RA Outreach:� Taking the Books on the Road

Sam Adams-Lanham

Community Engagement Librarian

Barrington Area Library

sadams@balibrary.org

Agenda

• BAL district info
• Input—places where RA & Outreach intersect for us
• Output—individual & small groups
• Debrief
• Wrap-up

​

BAL District Info�

• BAL consists of a single central library with remote pick-up lockers and drop boxes
• Serves 44,157 residents in 72 square miles
• Covers all or most of seven towns (Barrington, Barrington Hills, Deer Park, Lake Barrington, North Barrington, South Barrington, and Tower Lakes); includes part of another seven (Algonquin, Fox River Grove, Hoffman Estates, Kildeer, Lake Zurich, Palatine, Port Barrington) and some unincorporated areas
• Affiliated with RAILS, but not otherwise part of a consortium
• Structure
• Executive/Administration
• Adult Services*
• Youth Services*
• Technical Services
• Operations
• Customer Service
• Material Services
• Building Services

*Community Engagement Librarians in these departments

RA & Outreach Intersections�

• Match Book
• Farmers Market
• Mail & Van
• Meetings

Match Book

LibraryAware subscriptions include the ability to create your own newsletters, in addition to editing their creations. Use the orange “create list” button to make a new list with 0 subscribers.

Under your new list, clicking “create issue” will open a page similar to this.

Add & edit the book titles you’re suggesting, then select “Publish to,” “schedule e-mail,” and manually input the e-mail of the requester.

Match Book�

LibraryAware or BookLetters

(and probably others) can facilitate this sort of e-mail.

​

Also, 20 is too many books to send for most people. This patron was happy with it though.

RA & Outreach at the Farmers Market

• ARC give-away is a great ice-breaker
• Bringing a Hot Spot and tablets means we can
• Teach patrons how to use digital downloads
• Place requests for cardholders
• Register people for programs, newsletters, etc.
• Customer Service can issue cards, but they aren’t immediately active; hoping Polaris LEAP will rectify that

Deposit Collections

+ 3 memory care accounts, adding a 4^th next week

+ Perfusion Center at Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital received gift of iPads, uses digital downloads

Homebound

Residents in facilities with front desk staff receive van delivery and pick-up

Residents in other facilities or in their own home receive and return items by mail

• 122 total patrons enrolled
• 37 regulars
• 275 deliveries since July 1, 2017 (this fiscal year)
• 552 books
• 78 DVDs
• 46 audiobooks
• 2 music CDs
• $616.99 in postage

In Meetings & E-mails

• 226 local non-profits in the Barrington area (including small groups, such as HOAs or school PTOs )
• 24 categories
• Established groups
• Development Council, Community Foundation, Council on Aging, PTO Presidents’ Council, NAMI-BA, League of Women Voters
• Start-ups
• BAMDA/EveryTown, SmartFarms, Mindful Waste, Bstrong
• Monthly Round Tables at BAL
• I attend collective org meetings to get a better sense of what they want and need

​

Options

Break, play with examples, or ask questions. Reconvene in ~10 minutes.

Your turn

On your own, take a few minutes to think about your library and community. Write down some ideas and answers.

Could you add online RA?

Is there a Farmers Market, Festival, Cruise Night, or other public event the library could attend? Who organizes it?

What special populations are prevalent in your area, and how are you serving them?

Can the library actively seek out local non-profits? Does anyone maintain a list?

Discussion

Form into small groups

Each person share one or two ideas

Expand on those that appeal to you

Determine next actions and �write them down

Take-aways

•  I want to combine RA & Outreach by

• The next step to take toward that is

• One skill to improve

• Where or how to learn more

Thank you for coming today. Don’t hesitate to reach out to me.

sadams@balibrary.org | linkedin.com/in/sam-adams-lanham/

​

Q & A�and wrap-up