LDD on the Road

              Published monthly by the Library Development Division staff of the
Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records
Linda C. McCleary, editor.
Volume 1, Number 1, February 2003
Welcome to the first issue of the new e-newsletter of the Library Development Division (LDD)
of the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records, LDD on the Road! The LDD
consultants would like to highlight some of the wonderful meetings and library site visits we
have attended, the model Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grants that have been
awarded to Arizona libraries, and let you know a little more about us and what we do.
We hope to offer this newsletter to you electronically via the Arizona State Library’s website
(www.lib.az.us) by the 15th of each month. A notice stating that the newest edition of the
newsletter has been placed on the web via the Agency’s listserv will be posted. To join this
listserv, please send an e-mail to:
administrator@led.lib.az.us
In the body of the message include
join az.dlapr <your e-mail address>
Leave the subject line blank and do not include your signature block.
Consultant Jan Elliott, AzLA Award Winner!
Jan Elliott has worked as a Public Library Development Consultant with the Arizona State
Library, Archives and Public Records Library Development Division since 1992.
In the past she has worked as an academic librarian at three universities, as a free-lance librarian
for non-profit groups, and as a public librarian in Winslow and Clifton, AZ (surviving the BIG
flood!). She served as the County Librarian in Greenlee County for several years.
Working in rural areas of the state has given Elliott a deep appreciation of the hard won
accomplishments of rural librarians. She knows first hand about the difficult times that rural
librarians have and celebrates with them the amazing successes they have despite limited
budgets, staff and resources.
Jan has managed the State Library’s continuing education program including the week-long
summer institute held in conjunction with the University of Arizona’s Library School. That role
will be expanding to spearhead an effort of the Western Council of State Librarians in the next
year to coordinate, expand and improve access to library education at all levels in the West.
Jan has helped a significant segment of Arizona libraries set appropriate goals and improve their
focus on the future with a strategic planning process. This past year she began the cloning
process with a train the trainer public library planning event. Now there are 20 Arizona librarians
able to help their colleagues improve their libraries role and goals in their communities.
She is also responsible for the collecting Arizona’s public library statistics.
Jan is active in the Arizona Library Association, in the Maricopa County Library Council and the
Arizona Library Friends organization. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Spanish Literature and
Language, and a Master's Degree in Library Science from the State University of NY at
Geneseo. In 2002 she received the first AZLA Library Leadership award.
Jan enjoys reading mysteries and science fiction, outdoor activities like hiking, camping, trail
riding with her horses, bird watching and her friends and family.
Submitted by Jane Kolbe, Library Development Division Director, and from the AZLA Awards
website
LIBRARY AND MUSEUM INSTITUTE COMBINED: A SUCCESS IN ARIZONA
- By Kim Huber
What do librarians and museum professionals have in common? A lot, according to participants
at the first Library and Museum Institute in Arizona.
Arizona has hosted a Library Institute for the past 7 years but added museum professionals for
the first time in 2002. In the past, the Institute was designed to offer professional development
training opportunities for library managers who do not have an MLS degree. The weeklong
program is offered at the University of Arizona in Tucson. The State Library, Archives and
Public Records Agency (State Library) partners with the School of Information Resources and
Library Science (SIRLS) to offer beginning and advanced programs in library science. The
Institute is primarily supported with funds granted by the Arizona State Library, Archives and
Public Records Agency under the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), which is
administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).
Training at the Institute consists of lectures, hands-on activities, homework assignments, group
activities, and discussions. Participants live in a dormitory on campus and share nearly every
meal together. A couple of evenings during the week are devoted to group activities such as a
welcome event, storytelling, and the sharing of personal stories in the forms of poems, jokes and
journal entries. Participants are totally immersed in the Institute and form very strong bonds with
each other by the end of the week, which culminates in a formal graduation ceremony. Each year
the State Librarian, the SIRLS director and the County Librarians are invited to participate in the
graduation luncheon to recognize and reward the graduates.
