 Hello, everyone. I'm James Milan, and this is Check It Out, our series with Robbins Library and we are with the Library Director, Anna Lytton. Anna, always fun to be here. Always pleasure to chat with you as well. Yeah. Well, I'm going to remind you now of the last time that we were talking in this space. You know, I think that we know what dog years are, right? Yes. There should be a specific designation of years for people doing two jobs at once, et cetera. In which case, we were here a hundred years ago. Very true. Let's say, or else last summer, one or the other. Obviously, at that time, we were talking about the transition from Andrea Nicolai, our former Library Director, to you. I remember you looking a little bit like, yeah, I'm ready. So I'd like to start today. Just how has it been? How has it been for these six, seven, eight months in calendar time? It was definitely a long transition period, a lot to learn in a short amount of time and I'm just so grateful for our town manager, Sandy Pooler and his wonderful team. I'm so grateful to Karen Malloy and the team at the Human Resources Department and, of course, to the fantastic team here as well as the most excellent board of Library trustees here who really helped me get up to speed, ready, and since we just met last, we have hired an assistant director. Amanda Troha has joined us. She came to us from actually the Fox Branch Library, where she was the branch manager, and she has stepped in and just really ready to go here. I'm really looking forward to the future, kind of putting behind a learning period, entering a time to take some of what I've learned and put it into action. I do remember talking to Andrea when you were hired and how happy she was, again, to be able to share what is a lot of responsibility within this facility. Our assistant director here is responsible for a lot of our programming and a lot of our communications. The way that we communicate with the community here in Arlington is so important to us. We want people to know about the services and programs available here, so it's just really wonderful to have someone whose real job is to take care of that work. Back with us. Excellent. I want to start our conversation today by talking about the fact that we are here in mid-February. February, as we know, is Black History Month. I know that you have displays around the library and probably have made other kind of accommodations or recognition of this particular month. It gets me thinking about the issue more generally of diversity. I want to start with the diversity audit that was done around the town. I know that the library had a part in that and I was also taking things away from that. Let's talk a little bit about that. Thank you so much. What a great question. We are always looking for ways to build a more inclusive and equitable library to support our diverse community. We see the town's equity audit as a great opportunity for us to assess our programs, our collections, the ways that people access our services to make sure that we are truly serving the library as well as we can. Your examples about our Black History Month displays, perfect. We easily do that. We do that all the time. We're always looking to what can we build, what can we add to make this library a central focus for all of the residents in our community. I can think of a couple of examples of ways that we've approached building a more inclusive and equitable library recently. Last year, we conducted a collection audit to really help us examine our nonfiction collection. Are we providing the resources that the community might need? If you have real interests in learning more about Indigenous communities, do we have the resources that will support that learning? We have been taking that infer... That's an ever-changing process for us. How we look at our collections, making sure our collections meet community research, entertainment, and education needs. That's been just a fantastic process, being able to have that audit and really help us understand where we're hitting the mark and where are we missing the mark. Another piece that's been really nice is, of course, we are always reassessing our programs. Are we providing the programs that the community members want, need, and are excited to come to? And we're launching a new program for kids this year. We're very excited about this one. Our Rainbow Readers Program welcomes kids who LGBTQ plus kids in many different ways. However, a child might identify, however, the child's family might identify. Kids frequently have access to family play groups for LGBTQ families. But what happens when the child gets a little older? So our new Rainbow Readers Program is geared for kids who are in third to fifth grade and really welcoming them in an environment that feels good, feels comfortable, and where kids get to read books that really address these issues. So this is another example of ways that we look at our programs and make sure that, again, our programs are needing the needs of our diverse community here in Arlington. I have often said on this show and in other, whenever I have the chance in talking to you and to your predecessors, how much I love the library, but how beloved an institution it is within the community, how cherished, how valued, and how well used it truly is. But it's great to hear that on the other side you guys are intensely aware of that kind of responsibility in the community and also just have a whole bunch of processes in place to make sure, like you said, that the programs you're offering, the books that can be found, and other resources that can be found here really do serve the community's needs and interests. We assume that, I think, but we don't realize necessarily how much paddling under the water needs to be done, right, in order for that to keep up