Webinar Summaries

Recently, I attended a webinar from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services or USCIS on citizenship and libraries. They have partnered with IMLS to provide libraries with information, educational materials, and training resources on immigration and citizenship. They want to educate librarians on topics ranging from naturalization, the unauthorized practice of immigration law, and the importance of digital literacy. Look to their website’s Citizenship Resource Center at www.uscis.gov/citizenship for a wealth of information. From there, you can order a Civics and Citizenship toolkit that has immigration and civics publications, handbooks, multimedia tools, and a quick start guide with ideas for use. There is a limit of one toolkit per organization. The kit can be used to provide basic information, develop class content and train staff and volunteers. USCIS also offers free training for adult educators, program directors, volunteers, and representatives from immigrant-serving organizations. These seminars will help develop the skills needed to teach U.S. history, civics, and the naturalization process to immigrant students and to administer comprehensive adult citizenship education programs. You can find information on that at http://www.uscis.gov/citizenship/teachers/training-seminars. There was another useful website mentioned: https://literacydirectory.org. You can use it to find Citizenship or ESL classes near you throughout the US.

The Modern Library: Meeting Library Users On Their Own Terms webinar
Kathleen Lockett from Wellington City Libraries in New Zealand and Michael Hull from Western Plains Library System in Oklahoma presented. Kathleen presented her library system’s Book Bike program that goes out in the community to serve customers, similar to what our Mobile Express program does. They rented a bike and fitted it for storage for books and library collateral and biked to the waterfront during the summer and offered gently used books to check out as well as impromptu storytimes. They also were able to sign up new customers. This summer they will be using new technology offered by CarlConnect to do mobile reference and library card sign up. The library also did outreach geared to university students by going directly to the campus. They couldn’t immediately sign students up for a library card, so they had two staff members work to do it. One would type the student’s information into a spreadsheet on a tablet, while the other would issue the card. They would upload all information when they returned to the library to create a new patron record in their system. Now using new technology with CarlConnect, they are able to do more mobile registration and reference. Kathleen also presented a new opportunity to have a satellite location at the Wellington airport where they will take advantage of signing up out-of-town visitors with temporary library cards as well as providing services to customers while waiting for their flights.

Michael talked about maintaining the library brand’s image and needing to effectively inform the public on what we offer. Libraries need to be outreach minded and get users on their own terms. They need a simple yet strong virtual presence. He encourages staff to go outside the library on a regular basis. Libraries should have a strategic advertising campaign. Virtual identity should be established by using Facebook or other social media judiciously with not too many postings. His staff, mainly managers are allowed to use their personal accounts. He suggested that the library website shouldn’t be overcrowded, but offer what your customers need quickly. Use it to promote events, booklists, etc. Their system’s website can search by accelerated reading levels. They use LS2 staff technology on bookmobiles to set up new customers with library cards. Civic presentations have helped their visibility and they’ve used it to showcase their technology to the community. Use your library’s newest and flashiest products to attract attention. His system has gone to the schools and offered library card registration to students. They send the applications to the teacher, and the teacher has students take them home for parental approval. The teacher verifies the information when the forms are returned and at the school’s library event, the students are issued their library cards. Michael also encourages traditional advertising and marketing through newspaper, radio, billboards, PSAs and TV.

Thanks,
Yolanda
If you would like to share a webinar that you have done recently, please email Laurie or Yolanda.

Citizenship Corners @ HPL

Citizenship Corner

USCIS (United States Citizenship & Immigration Services) and the Office of the Mayor of the City of Houston are committed to strengthening immigrant integration efforts in the City through proactive citizenship awareness, education, and outreach activities.

The Letter of Agreement (LOA) between USCIS and the City of Houston was recently signed.

Under the agreement, USCIS and the City will collaborate to:

• Distribute educational materials highlighting U.S. citizenship and the naturalization process at city facilities;
• