2011 ARSL Conference: Overcoming Isolation and Becoming a Center of the Community
By Michael Kelley Sep 12, 2011Librarians in small and rural communities can often feel isolated—geographically and professionally—and overwhelmed by the variety of roles they must play at their small libraries. Whether starting the day with a reference question or a toilet plunger, they often work alone or with a very small staff and strive in the face of tightening budgets to prove themselves as community assets.
The reincarnation of the Association for Rural & Small Libraries in 2007 was intended, at least in part, to help these librarians realize that, even if they do not have a built-in peer group, they are not alone, that they are part of a larger profession that can offer encouragement and resources, particularly in an age of social media. The most prominent vehicle for conveying that message face to face has been the ARSL annual conference, which this year was held from September 8-11 in Frisco, TX, about 20 miles north of Dallas (#ARSL2011, photo stream).
Connecting with colleagues
"The themes that I have seen are the fear that their funding may be waning, that what they are doing is not being validated by the people they work for," said Sonja Plummer-Morgan, the director of the Turner Memorial Library in Presque Isle, ME, outgoing president of ARSL (her term ended September 9). "But the larger, overarching theme from people across the country is this feeling of isolation that they are not connected in a way that they could be with other colleagues," she said.
| Gene Ambaum, left, and Bill Barnes, the creators of the comic strip "Unshelved," gave the opening keynote address. |
The chance to connect in Frisco drew about 350 attendees and 20 exhibitors to the Embassy Suites Dallas-Frisco Hotel, Convention Center & Spa, where they had their choice of 25 workshops that covered everything from recycling books to library signs to foursquare. Susan Pieper, editor of the Rural Library Services Newsletter and director of the Paulding County Carnegie Library, OH, blogged in detail about a number of the workshops.
"We were remarkably surprised to learn that attendance stayed about the same as last year," Plummer-Morgan said.
Mercifully, the searing heat that has Texas on a pace to set a record for 100-degree days broke for the span of the conference.
"A couple of months ago, we were so delighted that you were coming that we ILL'd cooler weather just for you," said Shirley Holley, the director of the Frisco Public Library, in welcoming remarks. "It was hotter than Hades until just a few days ago, so that's the power of shared resources and interlibrary loan," she said.
Dealing with budget cuts
Becky Heil, a library consultant for Iowa Library Services at the Iowa State Library, took over as president of ARSL during the conference. She said that the cutting of state budgets is being felt acutely by small and rural libraries, as money for services such as ILL, consulting, continuing education, databases, and travel wither away.
"What I'm hearing from my constituents is that they feel abandoned," Heil said.
The trend of cutting state library budgets is debilitating to small and rural libraries, said Plummer-Morgan, and it also increases their sense of isolation, according to Peggy Rudd, the state librarian of Texas.
"Of the 560 public libraries in Texas, more than 400 serve populations under 10,000, so rural, small libraries are the bulk of the libraries in Texas and they are valuable community assets," Rudd said.
But the new state biennial budget (FY 2012-13) in Texas, passed in July, will reduce state funding for the Texas State Library and Archives Commission's library programs by 88 percent.
"The rural libraries rely on our ten regional library systems, and this is the last year we can fund those systems," Rudd said.
Heil, however, drew some hope from a growing awareness of the stresses that rural communities face and what it means when a library closes.
"ARSL is poised on the verge of a lot of partnerships," Heil said, noting that the group now has 500 members and is "ready to take off." "There's a lot of people interested in rural issues right now, from President Obama's White House Rural Council—we're looking to get a seat at that table—to foundations doing good work in rural communities. People are discovering that rural communities are really, really hurting and people want to help. For the most part, libraries are being included as part of the solution," she said.
Community-centered libraries
Libraries as part of the solution was a large theme at the conference, along with how to impress on people that libraries are at the heart of a community and can be a palliative in hard times.
The conference sponsor was the University of North Texas PEARL Project, which stands for "promoting and enhancing the advancement of rural libraries." The three-year project's mission, which is funded by a $1.6 million grant from the Robert and Ruby Priddy Charitable Trust, is to strengthen the public library as an essential part of community life in rural Texas communities; the project's staff was at the conference to share insights into their work.
| Two participants at a workshop on signage run by Gail Santy of the Central Kansas Library System in Great Bend, KS, examine a sign that was carved at practically no cost from foam core board. Santy said that "Your library signs are the silent conversation you are having with your patrons." |
"We are working with librarians to help them understand how to become a community-centered library," said Barbara Blake, the project's outreach coordinator. "We are showing them how to get outside the library to partner with other agencies and help the community identify and solve whatever needs, issues, problems there are in the community," she said.
Part of that effort involves helping rural and small librarians overcome their isolation by teaching them how to use technology, such as a webcam and Skype to do a video conference with a peer in another town or state.
"We're trying to help them see the bigger picture and the bigger community," Blake said.
The message resonated with Wendy Morlan, the director of the Pleasanton Lincoln Library, KS, which serves a town of about 1100 people along with some residents across the border in Missouri. In addition to Morlan, the library has one full-time employee and one part-time employee and is open 41.5 hours a week.
"Empowering community partnerships is a really important message for us right now because it's such a small town and the few people who are trying to make a difference get burnt out," Morlan said. It becomes difficult, she said, to get people on board for yet another project when they are already doing so much.
"I learned a lot of lessons here that will help me figure out the needs of my community and how to meet them and become a community-centered library," she said. "Prior to that you're thinking 'what does the library need' and 'what can they do for me,' and you are going around asking for donations for your summer reading program or whatever," Morlan said. "But now you are going out and asking them 'how can we help you,' and then it becomes a partnership, and then you don't feel bad about asking them later on what they can do for you," she said.
It is a struggle to make local government officials understand the importance of the library, said Rudd, the Texas state librarian.
"Just getting them to understand that the library's not just the place where 'oh yeah, my aunt goes there to get her Barbara Cartland romance novel,'" she said. "Yes, that does happen and that's a need that's filled, but rural libraries are doing so much with technology and workforce development," she said.
Problems book tape can't solve
Conference attendees were reminded at every turn of the changing technological landscape and its importance to their future mission.
"Our tools are different today than they were in 1982," said Pat Tuohy, executive director of the Central Texas Library System. "These are all replaced now with computers, and wires, and networks and things that are beyond our ability to repair with book tape. You cannot just put book tape on a wireless router and make it work again," she said.
| Julie Ousley of the New Braunfels Public Library, TX, displays a carnation she made from a recycled book. Ousley has raised about $5000 dollars over the last six years by cutting and reshaping old books otherwise destined for the landfill and selling them. "I'm a one-man operation but fortunately I have a power tool," she said. |
Linda Braun, a keynote speaker, told attendees that connection was key and that nostalgia was not going to save libraries. In a workshop she gave tips about online social networking tools such as Twitter and foursquare, and she said that what mattered was the content, not the container.
"We have always been about connections," said Braun, who is an educational technology consultant with Librarians & Educators Online as well as a professor of practice at the Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science in Boston.
"One of the things that's exciting to me is all the new technology that allows some collaboration," said Heil, the new ARSL president, "Connecting these librarians is going to be really important," she said.
More than one participant said that closely connecting with their patrons—and not just in a technological sense—was something that distinguished small and rural libraries from their larger, urban counterparts.
"In a lot of rural libraries with a very small number of staff, everybody has to be able to do everything," said Alexis Caudell, director of the Mitchell Community Public Library, IN, which has a service population of 11,943. "We all do as much as we can with very little. You may start your day with a wrench or a plunger or an Internet cable, who knows, but the wonderful thing about rural libraries is you have a very small community, you get to know everybody."