to speed. Yeah, and for that, of course, I need to thank our amazing staff, that these, the two examples that I shared with you, the collection audit and this new program, the Rainbow Readers program, these were really program, these were concepts that were originally generated by staff members here who saw a need in our community and helped us meet it. So our staff, again, wants to make sure we can't rest on our laurels, we can't rest on people, people do love libraries in general, and I'm so happy about that. But your love for libraries should be, I don't want to say love should never be conditional, but your love for our library should be based on your current experience of our library. So it is our responsibility to make sure that your experience today, when you come to the library, meets your needs, and that the library offers the programs, the services, the collections, the kinds of spaces that you need. And yeah, I have to thank my staff for always keeping an eye on that and making sure that we are evolving as our community changes. Well, one crucial component of diversity that I know that you are very aware of that we haven't yet mentioned, of course, we've been talking about the diversity and the offerings and the collection, etc. But then there's also diversity in terms of people walking in and seeing other folks who either look like themselves or being, you know, again, served in the way that librarians can do for us. Again, I assume that that is also a priority for you guys moving forward. Yeah, absolutely. So we there's a lot of different ways that we see our community and want to welcome diversity into our community. And I think first about our staff and our support people. So we have we have a fantastic staff here. We when we are hiring for a new position, we really want to see if we can find a candidate who really does support represents our diverse community. We want people who come through our doors to understand that that's a priority for us. That's an issue that we have not fully resolved. I would not say we have hit our mark in hiring a super diverse staff here and it's something we're always continuing to an area where we would like to improve. I think about our wonderful support groups. So as an example, two of our support groups, the Friends of Robbins Library and the Arlington Libraries Foundation. Those are again groups where they want to build welcome the diversity of Arlington into their groups and using that infer using that diversity to help them build more diverse programs and ideas moving forward as well. So one of my favorite things about Arlington is how much we do acknowledge our community members, all of our community members and how much we truly want to make sure that everyone feels included here in the library in our support groups and make sure that our the experience that everyone has with the library feels representative. And I do think that that's an ongoing. It's just an ongoing challenge. Obviously we can talk about today. We'll check in with you on how things are going as we continue with this series in the coming months and years, etc. But you know, understandably, it's a process that takes time. It's a process that you can be fully committed to without seeing the results of the short term. We understand that, but we, you know, it's good to hear that there's a real commitment on the library's end towards it. Yeah, I like to say equity is not an end goal. It's a constant process. And yeah, we are hopefully always engaged in that process. Alright, well, I'd like to move on to it. It's definitely connected to the conversation we've already been having because we've been talking about the responsibility the library feels towards the community and to be reflective of that community and its values and all that stuff. Every year you guys put that on the line with Arlington Reads together. It's a big part of your calendar and of our calendar as well. That's where again you make a reading available to the entire community for a certain amount of time and then you program a number of events around that issue throughout mostly the month of March, I think, right? Correct, yeah. So for us, March is Arlington Reads together month and it is truly one of my favorite months of the year. I don't think March always gets that kind of accolade. That's right. If you're redeeming March, you're doing a good job. And our Arlington Reads together program was really started as a way to bring the community together through literature to help discuss big ideas and to kind of break down some barriers within the community. The program begins in the summer month. So the program really began this year's program. The 2023 Arlington Reads together program began in the summer of 2022 when a group of volunteers came together to look at book suggestions that were that come in through an online submission form and think about what book would best serve the community as a number one, a fun thing to read. And number two, a book that's going to inspire great conversation, great thinking, great ideas. And we really found it this year. I'm really excited. So this year I did bring some show and towels. This year, our book recommendation is Being Human by Judy Heumann. Judy Heumann is a celebrated disability rights activist. And this book is, she's going to be here, well, she's going to be here on Zoom on March 19th. You're actually going to be moderating the conversation with her. We're really excited for that. Yeah, it's going to be fantastic. There's a lot of reasons why this book was the right book for this time. One of the reasons is that this book is also available in a Young Readers edition. So this book is the Young Readers edition is called Rolling Warrior. And this edition is really geared for kind of sixth graders and up. So kids who aren't quite ready