The COVID-19 pandemic has made it critical for health information providers across the country to stay informed about the special protections and benefits health insurance coverage offers to the safety of LGBTQ community members. This free webinar will help educate public library practitioners about available health insurance coverage options, benefits, and special federal protections exclusively for LGBTQ communities during the Open Enrollment period of the Affordable Care Act (Nov. 1–Dec. 15, 2020, for plans that start Jan. 1. 2021). It will also cover Special Enrollment Period eligibility for people who have experienced lifetime events, such as losing a job or having a baby.

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

• Describe the major health and healthcare access disparities affecting the LGBTQ population, including specific subpopulations such as transgender people;
• Describe the provisions of the Affordable Care Act that have relevance for addressing these disparities;
• Explain specific strategies that library workers, consumer assistance personnel, and other health information providers can use to effectively connect with LGBTQ community members;
• Identify the role of Enrollment Assistors and Navigators in their communities who can help LGBTQ people enroll in available insurance; and
• Outline successful strategies for library outreach, engagement, and enrollment at the local level.

Running a library on your own and looking to touch base with other librarians doing the same? Please join us on Thursday, October 22, for an online meeting for Capital District Area Solo Librarians. You'll have the opportunity to discuss issues, problems, and make connections with other local solo librarians. If you have any questions please contact Chris Tosh at ctosh@cdlc.org.

During COVID-19 stay at home orders, improvements to air and water quality around the globe showed how changing our transportation practices could benefit the environment. We also know that physical activities, like walking, can help prevent chronic diseases and promote health. This webinar will highlight the multiple benefits of walking and walkable communities, and provide the information and inspiration you need to join the hundreds of public libraries around the country that are contributing to the development of healthy and resilient communities. Learn how to advocate for safe walking routes to your libraries, how to partner with parks and recreation, local transportation departments, and others committed to building safe, accessible, equitable places to walk and move.

Presented by:

• Kate Kraft, Executive Director, America Walks;
• Noah Lenstra, Director, Let’s Move in Libraries;
• Mary Sizemore, Director, High Point Public Library (North Carolina);
• Jeffrey T. Davis, Branch Manager at San Diego Public Library

Presented by National Digital Inclusion Alliance, this webinar will show how different affiliates are putting the Digital Navigator Model into action to add more digital equity to our social safety net and community institutions.

Speakers include:

Sabrina Roach and Paolo Balboa from NDIA; Shauna Edson and Justin Strange, from the Salt Lake City Public Library's Digital Navigator project; and Margaret (Meg) Käufer, of the STEM Alliance of Larchmont-Mamaroneck.

Register for Using Digital Navigators to Bridge Social Divides

You have a unique and deeply-rooted interest within the field of librarianship but how do you utilize your expertise and personal experience to assist in an advocacy campaign? In this session, we’ll review the Audience Engagement Roadmap, learn how to craft impactful messaging and explore the mediums and tools available to advocates at every level.

Attendees will have the opportunity to draft their own stories and share them with others.

Presenter:

Briana McNamee, Director of Government Relations & Advocacy for the New York Library Association

This presentation first explains the differences between the Decennial Census and the American Community Survey while also highlighting the idea of sample thresholds, questionnaire logic, and statistical geography. Following this, the presenter will go into the data.census.gov portal to show different ways to access and download the data. Datasets include variables on economic, social, housing and population. Additionally, we will look at the ACS website and get a short tour of topics, datasets and links available there. The presenter will stop a various times during the workshop to allow for questions.

About the Presenter:

David Kraiker has been at the Census Bureau for more than 23 years — first working as a Geographer in the New York Regional Office, and then more recently transitioning over to a Data Dissemination Specialist position.

This webinar will be recorded and a recording will be shared with all registrants afterward.

Presented by Scott Kushner, Director of LaFayette Public Library, and Annabeth Hayes, Director of Tully Free Library, founders of the Central New York Digital Inclusion Coalition; and Stacey Martin, Digital Inclusion Coordinator at Finger Lakes Digital Inclusion Coalition. This program will interview members of newly formed coalitions, explore establishing and sustaining a coalition, and address the real work happening right now.

