 Good morning, and welcome to this week's edition of Encompass Live. I am your host, Krista Burns, here at the Nebraska Library Commission. Encompass Live is the Commission's weekly online event. An online webinar is what we are, where we cover a variety of topics of interest to librarians. The show is free and open to anyone to watch, as are our recordings, our live show and our recordings. We do the live show here every Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. central time. And then all the recordings are on our website. If you're unable to join us a Wednesday morning, that's fine. You just go to our website and watch, see everything we've done in the past. And we do a mixture of things here, presentations, interviews, many training sessions, book reviews. Like I said, anything library related, we want to have it and share it on our show. And we have sometimes Nebraska Library Commission staff that do presentations. And sometimes we bring in guest speakers from outside. And that's what we have this morning. Our topic for today is EDGE, the EDGE Initiative Connecting Technology and Community. This is an initiative that we've presented on before at some meetings here in Nebraska. I don't believe we've done anything online with it yet, I can't recall. But that's great. We have online with us, Lourdes from the EDGE initiative herself from Urban Libraries Council. And Molly, who's actually a library who's been using this. And together, they're going to tell us a little bit about EDGE and how you can use it and how they've been using it. So I'll just hand over to you guys to give more of your full introductions and take it away with your presentation. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Krista. Thanks so much. Well, hello, Nebraska. We, both Molly and I are honored to have been invited to talk about the EDGE initiative with you today. And Krista shared with me that in addition to Nebraska libraries, there are public and academic libraries from across the country joining us today. So thank you to all of you for being here and joining us. And as Krista said, I'm the senior program manager for the EDGE initiative, which is led or the lead agency for the initiative. And I'll talk a little bit about that on an upcoming slide is the Urban Libraries Council. So again, the EDGE initiative falls under one of the initiatives being led by the Urban Libraries Council. And I'm thrilled that Dr. Molly Kinney is joining us today. She has been one of our more successful EDGE libraries and she's located in Mifflin County Library in Pennsylvania. So welcome, Molly. Thank you, Lourdes. I'm so happy to be here. So am I. We're both super excited. So what I'd like to start off with is, since some of you may not be familiar with EDGE, I'll start with a general overview of what EDGE is. Here we go. So what EDGE is is a first of its kind national initiative that helps public libraries assess their current technology services and make improvements that will better serve their communities. So the way we like to see it, it's a management and leadership tool that empowers you to elevate your strategic planning, shape the future of your library, and critically communicate its value in building a strong community. The EDGE initiative was developed by a national coalition of leading library and local government organizations. It was funded fully by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and led by the Urban Libraries Council. And I'm sure that many of these organizations are familiar to you. And we share this list because all of them wanted a role in creating EDGE, which was great for us because these partners add legitimacy to the EDGE metrics. And later, my co-presenter, Molly Kinney, will speak to how name-dropping, if you will, these organization names added credibility to her efforts to implement EDGE. So what this group developed was a toolkit, which is what we like to call EDGE, that was filled with useful scalable tools that help libraries identify both what's working and where there's room for improvement. So together, these components, these tools help libraries plan for the future and it positions them to work directly with local leaders to align on community priorities. So let's do a little bit of a deeper dive. Let's take some time to look at all the tools and resources you'll have as a participating library. So here, the EDGE benchmarks are the first ever set of national benchmarks designed to inspire continuous improvement and reinvestment in public access technology in libraries. They serve as reference points against which a library's practices can be compared. And I'll share some examples or I'll share a couple of benchmarks in upcoming slides so that you can see what those benchmarks look like. The assessment tool, which is the next icon you see there, helps libraries assess and evaluate their current technology-related services. It allows libraries to enter data and find out how they're doing relative to these benchmarks. So this is a point in time assessment and it's intended to measure the services you offer today, not what was offered last year or what you plan to offer next year, but what does the library offer its community today? And once the library completes the assessment, EDGE generates recommendations based on the library's responses, on how they can improve the library's public technology services. And to help the library implement these recommendations, we provide resources, such as templates, tools, and tips. We also provide case studies that feature examples of public libraries of all sizes implementing projects related to the benchmarks. And we do this so that libraries can use them or adapt them to fit their local needs. Additionally, EDGE offers four 90-minute training webinars developed for EDGE by PLA, one of our partners in the creation of EDGE. These training webinars guide libraries in using their EDGE results for planning, advocacy, and outreach activities so that they can build on their existing technology services. And last but not least, the tool could include customizable reporting and presentation tools that will help library leaders show how their library supports the local economy, workforce, lifelong