 All right, so we are at the 2 o'clock hour 2 o'clock central time here at big talk from small libraries I am Krista Porter your host here at the Nebraska Library Commission and This hour we are going to hear from Leah Hamilton who is from the Phelps library and steam lab maker space We just talked about make spaces the last hour And Phelps, New York my home stage. I'm originally from New York And she to talk about their small library big partnerships that they've been Doing at their library. So I will just hand over to you Leah to take it away. Thank you very much So according to a Chinese proverb if your vision is for a year plant wheat If your vision is for 10 years plant people trees if your vision is for a lifetime plant people It's our vision at the Phelps library to plant seeds of inspiration curiosity and success within our young people by providing targeted educational opportunities particularly in steam science technology engineering arts and math and technical skills We aim to bridge our technical skills gap by teaching advanced manufacturing classes to 8 to 12 year olds Uniting over 500 inventors manufacturers and makers at our annual hands-on Finger Lakes Maker Fest And advancing our local economy through community partnerships and education As a public library we partner with schools industry leaders community organizations And passionate individuals because we can only be stronger working together The library is the perfect intersection between all those who impact and influence the vitality of our communities So a basic and broad and somewhat emotionless definition of partnership is this an arrangement where two Or more parties cooperate to advance their mutual interests We believe it's so much more than that So today we're going to explore how our small library developed partnerships to advocate for and provide education to the technical workforce of our future through innovation and collaboration And how it's transformed not only our library But the entire perception of what small and rural libraries are and the role that they play within the community I'll address how to assess potential partnerships from the psychological aspects to ascertaining mutual goals To developing and nurturing the partnership followed by examples of who we partner with How those partnerships came to be and why? So in 2018 alone with one full-time staff member and four part-time staff We nurtured over 105 partnerships regionally and internationally From school districts to public libraries local community members to industry leaders and higher ed institutions and national museums So when you're first developing a new partnership The way in which you approach a potential partner should be mostly about them Approaching a person or organization with a new idea is an act of communication Which means understanding the people that you're communicating with before you even start So in order to communicate we have to try to understand their user experience User experience is a concept we can use to develop partnerships So when you interact with someone they respond with an emotion In the beginning do more listening than talking Pay very close attention to everything that they say in which direction do they want the community to grow? What is their past experience with a library if any? What is their perspective? What's their profession? Their hobbies their priorities what organizations do they care about or belong to? What makes their eyes light up during the meeting? Knowing a few key pieces about these individuals will help guide you in how they might respond emotionally And you can tailor your partnership proposal with that kind of information and present it to them in a way that sparks their curiosity So approaching a new partner is a chance for bravery make them feel something Build a relationship so they develop an emotional connection to your library Numbers and statistics and data don't do that on their own, but make sure you've done your research just in case The development of partnerships Often fall flat because people know that they're supposed to be communicating something But they don't exactly know what they're supposed to be communicating Your potential partner may see this as too much work too much of a time suck with no mutual benefit They may not just see that connection So ask yourself first. How do I want them to react and why? Why this approach? Because it's all about what happens in our human brains There's a psychological process that our brains go through when we interact with each other for the first time The first automatic response is visceral This is where you never get a second chance to make a first impression comes into play These first moments are your greatest chance for invoking emotion in your audience It's where you give your presentation and your library of personality Where you establish trust quality appeal and credibility At the same time you have absolutely no control over their emotions They have no control in how they react. This visceral response is emotional deep rooted unconscious subjective and automatic That first 30 seconds is your only chance to give them a positive experience The second is behavioral This is a practical and functional part of their response Here's where you lay on the accomplishments and how it directly serves the community Does it meet their needs and requirements? It's where you demonstrate the library's alignment with the goals hopes and passions of your future partners This is where you establish that they just can't live without you So now you've come to the worst part the reflective response Where they weigh the pros and cons of your presentation your product your services your reputation It's where they incorporate the library into their own story and cement their