in to the site this first thing right here this United for Libraries resources is an excel file that we put together because as Steve said folks don't always really know what we have we have such a deep deep website an amazing amount of resources available and a lot of times people don't realize what is there or realize that we have that tool available so this excel file comes up when you when you download this it shows actually I'll just open it real quick alright well I don't know why I said page not found but I will fix that it comes it comes up listing a bunch of all of our different resources where you find it and whether you have to log in to access it so I will figure out why that did not load there ALA just recently moved the website to a new server and so there are a few little quirks in there sometimes and as we find them we fix them so these the two webinars that I mentioned right here the recording and also you can download the PowerPoints for both again those are $50 each value that are included free with your statewide group membership the trustee academy courses here when you do click into these courses you will find it wants to make me log in again because I was sitting here for so long not in okay alright so each each of the courses are set up with a link to the webcast the handouts a request form for a certificate if you would like a certificate that shows that you completed this course because you need that to account for the hours for training there is a form where you request that and then we send those out to you as well and you can access all of these courses right here on the left and then a return to the Nebraska resource page that where this is what the page we call this here resource landing page for you the short takes for trustees videos are here the engaging today's volunteers is a three-part webinar series about the today's volunteer how they're different we have an incredible time happening in in the world right now in the US with a baby boomer starting to retire and these people who want to make a difference they want to volunteer and they want to use the skills that they have from their professional careers and how can you harness those people to be volunteers you your libraries many probably still have the light the volunteer who's coming in and earning the 10-year pin the 20-year pin the 30-year pin the 40-year pin but there's such a changing landscape in volunteers and what they're looking for and this series of webinars will really help you to harness the amazing brilliance and and skills of those of those volunteers when we do actually talk about the millennials we don't just focus on baby boomers but we talk about that range and what are people looking for yes I was actually going to ask about that because I'd seen in your slides about you had the specific you know access to baby boomers that just you know recently there's people that's sharing a lot of this that millennials are saving libraries and they are about their big users and they also is that translating into volunteering it is actually it's very interesting that yours that you say that because we this is one of the things that Steve's going to be doing is we're going to have a task force of a couple of board members who are going to look at that that question and what is happening with millennials are where is the success what libraries are having success what friends groups are having success in converting them to being volunteers and what are the tips and tricks for doing that so we're going to have a task force that's going to look at some of those issues and then I believe that will we're potentially going to have a program at the ALA conference next year in the summer to look at that to talk about that as well so more coming they'll be more coming out of what that task force looks at the information they bring together we will be developing probably maybe a fact sheet which I'll show you all in a moment a tip sheet for trustees it may be one of those toolkits or those digital publications we may do a webinar so we'll just we'll look at what kind of information we're bringing together and we'll put that back out of course whatever it is whether it's a member's only tool or guide or resource it will be available to Nebraska libraries as part of your statewide membership because you get everything so good question and stay tuned for more information we need to learn more about that absolutely absolutely it's definitely a big big thing that's on on the horizon for us so the friends and foundation zone and the trustee zone are those member area zones and as I said they there are some things that are the same in both and some things that are a little different because those you see that that little thing that just came up there it's because when all of the links I have coded to make you log in because if I don't have it there and you click on it you're not logged in you get an error message and I don't want anyone to have to experience that so that little pop-up box is just the web servers software that does the login process just basically indicating to you that you're still logged in so just click okay and move on so you'll find some of those other web and eyes webinars I mentioned over here on the left you'll see a link to the publications the newsletter the current and archive newsletters are there going back to 2002 for the friends Felusa news update is in there because they're in just a wealth of incredible evergreen ideas for things that friends groups can do just fantastic special offers if we have one of our corporate sponsors that does a special offer to our friends group a special discount or a trial of something that's where all of that information is the toolkits that I mentioned and also these the webinars that you're seeing here there are these friend your library materials in the ALA store there are some buttons there used to be some posters and bookmarks but those sold out a couple years ago so we just just just launched a downloadable graphic set that allows let's see if you have a link in the tab let's bring this up so there is there is this graphic set that you can use flyers