for an adult book, but aren't quite ready for a picture book. Right, but can tackle the subject as well. Yeah. Judy Heumann is a fantastic person and she also inspired a picture book. So we were really happy to found a title and a subject that is going to bring light to the disability rights movement for people of all ages in Arlington. So great choice because there's books for many different kinds of readers and it's really the right time. This is the 30th, this year is the 30th anniversary of Arlington's Disability Commission. And we've been lucky enough to partner with the Arlington Disability Commission on a number of the events that will be happening during the month. We have a fantastic lineup of events. But one of the ones I'm most excited for is a panel discussion with this with past and present Disability Rights Commission, excuse me, Disability Commission members. I don't think many of us know I'm an able-bodied person. And I don't really know what the experience of being disabled in Arlington is like. And I'm excited to open that window for some of our residents and to better understand where we as a community can improve. What is the experience like? How is the experience changed over time? I'm really excited to learn about my neighbors, learn about the struggles, learn about the successes, and learn about how I can just know more about my neighbors. You know I'm really struck by the fact that you have three items on show and tell there where usually there would be just the one. As I think about previous Arlington Reads Together Reads, they have been kind of the adult version, so to speak, of whatever that book was. This is really great that you can address different segments of the reading audience and of the community in this way, kind of speaking more directly to them through these different books. Was that just a happy circumstance coming after you'd made the decision or was that actually part of the decision? We actually had notes about the titles, all of the titles that we were discussing, and then we did include, hey there's a lot of other ways for people to access content about Judy Heumann and the disability rights movement in America, so yeah that was something that we noted, and I would say as we were making choices about the titles, being Heumann had that plus one already, because when we think about building an inclusive program, I want to include all members of our community and finding access points for everyone into a topic is important for us in Arlington Reads Together. So we will be soon in the month of March and in the middle of these activities, and I think that obviously a lot of your own attention and a lot of the attention of the staff here, etc. is all geared around this, but of course things will go on on the other side of that, and I just wanted to ask you because we have a few minutes and we can just thinking about how the rest of this year and even on from here, because now you've been in the job for, you know, for a number of months, and again seems like a lot longer, I'm sure. You do have, if not, I don't know if you have full staffing, but you have that vital position of assistant library director now filled. You can really start, I think, to be putting your own mark on this place. So talk to us just a little bit about what kinds of things are going to be, you know, beyond what you've already mentioned today, going to be, you know, part of the kind of analytic approach to directorship here. So there are two big projects on the plate for the spring months. I am looking forward to creating more opportunities to hear from our community members, and the first way I'm looking forward to doing this is by creating an opportunity for community members to submit program ideas. I really, we cannot rely on library staff knowing all the time what the right programs are. The Rainbow Readers program, I think, was actually the idea germinated from a conversation with a community member, and we need to create more ways for community members to communicate with us about what types of programs we should be offering, what types of collections, what can we do to really meet your needs, and the best way to know about that would be to ask our community members. So creating some of those ways, communication, and options, we have a lot of ways that we communicate out, but we're looking to have more ways for people to tell us what do they want to see in the library. It's going to be a big project moving forward. We're also looking forward to creating more opportunities to bring the library outside of the library. Earlier today, I was communicating with some staff at Arlington Eats. We're looking forward to setting up a library card table at their new market once a month or so, and helping visitors at Arlington Eats sign up for a library card, learn about the resources that are available here. I like to say your library card is your most powerful card in your wallet. What other card in your wallet gives you so much for free? And yeah, we're looking forward to getting outside, making those connections with maybe people who aren't using the library, finding out why, what can we do so that the library is a more attractive location for you, and that you really understand what your local public library can bring to you. So I have been, I'm going to pick up the thread of something that I have kind of been asking you about over time, and that is COVID was huge for all of us, individuals, families, institutions, and made changes that are still going to be going on in our lives as we move away from COVID. You know, what is the equivalent of that here at the library? So what are a couple of the things that happened because COVID happened, that you learned lessons from or realized that you had tapped into something, etc., and that are now going to be more