Small Library Makes Big Impact through Community Networking

***BEFORE YOU REGISTER FOR THIS WEBINAR PLEASE REVIEW IMPORTANT REGISTRATION INFORMATION BELOW***

Is your library deeply connected within the community it serves? Who are your library advocates? Learn how the McIntosh Memorial Library in Viroqua, WI went through a significant transformation to become a cornerstone resource for the greater Viroqua area. Library director Trina Erickson and youth services director Laci Sheldon will talk about the multi-year commitment the staff and board made to rebrand the library’s image. During this webinar, Erickson and Sheldon will share stories, tips, and timelines on how to elevate the image and usage of your public library.

Learning Outcomes

At the conclusion of this webinar, participants will be able to:

• Identify people, groups, or organizations to network with;
• Create a "networking web" to give guidance on how to begin networking in their community; and
• Identify specific outcomes that are possible when networking with the appropriate groups.

Who Should Attend

This webinar is intended for all public library staff and trustees. All members of a library team are important when it comes to networking.

Panelists

Trina Erickson is the director of the McIntosh Memorial Library in Viroqua, a small community of 4,500 people in Western Wisconsin. Her work in public libraries started in 2007 as a volunteer in the children's department, where she loved helping with storytime, prepping for programs, and even working at the circulation desk. One year after starting as a volunteer at the McIntosh Memorial Library, Trina was hired as the library director. She’s so thankful for her job and the ability to give back to her community everyday.

 

Viroqua, WI is Laci Sheldon’s hometown, where she’s honored to be able to serve her community through her role as the youth services director at the McIntosh Memorial Library.

 

Important Registration Information

Log into or create your ALA eLearning account

An ALA eLearning account is required to register. Don’t have an account? Create one for free by going to the “Log in” menu located at the top right corner of your screen. No membership is required to create the account.

Redeem your signup code to complete your registration

Once you’ve registered for this webinar, a signup code will be added to your ALA eLearning account and emailed to you. Find the signup code on your signup code page, then redeem it on your account’s dashboard to complete your enrollment in this live webinar.

• Need to purchase registration on behalf of a colleague?
• Need to register a group of 3 or more?
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Review the ALA eLearning FAQ if you need more information.

Accommodations

This live webinar will be CART captioned in English (United States). Zoom desktop client or mobile app is required to access captions.

Attendees using screen readers are advised to turn off speech prior to joining the Zoom event because PLA webinars make extensive use of chat functionality. Attendees who find chat distracting may wish to disable it in the Zoom event, as PLA moderators will verbally highlight important topics raised in chat and chat transcripts will be provided post-webinar.

If you have a physical or communication need that may affect your participation in this webinar, please contact us at plawebinars@ala.org or 800-545-2433 ext. 5PLA (5752) at least two weeks prior to the webinar. Without prior notification of need, we may not be able to provide appropriate accommodations for the live event.

Archived Recording

If you're unable to attend this live webinar, an archived recording will be available to all registrants typically within 1–3 business of the live event. Access to closed captions will be provided in the webinar recording.

Tech Requirements

This webinar will be presented using the Zoom platform. Please review Zoom technical requirements and support information, and test your connection.

Once you've joined the webinar, there are two ways to connect your audio: via computer (VoIP) or via telephone. No microphone is required. PLA works with its webinar platform provider to assure the highest quality audio is being delivered to attendees. However, variables over which PLA has no control—such as the speed of your Internet connection or traffic on your local network—can affect the end quality of the webinar audio delivered by your computer. Each webinar’s audio is also available by telephone via a toll number, so we recommend you have access to a long-distance enabled phone as a backup in case you experience audio issues with VoIP. If you do encounter any problems during the webinar, you will receive a link to its archived recording within a week of the live event and can review anything you missed.

Contact

This webinar is presented by the Public Library Association (PLA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA).

Questions about this webinar? Please contact us at plawebinars@ala.org or 800-545-2433 ext. 5PLA (5752).