Earlier today YALSA sponsored a Virtual Town Hall on how libraries and stakeholders can work together successfully to support teens. The event is a part of YALSA’s year-long National Forum on Libraries and Teens that is looking at the future of library services to adolescents.
Conversation at the Virtual Town Hall focused on four key questions:
- Why are partnerships important?
- What opportunities are a part of partnerships between libraries and stakeholders?
- What do successful partnerships look like?
- What’s required of libraries and stakeholders in order to support teens into the future?
You can view the lively discussion .
Some key points that came out of the discussions include:
- Successful partnerships require clear goals, flexibility and relationship and trust building.
- Teens should be involved in planning and implementing partnerships.
- The library needs to be a part of the community – the library is a service not a place.
- Partnerships are different than collaborations.
- It’s important for libraries to reach out to organizations and agencies in the community that might be slightly outside of the box.
- Successful partnerships mean that library staff aren’t always the ones in the lead.
- Library staff might need to learn new skills in order to be successful in partnering.
You can also continue the conversation by tweeting using #yalsaforum or adding comments to this post.