perception of the pleasure around it Keep your initial meeting well-rounded so that it will appeal to all of the ways you're soon to be partners process new information Whether they're visual auditory They like reading or writing or their kinesthetic learners Prepare what you're going to say have something on paper for them to hold and take home with them And have an image for them to look at that represents your library your mission or your goal We're forming a relationship with our audience. So be prepared to meet them where they are So now we know how to gauge their emotional reaction What else do we need to know to bring these partners on board with your vision your purpose and your mission? And even better Have them approach you for partnerships So the first step to developing partnerships is thoroughly knowing yourself personally and professionally What's your library's mission? What are you personally passionate about? Why do you get up and go to work in the morning? And if something's going on in the community that you want to address, why do you care? As for me, I'm not only the library director of a small rural library in the heart of the of new york's finger lakes region But i'm also formerly a welder and i'm the daughter of a small manufacturing business owner Our library's mission is educate collaborate cultivate grow So every partnership I develop has to fit within that mission These kids are why I do what I do The students who are going to thrive in our steam classes are the ones who aren't succeeding in the standardized educational pathways That all kids are funneled into in public schools. They're the ones who take things apart at home simply because they wondered how they were put together They're the ones who struggle to stay focused or who have a very short attention span or can often be found daydreaming looking out the window They're the ones who have difficulty relating to each other The ones who who don't do well in black and white and right or wrong scenarios Because there's no failure in making in stem There's only try and try again until you succeed We try to meet students where they are We pay attention to the kids who for example gravitate towards the mechanical or the digital or the environmental And then we find partners and offer classes to address those interests It's truly a personalized learning environment If we can positively alter the trajectory of just one student to help them find their passion to guide them to a life of success However, they choose to define that success. Is it not worth it? So in 2013 the Phelps library embarked on an educational maker movement Before anyone locally knew what a maker was or what steen stood for or why there was a scroll saw and a drill press in the library Every step of the way we're growing and evolving what we offer to foster new partnerships and provide inspirational classes We do this with only one full-time director for part-time employees in a $2,000 programming budget Our steam initiative as we call it aims to meet the educational needs of our community and our workforce The first thing you see when you walk into the library is a collaborative workspace with clean technology So that's walk-up access to a 3d printer and scanner virtual and augmented reality technologies Snap circuits lego robotics microscopes and circuitry sets all the flashy stuff But my favorite part is the dirty technology Just past our children's room is a 1000 square foot space dedicated to things where we can make messes water sawdust The steam lab maker space was the result of a grant that we won in 2013 It's available free to all ages regardless of residency You don't have to have a library card and it's open during all of our library hours We're able to offer over 3000 hands-on programs per year At the Phelps library we offer classes that give people of all ages the skills to take a hobby to the next level If they want to start a business for example So back to our guide The second step to partnership is thoroughly knowing your audience what they value and what influences them Speak to them in their language and address your needs in terms of their desires And they will be able to relate to you in your library Are they flexible and open to new ideas? For instance our library staff enrolls in free training alongside teachers and subjects like engineering standards or the next generation science standards And we can then use the same terminology and know what the dynamic is inside of the schools Also find out who in the organization you should approach first An administrator a particular teacher or an engineer A parent who works at a particular company Find your in I join groups where there isn't an obvious connection to traditional library practices such as our Finger Lakes advanced manufacturers enterprise If she's a group of manufacturers and educators whose mission is to further technical skills in our region Know your audience and learn their language goals and passions and meet them where they are Third is knowing who is the final decision maker the alpha if you may and know how others in the pack relate to them Do they hold power of their own? What are their relationships outside of the boardroom? If the partnership doesn't make good business sense to them Then they'll have no interest in partnering It's about knowing what they want in need and reading between the lines to find the common denominator For example Our library has the only dissecting microscope in the entire school district Through active listening. I learned that the middle school science teachers were struggling to teach their classes without the necessary equipment So we want to build strong partnerships with the school. So we loaned them our microscope for the duration of their dissection labs They