• This session will highlight how West Haven began their social worker embedded in the library and how the services became successful. 

• Presenters will share their findings with working with the public, and how the staff utilize support of our social worker when needed. As libraries increasingly become community centers, its vital to recognize the unique needs of all our patrons that come in and how we can best help them with their needs and information. 

Objectives & Takeaways:

• Openings in the library world are precious opportunities to put the best people in place to deliver service. But our methods don't set us up for success. 

• With this program, you'll turn reactive methods into proactive. 

• You'll set up interviews that really tell you about the interviewee's skills. 

• And you'll learn to prepare your existing staff for the change a new person can bring to your library. 

Objectives & Takeaways:

• Understand the six early literacy skills and how to embed them in theme based storytimes.

• Learn to embed parent/caregiver tips into storytimes giving them the tools to continue to help children learn at home.

• Learn about the Sparkler app, a tool for parents and caregivers supported by the CT Office of early Childhood, that allows adults to check their child’s development against key milestones.

Objectives & Takeaways:

Readers’ Advisory (RA) is one of the core services librarians provide. RA essentially connects readers with books they will enjoy. This happens in numerous ways such as getting to know patrons and recommending books based on their interests as well as understanding the community and its reading interests.

Our objective is to re-energize adult services librarians' focus on readers’ advisory and provide practical resources, ideas, and tips to improve readers’ advisory knowledge and skills for librarians. Recommending and offering diverse titles, genres, and formats, as well as understanding diverse patrons, having positive interactions with patrons and encouraging use of the library, developing collections based on community interests, providing book lists, displays, and book programs, will help librarians to better serve patrons and their community.

 We will briefly explore the ways in which AI can be used for readers’ advisory. Offering an opportunity for librarians to network, share, and discuss their knowledge and experiences will also be invaluable. We hope librarians will come away with a greater understanding of how to utilize these tools confidently and effectively for this core service.