Blog June Post 13 - Outreach with One Hand

Outreach has been a thing on my mind since I started working here in 2008.  Due to our limited staffing it is something that is not done to it's full extent.  When I think of outreach I think of school visits, home library service, giving talks to local community services/groups, having a stall at the monthly markets, getting the library to places that have access issues.  I'm sure there is more to outreach than just these things I have listed, but this is what comes to my mind when I think about.

Home library service (HLS) is something that has now been raised at an executive level - i.e. it got a mention in the organisational restructure report.  Volunteers was mentioned as a solution to delivering this service.  I do believe that perhaps people lack an understanding of what is involved in HLS and yes volunteers can be used but can't be used alone.

In our branches we already do some HLS.  We provide resources to two nursing homes and a ward of the local hospital (long stay ward).  We also provide resources to Neighbour Aid who then deliver - actually they are really good because the reserve their own resources so we compile them and have them ready for pick up.

I recently put it out there to the HLS list - since we now have been provided with statewide marketing resources, should I just put it out there as a service we now offer with no idea of how many people will take us up on the offer and no idea how we will manage staff resources to do it.  Or do I estimate how many people may take up the offer and estimate how much staff time it will take and then recruit some volunteers.  Of course, I have to get some systems, processes and procedures in place first.

Our Northern branches (of our regional library service) have been lucky enough to secure a HLS assistant position.  I do plan on working with this person to look at how it works in the Northern branches, and of course, borrow as many processes, forms, procedures etc as possible to implement in our service.  But my biggest issue is with the limited staffing I have now - how can I make this work?

I am even having problems finding the time to sit down and have some thought into how this will work and at least get some processes/procedures/timeframes etc in place to get us started.

So that is HLS - as for the other ideas of outreach that I listed in the beginning - well I do some of these in a adhoc way.  In the beginning, school visits was very much a head banging wall experience.  I have now managed to visit or have the school visit us with 6 out of 11 schools.  It has often been the good intention of the school librarian to organise these visits but then to have teachers or other reasons result in them not going ahead.  For school visits I try to remain as flexible as possible - you did catch on that I said "I."  Because "I" am the only one who plans, organises and then executes these visits.  So I allow the school to let me know a date/time etc that suits and I organise my workload/roster around this.

Talks to local community groups have also been adhoc.  So far I have spoken with the Urunga Probus club and the Bellingen Rotary Club.  I would love to do this more with other groups but it is knowing what groups are out there and how you get on their radar.

The stall at the market idea is one I've had for ever.  I'm still nutting out what it is I want to achieve out of it - obviously more membership would be good.  How I would set up access to the library's website from the stall - because you want to show people what we offer.  And what brochures etc would I have available.  Plus the weather here is very unpredictable - ok well it usually is more rain then sun at the moment - so how would I organise cover etc.  So I'm still in brainstorming mode about that.  Then it would also be "me" being at the stall from 8am (or earlier) to 2pm.  A long stint for anyone.  Limited funding would mean it would be a volunteer time thing rather than a paid stint.  Which I don't mind.

Getting the library to places where people don't have access - well there is one small town in our LGA that has set up an informal library which I heard about through the grapevine.  They donate their own stock and open at particular times of the week and people can take what they want.  I am thinking this town needs some sort of bulk loan or deposit box or maybe a library staff member to come out once a month with a car full of stock and be available at certain times for people to come in and borrow library stock.  Of course, I will have to consult with the community first to see if this is what they want.  And I would be very interested to hear about other libraries that already offer something like this and how they do it.

So there are my outreach ideas.  And while I'd love to be doing it with both hands - at the moment I'm doing it with one.