Constructing relationships with different organizations can take time and ongoing effort earlier than you lastly begin to see the fruits of your labor.
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The outcomes of those partnerships can transcend what you initially thought potential and ship important advantages to each organizations and the group as an entire. This turns into much more difficult with worker turnover (in each organizations) and having new folks to nurture the connection.
Our Oklahoma County service space has 15 public college districts, the biggest of which is Oklahoma Metropolis Public Faculties (OKCPS), with roughly 34,000 college students attending 33 elementary faculties, 12 center faculties, 8 excessive faculties, 4 various faculties, and 6 constitution flights. faculties.
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Within the fall of 2016, we started the ONEcard program with Oklahoma Metropolis Public Faculties. This program routinely offers all OKCPS college students with a library card that matches their scholar ID/lunch quantity. Dad and mom/guardians have the choice to choose out of the youngsters from this system, though only a few folks have chosen to take action. ONEcard permits college students to take a look at as much as 10 objects, entry all digital sources and databases, and use the library’s Web computer systems. ONEcard was ultimately expanded to permit college students to make use of their scholar ID quantity for the Metro Transit Bus system as effectively.
Along with the introduction of ONEcard, now we have began to supply refresher programs for lecturers and media specialists within the library. Provided within the spring and fall, we had been in a position to library applications and sources and tailor content material to audiences. Secondary lecturers are offered with our databases and e-resources reminiscent of Studying Specific, HelpNow and Mango Languages, which their college students can entry with their ONEcard to assist with homework and analysis papers. Elementary lecturers will see Libby, Hoopla, HelpNow, and Tumblebooks.
Beanstack & Studying Challenges
Final 12 months, OKCPS began utilizing Beanstack to trace their studying challenges all year long. Beanstack was in a position to work with each organizations to create tandums that will enable college students to have a single account that tracked their studying for each the library and their college. This has elevated participation in each summer season studying applications and streamlined the method for lecturers and library employees to assist college students enroll in a studying program. College students obtain medals for finishing their college’s studying program and two free books for finishing our library’s studying program.
Guide bus and additional
We additionally work intently with the Oklahoma Metropolis Public Faculties Basis and their ReadOKC Job Drive, a stakeholder group whose mission is to create a group of readers. The OKCPS Basis has positioned free small libraries in every of their faculties, presents studying golf equipment that a few of our librarians take part in, and has a guide bus that goes to colleges that enables youngsters to pick books to maintain.
We now have benefited the group as an entire by leveraging our mixed sources. This summer season, we partnered with the OKCPS Basis on a grant they acquired to host writer visits over the summer season. In June and July 2022, we introduced authors to 3 public libraries in underserved communities. Because of extra grants, every youngster who attended the writer go to acquired a signed copy of that writer’s guide, and the ReadOKC Guide Bus allowed them to decide on one other guide that’s theirs to maintain. We additionally organized two occasions in an area park with the ReadOKC Guide Bus and library employees to advertise Summer season Studying and hand out free books.
By means of these efforts, we had been in a position to attain not solely youngsters from the colleges, but in addition different youngsters locally. Our collective efforts assist to advertise our library and ONEcard program, construct a group of readers, and assist households construct their house libraries.
At present’s weblog publish was written by Kristin Williamson, Youngsters’s Providers Supervisor on the Metropolitan Library System in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, on behalf of the ALSC Managing Youngsters’s Providers Committee. She will be reached at kwilliamson@metrolibrary.org and Twitter: @kristinerd.
This weblog covers ALSC Core Competency V. Outreach and advocacy.
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