in turn invited us to be a part of their middle school science fair To advocate and market our steam activities at the library That led to me writing a grant for them through rotary for four thousand dollars for science equipment and dissection materials It goes back and forth and back and forth in a mutually beneficial relationship So number four is to think about the other stakeholders in the partnership Think of some benefit that it will have for them if they're a parent Will it help their child directly if they're a business will it help them bridge something that they're struggling with And such as you know a community understanding of what their business does Will it aid guide or teach their future employees? Who else would be a great partner in this relationship? Address their concerns in order to win their support Which will reflect well on both of you and your your new partners If it's a business, what's the return on investment? If it's a nonprofit organization, what is the social impact? If it's a parent, what is the emotional or financial impact on their family? Hypothesize prior to initiating the conversation Step five There's a great deal of assumptions of what a library does and who works there You can persuade your new partners to action by providing new and relevant information that they may not know about your library When we repeat the same old message, they'll turn off their attention So throw our wrench into the works and astonish them with something surprising Something they've never seen or heard before. What are some innovative things that you're doing at the library? That relate directly to the socio-emotional financial or some part of the connection that you've established with your new partner How might it be co-beneficial? Number six is knowing your goal inside and out. What's the problem you're trying to solve and why? Know exactly what it is you want them to do and suggest ways that it will be valuable to them Be very clear about your goals so they can determine if the partnership is a good fit for both of you Make sure it relates to the needs of your community, whether it's education digital inclusion or workforce development Seven it can be difficult to judge the communication once collaborators start Jumping on port and full force, but good communication is essential for the health of any relationship Have multiple people involved if you can who you can trust to share your partner's mutual goal For instance, I trust my steam coordinator implicitly to share the library's message and mission if I happen to be on vacation Or out of the office Communication means not only with your partners, but also among library staff Also partnership can be truly invigorating in the beginning But what the excitement may wane once the real work begins Be aware of this and nurture really the relationship just as you would with any partner in your life Finally the last step number eight Always remember your end goal And if you're finding that you have more unfunded mandates than you do hours in the day Know when to jump ship and move on One example where I had to say no was for the new york state fair I was invited to be on the advisory committee for the 13 day statewide fair Specifically to plan a steam exhibit as well as participate We were only one of the booths But it was really difficult for a small library with a small budget and a small staff to run a 10 hour program on a 90 degree day for 100,000 visitors This one was easy to say. Nope. I'm not doing that again But in general I admit I do have difficulty saying no So let's just say I'm really working hard to perfect this one So as an example of partnership development here at the Phelps library Our goal is to develop ways and build partnerships specifically to bridge the technical skills gap Our library works every single day to engineer and innovate solutions to this problem I listen very closely to what's going on around me And I have a passion for connecting people who can help each other find success because we can only be stronger together Our partners are critical to our success Community leaders, volunteers, and people who participate in library events and classes The public libraries, library systems, K-12 schools, and career and technical educators Two and four year colleges and universities Local organizations from the YMCA to national museums Regional businesses and manufacturers Our local county and state government Most importantly, it's the students that we're trying to reach For what we do is all about helping them discover new pathways towards success and fulfillment However, they choose to define success and fulfillment So what's our goal? We want to bridge the technical skills gap We've been working on the emotional piece of the partnership But we also need data to support our mission even though data itself is never going to change anybody's minds So what's going on in our community? This list is not exhaustive, but as an example of how our library's partnerships directly relate to the technical skills gap We need to know the issues so we can address the root cause rather than the symptom So we can't find a plumber or an electrician Manufacturers and industry leaders struggle to stay in business not because of a lack of community need for their services But rather because of a scarcity of job applicants with the skills required to perform the job Workers can't pass drug tests, which is changing with the legalizing of medical and recreational marijuana in several states Students, parents, teachers, they just don't know about opportunities for education and job training Our culture has an ingrained perception of educational should and shouldn'ts such as success Being defined as attaining an equal or greater education than the previous