and a brochure and there's also another one I'll make sure it just just was released I'll make sure that link goes in there as well that is a poster format two different size poster formats and a bookmark that talk about the ways that you can friend your library or support your library and there's an area for personalization at the bottom of that as well and Chris I know you said you put the links that are mentioned so I'll make sure that you have that one too as well so those are great materials and again you can use the 10% discount in there I have tried to build in as much as possible some navigation to help you get back to your state resource page so there is an interstitial page that you can go to hit back over here or you can just go back up to a bookmark or put that Nebraska in there as well so these all of these are the resources that are included I just double-checked my notes here I talked about how to get help from us why the training is important how to access these benefits again if you have a personal al a membership and you'd like to just be able to access this through that without using the separate login contact us and we'll take care of that for you of course your friends and trustees who don't have that al a membership that they should use that login from from the Nebraska Library Commissioner or contact me as well our office for that so I quick because I want to have some time for questions I just wanted to show you guys a couple of other resources so conferences and events national friends of libraries week I mentioned the Holdridge area and library friends of library group won an award in 2016 so national friends of libraries week is a third full week of October this is the 12th year that we'll be doing it and it is again the opportunity for the friends to help themselves do a membership drive say all the great things that they do on behalf of their library and for the Board of Trustees and the library staff to thank the friends as well we just did a webinar here about a week and a half ago on national friends of libraries week and ways that you can promote it and the things that you can do so check out that webinar and watch that for some great ideas if you've never celebrated virtual library legislative day going back to that importance of advocacy that federal advocacy cannot stress enough how important that is so virtual library legislative day is something that we do in conjunction with the Washington office and you'll see here these were the the dates of national library legislative day where Rod goes and the state library directors and people from all across the US go to Washington to go and meet with their elected officials on Capitol Hill and talk about the importance of libraries and to communicate the value and it's so much more than just funding actually it's that's the one we tend to think about but their issues in copyright net neutrality intellectual freedom privacy all of those big issues that that we're facing in libraries and that we work you all work so hard every day to to support and value of libraries and what they mean to us as individuals into our country so you not everyone can go to DC but you can participate in it virtually by sending an email making a phone call so here's where we help you make that possible we also provide you with book marks that you can copy and put out for your patrons for them to also be able to do this at the same time as well so not just your staff but also promoting it out in your community listservs are an incredible resource that we have it's here under engage join a conversation so I have this here we have one for friends groups state friends trustees and foundations and you can post a question on there and get answers back from hundreds and hundreds of folks around the country the foundations is probably around 200 people but the friends groups and trustees are over a thousand people and the state friends obviously it's it that's a very specific group so it is smaller but a great way if you're having an issue in your library or friends group is having an issue you just want to share a great idea trustees when asked a question trustees say can I does anyone have a sample of such and such a policy or any any particular question or concern and get feedback from from folks all around the country so those listservs are an incredible resource I want to also mention that ALA is going through a redesign of the site to be responsive design so there are there's going to be some changes to what you see on the United for Library site we are working to make sure that those menus are as clear as possible and that the general appearance of the ways the pathways that I've demonstrated to you today will will look the same as they do now but I did want you to just be aware that the responsive design meaning that the site self-adjusts in its width to accommodate being on a widescreen a laptop a smaller laptop a smart phone a tablet etc so if you do access from one of those smaller devices you are going to be so relieved with responsive design and not trying to scroll around that huge page on your little phone but it will look a little different in a probably by the end of September absolutely reach out to us any questions you have any problems at all reach out change the URL of course no it does not yep absolutely thank you very much for asking that Chris it does not change URL it does not affect your login and password though all those things will be the same the menus will just look a little different instead of having a left-hand menu in this way you'll see different menus across the top sort of the two rows of menus up here as and sort of that drop-down focus more so than a left-hand navigation it will improve things and it really will that responsive design is an important thing that members vast for so book club central if you haven't heard about it yet check it out lots of great things coming for this resource on book clubs for libraries not only to help them support book clubs in their library but also as as Julie Tadaro the immediate past president of ALA this was one of her initiatives she felt very passionate about