learning, and a strong community. So it's not just the benchmarks we offer. The benchmarks are supported by these training webinars and customizable materials that help staff demonstrate the quality of their existing technology services to convince decision makers to continue to re-invest in public technology access in libraries. So here's a graphic that we find is helpful because the benchmarks are categorized into three key areas that assess, as you can see, community value. That is, the library's value to its community, engaging the community and decision makers and organizational management. So those are the three main areas into which the 11 benchmarks are grouped. And you'll notice we use the word community a lot. And that's intentional. It's true that the demands and challenges are different at each library. We understand that, and we understand that each community has unique needs and demographics. Nevertheless, one of the ideas underpinning edge is ultimately to strengthen the library's role as an essential public asset and reorient the public's perception of the library to that of library as community anchor. So that was very intentional in the creation of these benchmarks. And I wanted to show you a couple of examples of the benchmarks themselves. Here's an example of a benchmark in the first section of the assessment, community value. All the questions in the community value section are about services and activities and programs that are provided to patrons. And the objective of this section is to determine whether what the library offers matches what the community needs. So as you can see, the benchmarks themselves are aspirational statements. Libraries provide technology resources to help patrons meet important needs related to personal goals and community priorities. But then we probe to see whether a library has taken this aspirational statement and made it into an actionable best practice. So for example, is it meeting its patron needs where it regards finding a job or filing for unemployment? What of applying for financial aid for college? So things like that. We want to get down to the actual best practices that the library has. And all of the questions in the next section of the assessment engaging the community and decision makers are about library activities, design to help the library better understand the needs of its community, but also build supportive relationships. So as you can see, this benchmark and this section focuses on those partnerships and how they expand the resource or they potentially can expand the resources offered by the library. So I'll stop at these two benchmarks and say that you can see all 11 of them as well as the full set of questions asked on the Edge Assessment by visiting libraryedge.org and clicking on benchmarks and resources. The full set is available to you there. So I've talked a bit about Edge and its components, but I'd like to take a moment to share with you how some actual libraries have implemented Edge and the types of outcomes they've achieved as a result. So the first library I show here is Miami, Oklahoma. Looks like Miami, but in Oklahoma it's pronounced Miami. And they have a population of just under 14,000. Even before they started with Edge, they offered at least 25 training classes annually on technology. And after the Edge Assessment, they also expanded these offerings to start offering one-on-one 30-minute sessions to accommodate patrons who could not or would not attend the group classes. The library director also increased staff training. She realized from Edge that the library had a lot of technology. They had all the right devices and software, but none of her staff were considered experts. So she scheduled training sessions for every staff person and it's really made an impact. Also, New Brunsfeld serving a larger population of 60,000. There, the library director, Gretchen Pruitt, had an eye-opening moment with the Edge benchmarks. When she started to do research for Edge, she realized that they were not serving the community's disabled population. The only thing that the library had to serve the needs of this population were large print books. So since getting their Edge results, a staff person has taken an ADA class on serving the disabled and they are developing a comprehensive strategic plan to address the needs of this population. For example, they're planning on getting a fully accessible computer station and are looking at what low-hanging fruit they can pick off now. For instance, modifying an existing station or installing software. So these are just two of the eight case studies we've conducted with Edge libraries. You can see all eight of the case studies again by visiting libraryedge.org. And this graphic reflects what we've learned from Edge libraries about the value of Edge. What they've told us is that Edge is a valuable tool within libraries through engaging staff as well as within the community where libraries have used the Edge tools to better communicate their value. And this graphic reflects how libraries have talked about what they want Edge to accomplish for their library. It's also an important theme for today's presentation which focuses on community engagement and how Edge prepares a library to succeed and better leverage community support. And again, this theory of change appears on the website. So if it's not transmitting well, you can view a much prettier graphic on libraryedge.org. But this is a snapshot of our theory of change. Outlining how this important program is creating change across audiences. And I wanted to share it with you today to illustrate that the assessment and the subsequent activities that follow, such as the training webinars I mentioned and action planning, all fall under that first step. So that's to say that that first step marks what we hope will be the beginning of a transformative process for libraries. Our goal is to help libraries move along this path toward the ultimate goal of improving the quality of life of members of their community. So we don't want libraries to step on. We want them to keep moving on this path. And I thought it'd be useful to take a moment to look at all the tools or to look at the