0:03
Hello everyone and welcome to today's webinar hosted by Infopeople. This webinar is sponsored by the California State Library as part of the 2019 2020 metrics Grant and our topic today is Edge 2.0 for Rural and small libraries and to get us started. I'm going to turn it over to one of our presenters Lourdes. Okay. Thank you so much Mary. Welcome everyone and thanks so much for joining us today.
0:29
We're so excited Diane and I am and Team over at info info people to be here and share information with you about Edge and how we can help small and Rural libraries adapt and expand their Digital Services. So my name is Lourdes Aceves and I'm the assistant director for digital programs at the urban libraries Council which leads the Edge program.
0:57
My co-presenter today is Diane Connery the director of the that's Borough Area Public Library in pots Borough taxes, like many of you. She's the director of a small Library doing big things for her community.
1:14
Diane will kick us off today and share how her library is responding to the current pandemic crisis and how Edge positioned her to be a community leader and partner after Diane's presentation all share some information about Edge and how we can help your Demonstrate the value of the digital access and programming you make available to your community. So for now, I'll hand it over to Diane.
1:45
Okay, thank you Lourdes. I enjoy talking about my very favorite subject which is libraries and I will say as I have found out that small libraries can mean a lot of different things. So your mileage may vary I will tell you my experience and then I hope some of this will apply to what works in your community.
2:11
So welcome to pots Borough pots Burrows about an And a half north of Dallas were on the Oklahoma border and it's a little bit like driving back in time. When you come here. The population in town is 2360 people but then outside of City Limits. There's a total altogether of around 7,000 people. We are located on a lake Lake Texoma known for striper fishing.
2:44
And I want you in the bottom left picture just to notice that Tower you see because you'll see that again later pot after living in cities my whole life. I moved to pots Borough about 10 years ago and had never lived in a small town and you'll see it's between Dallas and Oklahoma City pots pro-growth is coming this way.
3:13
It is moving more North From Dallas. We see more and more stoplights between pots bro and Dallas so we know growth is coming this way. And that's tough for a small town. I think to deal with to be ready because the tax base in town is so small that they really don't have the funding to do a lot of the strategic planning that happens in larger cities.
3:43
And so the library we've stepped into the role to be a big part of visioning for the city and hoping that we can prepare for the growth to come rather than kind of just being a victim of as it comes letting it roll over us. You can see on the bottom, right? That's the a little strip with our police station and court code enforcement so over there, so it's not a picturesque little town.
4:15
Inside City Limits. It's just lots of metal buildings and empty buildings dilapidated. And again, I think that goes back to there is such a small tax base. There's not a lot of funding for City Services on the left hand side. You see the lake Lake Texoma and because we are a resort Community most of those houses most of those people.
4:44
Live outside City Limits and people come from the Dallas area have weekend homes. A lot of them eventually retire to pots Borough and so many of them expect services that they had in larger cities and in comparison the locals who have lived here sometimes for Generation. The largest employer is our school district a lot of people work as fishing guy.
5:15
It's or in Hospitality. So some lower paying jobs. So it's an interesting mix when we try to figure out what is needed for our patrons. So when I came here 10 years ago, the library was all donations all volunteer. There was no taxpayer funding at all. And the group of volunteers were aging out and the money you from bake sale.
5:44
Al's was dwindling and so people started talking about it's time to close the library and a group of people just came in and got excited about it and said what if we did everything differently and I saw an old Seinfeld where George Costanza decided to flip the script and do everything differently and so we said what if we started doing things that made such an impact on the community That then if we had to close the community would rise up and not let it happen. And so over the last 10 years we have had so much fun. I don't want to forget to tell you so we went from no taxpayer funding 10 years ago to this year. We had 41,000 from the city which depending on what size city you're in that may not sound like much but that is a huge.
6:44
Judge demonstration of their commitment to us. In fact last year when it was budget time the police needed to replace a 10 year old police car and city council told them to wait hang on to it for one more year so that they could increase our funding and so what we've been doing is really paying off just to give you a brief tour around the library.
