NCompass Live - June 20, 2018 http://nlc.nebraska.gov/ncompasslive/ The Aspen Institute Dialogue on Public Libraries report Rising to the Challenge: Re-Envisioning Public Libraries and its companion Action Guide can be powerful tools for libraries as we seek to leverage our position as a trusted community resource to forge new partnerships for achieving community goals. Learn how one small public library used the Aspen Report in its strategic planning process to develop a dynamic new road map for community success. Presenter: Anna L. Yount, Library Director, Transylvania County Library, Brevard, NC.

1. Rising to the
Challenge:
Using the Aspen
Report to
develop a
dynamic
roadmap for
community
success
Anna Yount, Library Director, Transylvania County Library,
Brevard, North Carolina

2. Where in the world is Transylvania County and
what is the Aspen Report?

3. Transylvania County, NC
Total Population- 33,745 Approximately half of the County’s land
area is in the Pisgah National Forest, the
Dupont State Forest, the Gorges State
Park, or the Nantahala National Forest.

4. www.transylvaniacounty.org

5. From a community with a solid industrial base
and a large retirement community…….

6. In the first decade of this century
closures left many unemployed and
lacking a sense of hope
…….To a
tourism-
driven
“bikes and
beer”
economy.

7. Transylvania County Library Snapshot
• Single 35,000 square-foot facility. Opened in
2006.
• One bookmobile.
• 54% of service population have library
cards.
• 209,000 visits annually
• 317,000 annual circulation

8. The Aspen Institute and the Gates
Foundation created the Aspen Institute
Dialogue on Public Libraries to explore
the essential role of public libraries in a
dramatically changing world.
The Report is intended to raise the
profile of public libraries and to engage
government leaders, trustees and
community partners to transform public
libraries and the communities we serve.

9. Is the community that you serve changing?

10. Are some of
the indicators
that you have
traditionally
used to
measure
success
slipping?

11. When an issue arises in
your community, do your
community leaders think
of the library as an
important tool in their
toolkit for addressing
that issue?

12. In 2015, State Librarian Cal Shepard distributed
copies of Rising to the Challenge: Re-
Envisioning Public Libraries to every public
library director in North Carolina.
It was a game-changer!

13. ….a trusted community
resource and an essential
platform for learning,
creativity and innovation in
the community.
…..illuminate ways that communities can leverage
investments in libraries to build stronger civic
ecologies and forge new partnerships for achieving
local and national goals.
“By design and
tradition, the public
library is the
essential civil
society institution.
Through the
provision of space,
information and
inspiration, it
enables all the
others.”
The library is a core civil
society institution,
democracy’s “maker space”.
Libraries are stable,
reliable, nimble and
always there.
Public libraries are a critical
institutional bulwark against the
well-documented problem of
growing income and educational
inequality in the United States.
….a vital learning
institution and engine for
individual, community
and civil society
development.
INSPIRATION…

14. And a call to action!
Strategies for Success
• Align with Community
Goals
• Access to Content in All
Formats
• Ensure Library
Sustainability
• Cultivate Leadership