actual online tool and some of the resources that you'll have as a participating library. Once you register for an account and receive your login credentials, you'll have access to the online assessment tool. You'll have a dashboard that allows you, or that shows you rather, exactly where you are in the process. You'll have the ability to export and download files. You'll receive immediate results and recommendations. And we'll be able to customize tools and reopen the assessment to adjust answers as needed. So for this demonstration, I just wanted to show you how, when you log in, you'll be taken to this page, which is the dashboard, the overview page. Here we provide information about how the assessment works and a brief overview of how you unlock all of the tools and resources in the program, which become available only after you've completed the assessment. So here's the dashboard. We've made improvements to this dashboard to ensure users can easily recognize where they are in the tool. For example, here you're on the Getting Started page and the Getting Started button is a deeper blue than the other tabs. When you click on the other tabs, the color will change to show where you are in the process. And an example of a benchmark question, as it looks on the online assessment, or this is that. So I showed you how the benchmarks looked outside of the assessment, but this is how they would look when you're taking the assessment itself. And if you've ever completed a survey monkey, this should look familiar. So it's a similar kind of radio button technology. Libraries will choose from yes or a version of no. And the different versions of no don't change anything in the final results, but it was something that libraries expressed an interest in being able to share. Also, it takes between, I'm sorry, two to three hours to complete the online assessment. But you don't have to complete it all in one sitting. The online tool automatically saves each answer as you move between pages. So you're able to save and come back to the assessment at a later time. And once you complete the assessment, you'll have immediate access to your result summary, which is here, the score summary. You'll see the total points achieved, the maximum possible points, which are 1,000, and also the points achieved by each of the strategic area. So here you'll see that this library, which is a test account, scored lower than the other areas on engaging the community. You can also click on the view results and reports button to get more detailed information. And you'll have access to a complete report that will display your results, including the answers you provided by clicking on the download report button below. It's a little whiteed out, but that report can be downloaded and saved and shared with relevant stakeholders there. Once you complete the assessment, the other sections of the tool become unlocked and available to you in any order. And this includes the ability to register for training webinars by clicking on review training opportunities. It also allows you to review the recommendations I mentioned that you receive based on your responses. These are obviously tailored to your library. And it'll also open up that last step, step four, take action, where you can create an action plan and customize presentation tools so you can showcase what you've done to your stakeholders. So as I've mentioned, when you complete the assessment, you receive tailored recommendations based on your responses. And the recommendations are essentially an action statement driven by the benchmarks. So for example, the recommendation you see there for 2.1 is ensure video audio recording and editing software is available in at least one location. You don't have to choose every recommendation. You can choose which ones to add to your action plan. And we recommend selecting no more than 10. 3 to 5 is what we recommend. Some pick 6 to 10, which is fine. But we've also seen some libraries pick 30 or 40. And we discourage that because we feel if you prioritize everything, you prioritize nothing. And so we encourage libraries to take bite-sized chunks for their action plan. Under each recommendation, there are also resources. If you click on that, you'll see that it's hyperlinked. It's a blue font. And it says 5 resources. And if you click on that, it expands to show you templates, tools, and tips that will help you implement that recommendation. So we don't just say, hey, ensure video audio recording and editing software and let you figure out how to do that. We will help you. We'll give you resources that will make it easier for you to implement that recommendation. And here is the beginning of an action plan, which is one of the pieces that we believe will be most helpful for libraries because it will help guide you on what to focus. It's also a flexible tool because it allows you to manage each of those action items and monitor progress. So if you click on number one, say, that ensure video audio recording, it will ask you to select from a dropdown of not started, in progress, or completed. So it allows you to monitor that progress. And last but not least is the action plan. I'm sorry, is the executive tools also a results-oriented tool. It was created to help you advocate for the great things you're already doing as much as the ones that you plan on doing. So this is one we hope libraries will take advantage of early and often. The executive tools include a downloadable guide on how to use these tools, a sample one-page lead behind to show you what the finished product should look like, a customizable one-page lead behind that each library can create, and sample PowerPoint templates that you can use to create brief presentations. So all of that in this step. This is an example of the one-page lead behind that you'll create in the tool that we hope you'll leave with your city managers or mayors when you're done telling them how great your library is. And one of the things that we're most excited about is the peer comparison tool. During the soft launch of our initiative last year, or after rather, we conducted an evaluation, and many library leaders expressed the desire for more context around their