7:10
We are basically all one big room that used to be a Post office, so we're a no shushing Library. It's noisy in here all the time. We're family place Library this year. We got a grant for Esports. So in the top left, you'll see our gaming computers and I don't know about you. But so many times I have offered programs that should have drawn in people. I just thought people would be knocking down the doors to get in and then I am frequently.
7:44
Lee so disappointed with the results Esports competitive video gaming has been the one thing that that I'm having to limit how many people come in the response has just been fantastic and that was funded first through an imls grant for digital inclusion.
8:05
And if you're in a small town, you know, a lot of people don't have access to the latest and greatest hardware and software and even Internet access and I keep thinking for our community are these kids going to be on a Level Playing Field when they get out of high school, I want them to you know have the same Comfort level as their peers from larger cities do so that's been a fun program. We've added we remodeled so totally bright colors.
8:41
I tend to be a beige person myself, but we had add artists in the community come together and they hang their art on the walls and the colors are just wild but I love the people's expression when they open the front door and they're expecting to see a Dusty little small town library. And then that's what they see. We have the bottom left. You can see on our railing out front.
9:10
We had an artist paint some books spines and Just trying to make it look more cheerful and inviting and welcoming. We want people to come in and there you'll see we have a pedal library. And so we go out primarily we take that when school is out every day weather permitting we'll take the pedal Library down to the park where the parents Park to wait to pick up kids and we'll take a hot spot in that.
9:44
We got an iPad so we can issue library cards on the spot and we can check out books that kind of thing through our petal Library. We also use that in the town parade and any kind of festivals just for promotion and the bottom right? We were yarn bombed. You can see hanging from the ceiling their underwear.
10:08
The the ceiling hangings are those are for Public Access computers, so Sleep when people come in that's where they'll sit to do emails and just you know, the cruise the internet or whatever or those four in the back. We have 10 of the Superfast gaming computers and 10 years ago. We would probably average three or four people a day kids were not welcome here and I just cannot put into words.
10:44
how vibrant we are now and how the whole atmosphere has changed bottom right is the man with the beard is a professor at a nearby College who is in charge of digital media there and so he has an Esports team at the college and to his right is one of his Esports players who coaches our Esports team and I've found that's a great that Near peer mentorship she is able to work with the high school students and it really imparts something different especially since I'm not a gamer. So I really like that we've gotten in this mixture of people and exciting different things.
11:37
We're always feeling like we're beta testing we say yes to everything and we just want to be more More Than People expect So as you know, we've recently all been in a very weird time.
11:52
I keep just saying that like this is so weird and I read something that makes so much sense about this time for all of us and that's that opportunity hides behind adversity things are are really weird and tough right now for us, but this is such a time for us to reimagine our role in the community and And I keep fast forwarding to budget time which in our city will be in July and thinking very strategically of when I am standing up in front of city council. What will I say? I have done during this time to help the community.
12:38
And so tapping into what matters to our city council is is really important to me and So when I'm there, what services will be persuasive to them?
12:54
And also I found one thing that really does well right now the media wants good news Lourdes was just watching a funny video. It's like people right now want fun things to be excited about and so we've reached out to the media and and shared our good news information.
13:21
So one of the things that We've been doing is 3D printing and to be honest. Oh gosh back in 2017. Every library was talking about we've got to have a 3D printer and we really had very few really beneficial uses for it and mostly printed things for summer reading or whatnot. And now I am so glad we have the printer we are running it.
13:54
Non-stop with doctors offices are and healthcare workers are needing to use what we're printing. In fact, I just got a call this morning right before we got on that a dentist office needs 10 face shield.
14:11
So I want to share with you a video that was done on local media just recently and I saw that earlier. Okay, help me with this. Where did that guy go?
14:31
Nope.
14:36
It's under sharing sharing. Thank you.
14:42
And select a video from the drop down by show.
14:51
I'm not even seeing a show. Oh, okay, I practice this but it's not there now. Okay, so is the sharing I'm sorry. This is Lourdes. I'm not seeing it either sharings up top at the very top the presenter Susan. Yeah. Sorry. That's why you can't see. Okay. Just trying to help out on the bottom or on the left hand side. There you see.
15:19
It's called a Montana mask. And so Diane we have your slides again.
15:32
back to sharing is that not doing it?
