Outreach Series: Session Six – Community Partnerships

Session Archive

Session Slides (PDF)

Workbook for prioritizing partnerships (xls)

Instructions for using workbook (PDF)

This is the sixth in a series of eight sessions all dedicated to Outreach Librarianship.

Learn about the importance of community partnerships in Outreach.  Learn how to create community partnerships, how to grow them, how to assess them, and how to end them when necessary.

While this session can stand on its own, if you are new to Outreach, please consider viewing all eight sessions.

1. Foundations of Outreach
2. Mobile Services
3. Outreach Services
4. Virtual Services
5. Event Services, Community Conversations, and Feedback Loop
6. Community Partnerships
7. Collecting Data in Outreach and Community Assessment
8. Outreach Advocacy

About the presenters:

Elena Rosenfeld serves as the Community Engagement & Strategies Manager for the High Plains Library District.  When looking at partnership opportunities, she pulls from past work experiences as a Children’s Librarian, Department Head, Library Manager, and Associate Director in various library environments.  When not at work and not at home playing computer games, you might find Elena hiking around the state or in other countries where there are nifty views and animals to be seen.

Carolyn Valencia (she/her/ella) is an Outreach Librarian for the High Plains Library District (HPLD) specializing in early literacy. She identifies as Spanish and Native American. Earning her MLIS in 2019 from Emporia State University and a Bachelor of Arts from Santa Clara University in 1998, Carolyn shares her passion for the arts and multiliteracies (primarily physical and self-literacy) with her diverse community members in Greeley, Colorado. With this life-long passion for physical literacy, Carolyn pursued careers in dance and Bikram Yoga before libraryland. In 2014, she created HPLD’s first yoga storytime and has implemented these at the Colorado Early Education Network Head Starts in Weld County and the Little Learner’s Preschool at the Immigrant and Refugee Center of Northern Colorado. In 2019, she became a certified Stories, Songs, and Stretches!® Facilitator. She strives to provide diverse and inclusive programming to her community as a co-facilitator of Rainbow Storytimes and Let’s Talk About Race Storytimes. Currently, she is working on a 3-month series family book club called Widening the Window. Carolyn celebrates with her tribe and loves rodeos and fire ceremonies.

Rosa M. Granado is an Associate Director of MOVE for the High Plains Library District (HPLD) located in northeastern Colorado.  She believes that although Outreach is one of the most misunderstood facets of public library services, it is also one of the most rewarding and impactful ways we can serve the community.  Rosa started in public libraries as a Page, working her way up to an Outreach Librarian. She served as the HPLD Outreach Manager for three years before moving into her new position.  Rosa holds a Bachelor of Science in English from the University of Northern Colorado, a Master of Arts in School Library Instructional Leadership from the University of Colorado, Denver, and a Master of Management and Library Information Sciences from the University of Southern California.