15. Strategy 1: Align with Community Goals
• Public libraries need to align
their assets, programs and
services with community
priorities and goals.
• Library and community leaders
need to be more intentional as
they deploy community
resources, with libraries more
deeply embedded in addressing
critical challenges facing the
community.
• This will require flexibility and
adaptability to change as
community needs change.
Aspen Institute Dialogue on Public Libraries 16
STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS
A LIGN LIBRA RY
SERVICES IN
SUPPO RT O F
CO MMUN IT YGO A LS
Public libraries that align their services to
support local community goals will find
the greatest opportunities for success in
the years ahead. This will require a level
of flexibility and adaptability to change as
community needs change.
It will also require collaboration among
libraries, policy makers and community
partners to redefine the role of libraries
as institutions that inspire learning, drive
development, grow social capital and
create opportunities.
PRO VID E A CCESS
T O CO N T EN T IN
A LL FO RMA T S
As the public library shifts from a
repository for materials to a platform for
learning and participation, its ability to
provide access to vast amounts of content
in all formats is vital. Libraries face two
immediate major challenges in providing
access to content in all forms:
o Being able to procure and share e-
books and other digital content on
the same basis as physical versions
o Having high capacity, easily scalable
broadband technologies in every
library that deliver and help to create
content
Stakeholders must work together to find
solutions to these challenges that meet
the community’s needs and work for
content creators, publishers and the
public.
E NSURE LONG - TERM
SUSTAINABILITY OF
PUBLIC LIBRARIES
Public libraries need to transform their
service model to meet the demands of the
knowledge society while securing a
sustainable funding base for the future.
Achieving this means libraries need to:
o Identify reliable revenue resources for
both daily operations and long-term
planning and investment
o Explore alternative governance
structures and business models that
maximize efficient and sustainable
library operations and customer
service
o Become more skilled at measuring
outcomes rather than counting
activities
o Balance the local and national library
value proposition to consider
economies of scale in a networked
world without compromising local
control.
C U L T I V A T E
L E A D E R S H I P
Leadership is needed to build
communities and public libraries that
thrive and succeed together. Every
community needs a vision and a strategic
plan, with input from all stakeholder
groups. Key steps include
o improving communications with
community leaders
o developing community champions
o strengthening intersections with
diverse communities and communities
of color
o reaching out to and engaging with
young-professional organizations and
demonstrating the collective impact
of partners working together
RISING TO THE
CHALLENGE
Re-Envisioning
Public Libraries
Expanding access to
education, learning
opportunities and social
connections for all is one of
the great challenges of our
time. It is a challenge made
more urgent by the rapid
transition to a new economy
in which knowledge and
creativity are the drivers of
productivity and economic
growth, and information,
technology and learning are
central to economic
performance and prosperity.
Public libraries are essential
institutions for meeting this
challenge.
1.
2.
4.
3.
PLANNING A COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT WORKSHOP

16. Strategy 2: Access to Content in All Formats
• Broadband is key!
• Ensuring access to e-books and
other e-content impacts the
library’s ability to fulfill a core
mission: to procure and share
the leading ideas of the day.
• Satisfying Wi-fi connectivity
and “bring your own device”
needs also important to
function in changing content
and learning ecosystems.
Aspen Institute Dialogue on Public Libraries 16
STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS
A LIGN LIBRA RY
SERVICES IN
SUPPO RT O F
CO MMUN IT YGO A LS
Public libraries that align their services to
support local community goals will find
the greatest opportunities for success in
the years ahead. This will require a level
of flexibility and adaptability to change as
community needs change.
It will also require collaboration among
libraries, policy makers and community
partners to redefine the role of libraries
as institutions that inspire learning, drive
development, grow social capital and
create opportunities.
PRO VID E A CCESS
T O CO N T EN T IN
A LL FO RMA T S
As the public library shifts from a
repository for materials to a platform for
learning and participation, its ability to
provide access to vast amounts of content
in all formats is vital. Libraries face two
immediate major challenges in providing
access to content in all forms:
o Being able to procure and share e-
books and other digital content on
the same basis as physical versions
o Having high capacity, easily scalable
broadband technologies in every
library that deliver and help to create
content
Stakeholders must work together to find
solutions to these challenges that meet
the community’s needs and work for
content creators, publishers and the
public.
E NSURE LONG - TERM
SUSTAINABILITY OF
PUBLIC LIBRARIES
Public libraries need to transform their
service model to meet the demands of the
knowledge society while securing a
sustainable funding base for the future.
Achieving this means libraries need to:
o Identify reliable revenue resources for
both daily operations and long-term
planning and investment
o Explore alternative governance
structures and business models that
maximize efficient and sustainable
library operations and customer
service
o Become more skilled at measuring
outcomes rather than counting
activities
o Balance the local and national library
value proposition to consider
economies of scale in a networked
world without compromising local
control.
C U L T I V A T E
L E A D E R S H I P
Leadership is needed to build
communities and public libraries that
thrive and succeed together. Every
community needs a vision and a strategic
plan, with input from all stakeholder
groups. Key steps include
o improving communications with
community leaders
o developing community champions
o strengthening intersections with
diverse communities and communities
of color
o reaching out to and engaging with
young-professional organizations and
demonstrating the collective impact
of partners working together
RISING TO THE
CHALLENGE
Re-Envisioning
Public Libraries
Expanding access to
education, learning
opportunities and social
connections for all is one of
the great challenges of our
time. It is a challenge made
more urgent by the rapid
transition to a new economy
in which knowledge and
creativity are the drivers of
productivity and economic
growth, and information,
technology and learning are
central to economic
performance and prosperity.
Public libraries are essential
institutions for meeting this
challenge.
1.
2.
4.
3.
PLANNING A COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT WORKSHOP