score, rather than in apples to oranges comparison between libraries of vastly different sizes. So you saw the score summary. If you recall, you had a maximum of 1,000 points. So libraries last year that tested edge were scoring 200 or 400 or 600. And they had no way of understanding, well, is that good? Is it bad? You know, I guess it's good if I'm closer to 1,000. And so the peer comparison tool we're creating is a direct response to those concerns. So in a few months, we'll be able to give libraries data on how other libraries of a similar size scored on the assessment so that they can make more appropriate comparisons. Approximately 800 libraries nationwide were randomly selected from seven peer groups that were defined by the population they serve. For example, peer group one were libraries serving less than 5,000. Peer group two, five to 15, so on and so forth through peer group seven serving over 350,000 patrons. So these are obviously the large municipal systems. So we're going to use the result from these libraries to create a peer comparison tool so that libraries that are big, say over 350,000, can see what the average score are for libraries of their size. Conversely for the peer group or for the small libraries, they can aptly compare to other libraries of their size. And the tool will allow libraries to compare their score in aggregate as well as by benchmark to other libraries of their size rather than to the point total of 1,000. So we're really looking forward to that. We're expecting that tool around September of this year. And that's sort of the overview I had. I wanted you to look at what the actual online assessment looked like as well as give a general overview of the development of the initiative and where it's at today. And before I introduce Molly, I'd like to pause and see if anyone has any questions on the information that I've presented so far. Thanks, Lourdes. That was, I love the edge tools. As I said, we had been, started looking at them back in 2011, really the first time we first heard the noises of something coming and we presented on it a couple of technology planning summer camps we had here in Nebraska. And as it's been going on, been keeping an eye on things. So very interesting and useful, I think, that people can use this actually. My favorite part I think is the end thing at the end when you can generate things, presentations and documents to then show your patrons and your money people and your administration, here's what we need to do or here's what we've done that's good and it can spit out that's kind of great resources for you. Can you hear me, Krista? Yep. Okay, great. Yeah, and that was a very intentional piece because, you know, traditionally many municipalities are used to sort of a need-based approach, right? Like this is where we are failing, if you will, maybe, you know, this is where we're not doing great and this is what we need. But we really wanted to reorient that thinking and also make it an asset-based approach. Oftentimes libraries are already doing wonderful things and telling no one about it, you know? Right. So like we know, but others don't. You're doing them and people are using the resources and coming to the programs and you think that's great but outside of the people who are already using it you need to be tooting your own horn too. That's right. Absolutely. And so the executive tool allows you to do both things. You could talk about, hey, you know, you could do two points and say, this is what we're doing great. Even if you're a star library, if you will, you know? And say, yeah, we want to continue being that. You know, help us do that. Yeah, and when you get those peer comparisons, here's something great we're doing. And look, all these other libraries are doing it too. This is the future of stuff that libraries need to be thinking about and doing because we're all trying to do it. Absolutely. Yeah. So if anybody does have any questions or comments, you can use the questions section of your GoToWebinar interface to type in. Or if you have a microphone, just say, I have a microphone on mute me and I can do that. We do have one question that came in. It's actually from Susie Dunn. She's at Southeast Community College here in Lincoln on Nebraska. She wants to know if there's been any interest expressed by special libraries or other types of libraries in using this tool. I know this is geared to public libraries, but have you had interest from other types of libraries? We have. It hasn't been overwhelming, but that also could simply be a fact of, you know, exposure, right? So they're just starting to hear about it. Maybe the more they hear about it, the more interest will be generated. Our marketing efforts have been, you know, around public libraries. And it just became an actual full, able to use tool just this past January, correct, of this year? That's correct. Launched on January 22nd nationally. That's correct. Yeah. So we have had some interest at this time. It will remain a tool for public libraries, although anyone can download the Edge Assessment workbook, which is a replica of the questions online. And, you know, it might help them, you know, it may provide some metrics, but there's not a formal way of assessing yourself online and getting results unless you're a public library. So at this time, there's not a plan to expand the public libraries. Okay. Great. Thanks. No other questions came in just now. So I think we could go ahead onto Molly. But if anyone does have any questions while they're talking, feel free to type them in and we'll grab them one weekend. All right. So I'll go ahead and introduce Dr. Molly Kinney of Mifflin County, Pennsylvania. She has been a library, you know, who has used Edge and done wonderful, exciting new things with it. And I can't wait to hear her speak. I can't wait for all of you to listen to her great story. So with that, I will cede the floor to you, Molly. Well, thank you. And good morning from Central Pennsylvania, where it's hot and miserable in the grass growing. I would like to tell you a little bit about Mifflin County by way of putting some context into our conversation. Mifflin County is small. We are rural. We rank 66 out of 67 counties in per capita income. We are aging. 