15:45
No, we don't see the slides right now.
15:49
All right.
15:53
Sorry about that. Let me show main screen. It's okay, if you hit the play button if you have yes now you helped me. Thank you. Okay, so let me show you the 3D printing.
16:11
We're still not still there.
16:13
There we go. Three pots for a library is making e regards for healthcare workers or anyone who needs one to wear with their masks. They started making them yesterday on their 3D printer and say they've been going nonstop News tells Meredith McCown joins us live in the studio Meredith. Where did they get the idea it all started with a viral social media post Heather Roni posted this photo of her son Quinn a Boy Scout in Canada. She wrote that local hospitals had expressed the need for ear guards for workers.
16:43
To wear with their masks. She says they've heard from thousands of people around the world inspired to do the same and Grayson County is one of them are willing to help anyone working in Foxborough Library manager, Lindy Miser started making ear guards Monday and they've already made more than a hundred Miser got the idea from her friend Stevie Emerson a wound care nurse at a Sherman nursing home. I thought that was clever. I said, you know, I'll give it a go for you just met.
17:13
Makes it a lot more pleasant to wear the mask Emerson is saw the post on social media of the 12 year old boy scout in Canada who created a file for 3D printers the young man's design is brilliant. The plastic guards hold the ear Loops off of your ears to make it more comfortable to wear for long periods of time Emerson says on average she works 8-hour shifts, but sometimes up to 16.
17:39
It makes breathing hard at fogs up your glasses, but you know, it's really What needs to be done right now to protect our patients? They're required to wear the mask at all times except for going to the bathroom and eating but she says this invention helps make it bearable actually keeps it in place a lot better, but the library didn't stop with the ear guards. Miser says they've made different types of face masks face Shields even special door handles.
18:05
You can open with your for with your your elbow there also sewing mask to donate to local hospitals when you know things like this come up and we can use the resources that we have.
18:17
You know, we put them to better use, you know, we're always ready to jump in. We're more information on the resources at the pots bro Library check out our website and app. They're specifically donating to health care. But say anyone who wants one can get it for free.
18:32
The library also has sewing machines available to check out if you're interested in making masks to donate live in the studio Meredith McHale News 12 Okay. Glad I got that done. Let me go back to my slides here.
18:54
Okay, so I just wanted to share a little bit about I guess strategic relationships on social media and in a small town. We have no newspaper. There is the TV station in a nearby town. It's hard to get the word out about things. So social media. Facebook has been one of our main.
19:24
Methods and as a result of some of our post we have shipped those ear guards and mask I've sent them to Arizona South Carolina, Chicago, Georgia. So people all over the country are picking up on this.
19:43
So when I'm building relationships with doctors, I am hoping that when it comes to time later that we're talking about donations that they'll remember us, and if not, Then I we are putting a letter in the package with what we send out asking them to put a review for us on social media or to send us an email so that when I do go before city council, I'll take that information and be able to share that so just quickly a few things here on the left. We talked to local businesses and churches and once we realized what a need it is in our community.
20:24
For people to have internet access because so many people don't have that at home. We started talking to local groups asking them if they would be willing to turn on there so that people could park in the parking lot and use the signal from there. And so that has been something that helped cross promote and build that relationship with those groups and in a rural community. I was reading an article about being locked.
20:54
Locked out from the virtual classroom because so many kids don't have access to the internet. And then in the middle there, we actually installed a wireless access point so that there would be a stronger signal in our parking lot and we're getting sometimes 20 cars parked in our parking lot and in the picture on social media. I put our internet provider Tech wave in just as a way to cross.
21:24
Promote him and he actually I have to call him and ask him to please Bill me because he's so pleased with the promotion that he gets that he's totally bought into, you know, helping us do what we need to do and the other thing we have found and I should say I know it's different in different areas.
21:48
We are still a point open for by appointment for computer use and That's because so many doctors have gone to online appointments and if you don't have internet at home that's hard to do. And so we've had several surgical follow-ups. We've also had a veteran who said the only way to get his medicine was to go online to do it.
