Meredith Schwartz

LJ’s Design Institute in Missoula, MT, tackled new needs, tools, and techniques for library design in inspiring surroundings.

At LJ’s 2022 Design Institute in Missoula, MT held at the Missoula Public Library on September 29, five libraries in Idaho, Montana, Minnesota, Oregon, and California enlisted architects and attendees to brainstorm on upcoming library design challenges.

At LJ’s recent Design Institute in Missoula, MT, the term places of refuge came up several times. It was new to me, but the meaning was clear from the context: individual-scale spots within the larger, communal library. But the refuge the library can offer is inherently temporary. For libraries to help make their whole communities places of refuge, libraries need to facilitate long-term planning for resilience to disasters that are more frequent and severe—plus, support government policy changes to slow and perhaps reverse that progression.

Conscious inclusiveness has earned Cedar Rapids Public Library the 2022 Jerry Kline Community Impact Prize. Honorable mentions go to New York’s Patchogue-Medford Library and Columbia, SC’s Richland Library.

Rather than offering a subset of in-person programs live streamed to the at-home audience, concurrent schedules of separate virtual and in-person sessions, or both, this year's Charleston Conference is offering its in-person and virtual conferences two weeks apart.

Teachers, librarians, and nurses have some important things in common. They do essential, mission-driven work. They’re mostly women (from 74 percent of teachers to 90 percent of nurses). They’re often underpaid. They’ve faced increased job stressors in the last few years. Many are thinking of leaving their jobs, if not fields—up to 77 percent of Texas teachers in a recent poll. The resulting shortages put more pressure on those who stay.

The six-person marketing department at Nashville Public Library is made up of enthusiastic collaborators—willing to listen, iterate, contribute to each other’s strengths, and involve the rest of the library in coming up with great ideas—with a strong leader who inspires creativity and teamwide respect. Los Angeles and Virginia Beach received honorable mentions.

The EveryLibrary Institute, the companion organization of library advocacy group EveryLibrary, commissioned Embold Research, a nonpartisan research firm, to poll 1,223 U.S. voters on book banning. The survey found that nearly all (92 percent) have heard at least something about such censorship, and at least 75 percent will consider the issue of book banning when voting this November.

Dr. Gena Cox, organizational psychologist, executive coach, and author of Leading Inclusion: Drive Change Your Employees Can See and Feel (Page Two, Oct.), will deliver the opening keynote at LJ’s Directors Summit in Baltimore this December. LJ caught up with her to learn more about what motivated her to write this book and what lessons she feels can help library leaders make sure their equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts improve the workplace experience for library workers.