generation We push as many high school kids as we can to go to college For so many, especially parents, there isn't any other option These are not local issues to my library. All of these are national So let me tell you about one two seven One plus two plus seven equals 10 Research has shown that on average for every 10 job openings One requires a master's or higher two requires a master's or higher A bachelor's and seven require technical skills That means that only 30 of all job openings require four or more years of post-secondary education In new york state the education department reports that the percent of public and non-public High school graduates entering degree granting institutions is 82.7 percent In nebraska the percentage is 74 percent Illinois is 76 and so on The percentage across the united states is 69.8 percent. So I encourage you to check your own state's enrollment rate For our purposes today. I'm going to use the new york data So let's take a moment and I ask you to visualize a classroom of 100 kids So if 83 percent are going to degree granting institutions That means that 17 are going directly into the workforce or into the military or living in my basement man cave 30 will actually be hired into jobs that require the four-year degree that they have So in new york if 82.7 percent of our graduating seniors are headed to degree granting institutions To fill 30 of the job openings That means that over 53 of our remaining students annually will be searching for work in the saturated job market Unemployable because they're overqualified and or most likely in debt So how can we lean over half of our kids to a life of struggle setting them up for additional social financial and economic stress? I recently asked a high school graduate why he was going to college to become a phys ed teacher. He said because I like sports So a phys ed teacher that I know Who has been working in the field for 30 years? He had no say whether he worked at the high school or the elementary school level and they put him in the primary school And there's a great deal of shoe tying babysitting Wet pants changing and dancing to the hokey pokey. There's not a lot of sports Our high school graduates can't make informed decisions if they aren't aware of all of the pathways available to them This is an issue nationwide According to the manufacturing institute in 2011 there were 600 000 unfilled jobs due to skills gaps So why do we target eight to 12 year olds for our advanced manufacturing classes? Because by the time those 12 year olds hit the workforce in 2025 There will be not two million unfilled jobs due to skills gap as this report in 2011 says But they've updated it as of 2018. There will be three million jobs that will be unfilled due to skills gaps At the library we have the power to change that statistic through skills training and partnership This report also states that our manufacturing workforce is more highly educated than ever But what they don't state is that if that workforce is educated in their field of study What we have are marine biologists and english and history majors working in technical positions We also pay very close attention to reports that are issued by workforce and economic development experts And we tailor our classes based on economic needs So Monroe community college, which is in rochester new york has a site with national data And i've linked to it on a web page that i set up for you tell you about that later For instance, the skills that are needed are things like inspection So we have projects that encourage recognizing patterns and details Repair we take gadgets apart and put them back together and teach how to read technical processing manuals Dyson the vacuum company has an engineering box It's a free program where they'll send you a vacuum to take apart and reassemble Complete with all of the hand tools that you'll need We teach kids and adults how to use hand tools to measure my with micrometers and calipers You know, there's a lot of flashy technology out there, but it's like learning a language You can't start with conversational Spanish. You have to learn the alphabet and the numbers first So that's why we put hand tools in their hands These are the skills we used to learn at home, but they're being lost in the busyness and highly technological world that we live in today So talking about our particular partners, we'd like to take a holistic approach our volunteers We save so much money on our programming costs at our library Thanks to community volunteers who are willing to share their time and talents with our library All of our library classes and events are either taught by library staff Who are continually encouraged to learn new skills or by talented community members We have a local software engineer who teaches 3d printing We have a parent who is also an engineer who has a passion for helping kids discover what they love to do We have an entrepreneur who doesn't want to see the art of sewing lost and volunteers her time to teach our community How to use sewing machines Gail on the left began as a student in the fiber arts in our maker space And she fell in love with felting Now she has her own fiber business and she teaches many of our fiber arts classes from wet felting and needle felting To eco and salt dyeing as a donation of her time And just as an aside we could teach fiber arts classes from now until the end of time and our classes would be full It's just amazing how much people are interested in those Parents are also a wonderful partner for developing your classes through the donation of items from their manufacturing facilities That would support steam programs Your local community is a treasure trove full of people who are makers tinkerers Who love creating and learning and sharing