KEVIN
Kevin’s SI Story
Kevin is an administrator at an urban library system. We talked with him in October about how he and his organization have adapted their work to meet the needs of youth during the COVID-19 pandemic and where he sees opportunities for libraries moving forward.
How has your job shifted during the COVID-19 pandemic?
Once we got over the initial shock of not being able to do in-person programming everything has picked back up again and I’m doing most of the same work. I’m focusing on a library learning grant for a youth fashion program. We don’t have a lot of interaction yet, which is always the best part, but I’m excited for it. We originally had a plan for in-person programs but now we’ve had to switch to video.
For the most part I’ve been working from home. It’s tough because everyone’s starved for the interaction so when we see each other we’re excited and shooting ideas all over the place, and then have to say “see you next week!” The other day I found myself talking to the guy at one of my favorite falafel restaurants for a half hour.
How has the work across the library changed?
We’re currently open at all branches with patron count and time limits. The circulation of books is up, and we’re not getting a lot of people lingering.
We definitely had to pivot on how we deliver programs. Everybody is trying to figure out what their job is now, especially for my coworkers who are in charge of outreach and can’t do school visits.
Our team has had to become a video broadcast team for live events. We didn’t get a ton of viewers when we first went live, but over time things started to pick up and we’re having to evaluate programs in a new way.
Our staff is nervous because we’re not sure what is needed or how we’re doing. Staff are figuring it out and leadership understands the difficulty, but everybody has a little bit of anxiety about it especially with talk of layoffs and job losses.
How has it been interacting and building relationships with youth?
There are some youth that are coming back and some of them are actually going into the space and doing school there because they don’t want to be at home. The space is familiar, the Wi-Fi is stable, they can come hang out in the corner to do online school.
I hadn’t seen some of the youth in so long that I thought they were just on to college or the next thing. It’s weird because they’re coming in by themselves when they used to come in in big packs.
How are you thinking of new ideas for programming?
We’ve been farming the department for program ideas. It’s really tough because I work in a team of nine to ten really experienced people, and then we have people who just got out of library school and they’re working at a branch by themselves during the pandemic and they’re just getting to know the neighborhood, so they need a lot of support. Sometimes it’s not technical, sometimes it’s just emotional support because it can get really stressful out there in the branches. You’re dealing with a small staff and the branches may have different priorities.
A lot of the other out-of-school programs are contacting us and everyone's asking, “What are you doing, how is it going, what are we all doing?” We have a good amount of tech and knowledge so we were able to pivot quickly.
One of the things we’re hearing from folks is that if you have a really good connection with your staff, you can cross promote programming which really helps. One of our librarians is running a manga program where she’s regularly getting 30 young people. She’s done all of the work for researching the neighborhood and doing outreach and now she’s getting the fruits of her labor.
Also, the program alumni are helping out a lot, which is pretty amazing. They’re showing us all the new ways in which they’ve been recording their own videos and they’ve revived an old podcast that we had going for years.
What would you advocate for in the library field?
We’re looking to other library systems to see how they’re tailoring services based on how safe it is for library staff. Libraries serve as community spaces, and while we want our services to be available, it can also be stressful and dangerous to pretend like everything is normal.
In normal times, I always talk to youth about considering a career in libraries. The field could use some diversity.
What comes to mind as important as we’re moving forward?
As the pandemic drags on the main way we can ensure that patrons and staff enjoy the library is to make sure that they are safe. Our team can’t wait for things to return to normal, or rather better now that we’ve diversified our program skill-sets.
How has your job shifted during the COVID-19 pandemic?
Once we got over the initial shock of not being able to do in-person programming everything has picked back up again and I’m doing most of the same work. I’m focusing on a library learning grant for a youth fashion program. We don’t have a lot of interaction yet, which is always the best part, but I’m excited for it. We originally had a plan for in-person programs but now we’ve had to switch to video.
For the most part I’ve been working from home. It’s tough because everyone’s starved for the interaction so when we see each other we’re excited and shooting ideas all over the place, and then have to say “see you next week!” The other day I found myself talking to the guy at one of my favorite falafel restaurants for a half hour.
How has the work across the library changed?
We’re currently open at all branches with patron count and time limits. The circulation of books is up, and we’re not getting a lot of people lingering.
We definitely had to pivot on how we deliver programs. Everybody is trying to figure out what their job is now, especially for my coworkers who are in charge of outreach and can’t do school visits.
Our team has had to become a video broadcast team for live events. We didn’t get a ton of viewers when we first went live, but over time things started to pick up and we’re having to evaluate programs in a new way.
Our staff is nervous because we’re not sure what is needed or how we’re doing. Staff are figuring it out and leadership understands the difficulty, but everybody has a little bit of anxiety about it especially with talk of layoffs and job losses.
How has it been interacting and building relationships with youth?
There are some youth that are coming back and some of them are actually going into the space and doing school there because they don’t want to be at home. The space is familiar, the Wi-Fi is stable, they can come hang out in the corner to do online school.
I hadn’t seen some of the youth in so long that I thought they were just on to college or the next thing. It’s weird because they’re coming in by themselves when they used to come in in big packs.
How are you thinking of new ideas for programming?
We’ve been farming the department for program ideas. It’s really tough because I work in a team of nine to ten really experienced people, and then we have people who just got out of library school and they’re working at a branch by themselves during the pandemic and they’re just getting to know the neighborhood, so they need a lot of support. Sometimes it’s not technical, sometimes it’s just emotional support because it can get really stressful out there in the branches. You’re dealing with a small staff and the branches may have different priorities.
A lot of the other out-of-school programs are contacting us and everyone's asking, “What are you doing, how is it going, what are we all doing?” We have a good amount of tech and knowledge so we were able to pivot quickly.
One of the things we’re hearing from folks is that if you have a really good connection with your staff, you can cross promote programming which really helps. One of our librarians is running a manga program where she’s regularly getting 30 young people. She’s done all of the work for researching the neighborhood and doing outreach and now she’s getting the fruits of her labor.
Also, the program alumni are helping out a lot, which is pretty amazing. They’re showing us all the new ways in which they’ve been recording their own videos and they’ve revived an old podcast that we had going for years.
What would you advocate for in the library field?
We’re looking to other library systems to see how they’re tailoring services based on how safe it is for library staff. Libraries serve as community spaces, and while we want our services to be available, it can also be stressful and dangerous to pretend like everything is normal.
In normal times, I always talk to youth about considering a career in libraries. The field could use some diversity.
What comes to mind as important as we’re moving forward?
As the pandemic drags on the main way we can ensure that patrons and staff enjoy the library is to make sure that they are safe. Our team can’t wait for things to return to normal, or rather better now that we’ve diversified our program skill-sets.