Category: Public Libraries

AvatarMartha Kyrillidou , Posted in Academic Libraries, Collection assessment, Community College, Public Libraries, School libraries, Space assessment, Strategic Planning, Training, At March 10, 2021,

Play and Engage with Library Assessment

Register for this workshop series starting on April 1 offered through NISO!  Looking forward to some hands on, experiential, and engaging experience with a group of colleagues that want to solve and discuss their own library assessment projects and work towards making progress.  We are offering the NISO series on 21st Century Assessment in a new format, cohort based, engaging, and participatory.  We want to discuss and address the real issues, our webinar participants have and use the cohort based experience for learning and growth.  Come and play with us, have fun, and continue to learn from the amazing amount of content that has been produced on library research and assessment the last year.  Register now!  https://www.niso.org/events/2021/04/assessment-practices-and-metrics-21st-century-2021-participatory-learning-experience.  COVID-19 has provided opportunities for content to be produced and made available in an unprecedented way.  Beyond the rich content of the 24 webinars offered through NISO in the last three years (2018, 2019, 2020), the full set of 2020 Library Assessment Conference Presentations are now available on YouTube, as well as many other useful presentations through RIPL (Research Institute for Public Libraries) Data Boot Camp and the IRDL (Institute for Research Design in Librarianship) Speaker Series. Our goal is to create opportunities for reflection and engagement with this and related content in order to improve the assessment practice in the participating libraries, and to support assessment practitioners and administrators. In addition to the weekly 60-minute facilitated sessions, participants will spend 60 minutes preparing some reflections and content to share with the larger group each week. As in the past, this training series will be facilitated by Martha Kyrillidou, who will also provide interactive exercises to be used for improving assessment practice in your library.
AvatarMartha Kyrillidou , Posted in Diversity Equity Inclusion, Public Libraries, At February 5, 2021,

Fresh Start @ Your Library helping formerly incarcerated people navigate reentry successfully

Fresh Start @ Your Library is a program started in 2009 at Long Branch Public Library in New Jersey to connect formerly incarcerated people with the resources and services they need to successfully navigate reentry. Thanks to funding from an IMLS grant received by the New Jersey State Library in 2019, the program was able to expand across the state. Now, participating public libraries throughout New Jersey serve as Reconnection Centers, providing people returning from incarceration with one-on-one meetings with licensed social workers, referrals to occupational skills training and employment opportunities, and access to GED prep programs. The program also organizes job and resource fairs to help clients find employment, housing, and other resources and support to help with their transition. For this project, the New Jersey State Library has partnered with the New Jersey State Parole Board, New Jersey Department of Labor & Workforce Development, Long Branch Free Public Library, and Free Library of Philadelphia. The team also includes an Advisory Committee with members from DC Public Library, Denver Public Library, and San Francisco Public Library, and looking towards the future, we hope that this program will be able to expand its reach and make reentry services available in public libraries across the country.
AvatarMartha Kyrillidou , Posted in Public Libraries, Public Relations, Training, At January 21, 2021,

Cross Cultural Communicators in Libraries

The Hispanic population in the United States has reached nearly 58 million in 2016, 18% of the nation’s population and was the second-largest racial or ethnic group. They are drawn from an increasingly diverse mix of countries; 63.2% Mexican origin, 9.5% Puerto Rican, 3.8% Salvadoran, 3.9% Cuban, 3.3% Dominican and 2.5% Guatemalan. In 2015, more than 37 million Latinos ages 5 and older in the U.S. speak Spanish at home, making it the country’s most common non-English language. This project addressed a significant challenge faced by front-line librarians and library support staff in an increasingly multicultural and multilingual society we live in. How do we communicate with and provide desired services to our communities when substantial portions of our residents do not speak English? How do we develop engagements that are culturally responsive and effective? This two-year project developed and delivered online modules and in-person training for 350 Spanish speaking bilingual library professionals in New Jersey, Queens, New York, Connecticut and California. The project ultimately aimed to strengthen public libraries in meeting the needs of its Spanish-speaking communities by means of training bilingual front-line librarians and library support staff to communicate effectively with non-English speaking patrons. Through a multi-faceted collaboration supported by an IMLS grant and led by the New Jersey State Library we worked with the Hartford Public Library, the Queens Public Library, Infopeople, califa, Reforma, Language Link and ALA to develop training for libraries in public libraries virtually and in person. We saw public library colleagues develop confidence and skills in translation and interpretation that will stay with them for years to come!
AvatarMartha Kyrillidou , Posted in Facilities planning, Public Libraries, At December 31, 2019,

Front Page News for Noel Wien Public Library

Daily News Miner QualityMetrics
What a nice way to end the year in 2019! Remodeling library for the 21st century is the title of the front page newspaper article for the Noel Wien Public Library renovation plan QualityMetrics completed this past year.  It is a wonderful closure to 2019 to make it on the front page of the paper on December 30 as the year closes and read through the summary of our work in the wonderful place called Fairbanks, Alaska! The badly needed renovation will be a life-changing experience for the 100,000 residents of this northern most spot where commercial airlines fly!
AvatarMartha Kyrillidou , Posted in Academic Libraries, Community assessment, Community Engagement, Design thinking, Facilities planning, Public Libraries, Space assessment, Training, At December 31, 2019,

Remodeling library for the 21st century – a fabulous ending to 2019!

