[yscon] Advice for Making Big SRP Changes

Mon Dec 18 11:24:19 PST 2017

Danielle,

Like Ohio, our agency also pays for CSLP membership and only this year, began to purchase CSLP manuals (via USB) for each library system (not building) IF they completed an evaluation survey of their summer reading program. I began offering this incentive since no complete data set for SRP is captured by our annual report, and therefore, requires more staff time and organization on the end of the responding libraries. Even though I am much later in getting the manuals distributed as planned, this seems to have been appreciated anecdotally, though I did not see an increase in response to the survey; in fact, responses decreased this year, despite the incentive and reducing the number of survey questions.

As you alluded to, we would never be able to provide direct funding to libraries for purchase of program materials or hiring of performers because of laws involving procurement...It's difficult enough to get a nationally known trainer approved for a workshop once every couple of years! Instead, we do house a Performer Directory on our website, which was recently redesigned to only take positive referrals, per the request of our legal team. All referrals are submitted by public library staff and moderated by myself and our web master, so other than occasionally promoting the resource, it does not take a lot of staff time or effort: https://kdla.ky.gov/librarians/programs/performershowcase/Pages/default.aspx.

Additional financial support comes in the form of providing continuing education experiences, and this has changed from year to year based on our budget and responding to what I believe to be the needs or staff or larger national trends. I always do a mix of virtual and in-person training, thought in-person is more time intensive. The in-person training is conducted in the form of both smaller, regional workshops, as well as cooperative all-day workshops in tandem with our state library conference:

*         In the last couple of years, I have went from hosting 16 regional workshops a year - 8 in the fall and 8 in the spring - to only 8 this past fall. No workshops will be held in the spring, due to lack of interest and conflicts with our state public library conference. Recently, our administrative regions were reduced to 4 (from 8) so I am currently rethinking these meetings. Overall, I coordinate the meetings by finding host libraries, creating an agenda, and attending all meetings to facilitate discussion. All workshops are round-robin style and provide an opportunity for libraries to share their best programs, performers, and hands-on activities. By the first of the year, I will curate notes and "best practices" from theses workshops as a resource on our agency's summer reading support website: https://kdla.ky.gov/librarians/programs/summerreading/Pages/default.aspx

*         Before I joined the agency, there had been a history (over about 4-5 years?) of our agency hosting an annual summer reading workshop. When I joined, that conference got rolled into one which also supported bookmobile and outreach staff...then budget reductions began. I took this an opportunity to; we no longer hosted a separate conference, but instead sponsored a one-day SRP workshop at the state of our state library association conference in September. Due to the scope of the conference, we were able to also pull in school library staff, which opened up opportunities for those willing to participate. I have done this for the past couple of years to mixed success, but none every saw as much registration as did our own, stand-alone SRP conference. This last year was more successful as I was able to get speakers for free, and instead, use financial resources to provide incentives in the form of textbooks and manipulatives for all attendees (50 total).

All that being said, I am exploring the option of returning to a stand-alone conference, though I prefer it to be a youth services conference, with summer reading being but one aspect of the content. However, budget reductions were just announced again (another 20%) so not sure how that will impact our plans...

Thanks for sticking through my long email. Best of luck! Be brave. Be bold. Don't be afraid to try something new!

~Krista

Krista King-Oaks
Youth Services Consultant
Library Development Branch
Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives<http://kdla.ky.gov/Pages/default.aspx>
300 Coffee Tree Road
Frankfort, KY  40601
(502) 564-1739
krista.king-oaks at ky.gov<mailto:krista.king-oaks at ky.gov>
KDLA supports School Ready Libraries<http://kdla.ky.gov/librarians/programs/Pages/SchoolReady.aspx>
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Services provided by the Library Development Branch of KDLA are
funded in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
[imls]

From: yscon [mailto:yscon-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us] On Behalf Of jdwyer at library.ohio.gov
Sent: Monday, December 18, 2017 2:00 PM
To: Margarida, Danielle (DOA) <Danielle.Margarida at olis.ri.gov>; YSCon Listserv (yscon at listsmart.osl.state.or.us) <yscon at listsmart.osl.state.or.us>
Subject: Re: [yscon] Advice for Making Big SRP Changes

Dear Danielle,

Good luck with this tricky situation! The question of state-level support for libraries' SRPs comes up here from time to time. The $$ value of support offered varies widely among states thanks to budget constraints, agency priorities, etc., but I think it's safe to say that RI's suite of support is VERY generous.