22:16
We've had a lot of people come in to communicate with attorneys and facts in Life and Will's documents like that. So we are situated so that in the building there are five public computers. We space them out as far as can be we disinfect them and actually with appointments it turns out that there's only usually one person in the building at a time and throughout the day. It's usually only one person who is using each computer.
22:52
So even though we do, Clean them sanitize them. They're actually being used about once per day.
23:03
One of the things that I learned when I first took the assessment for Edge was the importance of accessible workstations. And so this workstation is wheelchair accessible. It will raise and lower. It also has voice to text and text to voice capabilities on it.
23:28
So I just was you know, that was one of the thing a Brought to the Forefront of my mind that I had not really considered before we have issued over 300 eCards to the school since this started a month or so ago and the total school district has 1,400 kids in it. So to be able to we had already done the whole high school and so for to issue another 300 in the last month, is it significant?
24:02
And we're also letting the school use our book drop. They don't have an outdoor book drop. So the school books are being dropped here as well. So this enables the kids to get at our ebooks and then databases. I've talked to the librarian at the school about database usage and I'm really hoping to see some of those numbers go up for that as well because they really honestly weren't used very much here before.
24:32
So I want to keep the library in the Forefront of County Commissioners city council judges that kind of thing. And so we have been sending we sent it a couple times Library status update and so it is to inform them what we're working on so that they don't think that we're here just cleaning or doing something insignificant and we have found that they really do like media.
25:00
Attention positive media attention and so some of these things we've been doing have generated a lot. Also City Hall is on the Main Street through town not where we are. So they posted on their sign for us to park at the library for free Wi-Fi.
25:23
This is one of my proudest recent accomplishments. I as many of you have been on just so many Zoom meetings lately and I have found by connecting even outside of Library world that there's so many good connections and I'm thrilled with how one thing leads to another so I was on a call with the gigabit libraries Network.
25:48
They connected me with the the it DRC group and within 3 days that nonprofit is a national nonprofit had dropped off deployed that Wi-Fi trailer you see in the upper right? So that people can drive up to that location. It's out towards the lake. So a many people there don't have internet at home and the school sent it out for me to spread the word and I've had two different news stations.
26:20
Students do stories about it. So that hotel and I made sure I got a picture of the Tower so that the general manager of the hotel is happy when we promote this that's on one side and then the bottom right? You see the other side looking in the other direction. There are a lot of apartments and condos there with people who do not have access to Internet and that would be there just as long as it's needed they typically it DRC.
26:50
He does like after hurricanes tornadoes. They do disaster relief.
26:56
Drive and gaming was a fun one. I mentioned we had done some fun things recently. And this is one it was picked up all over the world Australia and Belgium's all over the world. That's behind our library.
27:13
Let me see if I can show you a short video of the what Drive in gaming is about The pots Burrell Library found a creative way to maintain social distancing this weekend with Drive in video games. Yeah, they're always doing cool stuff. This is no exception news 12s Bradley McCoy spoke with the library manager about how they got that idea. We had seen how people were talking about how they wish drive-in movies were still around and I thought well, you know driving movies kind of boring, but we could do Drive in Esports Hotspur a library.
27:58
Manager Lindy Miser says normally the flow of kids in and out of the library is steady, but thanks to covid-19. Now it's empty. So she knew she wanted to do something this trailer outside the pots Borough Library appears Ordinary by day, but by night it's transformed into a screen used for Esports a form of competition using video games trying to show our kids that we miss them and that we stole, you know, we're still here for them. So they set up a driving Mario Kart.
28:28
To maintain social distancing we did a dry run on Saturday and it worked out really. Well. The response was way more than we expected. It was huge. They posted the event to Facebook and it's gained International attention as far as Australia and the United Kingdom. So now of course all the kids want to be involved and that's what we want. We want them to be involved but we want them to stay safe at the same time.
28:51
But driving video games aren't the only thing the library is doing to help people get through covid-19 they have Free Wi-Fi 24/7 and anyone can access it from the parking lot people can also book appointments daily to use the library computers resources education employment telemedicine all sorts of different things.
29:13
Miser says anyone in Grayson County can apply for an e-card that lets you access all the resources on our site thousands of e-books all sorts of stuff for more information on how to contact the library check out the K XII website and app Hotspur oh Okay.
