Manuel
Manuel’s SI Story
Manuel works with a public library system that had to close doors to all its branches when the pandemic hit in March. We talked to him in November about what it has been like to navigate the pandemic in a public-serving space and what opportunities he and the full system of librarians have found to connect with children.
What is your role in the library?
I work with the children’s programs across all 82 libraries in our city and my role on the team is STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) Specialist. I come up with a lot of programs having to do with STEAM for school age children. Before the pandemic, I was creating kits that went out to branches so that they could use them. I would also help with any professional development for librarians that were creating programs for school-age children. I would do school programming for tweens dealing with Maker technology like 3-D printers.
What happened in the library system and your work when the pandemic first hit in the US?
When the libraries first closed I was still paid but was not working - for March, April and a lot of May, I really didn’t have a lot of contact with people from my department. Once we got the okay to return to work, we really started working on our summer learning challenge program which is our big summer initiative that we do every year. We kind of envisioned how this could work in a virtual world; in a world where kids couldn’t go to the library. Everything had to be virtual. Kids can come in to pick up materials, so we developed some grab and go kits. These kids just have some materials that they can pick up at the library, take home, and do the activity. Then we started to plan how we would do things virtually. That consisted of Zoom programming, streaming stuff on our Facebook page, our Youtube channel, but it was really new. We were all just kind of trying to understand how that would work.
What was it like for librarians to offer programs virtually?
I feel like the children’s department and the team services department were kind of the leaders in trying to get this off the ground. It was certainly difficult to get started across the departments. We wanted to make sure that kids were being served equally and that we were respecting their privacy. Things like Zoom and Google Classroom, this is all new to us so we had to test it out and see what the librarians were comfortable with, see what was going on in our other organizations. We really didn’t offer much training to get started, we just asked people to try things out as they were comfortable. Now that we know more about how it’s working we’re offering more support for the librarians.
And what has it been like for you? How has your role changed?
This has been a big change in my role because I was so involved in creating in-person programming or supporting librarians in their in-person programming. Now that everything has shifted to virtual, I felt like it was important for me to adapt and learn new things so I learned how to edit video and use Adobe Premiere to create the best content that I could for kids and families to learn. So that’s something that I never thought I would have to do when I was in my role. Also the social media aspect of my position - creating content for Facebook and Youtube and getting it out to the public. It’s fun and exciting, but also stressful to come up with these new ideas. Over the summer, I tried a 3D printing project where kids could submit their designs and then we would print it for them. Things like that are keeping me motivated to find different ways that we can support our communities right now. But it’s certainly been stressful.
How did the virtual summer program go?
It depended on the location, and we definitely saw a huge dip in participation. The program would normally have kids coming to the branch and talking to a librarian about what they’re doing and telling them what they’re reading. We tried to an online version of that, so kids and librarians could connect about what they were doing, how many minutes they were reading. There wasn’t a lot of traffic so there weren’t a lot of people using it. I think we did the best we could and there were certain locations that came up with really innovative ideas. Some librarians did story walks; kids could read a book outside; a lot of librarians adapted the virtual programming aspects and did storytimes online. There was some good that came out of it. Sometimes the librarians teamed up and since everything was virtual they could connect to kids they wouldn’t normally be able to connect to. But, from what I heard when I was calling to see how they were doing, some of them didn’t see groups for like weeks. The only way that they could connect with them was going out into the community and dropping off kits to parks, for example.
Now that you’ve had a few months of this under your belt, how do you feel it’s going?
The more experience we have with operating this way, we’re really learning from our mistakes and trying to create some innovative programming. I’ve been put in charge of creating a lot of video content that we put on social media. It’s a new way I’m adapting to what it means to be a librarian. Right now, I’m working on creating these theme videos that we put on our Facebook page every Monday so kids can tune in and see an activity that they can do from home. I run a monthly program called Second Monday where we have like a thematics, almost like a children’s show to be honest with you. We have like a storytime and then we have a couple of guests come in and then we get to the theme. So for example in November, the theme is food so we’ll have chefs come on and cook something and we’ll have a couple of food science programs during the day. Just looking to the future, it’s very intimidating and scary, but it’s also given us the opportunity to see what we can offer in terms of virtual programming, and also to connect to kids that we might not be able to have connected with in the past while also being mindful of equity. I know that there’s a lot of kids out there in our city that don’t have access to the internet and can’t see the videos we’re creating or they’re just wiped out with all of the time they’re attached to the computer. So we’re looking for ways to connect to kids virtually while also being mindful of those two facts. So we’re going to still continue to roll out some grab and go kits partnering with organizations to get supplies and materials for these kids. I’m seeing a lot of librarians accept that this is going to be the new norm for a while and I think those communities will be served a little bit better than what they were over the summer.
