Description:

Throw out the quizzes and final exams; this California Library Association Ursula Meyer Library Advocacy Training project workshop for those involved in training-teaching-learning for library advocates explores practical, experience-based ways we help ourselves and others learn to become better advocates for libraries and the communities we serve. 

Focusing on project-based learning (that area of learning through which we design, develop, and complete projects that better help us acquire the skills we are honing rather than listening to lectures, taking quizzes, and center our learning efforts around final exams and certificates of completion), session facilitators Joyce McIntosh, Paul Signorelli, and Beth Wrenn-Estes will help participants explore project-based learning for library advocates in academic library settings, public library settings, and the larger adult-learning landscape where work and learning are intertwined rather than being separated from each other. The workshop is designed to help individuals develop effective project-based learning efforts and to also help those already involved in developing and facilitating training-teaching-learning for library advocates incorporate project-based learning into their efforts to more effectively engage and inspire learners. 

Goal and Objectives:

Participants will explore ways to incorporate project-based learning into their training-teaching-learning efforts with and for library advocates so those advocates can learn while developing projects they can immediately incorporate into their work.

By the end of this session, you will be able to:

Describe project-based learning and cite at least three ways you can incorporate it into your library advocacy efforts

Cite at least five key steps in developing and completing effective project-based learning into your library advocacy efforts

Summarize at least two areas of advocacy (e.g., advocating for diversity-equity-inclusion-belonging and intellectual freedom) where you can incorporate project-based learning into your library advocacy efforts

Presenters:

Joyce McIntosh, a frequent contributor to the Ursula Meyer Library Advocacy Training project, is the Assistant Program Director for the Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF), an organization dedicated to First Amendment education, litigation, and advocacy. She has worked at the intersection of intellectual freedom, communication, and the First Amendment for three decades. Her background and education in journalism and library and information science have led her to work for newspapers, non-profits, and for the last two decades in libraries. She worked in a public library outside of Chicago, IL providing reference, programming, outreach, and assistive technology before joining FTRF. With FTRF and the American Library Association, her work has focused on education about the First Amendment and censorship, and helping librarians navigate challenges in their school and public libraries. 

Beth Wrenn-Estes, former California Library Association Executive Director and a California Library Hall of Fame member, is a full-time lecturer in the School of Information at San Jose State University, where she teaches a variety of subjects including intellectual freedom and youth, children’s programming and services and early childhood literacy and development. Beth served on the California Library Association Board of Directors for several years, holding the offices of Director at Large and Treasurer before becoming the Association’s Business Manager and then Executive Director. 

Paul Signorelli, a San Francisco-based writer/trainer-facilitator/presenter/consultant, is project manager for the CLA Ursula Meyer Library Advocacy Training project; served as co-host of the San Jose State University iSchool podcast “Information Gone Wild”; and frequently designs and leads onsite and online workshops for library advocates. His publications include “Change the World Using Social Media”(Rowman & Littlefield, 2021) and (as co-author) “Workplace Learning & Leadership: A Handbook for Library and Nonprofit Trainers” (ALA Editions, 2011). 

About the Ursula Meyer Advocacy Fund Training Series

This program is part of an ongoing series of monthly online sessions organized offered through the Ursula Meyer Advocacy Fund Training Series; sessions are generally held online on the second Wednesday of each month, beginning at 10 am PT. The series honors the memory of Ursula Meyer, 1977-78 CLA President, California Library Hall of Fame inductee, longtime director of the Stockton-San Joaquin Public Library, and fierce advocate for library services and intellectual freedom. The Ursula Meyer Fund was established to provide for the training of librarians in all stages of their careers, and library supporters, in political advocacy and political action, in honor of Ursula’s belief that librarians need effective political skills to advocate for library support at all levels of government. Archived recordings of previous sessions are available on the California Library Association YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@californialibraryassociati2705/videos.

To support the series through a donation, please visit the CLA website at https://www.cla-net.org/donations/fund.asp?id=23440.