All communities have challenges. Libraries are uniquely positioned to help conquer them — given the right tools.
Join ALA and The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation at ALA's 2015 Annual Conference on Saturday, June 27, for a series of four learning sessions to teach libraries to leverage their trusted position in the community to engage people on issues that matter. (Register now.)
“Turning Outward to Lead Change in Your Community” will demonstrate practical tools to aid in decision-making, facilitation and leadership. Each stand-alone session focuses on a single tool; taken together, they become a powerful framework for engaging community and leading change.
Attend one session or all four:
- “Turning Outward to Lead Change in Your Community: Aspirations” (8:30 to 10 a.m.) will help libraries focus on community aspirations, identify next steps for change, and create an aspirations-based story for their community as a starting point for library action.
- “Turning Outward to Lead Change in Your Community: Turn Quiz” (10:30 a.m. to noon) will introduce librarians to the “Turn Quiz” tool, enabling them to assess the focus of their efforts in the community as they shift their orientation from internal to external.
- “Turning Outward to Lead Change in Your Community: Intentionality” (1 to 2:30 p.m.) will enable participants to test the external orientation and mindfulness of their community engagement choices and decisions.
- “Turning Outward to Lead Change in Your Community: Sustaining Yourself” (3 to 4:30 p.m.) will help librarians personally map the components that feed their motivation and commitment for community work.
All attendees will receive a free workbook to continue the process back at home.
The community engagement techniques shared in LTC are based on the Harwood Institute’s “turning outward” practice, which emphasizes shifting the institutional and professional orientation of libraries and librarians from internal to external.
The “Turning Outward” series has been offered at three previous ALA and Public Library Association (PLA) conferences since 2014, and trainings are taking place at state library associations around the country. Don’t miss your chance to receive this training at an ALA national conference.
These sessions are offered as part of Libraries Transforming Communities (LTC), an ALA initiative that seeks to strengthen libraries’ roles as community leaders and change-agents by developing and distributing tools to help library professionals connect with their communities in new ways. The initiative is made possible through a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Learn more at ala.org/LTC.