17. Strategy 3: Ensure Library Sustainability
• Identify reliable sources of
revenue for daily operations and
long-term planning and
investment.
• Explore alternative governance
structures and business models
to maximize efficient,
sustainable library operations
and customer service.
• Measure outcomes, not outputs
• Consider economies of scale in a
networked world without
compromising local control
(balance local &
regional/national library value
proposition)
Aspen Institute Dialogue on Public Libraries 16
STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS
A LIGN LIBRA RY
SERVICES IN
SUPPO RT O F
CO MMUN IT YGO A LS
Public libraries that align their services to
support local community goals will find
the greatest opportunities for success in
the years ahead. This will require a level
of flexibility and adaptability to change as
community needs change.
It will also require collaboration among
libraries, policy makers and community
partners to redefine the role of libraries
as institutions that inspire learning, drive
development, grow social capital and
create opportunities.
PRO VID E A CCESS
T O CO N T EN T IN
A LL FO RMA T S
As the public library shifts from a
repository for materials to a platform for
learning and participation, its ability to
provide access to vast amounts of content
in all formats is vital. Libraries face two
immediate major challenges in providing
access to content in all forms:
o Being able to procure and share e-
books and other digital content on
the same basis as physical versions
o Having high capacity, easily scalable
broadband technologies in every
library that deliver and help to create
content
Stakeholders must work together to find
solutions to these challenges that meet
the community’s needs and work for
content creators, publishers and the
public.
E NSURE LONG - TERM
SUSTAINABILITY OF
PUBLIC LIBRARIES
Public libraries need to transform their
service model to meet the demands of the
knowledge society while securing a
sustainable funding base for the future.
Achieving this means libraries need to:
o Identify reliable revenue resources for
both daily operations and long-term
planning and investment
o Explore alternative governance
structures and business models that
maximize efficient and sustainable
library operations and customer
service
o Become more skilled at measuring
outcomes rather than counting
activities
o Balance the local and national library
value proposition to consider
economies of scale in a networked
world without compromising local
control.
C U L T I V A T E
L E A D E R S H I P
Leadership is needed to build
communities and public libraries that
thrive and succeed together. Every
community needs a vision and a strategic
plan, with input from all stakeholder
groups. Key steps include
o improving communications with
community leaders
o developing community champions
o strengthening intersections with
diverse communities and communities
of color
o reaching out to and engaging with
young-professional organizations and
demonstrating the collective impact
of partners working together
RISING TO THE
CHALLENGE
Re-Envisioning
Public Libraries
Expanding access to
education, learning
opportunities and social
connections for all is one of
the great challenges of our
time. It is a challenge made
more urgent by the rapid
transition to a new economy
in which knowledge and
creativity are the drivers of
productivity and economic
growth, and information,
technology and learning are
central to economic
performance and prosperity.
Public libraries are essential
institutions for meeting this
challenge.
1.
2.
4.
3.
PLANNING A COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT WORKSHOP

