Let's Talk About Race in Storytime

You know that it's never too early to talk to children about race, but how is it best done? If you could use some help in this area, please join us on August 25 for Let's Talk About Race, an interactive workshop with Jessica Bratt, youth services manager at Grand Rapids Public Library.

This is a full-day, three-part training that engages participants in thinking about how storytime power can be used to inhibit or advance equity and social justice in the library. In this workshop, participants will reflect on their own storytimes and explore:

• Why talking about race is important, and what happens when we ignore race
• Ways to model to caretakers how to talk about race and inclusion
• Tools to have conversations around the decolonization of children’s literature, especially collection development for read-alouds and shared reading

The workshop will take place on Zoom on Tuesday, August 25, from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with a 1-hour break for lunch.

Register for the Let's Talk About Race workshop.

We'll send out the Zoom link when you register. To allow for interaction, registration is limited to 50 participants. If you have questions, please contact Ashley Bieber.

Whole Person Librarianship Online

Join us in September for a free series of two half-day workshops on what libraries can learn from social workers. 

Led by Sara Zettervall, library trainer and co-author of the book Whole Person Librarianship: A Social Work Approach to Patron Services, we will examine social work concepts such as person-in-environment, cultural humility, and reflective practice. You'll have space to apply social work concepts to your own work in a library setting.

The workshops will take place as two sets of mornings, with a day off in between to do independent work:

Monday, September 21 and Wednesday, September 23, 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

OR

Tuesday, September 22 and Thursday, September 24, 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

One set of workshops will be focused on the needs of urban and suburban libraries, and the other will have a rural library focus. Check the next newsletter for registration details!

While the primary audience of this workshop is library staff, especially those who directly assist public patrons, social work students and faculty are also welcome to register.

Please contact Leah Larson, 651-582-8604, for assistance with any questions.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Ashley Bieber and Leah Larson from State Library Services have enjoyed hosting statewide summer learning check-in calls almost weekly since May, with guest presenters and attendees from around the state. Summer (learning) can’t last forever, but the calls will go on!

We need input from any and all youth-serving staff to figure out a new schedule and start lining up topics and speakers for this fall.

Can you help us out? Fill out this survey on Youth Service Staff Calls. The survey is open until August 28, and we definitely want to hear from you!

Falling Out of Love With Screens

As we head into fall, the days shorten and our screens glow ever brighter. Enter LiveMore ScreenLess, a MN-based organization with a mission to advocate and promote digital wellbeing.

This fall, LiveMore ScreenLess will present a series of webinars to equip librarians, especially those working with youth, with the knowledge and tools to promote digital wellbeing.

By participating in the series, you will gain an understanding of how technology overuse and misuse affects the mental, cognitive, social, emotional, physical, and wellbeing of young people. LiveMore ScreenLess will share resources, activities, and strategies to incorporate digital wellbeing into library programs for young people.

The series kicks off on Thursday, September 24, from 1 to 2 p.m. with a webinar digging into the latest research on why we are tethered to our technology, especially our phones.

Register for LiveMore ScreenLess Webinar Series - #1.

We'll send out the Zoom link when you register. Future webinars in the series will cover implementing and sustaining digital wellbeing at your library. If you have questions, please contact Ashley Bieber.

Keys to the Coursera Kingdom

As your library reaches out to people in need of skills training and career retooling, make sure to point them to the Coursera Initiative from the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED).

Through this initiative, any Minnesotan can learn on Coursera for free between now and March 31, 2021. The platform is mobile-friendly, and courses can be downloaded while online to be accessed offline.

• Almost every course in the Coursera catalog is included, at no direct cost to the learner.
• Any certificates or professional certifications earned by users on the platform are also available at no cost.

Users can sign up now through December 31, 2020, and get free access to courses until March 31, 2021.

Libraries Build Pathways to Wellbeing

The Rural Library Service & Social Wellbeing project, launched in 2018, studies the role of libraries in rural communities. Through mixed methods research, they have found that libraries can influence social wellbeing outcomes, and now they are ready to share their findings.

As part of the Research Institute for Public Libraries' (RIPL) webinar series, the team will tell you about the design and outcomes of their research, the Evidence-Based No Rules Tools under development, and how qualitative data coding made it all possible.

Wednesday, August 26, 12 -1 p.m. CT

Presented by Margo Gustina, Southern Tier Library System

For more details, including connection information, see Libraries Build Pathways to Wellbeing on RIPL's site.