turning those folks who are patrons and users of the library who may not be a trustee or in the friends group into advocates for the library so the book club members even if they aren't part of the friends there is that is another group to reach out to so all the resources that you're going to find on here are many of them are tailored to selecting books or how to run a book club or great successes or things like that but you will also find that will be developing materials in here to help move those folks from being users and book club attendees and participants over to being advocates so that those numbers that Steve shared with us at the beginning are even higher in the future and hopefully we won't have to fight like this every year and then library quotes and authors for libraries these are two great resources out there library quotes is a wonderful searchable database quotes about libraries reading books literacy and more you can come in here and grab these quotes use them on bookmarks use them in your newsletter put them on your website lots of different ways that you can use them each quote once you go in and you're actually looking at the quotes there's a button to post it to Facebook to tweet it to pin it to Pinterest to all the different social media sites so if your library is looking for ways to just have pings on your Facebook feed because of course those algorithms people need to be interacting and engaging with you and you need to be posting on a regular basis for you to continue to show up in their thread be it your friends group Facebook page your library space page these quotes are quite great way to just put up something because we always we all like to feel good quotes about what libraries mean in books and literacy and then you can switch over to authors for libraries which is a searchable database of authors in your area put in a zip code a number of miles distance you want from that zip code and it will come back with authors who are in your area that you can reach out to to potentially ask to come do speaking engagements do book talks at your library perhaps there is someone a couple of authors that live in your town who would speak out to your elected officials about the importance and value of the library again the the because the meaning that comes from those people who don't work in the library their voices are so strong and advocating so I know we're here hitting the hour and I will absolutely answer any questions yeah that's great I'm taking type in the six eight five oh eight here at the library commission I'm sorry what I can search there to see what we have here in Nebraska oh gotcha yes oh yes tell me tell me again the zip code six eight five zero eight six eight five zero eight all right now these authors choose to join authors for libraries so it's not going to bring up you know the John Grishams and those folks they choose to join so we'll say there is that that little piece there so unfortunately nobody came up with in 50 miles of the Nebraska library commission but we're adding authors all the time we recently partnered with sisters in crime which has about 3,000 author members and the horror writers association with about 1500 and we'll be adding in more and more of their authors as well great they even have any questions yes we did just in 11 o'clock but that's okay we started a little late and we will not close down or anything until we do answer all of your questions if you do have them anything you want to know anything else you want to see on the website more detail on or anything any of the resources and more information about I'll also mention while we're waiting so if you have any questions of book club central Beth and I were just talking about it yesterday actually and she's going to be back with us in October we just confirmed the day October 18th to talk about that specifically a little bit more in depth so you won't see that our schedule yet because we just did yesterday about it but we will have more research more information about that coming soon maybe author publishers will see what we come up with between now and then yeah hopefully some some good surprises in there and it'll be a lot of fun yeah unfortunately we won't have Sarah Jessica Parker but I'm wondering how much that would take to get her to come on the show her fees are above and beyond us but that's yes so that she's always been so supportive of libraries and things in the guest she joined in with this with you with you know you know it's a library's name yeah it is amazing and she is really committed to helping to increase the awareness of libraries and advocacy she and her family are they use their local library a lot and she's very passionate about it and her mom was a member of a friend's library group for many years as well so she's this is a great partnership and we're really excited about some things that'll be coming along in the future as well so I don't see it that anyone has any questions so I'll just reiterate to reach out reach out to us at any time we want to hear from you we want to know what United can do for you what can we do what are the problems that you're facing what types of resources are are better for you do you prefer webinars is it newsletter articles talk to us let us know what's working what you need where where there are holes that we can work to fill as we go through especially our strategic planning process and and look at where we're going in the next few years yeah I know that's great if you don't have any idea how that's going to be done just you planning you know that's not a progress it is a work in progress we do want to consider some outside consultants or resources to make sure that we're going down the right path but I ultimately I think it's just gonna be so important to engage the members to find out what they're looking to get out of the organization's role absolutely and they they're united for libraries is very unique and in our membership in that we certainly have those folks the library directors and some trustees and and some friends out there who go to the ALA conferences midwinter and annual and participate in the organization