their time and talents Most people are willing to help especially if you ask them directly And where would we be without our passionate community members who embrace our mission through financial partnerships? solely through targeted donations from our community The Phelps library fostered the steam scholarship Which is a $1,000 award presented to a graduating high school senior Who has demonstrated curiosity innovation and creativity to empower them to pursue? certification and or apprenticeship or training in a steam and technical skilled based career So why do we give up $1,000 when we could have added it to the operating fund? It was a new type of library marketing that brings awareness to the steam and technical skills gap Its purpose was to get people talking which they did and they put their money where their mouths are To facilitate success for students and the library to show that the library is a crucial educational partner I presented the award in front of 300 people Communicating our library's mission and bringing awareness to what's happening in the community This partnership showed us that the community supports the work that we're doing at the library Many businesses across the country large and small offer free education and on-the-job training to our high school graduates Our local ambulance company offers free training and certification for EMTs The american multinational technology company corning the glass company Has a technician pipeline program and pays a full salary of $25,000 Full tuition at a two-year community college covers all books all fees And once you complete your two-year degree, there's job placement. How do you say no to that? The problem is Parents and teachers don't know about these opportunities and therefore kids don't know about them So we at the Phelps library aim to share that information in as many avenues as possible We seek out these opportunities and advocate for them We partner with manufacturers so that we can act as the catalyst for change to make these connections To inform students in the community about the opportunities So I mentioned we joined fame We've had some amazing partnerships because of this So it's regional educators economic development leaders workforce planners and leaders job seekers and students So fame brings together education and industry to collaborate on relevant curriculum That is market driven by business and industry I encourage you to seek out similar organizations in your area It's going to enrich any sort of steam program that you offer One of the benefits to our fame membership is the ability to offer field trips and job shadowing for our students So they can see the practical applications of what they're learning It's up to all of us to inspire curiosity and how the world around them goes from raw materials to the items We take for granted every single day so they can see the real world in action Local businesses help provide us with resources and jobs for students We had the donation of three helmets for our welding program by a local welding supply company And other companies going to teach the welding here at the library for our community AT&T has given us a $500 grant to further our environmental science programs These businesses are crucial to the success of our mission We also partner with four vocational education programs across the state and over 60 school districts offering In-school steam camps and providing teacher training on how to incorporate steam and technical skills into the curriculum Teaching them new technologies and how to set up maker spaces We offer similar training for libraries and library systems across the state in these same areas So at schools we volunteer to present steam and technical career options Here we're at the middle school talking with kids on how we can use virtual reality technologies for video game design We brought our oculus rift headset and alienware computer and set it up in the school classroom Later that day when the school day ended the students scramble began and the kids started showing up in the library wanting to use the VR headset A teacher is calling me Because they wanted to try it one teacher asked me how she could get students signed up for library cards The dean of the school tried it and wants to invest in a headset to address the socio-emotional needs of the students Um So for simply a three hour visit to the school this partnership has started valuable conversations Brought awareness to the community of what our library has and how we can best serve the community and transform education For summer reading last year I taught 21 steam camps to the public in the public libraries of seven school districts over the course of six weeks So I was at the public library and the school would deliver the kids to the library The intention was to start a collaborative dialogue between libraries and schools and I was more than happy to champion that cause The curriculum I developed is also included on the website. I'll give you at the end So the greatest achievement to date I would have to say in our efforts to be true partners in education Was with a p-tech program. So p-tech stands for pathways in technology So kids attend high school in grades nine through twelve and at the same time They're earning an associate's degree from a local community college in computers and technology Part of the student assessment takes place in our library steam lab maker space So the students come up to four times a week at two and a half two and a half hour stretches to learn about new technologies They are working on projects that will benefit our library and community at the same time They're learning technical skills and new technologies So it's a mutually beneficial relationship Because not many people know