76% of our households do not include a zero to 18-year-old in the house. 76%. We were already depressed. So the latest Great Depression, well, it really had a significant impact on our population and our county. And this is a county that's very close-knit. If you don't know everybody, you know somebody who knows the person you don't know so that you can be introduced to this person. A lot of faith-based organizations and civic groups. So we had, you can advance, Lord, we had five branches but closed two just in the past year. We have 12 full and part-time staff members, 25 volunteers, and about a $500,000 a year operating budget. Now, if you're somebody from a larger library or somebody from a special or an academic library, you may be thinking, well, you know, how is this going to help me? Because I'm not any of those things she's talking about. However, I think you can. I'm going to give you some very practical, practical tips about the assessment tool and the result. And no matter what size library you are or no matter what kind of library you are, you can certainly extrapolate and use the information. So I was hired in January of 2013. And during the interview process, this is Lordeus' favorite story. During the interview process, the interview team told me that the library had a few financial problems. Well, what library doesn't have a few financial problems? I mean, I came from a university library in Florida that had millions of dollars, and we still had a few financial problems. So I figured, well, you know, that's just par for the course. And my first day was January 14, 2013. And the administrative assistant, who also functions as the bookkeeper, came into my office and she said, Dr. Kinney, here's our checkbook, and we have $36.11. And here are December's bills. And the friends met the first payroll of January. That was a little more than a few financial problems. And after I got done panicking and said, okay, okay, I'm not going to hyperventilate just yet, I was already, I had already been looking around the library. And so we had no broadband, and the aisle last was 14 years old, and we had a technology plan that, Lord, it was so out of date, I just threw it out. We were still using original Gates computers when the Gates Foundation did that computer rollout. And we had a staff that didn't know what they didn't know. So a few financial problems were added into that. So I was really searching to come up with a way to focus our attention, to figure things out, to begin to develop some kind of plan, because the library didn't have a strategic plan either. So we were asked to be a soft launch for the Edge Initiative. And my first thought was, oh my God, it's just one more thing I have to do. But when you really take a look at this tool, it really does have the power, with our help of course, our implementation, to change the service to the community. You just got to be terminally perky about this. This isn't one more thing you have to do. I mean, this really is a tool for change. And you have to permeate and integrate your organization with the initiative. In my case, my entire future, I felt revolved around the Edge, because to come up with this kind of plan on my own would have taken years. I didn't even have years. We got our state aid check, and I realized that we could operate until September 1, and then the Mifflin Guilty Library was going out of business. So I used this tool as if my life depended on it. And we wanted to take a long-term approach to the initiative. So how did we go about this? The first thing that we did was develop an attitude. And Lourdes referred earlier to using those partnering names to give you a layer of credibility in your conversations. So right away, when I told my board, oh, well, this is an initiative by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Everybody's ears perked up. It wasn't just me coming and saying, that's what we're going to do. Realize that the results aren't going to be anything new to you, or at least probably not. And the adage that we used was, if you give a man a fish, he eats for a day, and if you teach a man a fish, he eats for a lifetime. Those roll-out computers that happened 10 years ago or 11 years ago, they were the fish. This initiative teaches us how to fish. The next thing that we had to do was get everybody on board, because you can't do this alone. If you try to do this alone, what you have in the end is you have backed the ad. Or whoever you designate, if you're the library director and have people that you can designate to, it becomes their project. And then that's exactly what it is. A project in this, to relegate this initiative to a project is to do a disservice, both to your community. So I was the library's edge leader. I worked really hard to understand what this initiative was about and how to use the tools, but I also worked with my leadership management team so that they were on board. They helped to complete the assessment. And here's just a little tip. When you do the assessment, print it off and do it in paper. That way, you can talk to others about it. I had my entire leadership team do the assessment each on their own, and then we came together, got a master copy of the thing, and then went on to the Edge website and filled out. We took the quote survey. We talked to all staff. We talked to the board of trustees. We talked to the French group. And we also talked to funders. If you just pick one person from each of your funding bases, well, for those of you who are in university libraries, if you have a faculty advisor group or student advisory group, you can bring them into this process. So pick one person from each of those funding groups or support groups and get their support and let them sell that initiative to their colleagues. Last of all, we needed to get the community at large to understand how exciting this was and how it provided the opportunity for change. So those were kind of our initial steps at getting everybody going. So then we took the assessment. I want to be in that 600 library that we were just so due. It was pathetic, pathetic our results. We had 124 action items. I just took a look at