29:44
All right. You got me back there now. So we are looking forward to continuing this once the social distancing as is relaxed. What we picture doing is having people bring lawn chairs and snacks and sit out there together and I can imagine a lot more people coming to that.
30:06
So Edge when I took the assessment there these benchmarks that it had me focus on and Things that I would not have considered on my own one of the things that I liked about it. Well several things one is it is not prescriptive. It's just an awareness thing and you get to kind of Choose Your Own Adventure with it. So even as a very small Library we are able to scale these things to what works for us.
30:39
It assigns numbers to the benchmarks as opposed to just the Those anecdotal experiences sometimes one story or experience in your mind can maybe makes one thing look more important than it actually is in the big picture. So there's professional guidance about best practices. For example, one of the things for me was Patron privacy.
31:04
I had always heard and the circles I connected with talked about it was important to keep those Patron monitors where they could be seen From the circulation desk and that is not the advice that that edge gave it was patrons need privacy. And so this assessments very non-judgmental. The other thing I have used it for is establishing credibility. Not only do they have great graphics, which that's sometimes hard for small libraries. I think a lot of us have used clipart things that don't look super professional.
31:43
But when I am presenting to people I talk about we are working on a project with the Gates Foundation and I've even been known to say I'm working with something on Bill Gates and that creates a lot of credibility in a small town setting. So just a couple of other little things specific examples of benchmarks.
32:08
We addressed one was selects and organizes on Line resources about available home broadband and wireless services and this slide up at the top everyone on.org can provide resources for people lower-income even down to two computers and Hardware, but it'll tell you where internet you can get discounts for internet.
32:37
And the other thing I did is I took some of our local providers and created a Coverage map because many times in a community. Somebody just moves in that come to the library to find out what services are available. And so I'm able to pull out the coverage map and talk about what service may be available where they are.
33:04
Another Benchmark was determining the results of Library resources and library programs that assessment tool that has So important in grant writing and we were one of the early adopters of project outcome. I really like their stuff for surveys, but we've done some more casual things like talk backboards where we just leave sticky notes and we'll ask. What like a prompt question. What do you want to learn more about and people will leave it up for a period of weeks and people will put you know, 3D printing or whatever.
33:43
They're interested in and then we're also with our Esports team working on creating a digital platform or digital portfolio because that's something that will be needed more and more and it really captures not just a grade on something but the whole process and the experience of it and then another Benchmark was enhancing the staffs level of digital capabilities, and we're really Big into online training here. We make time in the staff stay to take some online training for us in Texas the Texas State Library provides webinars archived webinars and online training. There's a lot out there. I think especially now there's so many things going digital. So we just want to keep up with what's going on. What's new and what we could be doing better.
34:44
This was a leave behind. I took two city council. It's one I created but the edge team is developing a snapshot that will be ready soon. And you can plug in Lourdes will talk about it probably but you can plug in your own information. So it gives you a very professional graphic way to leave behind at budgets time or whenever to talk about what you are doing in.
35:13
Library because we are so much more than people expect people don't even think to look for us for certain things financing structure. I was able to talk this was back 2016. I was able to talk about how the money the city gave us at that time 19,000 we could use that and multiply it with the grants.
35:38
We were writing that that it takes money to make money and if they would see dust some money it would help us get a lot more and I will just say the city does what they can to support us now budget-wise and Edge has been a big part of that in terms of giving us the credibility and the direction and I'm really appreciative and I know they're designing new things that Lourdes is will be talking about I'm need to drop off to go turn the 3D printer on again to do a face shield, but there will be time for questions at the end. So I'm going to turn it over to Lourdes now.
36:24
Thanks so much Diane so I know you're going to drop off but I'll need you to advance the slides. I hope you can stick around a little bit. Well miss. So thank you first Diane so much for truly inspiring us with so many great ideas. And I really liked what you said to really this is a moment to reimagine our role.
36:53
In the community, and so thank you so much for saying that and thank you for showing us how you can scale a lot of the ideas that are that were all hearing about out there and in Edge itself to really think about what makes sense for your community both in these times of social distancing and later on when we can reopen.
