Presentation by Joan Frye Williams and George Needham at the 2012 Public Library Association conference, March 15, 2012.

1. Joan Frye Williams and George Needham
at PLA 2012

2. Community
focus is
essential

3. It’s everybody’s responsibility

4. Can’t
afford to
guess

5. Demographics are not enough

6. Neither are
satisfaction
surveys

7. Who speaks for your community?

8. What does your community value?

9. How to ask the right questions

10. What they know about

11. What
they care
about

12. How they see themselves

13. Listen, don’t explain

14. How to talk about the future

15. Analogies

16. Experiences

17. Outcomes

18. How to avoid wasting time

19. No library predictions

20. No commitments to
non-existent services

21. No free ice cream

22. How to connect effectively

23. Effective
community
meetings

24. Effective
social
media

25. Effective interviews

26. Effective focus groups

27. Effective
surveys

28. Thank them for their service

29. How to make sense of the input

30. All input is not created equal

31. What people have in common

32. What generates
the most enthusiasm

33. What
surprises
you

34. What comes up most often

35. Learning from the inaccuracies

36. …and repeat

37. Let’s continue the conversation!
http://georgeandjoan.com
hello@georgeandjoan.com
Photo by Chuck O’Shea