Register for Starting Your Own Digital Inclusion Coalition

As a profession, we talk the talk of valuing diversity and inclusion, but do we walk the walk with our hiring practices? The profession stresses the importance of “a good fit” when hiring, but we rarely interrogate the fact that “a good fit” can be a reflection of our implicit biases and that our very hiring practices continue to center and prioritize whiteness. Three academic librarians conducted a survey of hiring policies with a focus on the processes (or lack thereof) of recruiting candidates from underrepresented groups. This session will report on their findings and recommend the implementation of specific practices designed to create an inclusive candidate pool and an equitable search process.

About the speakers:

Samantha Guss is the Social Sciences Librarian for Data, Statistics, and Government Information at the University of Richmond. She holds an MSLS from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MA in Business & Workplace Education from New York University.

Sojourna Cunningham is the Social Sciences and Assessment Librarian at the University of Richmond. She has a Masters in Library Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Masters in Liberal Arts from the University of Richmond.

Jennifer Stout is a Teaching and Learning Librarian at Virginia Commonwealth University. She received her MSLS from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2010.

* The primary audience for this webinar is academic librarians. However, library workers of every type are welcome to join. There will be information beneficial to all library workers, not just those in charge of human resources and hiring.

Attendees will be given a certificate of attendance for CE Credit.

The event will be recorded, and a link to the recording will be sent to all registrants.

With the recent elevated interest in homeschooling, is your library strategically prepared to assist this growing community group? Research shows that up to 70% of homeschool families consider the library a main resource for their education. Good patron service begins with an understanding of need. Join Deanna McGregor, Homeschool Liaison Librarian, as she explains why some families choose to transition informal learning at home into the educational path of homeschooling. Learn homeschool family motivations, New York State requirements, and what resources are available. Most importantly, she will share how libraries can meet multiple literacy needs of families homeschooling young children.

Now more than ever, the care and feeding of library buildings, from historic to new, demands greater attention. With occupant health and safety in mind, common issues, such as cleaning, plumbing, or HVAC systems, take on new urgency. Many library directors and staff become facilities managers by default, with no formal training. This webinar offers a primer on building systems and issues, along with tools for preventive maintenance, energy assessments, optimizing ventilation and filtration, and more. Presenters share what they learned the hard way, in large and small libraries, so that you can be more prepared and self-assured.

Presented by:

• Lauren Stara, Library Building Specialist, Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners;
• Andrea Bunker, Library Building Specialist, Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners;
• Lynn Piotrowicz, Director, Tucker Free Library (NH)

How does service design enable you to create awesome experiences rooted in empathy, compassion, and storytelling? In this first of a two-part webinar series, explore how to apply intentional listening, deep observing, and deep learning to discover what your community members are thinking, feeling, and doing. This active and engaging session introduces concepts, methods and exercises such as:

• Directed Storytelling, a method for collecting community experiences and stories
• AEIOU, a framework for interpreting observations made during community discovery, and
• Customer Journey Mapping, techniques to break down the complexities of community members’ hopes, dreams, and aspirations.

Presented by:

• Patrick Quattlebaum, CEO, Harmonic Design;
• Leah Berg, Service Designer, Harmonic Design;
• Margaret Sullivan, Principal, Margaret Sullivan Studio;
• Lyna Vuong, Senior Designer, Margaret Sullivan Studio

Led by representatives of the Right Question Institute (RQI), this session will ask library workers to decide for themselves the need to be involved in advocacy work.

Any library worker - from a Director with a Masters to the library clerk or volunteer - needs to feel their work is valuable and critical to their communities before they can expect others to understand and appreciate the library experience.

Libraries are foundational to a healthy community. We will use the Question Formulation Technique to explore the role of the library and library workers in making libraries flourishing and well-resourced public spaces.

Presenter:

Luz Santana (She/Hers), Co-Director of the Right Question Institute & Yeja Dunn (They/Them)