37:19
So Diane spoke about how Edge was able to To help her think strategically and identify opportunities to serve her community during the current crisis. So for the next 10 minutes, I'd like to introduce you to Edge and how it might help your library now to be clear. We offer a formal introductory webinar. That's about 30 minutes long and later in the deck. I'll share information on how you might join us for the next Edition. But today's introduction will at least provide you a brief overview.
37:53
Go and I'll start with the slide. You see here and just first answer the question.
38:00
What is Edge briefly edges a management tool to help libraries measure and improve their digital access programs and Investments now free and open access to digital information has been a priority for public libraries of all sizes for years now, but covet 19 has expectedly transitioned most programming and offerings online.
38:29
So digital access has never been more urgent Edge can play a pivotal role in helping you plan for recovery and communicate your value and it does this by highlighting how your library is connecting your community to digital information and providing the digital literacy to know how to use a We can move to the next slide. So very briefly Edge was created by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as Diane mentioned. Apparently she's working closely with mr. Bill Gates himself. 
39:07
I love that but the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation brought together a coalition of leading library and local government organizations to develop the first set of Technology benchmarks for public libraries, and Edge was created a public libraries with new metrics to demonstrate how they were connecting their communities to technology and digital information and I do like to share information about the edge Coalition because it goes a long way to the the point Diane made of establishing that credibility when you go to speak to your stakeholders, you could go on to the next slide I am Alright so last year and I know that Diane also showed you this slide. I just want to briefly cover here that last year the edge benchmarks were revised to reflect the way technology has evolved over the years and the revised assessment is based on the benchmarks. 
40:07
You see here the Ed framework is still based on the original Three strategic areas, and they are Community value engaging the community and decision makers and Management and as you can see each strategic area focuses on a set of benchmarks developed to measure success in these areas next slide, please.
40:32
So Edge 2.0 introduces a new website that uses current technology to create a better user experience for you and takes participants through four phases, which you see here prepare assess compare and act next slide, please.
40:55
Diana thank you. All right. So in the prepare second section H 2.0 introduces the community profile which asks you to collect specific data on your community to help you understand your community context the screencast. That's now playing will show you how to get to your community profile from your dashboard. Although I don't know. Oh, yeah, there it is. It's plain.
41:24
but what I want to talk about while that Cycles through is, you know, the question that might come to your mind is why why does Edge 2.0 include this section Well Community data can help provide a picture of your community and help you predict and plan for what your community needs right now or what they'll need when you reopen so in this section Library Libraries are asked to use census data or for our Canadian Library statistics Canada to obtain V initial data points for consideration. The data points are the number of school-aged children and the percent educational attainment people living below poverty unemployment and homes with Broadband.
42:14
Now these five data points represent a starting point to considering the impact of covid-19 on your Community and what needs may already exist and maybe even greater given the current situation?
42:32
Next slide please.
42:37
The new platform also allows you to easily track your progress on the assessment by showing you the percentage of response as complete as you'll see when it Cycles through now the assess tool also clearly identifies which benchmarks are complete and which are in progress and that means that if you miss a question on the assessment the system clearly identifies which section it's in to save you time.
43:05
An effort next slide, please.
43:10
And the edge peer comparison report allows you to compare your library results to other libraries of similar size defined by the population area you serve which offers a more accurate comparison. So if you're a small Library a comparison to other small libraries would provide you with more useful and accurate results comparing Apples to Apples rather than Apples to oranges.
43:40
Oranges now the edge peer comparison report has been available to libraries for years. The new feature is that you'll be able to display comparisons for your entire assessment or by key topic area next slide, please.
43:57
Okay. So what are key topic areas? Well in our work with libraries, we heard that they wanted a share and discuss their results and opportunities around critical issues for their library and their community. So we created key topic areas such as digital literacy and digital access programs and services Economic Development health and wellness along with the others listed here.
44:25
So this allows you to engage local Peters on how your library supports its community in a particular area, for example, if your mayor asks how you connect residents to e-government. You can generate a comparison report for e-government to show how you're doing compared to other libraries of similar size in this area. You can then use this report to demonstrate your e-government resources either as a strength or as an area for improvement.
