Building community partnerships within a library is essential to meeting the needs of our community, providing resources to community members, and sustainability. Throughout my 5+ years working in libraries, I have been able to build and strengthen community partnerships.

Local School Partnerships

One aspect of my tenure at the El Dorado County Library that I am really proud of is the partnerships I built with local school librarians, administration, and our county office of education. When I first started as a Youth Services Librarian, I knew I wanted to connect with the schools. I set up meetings with the school librarians during my first month, and introduced myself, and let them know that the library was there support them. From these conversations, many programs and partnerships were realized.

Battle of the Books

Several of the local schools in El Dorado County participate in Battle of the Books program. I was immediately interested and wanted to know what we could do to help and how we can bring the county library on board. I met with the lead librarian for the program, and we created a county-wide Battle of the Books program. I visited school sites, and I participated during individual competitions. Our plans for the county-wide event were to take the top 2-3 teams from the individual competitions and host them at a library branch. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 our first county-wide Battle of the Books event had to be canceled. We had plans to continue this program virtually during COVID.

Book Club

Another program created from my initial conversations with school librarians was a at school book club. From November 2018 to February 2020, I would visit a local middle school every 3rd Thursday of the month to host a teen book club. I was able to create a book club library card for students who did not have a library card and did not have the ability to get to a library. We would pick genres, reader’s choice, or all read the same books. We created a format in which we wanted to hold the meetings. When COVID-19 hit, we took this book club virtual and opened it up to any teen in the county. We had a large and consistent group of teens who are passionate about books and the library.

County Librarian’s Meetings and Communication

Another benefit that has come from creating partnerships with our local schools is a clear and concise way to share information. I was able to attend meetings hosted by our county office of education for all school librarians. During these meetings I can get feedback, share new information and resources, and check-in with our schools. I also kept in consistent communication with both school librarians and school administrators. I sent along information for new resources, I answered any questions they may have, and they share pertinent school information with me.

Community Organizations

As a Librarian with the El Dorado County Library I had the opportunity to work closely with several of our Friends of the Library groups to provide services, programs, and budget input. I have been able to share the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic was having on our kids and teens and why, now more than ever, they need hands on activities and events from the library. I was able to work with our Friends of the Library group to come up with a budget for the 2021 fiscal year. I also work closely with several members of the Friends of the Library when it comes to programming and individual budgets for those programs.

Winters Hispanic Advisory Committee

I have had the opportunity to partner with the Winters Hispanic Advisory Committee on several programs at the Winters Community Library. The first one being our citizenship celebration where we invited patrons who have recently received American citizenship to celebrate with their friends and family at the library. We also partnered on our most recent Dia de los Muertos event at the library, and worked towards having one big event vs. 2 or 3 competing events.