in that manner but we have thousands of groups the friends groups the trustees represented through some of these statewide group memberships and also those who join on their own who don't come to conference so those are two very different member types and we want to make sure that we are truly meeting the needs of all of our members so I anticipate as Steve said that we'll have a consultant working with us that we will have some sessions during the ALA midwinter meeting so if anyone here or who watches the recording wants to come and participate in those watched the United Fibrils website newsletter for more information but that we will also be doing some surveys or some town hall virtual meetings or some other things like that to be sure that we are getting the voices of all of the groups out there those trustees friends the foundation the boots on the ground folks who aren't coming to those conferences but their voices are just as important and we want to hear from them great we'll look forward to that you rise open yeah alright doesn't look like any desperate questions have come in while we've been chatting and that's fine you covered everything perfectly but that's great the show's been reported you guys do have contact information for United for Libraries so you can any questions do have to ask of them or you can ask me or as I said earlier Holly we're also involved as well what I'm going to do now is I am going to pull back present your control to my screen so I want to show also related how this actually relates to what we're doing here at library commission but there we go at the library commission we do have programs for board certification library and certification and then library accreditation and the trustee courses and everything that Beth was showing you is related to getting your board certified which then does feed into your library certificate accreditation which is some libraries are in the middle of right now for this year just opened up for 2017 renewal for that so if you're looking to get your board certified this is where you'll find the information here that all this United for Libraries is about you can earn continuing education credits you need 20 credits in a three-year period for your entire board and there's different ways you can earn it but we have links here too all the trustee academy courses everything having to do the United for Libraries content and overhaul here CD coordinator who's in charge of this so everything we were talking about today this is what is related to the short takes are on here so if you are working for towards your library accreditation and your board is looking for things all those resources you just saw this is what it's all about this is what it's for specifically here this is one of the things that's for here besides just as as that as you said being on top of what we need to do as a trustee or a board member and how your director is supposed to work with them if you're looking for like towards your library accreditation and your board certification here is how you can get to all that website so I think then does anybody have any questions anything last minute you want to take them a couple of minutes while I'll be chatting here take it in and we'll grab your questions before we go other than that I'll say that I'll wrap it up for today's show and come this live our website training here is actually what's great about it comes live is so far is the only thing called that on the internet so if you don't know what you get from our website right there off of the commission's homepage our archives are right here underneath our upcoming sessions so this is where today's recording will be posted I'll post the recording that'll be linked to YouTube account or YouTube specifically unless we have recording and then also be those service slides that that had to be here and links to any websites that she says we mentioned that we're coming for today's discussion will be listed on there everybody who attended here this today live and anybody who registered will be sending email directly letting me know when that recording is available probably tomorrow or late today thinking of what I need to do today and I also have the mercy of YouTube and it's uploading and processing everything so with the next therapy you'll get an email letting you know that it's ready if you need to watch it again or share it with any other of your library staff members or your board of trustees let them you know watch this you can earn continuing education credits for watching all of these as well every hour of webinar that you watch is an hour of seeing credit so show your whole board you got five board members they all watch this web episode that's five credits you get a credit for every person sitting there so just so that will be for this week's I'm working on getting other shows of hair as we talked about we're in October dates going so we are coming up here next week's topic is how to break up board interactive events for all ages this is a really fun session and think this is a human-sized board games like life-size decision life-size hunger and Amy and Angie who are from the library in La Porte Kentucky they are going to be on the show remotely for us she's talking about this program that they're doing at their library also and campus life is on Facebook so if you are a big Facebook user please do pop over there and give us a like I've closed notifications about when the shows are coming up here reminder to log in on the slide for today's show if you weren't in time so when we had new shows the session recordings available everything I put up here on our Facebook page so if you are a big user of Facebook definitely go over there and give us a like to keep up with what we're doing other than that that wraps up for the show thank you very much for attending everyone thank you very much Beth and see you guys here thank you for any last words of wisdom to share the website and reach out reach out to us really let us know we want to hear from you great yes all right then thank you very much everyone and for attending and we'll see you next time on the side thank you