1. Will You Be My Partner? Forming Partnerships from a Youth Services Perspective Tara Ellen Forman, Youth Librarian, Early Literacy ServicesEmily Springer, Youth Librarian, Student Services Librarian Strathcona County Library, Sherwood Park, Alberta Yellowhead Regional Library Conference, September 17, 2010

2. PowerPoint, web links and other references are available at: http://sclyouthservices.pbworks.com/

3. Today we will: Discuss several of our partnerships Highlight what partnerships can offer to libraries Highlight how community agencies benefit from library partnerships Indicate how community needs are met by successful partnerships Share our lessons learned

4. How we define partnerships A mutually beneficial relationship where both parties “give and take” in order to provide programming, services or other initiatives. Different than some of our other community relationships and outreach activities where we provide specialized services to a group

5. Partnerships can be like a box of chocolates . . . Wonderful, easy, stress-relief!

6. Partnerships can be like oil and vinegar . . . The right balance can be superb; the wrong balance not so much.

7. BUT, Partnerships can also be like cheese . . . Some are stinky!

8. Getting to know us…Strathcona County Located east of Edmonton Population of 85,000 people, with 2/3 of population living in Sherwood Park and 1/3 rural A very youthful community with a growing population of young families Fastest growing demographic: children under age of 4 Lots of industry (eg. Imperial Oil) is located in Strathcona County

9. Strathcona County Library Staff size of approximately 40 FTE (70 staff) Youth Services: 14 staff, including seasonal and clerical Over 200,000 items in collections Very well supported by community, mayor and county councillors One main library in Sherwood Park with Bookmobile service to rural population

10. Biggest pressure point for Youth Services: the County’s growing preschool demographic means that we struggle to meet demands for preschool programming this is especially true of programming for babies and toddlers and their caregivers

11. The main reason we first turned to partnerships was to expand on early literacy programming and services due to staff and budget limitations.

12. Partnering with Parent Link Display Booth at the 2010 Tiny Tots Expo

13. Storytime Kits

14. Parent Link-Library programs in action

15. More, more, more! Song, Sign & Rhyme Time and Stay & Play programs “supervised play groups” that allow us to offer concurrent parenting and preschool programs Parent Link’s facilitation and provision of the SSRT program allowed us to DOUBLE the number of early literacy programs (0-24 months and caregivers) that the library offers. That is 40-50 additional families each programming session!

16. Thank you Parent Link!

17. Donor Recognition

18. Communityneed filled: - Additional early literacy programs - More FREE programming in community - Building awareness of publically available services - Supporting a healthy community What we offer: -Room space -Registration -Publicity -Most importantly, people who will attend Parent Link programs at their facility What theyoffer: - Staff - Additional programming - Different expertise and different programming - New audience - Occasional funding Cross-promotion

19. “The more we get together . . . the happier we’ll be!”

20. Other lessons learned from our Parent Link partnership Not all agencies have the same work style as libraries A LOT of time will be spent on things like forms, confirming dates, re-confirming dates After you’ve double-checked everything . . . Triple check

21. Quiz: Are you smarter than a Youth Services Librarian? Tara works 100 hours a month. What percentage of her hours are spent dealing with partnerships? 5 hours 10 hours 25 hours 3.1415965 hours

22. Briar Patch Kids Home School Club

24. Registration

25. Expertise

27. Publicity

28. 2 out of 10 programsper year facilitatedby library staff (eg. researchhelp or guest author visit)

29. “Your friends are my friends and my friends and your friends!”

30. Briar Patch Kidslessons learned Not all agencies work the same way as libraries . . . It is okay to retool and try again; revamping and redesigning programs are part of the partnership process Community building is one of the most fulfilling parts of partnerships

31. The little red hen counts her chickens

32. Coin Kids Easy-peasy “dream partnership” But don’t count your chickens! CANCELLED

34. Publicity and promotion

35. PatronsWhat they offer: - Expertiseand a unique program that we could otherwise not provide

36. Coin Kids lessons learned Don’t count your chickens Even the best laid plans . . . Do not advertise too far ahead of time when dealing with partners; use caution Don’t assume that things are long-term or recurring even if everything points that way

37. Young Author and Artist Camps Partnership with County’s Recreation, Parks and Culture department We book and secure authors through Young Alberta Book Society (YABS) RPC staff provide art portion of program Fee: $175 (5 day camp)

39. SupervisionCross-promotion

40. Author and Artist Camps lessons learned This has been a “marriage made in heaven” partnership -- what makes it so successful are both parties’ willingness to plan well ahead of time (we begin recruiting authors, setting fees and writing program descriptions in February for this July program!)

41. Quiz: Can you cope better than a Youth Services Librarian? Emily spent her entire work week dealing with partnership issues. How does she cope? Irreverent puppetry Chocolate, coffee and/or wine Humour A good Daytimer and delegation All of the above

42. Sponsorships A type of ‘partnership’ that involves monetary donation from a for-profit organization (local business, large corporations) In our experience, somewhat easier to negotiate a straight forward contract (ie. we get $xxx in exchange for xxx) Must know your community.

43. Canadian Library Association Position Statement http://tiny.cc/CLAsponsorship

44. Sponsorship of Summer Reading Game

45. Donor recognition ... in action

47. To sum up! Communication is key Rewarding: community building; making connections, expanding services Recognition of partners/donors Can be resource intensive, but can also free up resources or create opportunity You won’t know until you try; test the waters! There’s always room for change!

48. Resources “Working Together Toolkit” http://www.librariesincommunities.ca Partnering with Purpose: A Guide to Strategic Partnership Development for Libraries and Other Organizations by Janet Crowther and Barry Trott. (Libraries Unlimited, 2004). Librarians as Community Partners: An Outreach Handbook edited by Carol Smallwood (Chicago: American Library Association, 2004) Serving Families and Children Through Partnerships: A How-to-do-it Manual for Librarians by Sandra Feinberg and Sari Feldman. (Neal-Schuman Publishers, 1996.)

49. *Lessons for Grown-ups from Children's Books “She believed that friendships, to begin well, had to stand on mutual information and plenty of it.” ~from Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer “You must always take risks when experimenting.” ~from Finn Family Moomintrollby ToveJansson “Little things have big results sometimes.” ~from Willie Without by Margaret Moore *Quotesfrom: What the Dormouse Said: Lessons for Grown-ups from Children’s Books collected by Amy Gash (Algonquin Books, 2004).

50. Future plans/moving forward Roving Chessnuts: www.rovingchessnuts.com Lego Club or programming: www.nalug.org Grandpals and Linking Generations model: www.bit.ly/c5RLAM ; www.linkinggenerations.ca

51. THANK YOU!