permanent aspects of the way the library provides its services? Yeah, so when you were talking about what's changed since COVID, the piece that you didn't mention was community, and I think that we see now more than ever, people are looking for those community connections. So our ability to be a place where everyone in town is welcome, there's, you don't have to pay anything, there's nothing, this is not very much to buy here. There's no barrier to entry whatsoever. And we want to be that place where if you are looking for community connections, you can come and sit down here in our beautiful reading room and you're going to see a neighbor, maybe you and the neighbor are reading the same book, maybe it's time to say, I love that. Let's have that conversation. Maybe it's not, maybe it's downstairs. You're chatting with another parent of small children. So that piece, the piece that we have left with, that to me, I see as being so vital, is our place where our neighbors can make connections. The other piece that we have learned coming, I don't know what to say, go past COVID, but in the post-COVID years. We have to be very careful about it. People of course have discovered the library. There were many people who discovered the library in COVID during those COVID times in a way they hadn't before. 2022 was our largest circulation year ever. We circulated over 936,000 items. We are a community of 46,000. So we are, it's a lot of books per person. We are one of the highest circulating libraries in the Commonwealth. And our Lintonians really want to read. We, of course, circulate other items. We circulate movies. We circulate our very popular library things collection. But most of the items that people check out from the library are books. And it is a true joy and pleasure to make sure our community has access to the books they want to read. And a lot of them. It's just really, what an honor to support the community like that. In providing spaces, in providing collections. It's exciting. So it sounds like you're coming out again. I'm going to say the words. Coming out of COVID, it sounds like you're doubling down on a lot of the things that have made you already a special place here. Yeah. I'm also curious though whether at this point at this point there are actual procedural or process changes that came about because of COVID that are also just part of the library's way of doing things now. Absolutely. A great example was something that the Minuteman Library membership actually just passed. A new policy that will give people who sign up for an online library card. Anyone can sign up for an online library card. You don't even need to come into our building. It makes that online sign up essentially analogous to the same sign up you would have if you came into the building. So if you are busy, you're working full time, you don't have a lot of time to come into the library, but you're really fond of using e-books from the library or checking out movies from the library from our canopy tool, you can sign up for your card online and your card doesn't expire for four years just like a library card that you would get when you would come in here. So you're able to access all of our digital materials without ever stepping through our doors. We're happy to make that change and better support. So many patrons who use our online resources but don't need to come into the library. And I have to just imagine that the grab bags that were so popular that you guys kind of assembled for families a lot of the time because they would contain lots of different books of different sorts etc. And people could basically just come in, grab the bag and go home and like a little Christmas thing or whatever, just see what goodies were inside etc. And I know that was very popular. Remember, this room was just filled, check and block of those bags for a couple of years. Yeah, so I imagine that. Do you try and, is there a way to keep that kind of thing? Oh yeah, that program is still available. There's been a big drop off in the number of people requesting those grab bags but we certainly fill grab bag requests still to this day. I do think that people missed the physical library. So now that they're able to come in, that those requests have really gone down. Right, because people just come in and do that here basically. But that program is never going to go away. Now that grab bags are here, they're here to stay, not as much use, but people will, yeah, it's a great service. All right. Well, we only have a couple minutes left. I'm wondering, like obviously we've covered a lot of ground, we always do. But I'm wondering if there's anything that you'd like to mention that we haven't yet. Just thought I hope that everybody comes to the library this week, that there's something for everyone here at Robinson Fox Branch Libraries and we are always excited to see visitors. All right. Well, congratulations to you on a couple of things. First of all, the fact that you've made it this far, because I know it was, that was tough. You were doing a couple of jobs at least and anyway, just getting here kudos to you. Kudos on being fully staffed or closer to, and again, just being able to now spend your energies on the things that you took this job for, I'm sure. Yeah, very exciting. So I look forward to continuing to chart the progress. I look forward to our event that we will do here in the coming month. So thank you so much for taking the time to be with us today. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, I really appreciate it. I have, of course, been speaking with Anna Lytton. She is the director of our libraries here in town and this has been Check It Out. So thanks so much for joining us. We really appreciate Anna's time. We really do and we appreciate yours as well. Thanks a lot. We'll see you next time.