that the p-tech program exists. So we advocate to parents and teachers And in return the p-tech program has linked our website Link to their website So if you're seeking a particularly strong social impact partner with local organizations So we're grateful for partners like the workforce investment board and the council on alcoholism and addiction And we want to grant on adult workforce literacy and they're coming in to teach classes specifically related to this grant They're teaching public speaking. We're using virtual reality technologies to build The fear of speaking in public to hone your interview skills and they're going to help with resume preparation A local thrift shop. We have a partnership with them. They're going to be providing clothing for interviews That they might not be able to be afford able to afford otherwise. So that's a wonderful partnership In october of 2018 we partnered with Rochester global connections, which is about 45 miles away There are these places like Rochester global connections at your local universities So I would seek those out. They brought 10 educators from the country of Belarus They brought them to the library so they could learn how we deliver steam And they could take those ideas back to their home country to improve their STEM education And I love the thank you note that they sent it said Regardless of the government efforts everything depends on each individual working at a school a museum a library And that's what we see an experience in our own country too Where smaller initiatives in small towns with dedicated people can work miracles So each and every connection that we make in our community as they stated can truly work miracles I joined at the stem hub. So this is an organization Which you probably have in some of your other states that advocates for stem and steam education in schools And I developed a partnership with the Rochester museum and science center and terra science who are also members of the stem hub So I don't know how this happened But together we partnered on a two million dollar national science foundation grant Which if funded is going to allow us to study how science projects created in urban and rural maker spaces can be developed for science fairs The Phelps library portion of this grant is a half a million dollars. That's I I don't know how many times of our operating budget that is And it's going to blow my mind if we get that we'll find out this fall municipalities So we partnered with our local community center and the village board to win a grant for a new playground in the village Our library's part was to select stem based playground equipment and to write a press release The grant as you can see by the happy kids was funded And our students we feel it's our responsibility as educators to impart knowledge and skills that will help our students make Informed decisions to develop lifelong problem-solving skills and be able to get to the root of why they're making particular choices At the Phelps library rather than providing the materials to complete a project and tell them to assemble it We teach them how and why to choose these particular materials and why the materials react the way that they do We connect them to real life experiences And they can use to launch their own success and fulfillment So first is our STEM explorers program. It's for kids who love to take things apart Who are curious about how things work? It's a fun monthly class for eight to 12 year olds taught in six month semesters where kids learn about electronics mechanical engineering environmental science assembly and manufacturing tools and more Student interests drive the class because we want them to discover what they love to do They meet once a month on a Saturday and this kids receive their own tool kits Which are donated by local engineering firms another partner They disassemble hair dryers and cameras and other gadgets that I've received as donations were picked up at thrift shops And they go on field trips to manufacturers We couldn't have a successful program without partners I have an amazing coeducator here nick Which you can see on the screen who is a partner and an engineer and is passionate about helping kids discover what makes them tick Many of us walk through life taking for granted the things around us and how they came to be Do you ever wonder where stop signs came from? Or do you simply stop at the sign and then keep on going? We took our STEM explorers to see a water jet cutter How stop signs are made from metal so that they could look at the world around them and see how it was made We stop and point out the details of everyday life that we take for granted And we introduced to them the process and the tools that went into their creation So if you need an idea for a stem program go into your children's room and make a list of 10 things that you that were created by humans And you have 10 programs that are ready to go Find out how each of these items were made and ask the kids how they think that they were made Teach them about the manufacturing process which you can find through youtube videos And or visiting community members and have the kids create a replica of the craft materials You have lying around or even better yet how they can improve on that design We also take our STEM explorers to the local creek to ascertain the health and well-being of our local waterways Through the collection of aquatic insects a partnership with the finger lakes institute at hobart and william smith colleges And licensed by the department of environmental conservation this partnership goes even further The data collected by the students at the stream is entered into a database for regional scientists to use in their research The most fulfilling partnerships are our cross