that and I thought, oh man, it was bad but I know it was this bad. So don't be discouraged by the recommendations. There are going to be questions that you are going to answer. Nope, we don't do that and we don't have any plan to do that. That still shows up in your results. It still shows up in the recommendation. So some things you can filter out automatically. For example, my main library is about 1200 square feet. I have a branch library that's 563 square feet. One of the recommendations was that we did not have enough computers per capita. Well, I'd like to know where I'm supposed to put those computers because I can't hang them from the ceiling and I have no floor space to put them. So we just kind of took that recommendation and left it there but moved to one. Another priority was that we should, there's a priority there under that third category which totally leads me right now, organizational something. And one of the things that it asks us about privacy screens, well, I don't want privacy screens. The unique individuals that come into my library, and now I don't want them to have that kind of privacy. If they need privacy, I'll find a space to put them. So, you know, take a look at the recommendations and don't be discouraged. Prioritize those recommendations over a several year period. Talk about the results. Get the word out, however it is that you want to do that. For example, we have a county commissioner on our board. When I created my action plan, I created it and included absolutely everything, all 124 recommendations. I then went back and created a second action plan where I took things out. Then I created a third action plan of what I wanted to work on right away. That was the results that I got out to our funders, the key stakeholders, the staff, and the community at large. We took our priorities and we added them to our position descriptions at all levels. Clerk 1's, Clerk 2's, all the way up to the assistant director, we somehow tied these edge results that we wanted to work on into our position descriptions. And then we picked the management team, picked one priority that the board could focus on, and they picked a second priority for the friends to work on. And we told each other the board and the friends worked together so that they could tie each priority to the other and to the overall initiative. And then we asked, we asked for seed money. You know, we're always asking for money, but we're not very good at asking for specific money. So rather than go to our funders and say, we need money for this edge initiative, we asked for some seed money. We asked from the county commissioners, we asked from the friends group, we asked community groups. And then we allocated, after we figured out we were going to be able to operate past September 1st, we allocated money in the 2014 budget for priority. So then we started communicating, really communicating with the whole broad-based community. You've got to keep talking about the edge. If you have a Twitter account, if you have a Facebook, we did letters to the editor. We have a small local daily newspaper, and we have a reporter who was in the Children's Librarian's Storytime when the reporter was three and four, and she, of course, has become a big library advocate. So we call her up and say, excuse me, why don't you come do an article about the edge? And believe it or not, we even made the front page below the fold, but we made it. Put the edge logo on your website as a hyperlink so that people can go to the edge and they can see what this is about and spend some time figuring it out if they're interested in that. And then use the edge toolkit when it's appropriate, but do customize it for your community. Our community likes its information very simple at about fourth-grade reading level, and so when we write things, that's the audience that we write to. I'm not sure that that's exactly the audience that the toolkit is geared toward, but it gives you a framework and it gives you an outline so that you're not coming up from scratch to do things. And then refine your elevator speech. Be so comfortable with that that you could do it in your sleep. And be practical. When you are talking to people, answer the question, what can edge do for me before somebody asks, because that's what it's all about. You know, people want to know what it can do for them. So get that question answered right up front. So here are the results after doing all of that. And I would admit to you, when you get these recommendations, they're given to you in priority, recommendation one, recommendation two, recommendations three. First-level recommendations take the least amount of staff and money. The second level takes a little more staff, a little more money. And the third one, of course, takes the most money and staff. So we did most of our recommendations, and I'm one of those people that picked more than Lord has wanted us to. But I was in a mess and I wanted to get this done and we needed to get this done. So we selected 12 priorities. And most of it we've done in-house with existing staff, with the seed money that we went out and asked for. So we asked the Lions Club for $500 and then we asked the Women's Service Club for $300. And we asked the local Catholic Church if they would do a tie for us. That's how we collected this, little bit at a time, but it was focused money. So the County Commissioners gave us $16,000 in seed money. We shifted people's staff duties around and we created a technology services coordinator position. I took a person out of technical services who was doing copy cataloging but had an interest and some background knowledge and moved her to the technology services coordinator position. We designed a completely new website. Here in Pennsylvania we have district libraries which are resource centers for those of us who are smaller and don't have the staff or the resources. So some of our district services staff wrote some code for us. They provided some training. They generally provided their expertise. But this new technology services coordinator actually created the site. Lordess, do you want to advance that? Thank you. We have a completely new broadband network and we did hire a