We worked over a six month period in Fairbanks and got to know the city by travelling there, talking to many people in the community about their needs and wants for the library, and working with our amazing librarian colleagues.  We summarized our findings in 125-pages which includes additional links to substantial appendices as well. Did you know that Alaska is five hours behind the east coast time zone? And, how do you think it feels to live in a place where 24 hours is light in the summer and almost as many hours is dark in the winter?  Did you know that traveling to Alaska in the winter is a big attraction for Asian tourists who are captured by the aurora borealis views? Did you even know that pictures of my dad’s village and family members from Galanovrisi are found on the walls of the Greek restaurant, Bobby’s downtown, in Fairbanks? My future plan includes a trip to Alaska during the winter season to experience the aurora borealis light! And, if you are not sure where Santa lives – Finland? Canada? Alaska?  One of Santa’s homes is North Pole, Alaska! Working on new building designs and library renovations is an exciting area for QualityMetrics.  We have studied library facilities in the past and made meaningful contributions in understanding the impact library spaces on communities.  Our recent research and assessment is moving us at the heart of infrastructure projects making a difference on the ground for every community we work with!  We deal with both the organizational and planning challenges and we can provide recommendations on adjacencies and design choices collaborating with our architectural firm partners. This past year we partnered with G4/HMC/brightspot/QualityMetrics for the planning and program delivery for the new building Chabot College in CA is designing. We are continuing to partner with these colleagues for yet another new building in another community college in CA this year!  We are truly excited to be making a difference at one of the largest higher education institutions in the world.  The California Community Colleges serve 2.1 million students and represent one of the largest student bodies. Community colleges serve important roles in providing job skills, supporting recreational interests, and providing an affordable gateway to four year college degrees. Supporting modern library services in these environments is critical — the community members are often first generation students with limited access to resources; discovering that library resources and services are readily available to them is a life-changing experience! We also offered our popular NISO webinar series again this year featuring 8 webinars on Assessment Practices and Metrics for the 21st Century: A 2019 NISO Training Series. Two of the webinars focused on space planning (slides for all of them available on the NISO website). The other six webinars focusing respectively on collections, services, and strategic innovations! Thanks for our colleague presenters who contributed to this series: Elliot Felix, Pedro Reynoso, Galadriel Chilton, Trevor Dawes, Erin Daix, Joe Zucca, Heidi Nance, Lisa Hinchliffe, Clara Chu, and Merinda Kaye Hensley! As we close the decade, I reflect on where I were ten years ago – finishing my dissertation in 2009 on LibQUAL+, a survey that has been used by more than 1,400 libraries across the globe and spearheaded many badly needed renovations and infrastructure projects for libraries by benchmarking the Library As Place. We opened our thinking to welcoming the voices of the library users in shaping our environments. Establishing QualityMetrics in 2016 allowed me to work more closely with libraries and make an impact with our library consulting services for four years now.  Seeing the impact of our work on the ground is gratifying! We have more exciting things coming in 2020! QualityMetrics is committed to continuing to help libraries improve their spaces, their services, their collections, and maximize the impact of the efforts our library colleagues are making day in and day out!  Libraries transform communities and QualityMetrics transforms Libraries in service to their communities by listening, engaging, sharing, and co-creating! QualityMetrics is looking forward to working with many of you in the coming year!
AvatarMartha Kyrillidou , Posted in Academic Libraries, Collection assessment, Public Libraries, School libraries, At April 18, 2019,

Collection Assessment in a Multi-Type Environment: Marion County Internet Library

Marion County Internet Library (MCIL) is a Grant-Supported Collection of Databases of Electronic Resources.  A partnership of academic, public, and school libraries I got to work with this past year.  How often do you see different types of libraries coming together?  Not very often.  I think it’s worth questioning whether the way we have organized our professional organizations makes sense in today’s environment.  MCIL was established in 1998 and funded through the Indianapolis Foundation Library Fund of the Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF). The Library Fund was established by an anonymous donor for the sole benefit of designated public, academic, and high school libraries in Marion County. Currently, these designated partners include more than 40 public, private, charter, and state high schools serving Marion County; the libraries of IUPUI, University of Indianapolis, and Marian University; as well as the Indianapolis Public Library (IndyPL) and all of its branches. At the current annual cost of approximately $540,000, MCIL provides free access to an expanded scope of online database resources in the Marion County that are not otherwise available. MCIL is available to any Indianapolis Public Library cardholder and is also accessible from home or anywhere off campus. These Internet-accessible online resources include newspaper, journal, and magazine articles; information from standard library reference sources; and collections of resources designed to enhance student learning and achievement.  Assessing collections in such a diverse environment was insightful and rewarding!  I hope we can see more libraries moving towards multi-type collaborations of this nature and more funders supporting such synergies.