Create a Blueprint to Establish or Expand your School-Public Partnerships

In Resilient Together: Building School and Public Library Partnerships, our online course starting October 13, you’ll learn the secrets for how to create meaningful alliances that drive equitable access to information, improve community outcomes, and achieve learning goals.

The live speaker program runs on October 13, 20, and 27, 2:00-4:30PM ET (recordings available) with an ongoing, facilitated workshop over three weeks.

Over three weeks, you’ll learn how to:

The course will follow the continuum of collaboration, from informal partnerships to fully-integrated services, and will take a deep dive into impact and benefits to ensure that you walk away with the tools you need to create and maintain strong partnerships.

Register today!

For group discounts, email [email protected].

Certificate of Completion Provided
15 Professional Development credits available

Check Out the Full Program

Learn from experts who have had successful partnerships during our live sessions

Week 1: Wednesday, October 13, 2021, 2:00-4:00PM ET

Session 1 | 2:00-2:45PM ET
Building Relationships as a Foundation for School and Public Partnerships
As in any good relationship, communication and collaboration are key foundations for building a lasting, mutually beneficial library partnership. In this session, you’ll learn how a school and public library have built and sustained their partnership through communication and connection on both a big picture and day-to-day planning level. You’ll learn best practices for handling operations and come away with ideas you can apply to your burgeoning or more established partnership.
Speakers:

Priscille Dando, Coordinator, Library Information Services, Fairfax County Public Schools (VA)
Jessica Hudson, Director, Fairfax County Public Library (VA)

Intermission | 2:45-3:00PM ET

Session 2 | 3:00-3:45PM ET
Case Study: Lessons From a Long-Term Library Partnership
In this session, you’ll hear from a pair of libraries who have been partnering for over ten years on a variety of projects and community initiatives. They’ll share how they began and how they’ve evolved over the last decade to address their community’s most pressing needs, including gaps in internet service, access to materials and other resources, and using physical space in creative ways to support each other.
Speaker:

Janet Wile, Supervisor Library Services, Central Unified, CA
Thomas Wood, Librarian, Fresno County Public Library

Session 3 | 3:45-4:15PM ET
Getting Started with Strategic Partnership Planning
Learn the fundamentals of strategic planning in this session with two library leaders John Chrastka and Carolyn Foote. You’ll learn the fundamentals of strategic planning, find out how you can plan on your own if you’re pre-partnership, and how to plan collaboratively if you’ve already found your partner. You’ll learn how to approach planning in a way that prioritizes mutual goals and results in real action.
Speakers:

John Chrastka, Executive Director, EveryLibrary
Carolyn Foote, Technolibrarian, Westlake High School, Austin (TX), District Librarian, Eanes ISD (TX)

Week 2: Wednesday, October 20, 2021, 2:00-4:00PM ET

Session 1 | 2:00-2:45PM ET
Equity-Based School and Public Library Partnerships
Learn how a successful partnership helped bring increased equity to the community in this session. You’ll hear how a public library and a school came together to advocate for its youth, increasing access and engagement, and reimagining their school library and its role in student’s lives.
Speakers:

Diana Lopez, Manager, Marin City Library, Marin County (CA), LJ Mover and Shaker 2019
David Finnane, Principal, Bayside Martin Luther King, Jr. Academy (CA)

Intermission | 2:45-3:00PM EST

Session 2 | 3:00-3:45PM EST
Addressing Learning Gaps, Supporting Students, and Beyond
As our communities recover from Covid, library partnerships can serve as integral support systems for students and families. This session will explore how library partnerships are stepping up to help students deal with learning gaps, manage trauma, and return to their schools and libraries in the wake of the pandemic. You’ll also learn about how partnerships are managing differing schedules and timelines, and how they’re dealing with evergreen issues such as continuing broadband access and technological support.
Speaker:

Kelvin Watson, Executive Director, Las Vegas Clark County Library District (NV)

Session 3 | 3:45-4:15PM ET
Public Library CONNECT: Expanding Student Access To Books Through Partnership
Sponsored by Overdrive
Students are using technology to leverage public library catalogs directly from the classroom, gaining instant access to curated, age-appropriate collections of digital books. Discover how Public Library CONNECT provides extraordinary success for public libraries, schools and especially students in this eye-opening presentation featuring the Harris County Public Library (TX) and OverDrive. You'll learn the simple steps to activate public library and school partnerships and how these powerful partnerships connect students to additional curriculum and independent reading titles -- all without requiring a library card. They'll also cover how to leverage these partnerships to foster the next generation of loyal public library users, drive equitable access to information, increase circulation of juvenile and young adult titles, and achieve learning goals.
Speakers:

David Cooksey, Digital Library Advisor, OverDrive
Amber Seely, Division Director of Collections & Technical Services, from Harris County Public Library (TX)

Week 3: Wednesday, October 27, 2021, 2:00-4:00PM ET

Session 1 | 2:00-2:45PM ET
Partnerships To Support School Staff
Not all partnerships focus on library patrons and students. In this session, you’ll hear about nontraditional partnership approaches that shift the focus onto supporting school staff and teachers in order to make a difference in students’ lives.
Speakers:

Amy Mikel, Director of Customer Experience, Brooklyn Public Library (NY)

Intermission | 2:45-3:00PM EST

Session 2 | 3:00-3:15PM ET
How Delaware's Public Libraries Are Partnering With Education To Accelerate Reading and Learning
This session is sponsored by Overdrive
As part of its innovative five-year plan, the Delaware Division of Libraries is working to enhance and expand access to books and educational resources in a variety of formats for readers of all ages. State Librarian & Director of the Delaware Division of Libraries Annie Norman will share how this is being achieved through a new partnership with the Delaware Department of Education that’s putting more books into the hands of more students.
Speaker:

Annie Norman, Director of the Delaware Division of Libraries (DE)

Session 3 | 3:15-4:00PM ET
Navigating Agreements and Contracts: A Panel Discussion
In this nuts and bolts session, you’ll learn everything you need to know about managing agreements and contracts in your school and public partnership. You’ll hear from a panel of presenters on their top tips for organizing library card distribution, managing database and resource-sharing, and more.
Speakers:

Kathy Zappitello, Executive Director, Conneaut Public Library (OH)
Mary Jo Richmond, Supervisor, Media Services, Frederick County Public Schools (MD)

Session 4 | 4:00-4:30PM ET
Partnership through Reading Challenges
Sponsored by Beanstack
Beanstack helps schools and public libraries encourage their communities to read more through its reading challenge platform. We often hear that both school districts and local public library systems are seeking ways to become better partners with each other. In this session, you will learn how Beanstack's "tandems" system allows libraries and schools to leverage and showcase each other's reading challenges year-round for students.

The session will include a demo of Beanstack and include examples from reading challenges at school and public libraries.
Speaker:

Dave Hopp, Director of School Accounts at Zoobean

Check out the full program.

Group rates available

Have a team attend and increase your impact!

Please contact us at [email protected] to learn more about our discounted rates.

Also Available On-Demand!

Can’t make a live session? All sessions will be available to you on-demand following the initial broadcast.

Thank You to our Sponsors