consulting firm to help us with this. I don't know that stuff. I don't want to know that stuff. I knew that I didn't have the time or expertise to do that. So we did get a consulting firm to come in and help us with that. We updated our integrated library system and it's now cloud based. And we installed the time and print management software on all the public access computers. I know this might not be a big deal to most of you because time print management software has been around for a long time. Well, we still had staff who were like hand recording when Mary got on the computer. And then watching the clock and then walking over and saying Mary, you have to get off the computer now. That's not a good use of staff time. Or at least in my instance, I had bigger things to do with staff. I wanted them to be engaged in different kinds of activities. And then we implemented a staff training program to help people update and learn their new skills. So where are we right now? Well, hey, we're still operating. And we are still working on the edge and we will continue to work on the edge for the next five years. I mean, I'm developing the strategic plan right now that includes pieces of this initiative that will take us five or more years to implement. And the community engagement piece, you know, you think, oh, yeah, but computers are going to change in five years. And we'll organize what else is going to be out there. That's only one component of this initiative. So that community engagement part can take you up to five years. But here's what I really like about this. You know, life just should not be a journey to the end where you just go through the motions. But you should skid broadside in with a cloud of smoke thoroughly used up, generally worn out and loudly proclaiming, wow, what a ride. And that's what the edge initiative has been for us. And we thank all of the partnering agencies and particularly the Bill and the Wendy Gates Foundation for helping us to do that. So whatever it is that you are thinking about doing with the edge, I strongly encourage you to do that. It is well worth the effort. Your community is much, much better off for the implementation of the recommendations and the information that they will get out of this edge initiative. Thank you for having me. And if you have any questions, please type away. Thanks so much. Sorry, Chris, I just want to take a moment myself to thank Molly Kinney. I know we're about to wrap up the hour, but she is a tough act to follow, folks. That was amazing. Thank you, Molly. No, it's no problem. But we can go as long as needed with the questions and whatnot. We're not going to get cut off right at 11 a.m. or anything. No problem. But yeah, I agree with Lourdes. I know she said, you know, I want to have Molly on. She's awesome. And I agree now, totally, yeah. That was great information, especially about what you guys were doing there. I feel, wow, your library wasn't bad shape when you got there. But I hope this is going to get things, or has gotten things on track and will keep going that way. We do have a couple of questions. I think it'd be probably one for each of you, but I'll go with Molly first. Would you be able to share, and I'm not sure if you'd do it here, but we could maybe get the info. The job description for the technology services coordinator, this library says they're currently evaluating staff changes in light of their new strategic plan and would be interested in what you guys came up with for that particular position. Oh, absolutely. How do I get the info? Do I send it to you, Kristen? Yeah, if you want to send it to me, I will include it in the show notes afterwards when we put the recording up. I can include it as an extra document that's part, in addition to the recording. We'll have the slides, and then I can put links to your library. I have already in there links to libraryedge.org. And I can include the document too for people to look at. Now, I will tell you that our library is a union shop, all nine of them. And so you could probably tweak this. There were some things that I would have loved to have included, but I couldn't because this employee is a member of the bargaining unit. So, for example, I would have liked to have made her a manager and gotten her out of the bargaining unit role. Unfortunately, that was not a possibility. So I'll send this to you, and if someone doesn't make sense, or if you have additional questions. Crystal, will my e-mail address be part of the record? If we get, was it on the first screen of these slides here? Lourdes, the slides here, we can either link to them or put up a PDF for them afterwards. I didn't know if your contact info was on these or not. Or actually, well, we have a link to your library. Yeah, I do. I'm amicably the link to your library's website. MifflinCountyLibrary.org, but it will be included in the links afterwards. So you'll be able to find, and I found that, I actually found your info there. There's a staff page. EZ has her e-mail right there. Cool. The other question we got in that I think would be for Lourdes is, are there press releases available in the tools section? There are not press releases available. But if your library is participating in Edge and you'd like one, I can make one available to you. And, Crystal, you can include that for the attendees on this call, just as you will the job description, so I can make that available. Cool. And for those of you who haven't registered, I just want to say it's really simple. You just go to libraryedge.org and you could go on the upper right-hand side of the page and click sign up. It's super easy as is downloading the Edge Assessment Workbook. Molly mentioned that her and her staff each printed one. I thought that was such an interesting approach to me. Normally one is printed, but that each of them completed the assessment to then come together and say, did your answer match? And if not, why not? And that's just a wonderful way to engage the entire staff in the process. That workbook is on our website. Anyone can download it, and you can begin collecting the data that you can later input into the online assessment. Right, so you don't have to actually sign up at least to get