44:57
So these these key topic areas are something that we're really excited about they essentially group the assessment questions around critical issues. And in terms that we hope will resonate with your local government who likely has similar priorities and that makes me remember you know, what Diane just shared that she's always trying to tap into the services that matter to her city council. So this is one of the reports that we have.
45:27
We'll help you do that next slide, please.
45:31
Another new feature are the custom comparison reports and this really speaks and I keep leaning on Diane, but it was just such fabulous information. She shared and so much to unpack there and Diane spoke about scaling and the importance of scaling Edge or any activity to something that they have the resources and the capacity to do.
45:55
Well these custom comparison reports enable you to compare your results to other Is based on a category of your choosing and these include state or Province region and by region, we mean geographical regions like Midwest and Northeast by budget by peer group and by ulc members and all of these reports are intended to help you decide which programs and services are typical or expected for a library of your size and with your budget.
46:31
Next slide please.
46:34
Hey and with each 2.0. We debuted toolkits to help inform your decision making as you consider, which priority issues to address. There are several tool kits available immediately upon creating your Edge account and there are more under development. So once you login to Edge, all you have to do is click on the tool kit section to download any of the five tool kits available.
47:03
Malleable there today. So this is one of them called leveraging edging your toolkit, which walks you through how to create smart goals, which is a framework that we transition to in Edge 2.0 next slide, please.
47:18
All right. So all of the tools I introduce you to today were intended to help you use that edge to engage local leaders on how the library helps achieve Community goals.
47:33
So the edge data and tools were developed to help public libraries of all sizes initiate meaningful conversations with their local government and other community leaders about the value of Of Library technology for the community next slide, please.
47:55
All right, and Edge access may be available to you through a State Library subscription on this slide. You can see the states and provinces that sponsor participation for their libraries and very briefly. They are California, Iowa, Missouri, Oregon, Texas and the Canadian province of Ontario.
48:17
So Edge is available in has been since last year to Canadian actually since The year before it had to Canadian Library. So we do have libraries across the province of Ontario and we have libraries in Saskatchewan using Edge. And I know that question came in earlier through the chat. So if you are Canadian Library interested in participating, we will share an email on one of the next slides where you can contact us for help to get started and also keep in mind since we're on the topic here.
48:53
Upstate subscriptions and state libraries that by participating in that edge your State Library gets data on the technology needs of its public libraries. So it really positions them to then provide the programming and in some cases the funding to close some of those gaps and areas for improvement next slide, please right. So what have you don't have a website? All right, we did this.
49:23
Webinar is meant for small and Rural libraries or was developed with you in mind and we know that many small and Rural libraries don't have websites and rely on their social media to communicate with their community. So if this describes you the following two slides highlight some ideas that might be helpful next slide, please. Alright. So the first we would recommend would be to consider using pinned posts up.
49:53
And post is a status update that you manually select to stay at the top of your timeline meaning it won't slip down the timeline as you continue to add other posts to your page this post provides an ideal place for you to share closure notices or to directly link visitors to a coronavirus Resource page or other content that you want to highlight - tags are important because they help increase social media engagement.
50:23
Went with new users. So one way you can expand your audience is by hashtagging Community Partners. Look to your community partner social media accounts your local Health Department. Your school's mayor's office food banks utility companies are there hashtags?
50:42
They're using the share Community Information and resources pertaining to covid-19 if they are include these in your social media posts to expand your Hours and reach a broader audience much like Diane did with tech wave right and they really appreciate it that it's a way for you to think those partners and it's a way to expand your audience. Also, as you continue to post look at your analytics to track Community responses to posts are individuals responding to or sharing your posts how many clicks or views have different topics received?
51:23
These results can inform what information your community maybe looking for right now and critically this is information. You can share with your local government leaders on how your library is engaging the community with the means that has available one. Last note on analytics is social media comments can provide actionable information on what user users need right now.
51:51
So encourage your Users to share how they're accessing digital resources. And which resources would be most helpful. If you're considering live video programming or recordings, Calgary library in Alberta. Canada has developed a filming at home Tip Sheet to provide guidance on lighting wardrobe and setting up your camera and these tips can help inform standards for any recorded or live video programming your library might be off.
