In collaboration with the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) and Simmons University School of Library and Information Science, the Massachusetts Library System (MLS) is excited to announce the Library Summit on Social Cohesion!
Registration and Breakfast Buffet (9 - 10 AM)
Welcome (10 AM)
Libraries as Pillars of Connection in a World Seeking Belonging (10:10 AM)
Presented by Sandra Harris, Massachusetts Coalition to Build Community and End Loneliness
In this keynote, Sandra will examine the transformative role of libraries in combating loneliness and promoting social cohesion through intentional spaces, programs, and partnerships, while highlighting actionable strategies to establish libraries as centers of connection and civic classrooms and librarians as social architects.
Break (10:55 AM)
Collections and Connections: Creating and Maintaining a Healthy Library Culture that Benefits All (11 AM)
Presented by Beth Wahler, Social Work-Informed Consulting Services for Libraries
In this interactive workshop, Beth will discuss the changing needs of libraries and how patron needs, workplace stress, and organizational culture can impact staff wellbeing, productivity, and career longevity. She will focus her presentation on strategies libraries can use to create and sustain a healthy, psychologically safe workplace culture that benefits both employees and customers/patrons. Participants will be guided to reflect on their own roles and library contexts to learn tools they can use and develop preliminary plans for improving the culture in their own libraries.
Lunch (12 PM)
Collections and Connections: Creating and Maintaining a Healthy Library Culture that Benefits All, Part 2 (1 PM)
Presented by Beth Wahler, Social Work-Informed Consulting Services for Libraries
Break (2 PM)
Foster Social Cohesion through Relationships and Partnerships: How to Start, Sustain, and Grow your Library’s Network (2:15 PM)
Presented by Noah Lenstra, Let's Move in Libraries
We’ve all heard that teamwork makes the dream work, but what does that actually mean for the day-to-day work of librarianship? This session focuses on the relationship-driven library: The library driven by a library’s network of partners and collaborators. This model is presented as a four-step process: 1) planting the seeds of partnership, 2) nurturing co-developed ideas, 3) harvesting and celebrating accomplishments, and 4) resting and preparing for future partnerships. You’ll leave this session with renewed confidence in your ability to find partners, cultivate working relationships with them, and keep relationships fresh and impactful, as well as how to tactfully step back from relationships that aren’t working the way you hoped they would. Finally, you’ll learn how to advocate for the time you need for this process, focusing in particular on how partnerships play critical roles in a library’s ability to foster social cohesion.
Wrap up and Video Project Announcement (3:15 PM - 3:30 PM)