What do you think this entire experience will change about the way your library system operates?
For starters, I think we’ll have a lot of changes to the way we think about maintaining a clean library. All of our toys, Legos, stuffed animals, and puppets… things that would normally be out, that’s all put away right now. I think once they return it’ll just be about keeping those items clean for everyone; something that librarians and staff will now have to think twice about. It’s also been interesting to hear from our librarians across the branches that in some ways this shift in their work during COVID has almost returned their role to a more straightforward librarian role. They’ve been able to focus on some things like updating a collection, or really taking time to serve a patron well, things that were hard to find time for before when they were offering so much programming.
In terms of programming and serving the public, I definitely think that we should maintain some of the things that we learned in terms of virtual programming. I think it’s nice for parents to have the option of tuning into something, especially on a cold winter day if they don’t want to go to the library, they can still enjoy programming virtually. Or even, they can just take it to a certain location, it would be nice to see a library where they normally wouldn’t get a storytime program. Keeping some of that virtual programming available for people, that’ll be important. It even allows us to offer some things we haven’t always been able to before, like maybe there’s a community that speaks Spanish. So we’re trying to make sure that’s available to them, Spanish speaking storytime, and we could maybe do any other languages that would be beneficial for our community. So keeping those resources online and virtual is something that we should do since we’ve had this chance to figure it out. A lot of our staff has been able to connect with each other virtually, a lot of good collaboration has come from this and I hope that will continue. We have a lot more communication with some of our coworkers we hadn’t communicated with before. Those are some of the things that I hope can continue once we go back to normal.
What is your role in the library?
I work with the children’s programs across all 82 libraries in our city and my role on the team is STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) Specialist. I come up with a lot of programs having to do with STEAM for school age children. Before the pandemic, I was creating kits that went out to branches so that they could use them. I would also help with any professional development for librarians that were creating programs for school-age children. I would do school programming for tweens dealing with Maker technology like 3-D printers.
What happened in the library system and your work when the pandemic first hit in the US?
When the libraries first closed I was still paid but was not working - for March, April and a lot of May, I really didn’t have a lot of contact with people from my department. Once we got the okay to return to work, we really started working on our summer learning challenge program which is our big summer initiative that we do every year. We kind of envisioned how this could work in a virtual world; in a world where kids couldn’t go to the library. Everything had to be virtual. Kids can come in to pick up materials, so we developed some grab and go kits. These kids just have some materials that they can pick up at the library, take home, and do the activity. Then we started to plan how we would do things virtually. That consisted of Zoom programming, streaming stuff on our Facebook page, our Youtube channel, but it was really new. We were all just kind of trying to understand how that would work.
What was it like for librarians to offer programs virtually?
I feel like the children’s department and the team services department were kind of the leaders in trying to get this off the ground. It was certainly difficult to get started across the departments. We wanted to make sure that kids were being served equally and that we were respecting their privacy. Things like Zoom and Google Classroom, this is all new to us so we had to test it out and see what the librarians were comfortable with, see what was going on in our other organizations. We really didn’t offer much training to get started, we just asked people to try things out as they were comfortable. Now that we know more about how it’s working we’re offering more support for the librarians.
And what has it been like for you? How has your role changed?
