Join us for the latest MHLS Reimagining Library Services Series: Collaborations and Partnerships on March 24th at 10:00 am. Working with an organization in your community or a neighboring library can help both parties provide better services than they could alone. At this workshop, we’ll cover strategies for finding, developing and maintaining collaborations that increase the reach and capacity of your library, and hear from libraries that have built effective, worthwhile relationships. Registration is open through the MHLS Calendar.

Library Staff as Public Servants: A Field Guide for Preparing to Support Communities in Crisis, a new guide from the YX Lab of the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland is now available. This field guide is designed to help public library staff support their communities during times of crisis. In the field guide, the authors encourage the library community to have in place critical relationships and community data prior to considering what programs and services are needed during a local, regional, or national crisis using four essential tasks – learn about community, co-create with community, iterate and assess with community, and design structures for the community.