Will You Be My Partner?

Forming Partnerships from a Youth Services Perspective

Tara Ellen Forman, Youth Librarian, Early Literacy ServicesEmily Springer, Youth Librarian, Student Services Librarian

Strathcona County Library, Sherwood Park, Alberta

Yellowhead Regional Library Conference, September 17, 2010

PowerPoint, web links and

other references are available at:

http://sclyouthservices.pbworks.com/

Today we will:

• Discuss several of our partnerships

• Highlight what partnerships can offer to libraries

• Highlight how community agencies benefit from library partnerships

• Indicate how community needs are met by successful partnerships

• Share our lessons learned

How we define partnerships

• A mutually beneficial relationship where both parties “give and take” in order to provide programming, services or other initiatives.

• Different than some of our other community relationships and outreach activities where we provide specialized services to a group

Partnerships can be like a box of chocolates . . .

Wonderful, easy, stress-relief!

Partnerships can be like oil and vinegar . . .

The right balance can be superb; the wrong balance not so much.

Partnerships can also be like cheese . . .

Some are stinky!

BUT,

Getting to know us…Strathcona County

Located east of Edmonton

Population of 85,000 people, with 2/3 of population living in Sherwood Park and 1/3 rural

A very youthful community with a growing population of young families

Fastest growing demographic: children under age of 4

Lots of industry (eg. Imperial Oil) is located in Strathcona County

Strathcona County Library

• Staff size of approximately 40 FTE (70 staff)

• Youth Services: 14 staff, including seasonal and clerical

• Over 200,000 items in collections

• Very well supported by community, mayor and county councillors

• One main library in Sherwood Park with Bookmobile service to rural population

the County’s growing preschool demographic means that we struggle to meet demands for preschool programming

this is especially true of programming for babies and toddlers and their caregivers

Biggest pressure point for Youth Services:

The main reason we first turned to partnerships was to expand on early literacy programming and services due to staff and budget limitations.

Partnering with Parent Link

Display Booth at the 2010 Tiny Tots Expo

Storytime Kits

Parent Link-Library programs in action

More, more, more!

• Song, Sign & Rhyme Time and Stay & Play programs

• “supervised play groups” that allow us to offer concurrent parenting and preschool programs

• Parent Link’s facilitation and provision of the SSRT program allowed us to DOUBLE the number of early literacy programs (0-24 months and caregivers) that the library offers. That is 40-50 additional families each programming session!

Thank you Parent Link!

Donor Recognition

What we offer:

-Room space

-Registration

-Publicity

-Most importantly,people who willattend Parent Linkprograms at theirfacility

Community need filled:

- Additional early literacy programs

- More FREE programming in community

- Building awareness of publically available services

- Supporting a healthycommunity

What they offer:

- Staff

- Additionalprogramming

- Different expertiseand differentprogramming

- New audience

- Occasional funding

Cross-promotion

“The more we get together . . . the happier we’ll be!”

Other lessons learned from our Parent Link partnership

• Not all agencies have the same work style as libraries

• A LOT of time will be spent on things like forms, confirming dates, re-confirming dates

• After you’ve double-checked everything . . . Triple check

Quiz: Are you smarter than a Youth Services Librarian?

Tara works 100 hours a month. What percentage of her hours are spent dealing with partnerships?

a) 5 hours

b) 10 hours

c) 25 hours

d) 3.1415965 hours

Briar Patch Kids

Home School Club

Community

need filled:

- Prior to HSC

there were very

few programs in

our community

specifically for

homeschool

families

What they offer:

- Staffing

- Registration

- Expertise

- A trust relationshipwith thehomeschoolcommunity

What we offer:

- Space

- Publicity

- 2 out of 10 programs per year facilitatedby library staff (eg. researchhelp or guest author visit)

“Your friends are my friends and

my friends and your friends!”

Briar Patch Kidslessons learned

• Not all agencies work the same way as libraries . . .