In Ohio, we pay for CSLP manuals for each library building, and the CSLP membership, and that's about it for direct support with a $$ value (we also provide lots of access to resources, workshops, etc.). We do partner with the Ohio State Fair, Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (State Parks), and the Ohio Renaissance Festival to provide discount coupons to their attractions. Ohio public libraries are permitted to reproduce and distribute as many of these coupons as they wish (to summer reading program participants only) at no cost to the library.

I think others of us have larger statewide incentive programs, and I'd like to add more attractions to ours. If you can work out collaborations with any area attractions, that might be an attractive replacement for the performers.  And it would doubtless be less work for you!

Best,
Janet

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Janet Ingraham Dwyer
Library Consultant
jdwyer at library.ohio.gov<mailto:jdwyer at library.ohio.gov>
http://library.ohio.gov/youth-services
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From: yscon [mailto:yscon-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us] On Behalf Of Margarida, Danielle (DOA)
Sent: Monday, December 18, 2017 1:33 PM
To: YSCon Listserv (yscon at listsmart.osl.state.or.us<mailto:yscon at listsmart.osl.state.or.us>) <yscon at listsmart.osl.state.or.us<mailto:yscon at listsmart.osl.state.or.us>>
Subject: [yscon] Advice for Making Big SRP Changes

Hi everyone,
        We currently support our statewide SRP by purchasing manuals, providing vouchers for the purchase of posters and reading logs, and by paying for each library (71 buildings) to have one children's performer and one teen performer. The whole process of selecting, booking, and paying the performers is a very convoluted process involving applications, a showcase, a booking meeting, and lots and lots of paperwork on my end. I've streamlined the process quite a bit over the past two years, but it is very time consuming and I'm doubtful of the impact it has on the summer reading program. Because we only pay $160 per program we do not get a variety of (nor high quality) performers willing to participate. Attendance numbers for these performances has been steadily declining, and every year I field complaints from directors regarding the performers that are selected. (Directors want performers that can draw/accommodate large crowds, but we can't get these types of performers because of the low $160 rate). The Youth Services Advisory Council is responsible for reviewing applications and selecting performers, however I am the middle man dealing with performers, helping libraries/performers book their programs, and maintaining a calendar of all performances throughout the state.
        I would really like to stop providing the performers showcase and paying for performers. It takes a lot of time to coordinate and prevents me from working on other projects that I think would be more meaningful (such as offering more training on summer learning, building more online SRP resources, etc.) And while I don't make the performer selections, it does appear that our agency is promoting a specific group of performers over another - something I'm not very comfortable with. This year I had to deal with an aggressive performer who was not selected, and we had to involve our legal department.
        All of this is to ask - do you have something you do to support SRP that works really well? I have supervisor support to discontinue the performers showcase, but I need to provide something in its place. I'm getting too wrapped up in my own head and would appreciate hearing what's working for you, or if you have experience in making a big change (the showcase is a decades old institution and I'm a bit nervous about the blowback!) I am planning on sending out surveys and holding a forum to gather input from librarians, too.

Thank you!

Also, we may already be getting an online reading program  through our partnership with our state's grade level reading campaign, so I'm looking for something other than providing a service like Wandoo Reader or Beanstack.

*******************
Danielle Margarida, Youth Services Coordinator
Office of Library & Information Services
Rhode Island Department of Administration
One Capitol Hill | Providence, RI  02908-5803

401.574.9309 (voice) | 401.574.9320 (fax) | www.olis.ri.gov<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.olis.ri.gov%2F&data=02%7C01%7Cjdwyer%40library.ohio.gov%7C5acdb6a2c6094a4b488e08d54645ce49%7C50f8fcc494d84f0784eb36ed57c7c8a2%7C0%7C0%7C636492187990389800&sdata=oSrS6ePJV2xH0M3S0H23NTs9ryBfAqL8Zrr%2F1tHF1jE%3D&reserved=0>

[veclogo-2018]

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