52:23
Offering and this Tip Sheet is available on our website. The last thing here is to provide tutorials to empower your residents to create their own fabric face masks in real time or other DIY activities that you or your staff knows how to do.
52:42
Next slide please. So in terms of low-tech ways that are available to you there might be some ways in which your library could support your community right now. So most libraries have set up auto reply messages highlighting their closure. You might have done the same thing yourself. Well this message provides an opportunity to invite people to follow your social media pages and highlight your library's digital offerings.
53:11
Us on social media, you can also use the auto reply to direct people to your communities coronavirus resources webpage. But again, remember to hashtag the partners providing this page whether it be your mayor's office or public health department and encourage all your staff members to add this info to their auto reply so that if anyone reaches out there being linked to these resources many of you have heard that unemployment offices are overwhelmed by phone calls.
53:41
People are unable to get through to file for unemployment benefits to address this Gap Palm Beach County Library in Florida has made paper unemployment applications and English Spanish and creole available for pickup outside their library branches.
53:59
And so this is a service you might consider for your community along with any other relevant government forms you anticipate they might need like SNAP benefits application and finally, Many families are experiencing food insecurity and might benefit from a list of food pantries and free meals in your area. And this is something that you can certainly promote on your social media, but you can also add a printed list on the library door next slide, please.
54:30
So we've collected these ideas that are several of the ones I mentioned and more resources on covid-19 on our coronavirus Resource page at library Edge dot-org forward slash coronavirus the links also in the chat right now and this page has Library examples including pots Burrows today information about internet connectivity and tips for social media and digital library card creation.
55:00
So we hope you'll take a moment to visit today.
55:03
And next slide please. As I mentioned at the beginning of my presentation, we offer a full introductory webinar and the next one takes place on May 26th. So if you'd like to register, sorry register or watch an archive of this webinar, you can visit Library Edge dot-org forward slash webinars to see a full list of the educational opportunities that we offer next slide, please.
55:30
Alright, and if you'd like to open your Edge account today, simply go to library Edge dot-org and you click the login button and it will walk you through how to register for an account. So we hope you'll take a moment to do that today.
55:45
Next slide please. All right. So with the five minutes that we have we'd love to hear any questions you have for Diane or for myself.
56:00
We had one question come in for Diane.
56:04
And this was regarding the the game night. Yes, how do you give them the controllers?
56:11
And could you give some more detail on the program in general great ideas, the we ask them to bring their controllers the library had six controllers and the way they were playing Mario Kart was just one or four people at a time we're playing so we actually had a Cash, one of those containers of disinfectant wipes, we would wipe it and hand it to them with a wipe and we would also hold out the container of wipes so that they could pull out a wipe so they would wipe it themselves as they handed it back.
56:57
Okay and Lord as I think this one is for you the big question everyone wants cost. So as I mentioned in that slide for those libraries that are not covered under one of those State subscriptions. We do make individual subscriptions available. It is based on a library's budget and you can find more information on that on cost at library Edge dot-org.
57:27
And allow me if you go to library H dot org and you click about there are four tabs on the top and you click about and you go to subscribing to Edge.
57:41
You'll find the information that you need which is how much it would cost for your library. So it's a range depending on a library's budget. But again, if you're if you're in one of those states, you have no cost access to Edge.
58:00
Okay. I'm not seeing any other questions right now.
58:09
We're just about at the top of the hour. So we're okay to go ahead and wrap it up. No one has any more questions.
58:21
Alrighty, thank you so much, please if that's okay. Sure. Okay. Thank you so much Mary. So if anyone has any questions, please for the edge team. We're happy to field them at platform support at library Edge dot-org that is our support email and we can answer any questions about subscriptions or about participation any questions you have please contact us there.
58:55
Ready? Well, thank you so much. Thank you, Diane and thank you. Lord us think absolutely love to talk about libraries and for our audience everyone who registered and attended today's webinar will receive a follow-up email tomorrow that includes a link to the archived recording of This webinar as well as a link to a certificate of attendance. We also put a link in the chat just now to a short survey.
59:21
If you can please take a few minutes to fill that out just Planning future training. So thanks again everyone and we'll see you at our next webinar.
59:30
Thanks everybody. Thank you.
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