In 2002, the State Library decided to build on their LSTA collaborative goal by adding five
museum professionals to the advanced Institute as a pilot program to see if librarians and
museum staff would benefit from shared professional development training. The five museum
workers were hand-selected, with input from members of the Museum Association of Arizona,
by the LSTA Consultant whose background is in museum work. The specific selection criteria
included: working professionals, without a master’s degree in museum studies, people who
would be open to new ideas, people who would implement things they learned in class, and
people who would work well with others. The museum participants represented small museums,
with diverse collections, in different parts of the state. Participants were from art, historic,
general, tribal and religious museums.
At the time the planning committee decided to include museum workers at the Institute, two of
the three training programs had already been confirmed, planning and marketing. Class topics
are usually selected by Jan Elliott, Continuing Education Consultant with the Library
Development Division of the State Library. She bases her decisions on feedback from past
Institute attendees (for advanced Institutes). The third program---exhibits--- was offered mid-week,
and although it had more of a museum-oriented theme, was also a topic about which
librarians expressed an interest in learning more.
Sandra Nelson, author of the book, The New Planning for Results, led the group through long
range planning exercises. Mary Moore, a training consultant from Washington State, was the
Marketing trainer. Both instructors are nationally recognized library trainers with no experiences
in working with museum staff. Exhibition Planning and Design was co-taught by Rebecca Akins,
Lenee Eller and Larry Warner, experienced Arizona museum professionals with no library
experience. All trainers were informed that the audience would include participants from both
professions and they were asked to try to incorporate multi-disciplinary examples in their
presentations. Each instructor also prompted both librarians and museum professionals to offer
comments and feedback throughout each day’s discussions, and the audience actively responded.
Participants reported that this joint Institute provided ample opportunity to share ideas, learn
from others’ experiences, network, and build collaborative projects. We had many positive
comments and no negative ones regarding the addition of museum professionals to the Institute.
Formal evaluations revealed the following anonymous comments:
The training can be immediately applied to my institution (museum). I also liked meeting
people from other libraries and learning the personal experience….This week was
Fantastic! I was really surprised at how easily the museum/library people intermingled
w/ ideas and experience. We all learned from each other.
I loved that museums were included this year. Great ideas for partnering &
incorporating various displays were given.
The exhibit design class gave me ideas for my very small displays that I might put out at
my library. I will remember some of the displays that were designed in class and will
apply some of those ideas in making a display.
The day with the museum people [Exhibit Design Class] on Wednesday was invaluable. I
am excited about asking to have this training done for my library district….I plan to
contact the Los Caballeros Museum in Wickenburg to see if we can do a partnership.
I also plan to start a “mini-museum”-an area of display of art, ceramic or collections
(whatever I can borrow) and design it like a museum display (like the airport) and
change them quarterly.
And some participants also wrote to thank us for the training opportunity. They said:
There are so many areas where our [library and museum] missions blend and complement
each other that it just makes sense to collaborate and partner as often as we can. – JoAnn
Stuckey, Director, Cave Creek Museum
It was interesting to see how many issues that libraries and museums face that are very
similar. Not only did we learn new ideas, but made new found [sic] friends in the library
field as well. – Tammy Parker, Educator, Rosson House Museum
The state has been offering these collaborative grants [LSTA] for several years and I have
thrown away every piece of paper dealing with them because I saw no point in pursuing the
matter in our small town. I just couldn’t see how it would help either the museum or my
library. After I went to the library institute last May, I caught the vision. When I saw the
museum people showing some of their displays and demonstrating the materials and
equipment they work with, it finally hit me. I know that both of us [Pima Public Library
and the Eastern Arizona Museum and Historical Society] will benefit tremendously from an
ongoing joint effort if we all work together….Having the museum people join this year’s
institute was truly inspired because it gave us first hand knowledge of how these grants
could work and helped me figure out what kind of projects are possible. – Vicki Foote,
Librarian, Pima Public Library.
The success of this joint Institute has encouraged the State Library to continue the collaborative
training in the future. Although the State Library will not be hosting an Institute in 2003 due to a
commitment to the Western Council of State Librarians Continuing Education project, they
intend to continue the Library & Museum Institute in 2004 and beyond.