18. Strategy 4: Cultivate Leadership
• Librarians in many places are
recognized as community
leaders, but their experience
has been in fielding problems
as they walk in the door, not in
going out into their
communities.
• People with new and diverse
skills will be needed in
libraries.
• Having champions in the
government, business and
nonprofit sectors can open
new opportunities for
libraries.
Aspen Institute Dialogue on Public Libraries 16
STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS
A LIGN LIBRA RY
SERVICES IN
SUPPO RT O F
CO MMUN IT YGO A LS
Public libraries that align their services to
support local community goals will find
the greatest opportunities for success in
the years ahead. This will require a level
of flexibility and adaptability to change as
community needs change.
It will also require collaboration among
libraries, policy makers and community
partners to redefine the role of libraries
as institutions that inspire learning, drive
development, grow social capital and
create opportunities.
PRO VID E A CCESS
T O CO N T EN T IN
A LL FO RMA T S
As the public library shifts from a
repository for materials to a platform for
learning and participation, its ability to
provide access to vast amounts of content
in all formats is vital. Libraries face two
immediate major challenges in providing
access to content in all forms:
o Being able to procure and share e-
books and other digital content on
the same basis as physical versions
o Having high capacity, easily scalable
broadband technologies in every
library that deliver and help to create
content
Stakeholders must work together to find
solutions to these challenges that meet
the community’s needs and work for
content creators, publishers and the
public.
E NSURE LONG - TERM
SUSTAINABILITY OF
PUBLIC LIBRARIES
Public libraries need to transform their
service model to meet the demands of the
knowledge society while securing a
sustainable funding base for the future.
Achieving this means libraries need to:
o Identify reliable revenue resources for
both daily operations and long-term
planning and investment
o Explore alternative governance
structures and business models that
maximize efficient and sustainable
library operations and customer
service
o Become more skilled at measuring
outcomes rather than counting
activities
o Balance the local and national library
value proposition to consider
economies of scale in a networked
world without compromising local
control.
C U L T I V A T E
L E A D E R S H I P
Leadership is needed to build
communities and public libraries that
thrive and succeed together. Every
community needs a vision and a strategic
plan, with input from all stakeholder
groups. Key steps include
o improving communications with
community leaders
o developing community champions
o strengthening intersections with
diverse communities and communities
of color
o reaching out to and engaging with
young-professional organizations and
demonstrating the collective impact
of partners working together
RISING TO THE
CHALLENGE
Re-Envisioning
Public Libraries
Expanding access to
education, learning
opportunities and social
connections for all is one of
the great challenges of our
time. It is a challenge made
more urgent by the rapid
transition to a new economy
in which knowledge and
creativity are the drivers of
productivity and economic
growth, and information,
technology and learning are
central to economic
performance and prosperity.
Public libraries are essential
institutions for meeting this
challenge.
1.
2.
4.
3.
PLANNING A COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT WORKSHOP

19. People Place Platform
The library’s key assets are people, place and
platform.
“Libraries need to
be more
intentional in the
ways that they
deploy resources in
the community and
more deeply
embedded in
addressing the
critical challenges
facing the
community.”

20. • The library as people reflects the shift away from building collections to
building human capital, relationships and knowledge networks in the
community.
• People are at the center of the library’s mission.
People

21. • Today’s library is both a physical and virtual place, but it
continues to be the physical presence of the library that
anchors it most firmly in the community.
• Reduction in physical materials (more content is stored
digitally), greater customer mobility and the desire for more
collaboration & creation are trends changing the nature of
library physical spaces.
Place

22. Platform
A great library platform is a third place – an interactive entity that can facilitate
many people operating individually or in groups – and supports the learning and
civic needs of the community.

