A Very Successful RLS Workshop!

I am thrilled to report that our first rural library sustainability workshop on Wednesday was very successful. The group met at RCPL and everyone was full of wonderful ideas and information to share. I left feeling truly blessed to be involved in this project. I have posted the notes from our brainstorming session on the Librarytrax blog. Please check those out if you are interested. We focused on Outreach, Advocacy, Library Connections and Training. Some of my favorite ideas that came up over the course of the day included:

• Directors and Managers should build in some flexibility to employee time so they can play with new technologies. If you want to make sure they are being productive, ask them to try out something new and then teach everyone else how it works. That's what we've done here at the State Library! A great resource for this is Charlotte's 23 Things project. Some of the libraries mentioned that they would be going through the 23 Things with their staff.
• Some wonderful groups being reached via outreach programs in the state: Delinquent/abused teens, homeschoolers, seniors, mentally disabled adults, teens, children, college/tech school students and community service groups!
• Some groups that really need to be reached: Business community, homebound and hispanic population. Coming in 2007-2008, a Spanish Language Outreach program -- the same type of training we are offering for Rural Library Sustainability.
• Training ideas: Limit your computer training courses to 12 or less to allow for more individual time with attendees; pair teens with seniors to teach basic computer skills; teach patrons how to use downloadable audiobooks.

These are just a few of the ideas shared at the workshop. I hope that some of you will be able to attend one of our two other workshops in Greenville or Moncks Corner. Let me know if you have any thoughts on this topic. I'd love to hear from you and be sure to check out Librarytrax as I know the Library Development consultants will be posting much more information from this project. Have a great weekend, everyone!