The Lincolnwood Public Library Junior Justice League, a community service club for 3rd-8th graders, works throughout the school year to highlight kids’ voices and interests to provide activism and agency. They choose the causes and projects to focus on - ranging from supporting animals in shelters to civic engagement. Their interests have driven the program’s events and projects; if you create a similar group at your library, start by asking your kids & teens what they care about and want to do! It is important for adults to have the opportunity to listen to young people and hear about...
19 October 2020
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30 September 2020
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RAILS Member Engagement Manager Dan Bostrom speaks with Sasha Vasilic, the Public Relations and Marketing Supervisor, Niles-Maine District Library about the Best. Deal. Ever. campaign. This campaign won the Niles-Maine District Library a John Cotton Dana Award from the American Library Association for excellence in library public relations and strategic communication.
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24 September 2020
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When Illinois’s Stay at Home order went into effect on March 21, 2020 and public libraries were required to close their buildings, something happened. At RAILS we started to see a noticeable shift in user behavior on the eRead Illinois Axis 360 e-content platform. The number of holds being placed on items skyrocketed. The type of materials people were checking out shifted from the most popular best-sellers to more modern classics. And usage as a whole was way, way up.
We wondered - is this happening elsewhere? Are other e-content consortia seeing similar changes? And if so, how does...
21 September 2020
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In 2019, the Matteson Area Public Library District organized its first comic-con event, MAPLD FanFest, in April. Initially, we weren’t sure how our community would receive the idea of a FanFest. We hoped for at least 300 attendees but were pleasantly surprised that we had close to 1,000.
With the success of this program in mind, we started to plan what changes or additions we wanted to make for the 2020 event. We were excited and ready to make it bigger than the last, until everything came to a screeching halt on March 13th, the day our library doors closed due to the pandemic. ...
16 September 2020
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RAILS Member Engagement Manager Dan Bostrom speaks with Dr. Mary Moen from the School Librarians of Rhode Island about Overdue: The Value of School Librarians. The School Librarians of Rhode Island produced this short documentary style advocacy film to show the value of school librarians. Please be sure to watch the video (linked above) and check out the resources they've provided such as a discussion guide and advocacy letter.
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10 September 2020
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In 1959, a housing developer began work on new, upscale homes in Deerfield, with a difference--the development would be racially integrated. Many residents immediately opposed the development. In the weeks that followed, residents passed a park referendum to condemn the developer’s land. The crisis became a national story, attracting the attention of Martin Luther King Jr., James Baldwin, Eleanor Roosevelt, and years of protest. The land has remained parks. In the years since, many residents were unaware of this important struggle for civil rights in their community.
The Deerfield...
2 September 2020
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Are you interested in library advocacy and outreach? Want to help RAILS libraries tell their story and make the case for increased support/funding? Apply to be a My Library Is.. Advisory Group member!
RAILS is seeking seven volunteers to help publicize the campaign and make people more aware of resources on the My Library Is... website. Volunteers will be asked to help create new resources and write regular blog posts. To apply, please fill out this interest form by Friday, September 25, 2020 (deadline extended).
31 August 2020
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Colona District Public Library’s Youth Services assistant, Bailey Hager, had a very busy spring and summer. Bailey began a Virtual Story Time in March which will continue indefinitely. She purposefully chose books to match crafts she was demonstrating using items easily found in a home. She used different voices to act out the parts of various characters in the books. Bailey majored in theater and art in college so I think this was more fun than work!
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bailey Hager developed her own summer reading program for Colona Public Library, Summer of Exploration...
24 August 2020
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As librarians working during COVID-19, our main challenge is to understand our community’s needs when social distancing is a must. In the past three months, the Northlake Public Library District has worked through four different re-opening phases that required constant adaptation and resilience. Although access to most of our services has now been reinstated, we know our most cherished one ﹣ programming﹣ will not be the same for a long time. The way libraries have readjusted their offerings varies, but we can all agree that the internet has become our most important tool.
Most...
3 August 2020
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When the initial coronavirus shutdown came in early March, no one had any idea long it would actually last. Libraries closed with little or no warning. Books that were checked out could not be returned, new books could not be checked out, and all the programs and activities that libraries pride themselves on were cancelled. It took a little while, but libraries and librarians rose to the challenge, creating virtual programming for their patrons. One popular trend has been the creation of “virtual escape rooms,” essentially an online quiz made using Google Forms (or a similar utility) for...
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The My Library Is ... campaign
is a project of the Reaching Across Illinois Library System.