As part of its new BKLYN Incubator project, the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) is inviting librarians from across the system to come up with creative new programming at their branches. With the help of a $25,000 Sparks Ignition Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), BPL has set up a framework for branch librarians to develop and promote their own ideas for programs and services—from an ethnic music performance venue in Coney Island to ballroom dancing for older adults in Carroll Gardens to a Russian literature club in Sheepshead Bay—and for their communities to help vote on the ones they want to see implemented. Two rounds of project proposals will be held this year. The first was launched in November, with BPL offering a series of orientation workshops to help participants develop, refine, and submit their ideas. Librarians from 18 of the library’s 60 branches submitted a total of 26 programs. Each was then posted on the Incubator’s Facebook page, and members of the public were encouraged to vote on their favorites by liking and commenting. To assure inclusivity for those without Facebook accounts or Internet access, each branch with a submission in process was also provided with a paper signup sheet where patrons could give an analog equivalent of a “like” or leave a comment. Materials in other languages were also provided. The 15 proposals with the most support will then appear before an internal panel of judges, which will choose the programs that will ultimately receive funding. The library has dedicated $25,000 to this round, awarding between $500 and $5,000 to each one chosen depending on its budgetary needs. The IMLS grant will go toward the development of a Drupal platform that, once built, will serve as an ongoing showcase and forum for Incubator ideas in progress.

INCUBATING IDEAS

The Incubator team consists of manager of strategic initiatives Diana Plunkett and project manager Ames O’Neill, Nicholas Higgins and Kerwin Pilgrim (a 2006 LJ Mover & Shaker) from public services, Lisa Chow (a 2010 LJ Mover & Shaker) in charge of IT, and manager of community engagement Mike Fieni. In addition to encouraging proposals from librarians—other staff members will be included in subsequent sessions—the team works closely with them to develop and refine their ideas. The Incubator, explained chief strategy officer David Giles, “was conceived as a kind of innovation fund for librarians.” When the project was launched in November, librarians throughout the system were encouraged to put forward any and all ideas for creative programming. But the submission process also served as a form of professional development. In order to take their ideas from brainstorms to fully formed proposals, participants attended orientation sessions that focused on project development, grant writing skills, and the difference between outputs and outcomes “so that they can start thinking in terms of outcomes right away,” explained Plunkett: “What's going to happen because of this program and how would they measure that?” Staff from BPL’s development team offered instruction. Those attending the orientation were asked to fill out a worksheet summarizing their program, identifying the community need it would serve, explaining how it fit with BPL’s strategic plan, noting any anticipated challenges (and how they could be met), and drafting a budget. These forms were workshopped at the sessions, receiving feedback from peers and the Incubator team. BPL developed the internal support, said Plunkett, “so that the process of getting to the place where we're actually implementing these great and innovative ideas for the community was just as important to us [as the final product], and we wanted to go through two cycles so that we could learn from the first one and get better in the second one.” Added Plunkett, "I think that there is a desire to make sure that we're tapping into the talent of our entire organization and creating opportunities for learning and growth with our staff."

ENGAGING YOUNG BROOKLYNITES

Erik Bobilin, supervisor of Williamsburg’s Leonard Branch, and neighborhood journalist Katie McDonough had envisioned putting together a program for young women who were interested in journalism careers, but the idea had foundered due for lack of financial and technical resources. Then, said Bobilin, “the Incubator program came along and it was an opportunity to put the library's money where my mouth was.” Their joint program, Girls Report Now!, proposes a three-month biweekly Saturday afternoon class for girls age 12–16, taught by local writers, photographers, videographers, and librarians. The curriculum, loosely based on core competencies for journalism degrees, would include instruction in writing, researching, conducting an interview, photography, and audio recording, as well as “soft” professional skills such as active listening, asking questions, maintaining eye contact, and empathy building. Students will also learn how to set up their own WordPress site for their work. "The goal for us,” Bobilin said, “is that if these teenagers go out and are reporting stories, then [their stories] would get picked up in some capacity.... That's the new ecology of news reporting." The library would be the ideal place for such a program, the two felt, providing safe space for teen girls that is not a classroom. Not only would the classes allow girls to explore interests in writing and reporting, but the rapidly changing neighborhood could benefit from a cultural exchange with its young residents. While they are open to the idea of accommodating local boys as well if the program gets funding, Bobilin explained, for the pilot they want to focus on girls, who are traditionally underrepresented in the field. "We're really interested in creating an environment that doesn't exist...right now,” he told LJ. “Because if we don't create a space like this, then where are they going to come from?" YA librarian Megan Goins-Diouf is also targeting local teens. When she arrived at the Flatbush Library in November 2015, she saw an opportunity to partner with nearby Erasmus Hall Educational Campus, a single building hosting three high schools. As part of her outreach activities with the school librarian, Goins-Diouf noticed many seniors without full class schedules hanging out at the library, and the idea for her Digging for Black Pride Urban Excavation Program was born. “Knowing that there was a specific population that we could definitely reach, a space in which we could do it, and knowing that a lot of these students…may be college-bound, [or] just need the necessary skills to navigate the digital environment,” provided the context and motivation for her to reach out to the Weeksville Heritage Center, a historic African American house and museum, and to leverage BPL’s archival collections, such as the Brooklyn Collection, housed at the Central Library, and the Our Streets, Our Stories Oral History Project. The program would offer eight weeks of archival instruction, creative writing workshops, and help with navigating BPL’s historical and genealogical resources so that neighborhood high school seniors could document their personal histories—“whether it be families that have immigration stories, grandma's recipes, or making a digital collage or visual component to a family photo album," Goins-Diouf explained. The teens would have the opportunity to contribute their stories to the Flatbush Library’s Caribbean Literary and Cultural Center, which has an exhibit space for sharing with the public. She also hopes to purchase books by Flatbush-specific authors, building hyper-local reference sections for both the school and the branch. While the program would not be exclusively for African American students, she added, "We're using black history as an interpretive lens to look at histories of all types."

LONG-TERM GOALS

In the final assessment, projects will be evaluated on several criteria: whether the program fills a demonstrable community need, its originality, its feasibility, and the potential to repeat or scale—either at its branch of origin or throughout the system. This last is an important part of the Incubator’s mission, said Plunkett, noting that while the occasional one-off program can be valuable, “this is an incubator, and we do hope that other branches can learn how to meet their community needs from these programs" once their grant periods end. Judges will include staff from BPL’s finance, marketing, and development departments; three branch librarians; and Giles. Once the awards have been announced, mentors from within the organization will be assigned to support the program leads as they go forward. The library hopes to continue the Incubator process, most likely with one cycle per year, which will allow the team a longer-term implementation of the programs and will let them focus on staff workshop offerings. "We're very happy that there will be wonderful public programs at the end of all this, but it's building capacity within our staff to keep doing this that is most exciting for us," said Plunkett. A staff member, giving feedback on one of the orientation sessions, wrote, "The fact that BPL is showing such respect for its staff and confidence in their ideas, passion, and goals, is awesome." “It could also be one important mechanism for deepening partnerships with outside organizations,” said Giles. “We could build on the work of BPL’s outreach services department, which provides library services in nearly 200 outpost sites throughout the borough, including senior centers, nursing homes, homeless shelters, and prisons. The BKLYN Incubator gives us a way to find these types of ideas, and it allows us to work with their creators to overcome obstacles so they can be replicated in other contexts.”