1. Summer @ Your Library: Explore, Learn, Read, Connect
November 2, 2017
Your Library: Explore, Learn, Read, Connect

2. SUMMER @ YOUR LIBRARY IS TRANSFORMING!
Summer programs are for all ages: adults are people too!
Increased awareness of summer learning loss
Intentional learning opportunities
Targeted outreach to underserved community members
What does summer mean to teens? How can programs evolve to meet the needs of teens?
Enrolled summer camps in some libraries
Summer meal programs in some libraries
Your Library: Explore, Learn, Read, Connect
November 2nd, 2017

3. SUMMER & YOUR LIBRARY 2017 RESULTS
787,998 people signed up for summer reading statewide
2% decrease from last year
167 libraries reported data (vs. 169 LY)
277,202 people completed summer reading programs statewide
14% decrease from last year
Note: not all libraries collect/report completion
Your Library: Explore, Learn, Read, Connect
November 2nd, 2017

4. SUMMER & YOUR LIBRARY 2017 RESULTS
81,207 summer programs and activities statewide
78% increase over last year
1,658,922 attendance statewide at those programs and activities
4% increase over last year
Your Library: Explore, Learn, Read, Connect
November 2nd, 2017

5. LUNCH AT THE LIBRARY 2017 RESULTS
164 libraries served meals
18% increase over last year
228,608 lunches served
12% increase over last year
22,885 snacks served
62% decrease from last year
Your Library: Explore, Learn, Read, Connect
November 2nd, 2017

6. LUNCH AT THE LIBRARY 2017 RESULTS
California needs more summer meal sites
Only 1 in 6 children and teens who receive a free or reduced-price school lunch also access summer meals
Over 800 libraries are eligible to become summer meal sites.
Join us!
Contact Trish Garone:
Your Library: Explore, Learn, Read, Connect
November 2nd, 2017

7. QUALITY PRINCIPLES AND INDICATORS
Designed to help you:
Achieve program outcomes.
Set summer goals and plan summer activities.
Communicate desired goals and impact to stakeholders.
Demonstrate strategies for developing and maintaining quality programs.
I would just like to say a few words to introduce you to a new initiative from the Your Library project… our new Your Library Quality Principles and Indicators…which have been created to help libraries:
plan, develop, evaluate, improve, communicate about, and reflect on their summer programs. That’s all! Nothing too ambitious!
For anyone who has attended one of our recent workshops on this topic or the Public Library Directors forum, you may be getting familiar with these now, and I apologize for the repetition – but this part of the workshop is brief!
Your Library: Explore, Learn, Read, Connect
November 2nd, 2017

8. Summer @ Your Library: Explore, Learn, Read, Connect
QUALITY PRINCIPLES
Your Library…
Builds strong communities
Provides opportunities for learning
Celebrates reading and literacy
Is designed to reach and engage everyone
Our four quality principle statements are quite simple statements that are very far reaching. Your Library:
Builds Strong Communities
Provides Opportunities for Learning
Celebrates Reading and Literacy
Is Designed to Reach and Engage Everyone.
The principles highlight the four key strengths of summer programming which have been identified by California library staff. They also illustrate and represent the transformation that is happening right now in California’s public library summer programs:
Summer is all about community and learning
It is a celebration of reading and literacy
And it really is for everyone
Your Library: Explore, Learn, Read, Connect
November 2nd, 2017

9. Summer @ Your Library: Explore, Learn, Read, Connect
QUALITY INDICATORS
Your Library Builds Strong Communities
The program offers opportunities for community members to get involved in activities that benefit the community.
Staff engages community partners to enrich program offerings and increase the visibility, credibility, and reach of the library’s efforts.
Staff offers elements of the program in locations beyond the walls of the library in order to reach as many people as possible.
All staff contribute to the program.
As you can see from your handouts, each of the four principles has between three and four indicators that go along with it.
Here is one example of a principle together with its indicators. This is principle number one: Your Library Builds Strong Communities.
The four principles demonstrate the value and potential of summer programming in public libraries. The indicators offer concrete advice about how to achieve the principles, and are a tool to measure whether a principle is met.
You can set the principles as program goals and use the indicators as a road map to help you achieve those goals. And together, the principles and indicators create a new shared vocabulary that we can all use about the library’s role in summer reading, summer learning, and community-building
Your Library: Explore, Learn, Read, Connect
November 2nd, 2017