This has been a big change in my role because I was so involved in creating in-person programming or supporting librarians in their in-person programming. Now that everything has shifted to virtual, I felt like it was important for me to adapt and learn new things so I learned how to edit video and use Adobe Premiere to create the best content that I could for kids and families to learn. So that’s something that I never thought I would have to do when I was in my role. Also the social media aspect of my position - creating content for Facebook and Youtube and getting it out to the public. It’s fun and exciting, but also stressful to come up with these new ideas. Over the summer, I tried a 3D printing project where kids could submit their designs and then we would print it for them. Things like that are keeping me motivated to find different ways that we can support our communities right now. But it’s certainly been stressful.
How did the virtual summer program go?
It depended on the location, and we definitely saw a huge dip in participation. The program would normally have kids coming to the branch and talking to a librarian about what they’re doing and telling them what they’re reading. We tried to an online version of that, so kids and librarians could connect about what they were doing, how many minutes they were reading. There wasn’t a lot of traffic so there weren’t a lot of people using it. I think we did the best we could and there were certain locations that came up with really innovative ideas. Some librarians did story walks; kids could read a book outside; a lot of librarians adapted the virtual programming aspects and did storytimes online. There was some good that came out of it. Sometimes the librarians teamed up and since everything was virtual they could connect to kids they wouldn’t normally be able to connect to. But, from what I heard when I was calling to see how they were doing, some of them didn’t see groups for like weeks. The only way that they could connect with them was going out into the community and dropping off kits to parks, for example.
Now that you’ve had a few months of this under your belt, how do you feel it’s going?
The more experience we have with operating this way, we’re really learning from our mistakes and trying to create some innovative programming. I’ve been put in charge of creating a lot of video content that we put on social media. It’s a new way I’m adapting to what it means to be a librarian. Right now, I’m working on creating these theme videos that we put on our Facebook page every Monday so kids can tune in and see an activity that they can do from home. I run a monthly program called Second Monday where we have like a thematics, almost like a children’s show to be honest with you. We have like a storytime and then we have a couple of guests come in and then we get to the theme. So for example in November, the theme is food so we’ll have chefs come on and cook something and we’ll have a couple of food science programs during the day. Just looking to the future, it’s very intimidating and scary, but it’s also given us the opportunity to see what we can offer in terms of virtual programming, and also to connect to kids that we might not be able to have connected with in the past while also being mindful of equity. I know that there’s a lot of kids out there in our city that don’t have access to the internet and can’t see the videos we’re creating or they’re just wiped out with all of the time they’re attached to the computer. So we’re looking for ways to connect to kids virtually while also being mindful of those two facts. So we’re going to still continue to roll out some grab and go kits partnering with organizations to get supplies and materials for these kids. I’m seeing a lot of librarians accept that this is going to be the new norm for a while and I think those communities will be served a little bit better than what they were over the summer.
What do you think this entire experience will change about the way your library system operates?
For starters, I think we’ll have a lot of changes to the way we think about maintaining a clean library. All of our toys, Legos, stuffed animals, and puppets… things that would normally be out, that’s all put away right now. I think once they return it’ll just be about keeping those items clean for everyone; something that librarians and staff will now have to think twice about. It’s also been interesting to hear from our librarians across the branches that in some ways this shift in their work during COVID has almost returned their role to a more straightforward librarian role. They’ve been able to focus on some things like updating a collection, or really taking time to serve a patron well, things that were hard to find time for before when they were offering so much programming.
In terms of programming and serving the public, I definitely think that we should maintain some of the things that we learned in terms of virtual programming. I think it’s nice for parents to have the option of tuning into something, especially on a cold winter day if they don’t want to go to the library, they can still enjoy programming virtually. Or even, they can just take it to a certain location, it would be nice to see a library where they normally wouldn’t get a storytime program. Keeping some of that virtual programming available for people, that’ll be important. It even allows us to offer some things we haven’t always been able to before, like maybe there’s a community that speaks Spanish. So we’re trying to make sure that’s available to them, Spanish speaking storytime, and we could maybe do any other languages that would be beneficial for our community. So keeping those resources online and virtual is something that we should do since we’ve had this chance to figure it out. A lot of our staff has been able to connect with each other virtually, a lot of good collaboration has come from this and I hope that will continue. We have a lot more communication with some of our coworkers we hadn’t communicated with before. Those are some of the things that I hope can continue once we go back to normal.