• It is okay to retool and try again; revamping and redesigning programs are part of the partnership process

• Community building is one of the most fulfilling parts of partnerships

The little red hen counts her chickens

Coin Kids

• Easy-peasy “dream partnership”

• But don’t count your chickens!

Community

need filled:

- We were not

aware that

there was a

need for this

program, but

attendance

told us

differently

(15-20 kids)!

What we offer:

- Space

- Publicity and promotion

- Patrons

What they offer:

- Expertise and

a unique program

that we could

otherwise

not provide

Coin Kidslessons learned

• Don’t count your chickens

• Even the best laid plans . . .

• Do not advertise too far ahead of time when dealing with partners; use caution

• Don’t assume that things are long-term or recurring even if everything points that way

Young Author and Artist Camps• Partnership with County’s

Recreation, Parks and Culture department

• We book and secure authors through Young Alberta Book Society (YABS)

• RPC staff provide art portion of program

• Fee: $175 (5 day camp)

What we offer:

- Expertise (we hire the authors)

- $100 towards art supplies

Community

need filled:

- The County has a huge demand for school-age summer day camps

- Education and awareness of local area authors

What they offer:

- Excellentspace complete with pottery facilities and studios

- Qualified staff

- Supervision

Cross-promotion

Author and Artist Camps lessons learned

• This has been a “marriage made in heaven” partnership -- what makes it so successful are both parties’ willingness to plan well ahead of time (we begin recruiting authors, setting fees and writing program descriptions in February for this July program!)

Quiz: Can you cope better than a Youth Services Librarian?

Emily spent her entire work week dealing with partnership issues. How does she cope?

a) Irreverent puppetry

b) Chocolate, coffee and/or wine

c) Humour

d) A good Daytimer and delegation

e) All of the above

Sponsorships

• A type of ‘partnership’ that involves monetary donation from a for-profit organization (local business, large corporations)

• In our experience, somewhat easier to negotiate a straight forward contract (ie. we get $xxx in exchange for xxx)

• Must know your community.

Canadian Library AssociationPosition Statement

http://tiny.cc/CLAsponsorship

Sponsorship of Summer Reading Game

Donor recognition ... in action

Sponsorships

Lessons Learned

- CLA Position Statement on Corporate Sponsorship Agreements in Public Libraries is key

- Written contracts are needed to specify all details and avoid conflict of interest

- As with other partnerships donor recognition is important . Level of permanence and prominence may vary.

Stop being The Little Red Hen

and start enjoying Stone Soup!

To sum up!

• Communication is key

• Rewarding: community building; making connections, expanding services

• Recognition of partners/donors

• Can be resource intensive, but can also free up resources or create opportunity

• You won’t know until you try; test the waters!

• There’s always room for change!

Resources

• “Working Together Toolkit” http://www.librariesincommunities.ca

• Partnering with Purpose: A Guide to Strategic Partnership Development for Libraries and Other Organizations by Janet Crowther and Barry Trott. (Libraries Unlimited, 2004).

• Librarians as Community Partners: An Outreach Handbook edited by Carol Smallwood (Chicago: American Library Association, 2004)

• Serving Families and Children Through Partnerships: A How-to-do-it Manual for Librarians by Sandra Feinberg and Sari Feldman. (Neal-Schuman Publishers, 1996.)

*Lessons for Grown-ups from Children's Books

“She believed that friendships, to begin well, had to stand on mutual information and plenty of it.” ~from Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer

“You must always take risks when experimenting.” ~from Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson

“Little things have big results sometimes.” ~from Willie Without by Margaret Moore

*Quotes from:

What the Dormouse Said: Lessons for Grown-ups from Children’s Books collected by Amy Gash (Algonquin Books, 2004).

Future plans/moving forward

• Roving Chessnuts: www.rovingchessnuts.com

• Lego Club or programming: www.nalug.org

• Grandpals and Linking Generations model: www.bit.ly/c5RLAM ; www.linkinggenerations.ca

THANK YOU!