10. USING THE PRINCIPLES AND INDICATORS
Framework for reflective practice
Context and language for communicating:
Value and impact
Program goals
Strategies for achieving goals
Snapshot of the state of summer programming in your library and in California.
We believe that the principles and indicators will be valuable in a number of ways:
[FORWARD ARROW] Firstly, they can provide you with a framework for reflective practice and for talking about your programs. The principles and indicators give you a structure and language to use during this process. To help you with this, we have developed a complementary worksheet that will help you:
Identify areas where you’re strong
Identify areas that might benefit from improvement, and
Identify strategies for make changes where needed.
If you use the worksheet and you decide you want to make changes to any aspects of your programming, we definitely recommend starting quite small, just focusing on a manageable number of indicators, and then doing more once you have some successes under your belt.
[FORWARD ARROW] The principles and indicators also provide a context and language for communicating to others about:
The value and impact of your program
Your goals, and
The strategies you have identified for achieving those goals.
You can use the language in the principles and indicators to let stakeholders know where you want your summer program to go and what help and support you need from them to get there.
[FORWARD ARROW] They also enable you, and us, to take a snapshot of summer programming in your library and in the state. Last year, we began asking you to report on the extent to which each indicator was present in your summer programs in the annual summer reading survey. This helps us see areas of strength in the state and areas where development is needed, and it will inform our program and training development and serve as benchmark data for the future.
Your Library: Explore, Learn, Read, Connect
November 2nd, 2017

11. USING THE PRINCIPLES AND INDICATORS
Tool for achieving California’s statewide summer program outcomes:
Young children and their parents and caregivers, and school age children, feel part of a community of readers and library users.
Teens make connections at the library.
Adults find value and enjoyment at the library.
Targeted underserved community members take part in summer programming.
And also… if we look at the Your Library outcome statements – which are part of California’s summer outcome and outreach initiative which has been around for a few years now – you can see how the quality principles can help you design programs that achieve the statewide outcomes.
If you create programs that are designed to build strong communities, provide opportunities for learning, celebrate reading and literacy, and reach and engage everyone, and if you focus program design on activities that achieve the indicators, you will be sure to develop programs that foster community, connections, and enjoyment, and provide value to participants. We also believe you will be more likely to engage any targeted outreach groups with your programs.
In fact, one of the reasons we started work on the principles and indicators was because people asked us for a more concrete framework to help them achieve these outcomes.
And if you aren’t familiar with our outcome statements, or already using our surveys to evaluate your summer programs, please feel free to talk to me or Shana any time to find out more! We are always looking for new recruits!
Your Library: Explore, Learn, Read, Connect
November 2nd, 2017

12. Summer @ Your Library: Explore, Learn, Read, Connect
FEEDBACK
“The ease of use was fabulous for our small staff.”
“… a good yardstick for us to measure the effectiveness of our summer program and, when used in our planning process, can increase its effectiveness.”
“…very useful measures.”
“… really helpful for explaining the “why” of summer reading.”
“These principles have helped open up conversations within the youth staff about the way we provide our summer programs.”
So far, the principles and indicators have have been well-received and you’ve told us they are useful and helpful.
We think this is because they were developed with library staff who plan and present summer programs. We worked with the library community for about eighteen months to ensure that the principles and indicators are grounded in California’s summer programming, to ensure they would resonate with library staff and in your very varied summer programs, and to ensure that the principles and indicators would have longevity.
We plan to continue providing training to help as many libraries use the principles and indicators as would like to and we will provide opportunities for people to share their experiences and develop a community of practice around the principles. You will be hearing more about these over the next few months and years!
I know some of you will be talking about the principles and indicators in the small group discussions today and for anyone else, if you have questions please feel free to find me and be in touch at any time. We do hope the principles and indicators resonate, and that you will use them, and that your programs will become even better because of them!
Your Library: Explore, Learn, Read, Connect
November 2nd, 2017

13. Summer @ Your Library: Explore, Learn, Read, Connect
CONTACT
Morgan Pershing, County of Los Angeles Public Library
Natalie Cole, California State Library
Your Library is a project of the California Library Association, supported by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian.
Your Library: Explore, Learn, Read, Connect
June 22, 2012