ONEBOOKAZ Update
ONEBOOK. ONEMONTH. ONEGOAL
The title selected for OneBookAZ 2003 is Plainsong by Kent Haruf. For information about the
book and author visit the web site www.onebookaz.org
Participating libraries will get copies of the book and collateral materials like Posters, Brochures,
Buttons and Bookmarks. Book discussions will be held in libraries and communities all over the
state in the month of April 2003. Signature events include:
􀂃 Horizon: KAET, Channel 8 will do a discussion of the Book Festival and introduce this
year's book - on HORIZON, April 4th 7pm.
􀂃 AZ Book Festival: April 5th 10am- 5.00 pm Kick off/ Author signing at the AZ Hall of
Fame, 1101 West Washington, Phoenix
􀂃 AZ Speaks Up! On line chat on www.azcentral.com on April 14, Noon to 9pm Anyone
all over the USA (or rest of the world too!) can log into the chat
􀂃 Arizona Reader's Theatre: Dramatic reading of the book by Arizona Reader's Theatre,
Thursday, April 17th, 2-4pm at the Hall of Fame, 1101 W. Washington, Phoenix. Moderator
Jana Bommersbach
􀂃 Books and Co. Program, KAET Channel 8 on Mon, April 28, 7:30 –8:00 pm. Presentation
will feature Kent Haruf, the author. Moderator Ron Carlson
Contact mala@lib.az.us or Karen.drake@ci.chandler.az.us
Submitted by Mala Muralidharan.
Watch this space for the
Kid’s ONEBOOKAZ 2003
The Book: Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key
The Author: Jack Gantos
In August 2002 Sandra Nelson trained 20 facilitators on the New Planning for Results. This was
truly a library transformation process – as PLA wanted it to be. The emphasis of the revised
planning process has shifted from choosing library "roles" to formulating more focused “service
responses” based on community needs and how to implement them.
We had 20 people trained to be facilitators. These individuals are now assisting other libraries
with strategic planning using the streamlined strategic planning process. We held two Planning
for Results orientation session for libraries that wanted to go through with this. This was
followed up with matching the libraries that asked for the planning process for their library, with
the trained facilitators. Twenty libraries are now in the planning process.
The newly trained facilitators are now working on:
􀂃 facilitating the planning process.
􀂃 meeting with the director of the institution to plan the planning strategy, provide staff
orientation, and facilitate meetings with the planning committee to develop a vision and
preliminary service responses.
􀂃 assisting the institution's director in drafting goals and objectives that address the vision
and service responses that have been agreed upon by them.
􀂃 reviewing the final draft of plan and submit a copy to LDD by 30 June 2003.
Benefits that this has had so far:
  It has helped network the libraries, they are visiting each other and learning things from
each other
  It is helping them build confidence that they can deliver a program / product. Bonny
Bruce, Vicki Foote, Jamie Ball, Wendy Skevington and Jana Ponce, have done
orientations for other librarians
  It is helping them realize that if they have a problem they are not alone; someone already
has it or has overcome it.
  It has given them a formal tool to help them do what they always wanted to do, but did
not know how to formalize it. It is given them the tools to be objective and realistic about
what is feasible for libraries to do under the present circumstances.
  It has given them the permission to throw out the garbage without feeling guilty
  It makes them look good in the eyes of their city supervisors and the community, because
the facilitator is also a librarian.
  It has sparked creativity in some of the librarians to come up with a new way to do
SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats to Communities).
  Jo Ann Stuckey, Cave Creek Museum director, and Kim Huber, LDD consultant, have
come up with service responses for the museum folks.
  There will be a full day session at the Museum Association of Arizona (MAA)
conference on “Planning for Results” on 30 April at Lake Havasu City. Bonny Bruce,
Jana Ponce and Jo Ann Stuckey will be the trainers.
  Through the Tucson Cultural and Arts Department, a development workshop conducted
by Bonny Bruce and Laura Sullivan, through the MAA, is reaching the Museum and Arts
community too!
Libraries interested in knowing more about this process may contact mala@lib.az.us
Submitted by Mala Muralidharan