sector partnerships where we can bring together businesses organizations and educators These are going to be your most innovative and inspiring partnerships that you can create When you bring together the minds and hearts of people with different thought processes and ideas and join them with a common goal magic happens So while it's a ton of work each year I gather together 50 to 100 makers manufacturers inventors and people who love to build things in a one day event called the finger lakes maker fest We had a tornado chaser. That was a partnership with the local university Um an aerospace company offered hands-on activities with the parts that they've made for the spacex program We saw the whole life cycle of plastics Through the eyes of four different businesses Every table has a hands-on activity or a steam-based experience experiment Here we're painting with light thanks to our friends at maker fair rochester and the rochester institute of technology We aim to inspire others to grow and be creative and find interest in pathways that they never considered possible This is dan He is a local tech teacher at the high school and he partnered with us to teach electronic soldering Because of what we're teaching at the library and because dan realized the value of it after seeing it in a community setting He decided that he's going to add soldering back into the school curriculum One of our presenters at the finger lakes maker fest who is the daughter of a local sustainable plastics Company was so inspired by the phelps library's passion for steam and technical skills That she decided to change careers So she returned to grad school and pursued her degree in education and now she's a teacher So we're in a critical phase here where mutually beneficial Long-term partnerships between libraries schools and businesses could be developed as long as all parties Are amenable to change and open to new ideas Success is dependent on those initial contacts and measurable outcomes of those budding partnerships So why should a library partner with manufacturers and schools and community organizations instead of simply shelving books? Why do we have scrollsaws and lades in the library? Why does a library teach welding? Because we as a society need to rethink the way things have always been done To break down the silos of what a library or school or a manufacturer should be or do To inspire to encourage To help our young people tap into their unique creativity that is somehow lost between childhood and adulting To grow and evolve our economy and ensure the success of our businesses To connect people to jobs that we have right here and to the unique opportunities that are out there for training To encourage our future workforce to open their own doors and windows to success. However, they choose to define that success Because if we as a community nurture and encourage that little girl who may not be great at learning french But who absolutely loves to take things apart at home just because she's curious about how it's put together or wants to create something new Maybe one day she'll become an engineer and create new beneficial things Every single day and maybe she'll have the transformative power within her hands to make a positive difference in our community So let's do what's never been done before Let's tear down our silos and start talking and working with one another Let's build empathy and find out and nurture the unique connections that we have can develop in our communities Together we can help everyone in the community individuals businesses organizations Educators thrive Thank you So I have here Apprent the whole presentation is going to be at that website. It's www.filpslibrary.org slash btsl And please contact me if you have any questions about any of this Great. Thanks lia. I saw you I mentioned earlier about a web page you put together um, and someone actually asked so it's great to hear um It's so your presentation started out a little um more of a downer with how we're not doing so well with Educating people in the right areas that we might need them for the jobs Um, but all the partnerships everything you've done I think is it's just amazing that that's kind of um I have a great effect on those um jobs, hopefully um, so a lot of the reports and um Citations that you mentioned are they on that website too for people the statistics that you put out there Yes, all of the statistics are on there. Um, I've also included some relevant articles Some specific things that we're doing here at the library as well as multiple sites. So if you want to add more Classes in science technology engineering arts and math some great free resources that you can use to Steam up your programs Yeah, definitely We've heard a lot about that today It's it's getting it's it's very important and I think I agree with that. There's not there's so much emphasis over The years being put on getting your degree going to college getting that kind of education and I think they're the Certainly, you know increase in all this maker space and like we're talking about previously. Um What is a maker space and what is the steam and stem? um Is is maybe why that is becoming a big thing is that too many people are not going to those areas and people are Desperate for it yearning for that kind of thing because we haven't been focusing on it enough you know thinking that people who are in technical fields or We said the dirty Technologies are not seen as as as good But there are people that want to do that. That's their thing Right, you know, we we had a donation of a kiln to our maker space It was last year and we're still waiting for an electrician to come and run the 220 because he's so busy That there just aren't enough electricians out there And some of the reports