Communication Skills

How do we communicate with patrons that have sets of communication skills? What is considered polite or what are some things we shouldn't do.

This is a pretty broad topic so I came up with a few examples to get us started but hopefully this topic will grow.

Non English Speaking - Effective ways to let them know we are trying to understand them or getting someone who speaks their language and can help them more effectively without giving them a feeling that we are abandoning them.

Deaf - If they have an interpreter do you speak to them or the interpreter? Is it ok to tap them on their shoulder?

Adults with child level communication skills - Effective ways to share information with them in language they will understand.

I'll look for inforamtion on these topics but if anyone has information to share or other communication topics please share them with the group.

Reminder for the next Special Pops meeting on 1/28

Just a quick reminder that the next Special Pops meeting will be held in the public meeting room at Admin from 8:00 to 9:30 on Jan. 28. We expect to post the agenda to the blog ahead of the meeting.

See you there!

Diversity Committee and the Chamber

Holly Whelan and I have begun participating in the South Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce’s (SMDCC) Diversity Committee.

The Mission Statement of the committee is as follows: The SMDCC focuses on developing the diversity of our membership, as well as the diversity of the chamber leadership by raising the awareness of diversity issues and working to create a positive environment for business opportunities between minority owned, women owned, and all businesses in the South Metro Denver area.

The overriding goal of the committee is to serve as a resource on business-related diversity issues. This includes assisting minority-owned businesses, helping companies to diversify their work-force, and assisting in marketing to diverse populations. What is most surprising to me about the committee is that it is the only one of its kind in the area. As it stands now, there are no other regional groups or task forces devoted solely to the issues of diversity in business.
So what are we librarians doing on the committee, you ask? Well, there is the clear synergy between the committee’s goals and the library’s many business resources. We’ll be able to assist the committee in its efforts to serve as a resource. We can help find information, leads, stats, etc. We’ll also be joining sub-committees to help organize events. These events will help raise the visibility of the committee, not to mention the visibility of the library and its services for businesses.

The group is somewhat new and seems to be growing. Our involvement on the committee is new as well, so we’ll be learning a lot as we interact with area businesses and participate on projects.

Projects of the committee in 2009 will include a Leadership Breakfast, Business Roundtable, and the creation of articles for the Chamber's quarterly South Metro Denver Business Magazine. I’ll post again with updates as they arise.

Here is a link to the Diversity Committee’s web page (which will be expanded in 2009 too!): http://www.bestchamber.com/groups-committees/diversity-committee.html

library services for patrons with disabilities

At the CAL Conference last month, I attended a workshop on some of the best projects to which LSTA awarded special grants. One of the projects was done by the Pueblo City/County Library as it added some assistive technologies for people with disabilites to better use the library services. I also checked out some of the services available for people with disabilities at the Denver Public Library at this link http://denverlibrary.org/about/disabilities.html
An online handout about the Pueblo City/County Library's project is available at http://www.cal-webs.org/handouts08/diverse.pdf

Online Community for the Disabled

Dr. Glen House is the co-founder of an online community exclusively targeting those with disabilities and those whose lives they touch. He brings a personal insight to this as he became a quadriplegic nearly 2 decades ago after a skiing accident. Disaboom.com made its debut in 2007 and has components including health information, living forward with a disability and community, where you can blog, meet others, create a network and share stories.

The disabled community-including those affected (an estimate of 54 million) medical professionals, relatives, friends, employers and coworkers affected- is huge, estimated at 180 million and growing. The greatest need within this community is sharing information. The website topped one million hits in November.

Senior Programing Ideas

While browsing our Professional Collection I noticed two books which are excellent sources for working with our Senior Population. The first is Serving Seniors by RoseMary Honnold and Saralyn A. Mesaros. It's a hands-on guide for libraries with ideas to begin and expand services to the older adults in the community. Some of the topics include: Build a Collection to Serve Senior Adults, Start a Discussion Group, Offer Informative and Entertaining Programs, and Surf the Net with Seniors to name a few. The other book is Elder-Berries, Library Programs for Older Adults. It is filled with ideas for presenting programs at nursing homes, assisted living facillities, or the library. The plans are simple including a brief description, materials and equipment needed, and some helpful hints.

Web Accessibility Initiative

The topic of accessibility of ALD's catalog came up at our last Interest Group meeting. I came across a website of a group that is working on recommendations to improve web accessibility for people with disabilities. Some of it is rather technical, but some of the recommendations are understandable even for non-techies. Take a look here http://www.w3.org/WAI/