the workbook? The workbook, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. You can start on the process before formally signing up and requesting an account. Cool. Just one practical thing about taking the assessment. If you aren't sure of the answer, answer no. Well, I mean, here's a, for example, we were on our website, we do have some useful links, and that ties back to that benchmark about resources that you're offering to the community. But we offer them, but I don't think they're very good. So I said no, because I didn't like the quality of what was on the website. By the same token, don't overthink your answers. Be thoughtful, but don't overthink them. That's great advice, Molly. We get that question a lot, unlike how people should answer. And I'd like to call out, on our website on libraryh.org, on the upper right-hand side, sign up for the account. On the upper left-hand side is a link to our support center. That support center is our knowledge base. And one of the wonderful features that includes is an assessment answer key. So it walks you through how to answer each assessment question. Literally, it says benchmark one, 1.1, 1.2. It'll list a question, and it'll say answer yes if. Answer no, you know, the three no's, and it'll give like a little guide as to when you should answer yes or when you should select one of the no answers. That's all available on the Edge Support Center. We've worked really hard to build out that knowledge base, so that if you have a question, you don't have to wait for the support center to respond. Although we respond, or we try to respond within 48 hours, we wanted that information to be immediately available to Edge users, and it is now. So if you want to look at how to answer 5.4, you could click on the support center, look at it, and you know, if you still have questions, you can submit a support ticket, but you'll probably find your answers there. Cool. Now there's also, I don't see any, there's no cost to register and use this. That's correct. There is no cost. It is open to all public libraries in the United States, so you would, on the registration form, you would select your state and then your library from the drop-down. There's no cost to participate, or for any part of the toolkit, the assessment, all of the resources we discussed today, it's all free of charge. Right. So for the U.S. The funding for Bill and Gates. Right. So for U.S. public library, go ahead and register. If you're not a public library, download the workbook and use that to try and keep up with these kind of things at your library. That's correct. Yeah. Any other questions anybody has? We are a little after 11 o'clock, but that's okay. If you have anything urgent you need to ask right now, get it in. Otherwise, we will have links for all their contact info. You can reach out to them afterwards. Do you have any more slides left here, or is this it? No, this is good. Okay, cool. Yeah, and I'd like to share our contact information, as Molly mentioned. So perhaps in the email you send out, Chris, if you could share my contact information. Yeah. I'll be glad to field any follow-up questions that people may not think of right now. We can add that, not a problem. It doesn't look like anything urgent is being typed in right now. So I think we will wrap it up officially for the morning. Thank you so much, Lourdes and Molly. This was great. Like I said, as I said, we've been monitoring Edge since when we first heard about it. And so I'm glad that it's finally come out and become an actual tool that libraries can use. Thanks for having us. Yeah, thanks for having us. Thank you, Nebraska. All right. I'm going to pull back Presenter Control now to my computer. And here is, let's get it posted up here. There we go. Here's the Edge website that you were talking about. The sign up over here on the upper right. Support center over here. And also information about the benchmarks and everything you can find here from the site. And this has been added to our, used delicious to say, share any links that are related to our sessions. So this is, we've got a link to Edge, to Molly's library. And the other two libraries you have to mention in your presentation. I know there are other ones that were pilot libraries and whatnot, but these are the ones that you mentioned. So I figured I added theirs in as well. So that will wrap it up for this morning. Thank you very much, Molly and Lourdes, and everyone for attending. The show is being recorded, so it will be available later this afternoon, we'll say. And you all, I'll, an email, you all let you know when the recording is available and up for you to view. It is right here in our archive section on our Encompass Live website. It's where we have all the links to all of our recordings, to all of our previous shows. That's where you'll be able to go get it, but I'll send you guys all an email directly, you know, when it's there. So that will wrap it up for this morning. I hope you join us next week when our topic is our Tech Talk with Michael Sowers. Michael Sowers is the Technology Innovation Librarian here at the Nebraska Library Commission. And once a month he comes on Encompass Live and does a more techie-oriented show. And this month, next week, he has entered the, let's see, Mozillarian. I'll say I pronounced that right. Weaving the Mozilla in library communities. Mozilla is the organization that puts out Firefox, among other things. And they've got this initiative going where they're working with libraries more on a whole much different projects. So we're going to have some staff here from the Mozilla Foundation, from Facilitating Change, a consultant group, and a librarian from Stockholm, Sweden Public Library who's involved in this initiative. Well, we'll be with us next week. So sign up for that next week. If you are on Facebook, you can like us on our Facebook page at Encompass Live. And we post notices there of when shows are starting or reminders of recordings, new sessions, whatever. So if you're a big Facebook user, definitely like us there. And you can keep up with what we're doing. Other than that, thank you very much for attending. And we'll see you next week on Encompass Live. Bye-bye.