23. • The library’s platform includes all the resources that the library makes available
to the community – librarians, books, video, technology, tools, images,
software, other knowledge in the community and physical spaces.
• The library’s platform is interactive, and it allows users to customize learning
and creativity.
• The library as platform reflects the disposition of an entrepreneurial learner –
seizing opportunities to fill gaps and advance progress where it sees them.
Platform

24. Aspen process:
• Know your community and adapt the
process accordingly.
• One size does not fit all.
• Non-prescriptive.
• Flexible.
• Stresses that libraries must be
intentional in the ways they deploy their
resources to address critical challenges
in their unique communities.
• Develops organizational capacity within
the library.
• Actively engages staff and board
members.
Adapting the Guide to YOUR Community

25. Our Process:
• Self-study
• Action
Guide team
work
• Public
Dialogues
• Write the
Plan!

26. • No surveys, please! Write us a letter.
• Demographic research.
• Studied our own data and challenged
some long-held assumptions.
• Studied the County’s long-range
strategic plan to be sure that we
aligned the library’s goals with the
community’s goals.
• Met individually with opinion leaders
and key people.
How we did our homework:

27. Aspen Action Guide ACTivities
Series of worksheets centered around key concepts:
• The Library as People
• The Library as Place
• The Library as Platform
• Jobs and Economic Development
• The Library as Civic Resource
• The Library as Literacy Champion
The ACTivities are designed to provide a framework to help you think about and
discuss each concept as well as to evaluate current levels of activity and support.
They are NOT prescriptive. Use them in any way that works in your Library!

28. Bubble failure
Every ACTivity will not work in
every Library, nor should it.
If you’ve seen one library…..
you‘ve seen one library !

31. Public Dialogues– Start the Conversation!
• Think of the dialogue events as the
first steps in developing a new
relationship and an ongoing
conversation with your community
and its leaders.
• The goal of this conversation is to
look forward and enable the
community and the library together
to develop strategies and implement
actions for deploying the library’s key
assets in new ways to meet the
challenges of today and tomorrow.

33. Engaging Community Leaders
• Be judicious with your
guest list.
• Serve great food!
• Send personal
invitations. Do not
send a form letter.
• Use an outside
facilitator
• Respect their time
• Listen carefully and
take copious notes.

34. Public Dialogue Sessions
• Have good food!
• Host sessions in the Library as well as in other venues around your community.
• Reach out and invite people.
• Have an outside facilitator.
• Be prepared to hear anything and everything.
• Take careful notes.

35. We asked only two
questions:
#1 What is your vision
for Transylvania
County? In other
words, when you
imagine our
community as the best
it can be, what does
that look like?
Describe that place.
#2 What can the
Library do to make
that vision a reality?
What did we ask?

36. Getting the Word
Out. We don’t do a
good job of telling
the community what
we do.
What did we hear?
In every session, conversation
converged around five areas:
Outreach. Remember,
we have no branches.
This also reflects the
Aspen Report’s urgent
call that we learn “how
to provide library
services that are
untethered from the
library walls”.
Early Literacy. In
every session, there
was unanimous
agreement that we
want to be a
community where
every child enters
school ready to read
and succeed.
The Library as a safe, neutral
place for the community to
come together to discuss and
learn about key issues. An
important part of this was the
library as a place that provides
intergenerational connections.
Comfort and access
issues. Hours, food
and drink, etc.

37. • http://library.transylvaniacounty.org/strategic-plan/
• Our product was a new Mission Statement, a new
Vision Statement, and a new Strategic Plan.
• We wanted a plan that was very short; that
allowed us to be creative; and that focused on
developing what was best for us and for our
community.
• In the end we crafted something that we are all
very proud of.
• Our Plan doesn’t feel like boilerplate.
• And it doesn’t feel like a term paper.
• It is alive and relevant.
• We published the Web version first.
• The print version was funded by our Library
Foundation.

38. The process described in the
Aspen Report and its
accompanying Action Guide
is outward-looking and
focused on leveraging the
Library’s key assets– People,
Place, and Platform – to
develop the public library as
a dynamic civic institution
providing services that are
aligned in support of our
community’s goals.
Libraries as Community Asset

39. Aspen Resources
http://www.libraryvision.org/resources

40. • Many ways to use the Aspen
materials…..and they are all free!
• Strategic planning
• Community Awareness
• Staff Day/In- House professional
development
• Trustee/Board Development
• Local and regional association
workshops
Putting Aspen to work
in your library