that I've read are that we're not going to know that there's actually a problem Until there's nobody there to help us and that's going to rise Raise the costs of getting some of these people in the trades into our homes And that's when we're finally going to address the issue Yeah, and then it's going to be Possibly too late Right, I'll be scrambling to catch up. Yeah Um, we anyone have any any specific questions for lia type them into the question section of your webinar interface I'll get a lot of comments saying thank you for this very inspirational great fantastic presentation um, do you have a question about um These scholarships that you gave out to individuals wondering about um, the is how is that handled because they said in some areas giving municipal or public funds um from a public library like that to a private individual would not be allowed would be not legal Right, so we looked into that and so when our finger lakes maker fest we make it a free event and then there's a donation jar And whatever goes into the donation jar goes directly to the steam scholarship None of the scholarship funds come out of our operating budget at all Um, so it's completely separate. It's entirely community donation based. It has nothing to do with library funds All right, awesome. That's a great idea. Then it's also You know the community takes ownership of it Exactly and um, so it was a $1,000 scholarship and that first year last year We raised $1,500 so it it shows that the community supports what we're doing Absolutely, yeah So now we have some questions coming in. Um, what about your library board? Were they on board with this all at once or did they need some persuading for some of the things you're doing? Oh, no, they absolutely love it. I have everybody on board They're enthusiastic. They want to boost our pr committee. They want to take more action They they want to get us on tv and I'm like, I'm only one person But no, they are really championing the cause and connecting Me with people that I need to meet and need to talk to So yeah, absolutely on board. I also have the full support of the village board We're an association library. We're not municipal. Not school Um, so I don't need to have the village board support But we do rent space for them in the building and um, they love what we're doing Great, that's very important. Definitely having all of them to support you Hope it doesn't get too much overwhelming. You know victim of your success type thing Um, and we have another question here. What challenges did you face when trying to partner with local schools? Oh forever The schools it's like they have the deepest motes with the biggest crocodiles with giant teeth and the highest walls and Finally, you know, it's it's really things like Finding out what they need and then meeting those needs like the dissecting microscope that I mentioned before It's it's rather than going straight in it to the administration Um, it's going to individual teachers and and finding out what's really going on or talking to the students Um, and I'm still working on my own school district Um and getting and doing their professional development But now I have school districts, uh calling me to do the their teacher professional development Because they see that it's working here at our library and that it's not working in the schools So when you have something that they don't have you can fulfill a need And those are the that's the way that I approach these conversations um And so far it's been really successful and it it has required Donating a lot of my time. So when we do the um the steam camps In school, um, it's you know, it takes out a portion of my day and we do it for free They never pay us for any professional development. Um, there is no exchanging of funds But we truly wanted to be educational partners. So one thing that's happening, you know here in new york state is that School funding is going up But the governor wants to cut our construction aid By over 50 and cut library funding by 5 so i'm constantly advocating for That we're true partners in education and that's really why I went after the schools and that's why I want to teach and donate my time to teaching teachers Just to show that we are true partners in education I can then use this information when i'm talking to our legislators and saying hey look, this is what's going on people need to know this Yeah, we know we're out there, but sometimes it's convincing everyone else Right Educational process. Yeah So, um, it looks like we have a little trouble getting to that the the link that you put there. Is it not up yet or To the the chat box I'll type it into the chat box here the films library.org slash btsl is giving me a 404 page not found error Okay, let me see here Yeah, I will make sure that it is up in the next 10 minutes I'm not sure what's going on Okay, but uh, I'll make sure that it works The library main page is working no problem. Yeah, but um Oh, it came right up for me. I'm gonna type it into the the box here so that you have it I wonder if there's some sort of security on it or something because Hmm Is it like, um In-house that you can get to it and it hasn't been made public public might be something to check on later. Yeah No, it's it's published. So should be good. Okay. Okay. Now they're getting to it says, okay Not a problem. All right. Thank you All right, I think that's it for through your session. Thank you so much. That's it for the questions that we had If anybody doesn't have any questions, you know where to find lia there um So thank you so much. Like I said, that was very um Inspiration a lot of so many great ideas there of things to do at our at our libraries and things that we need to keep an eye on Thank you for having me. Yeah. Thank you. All right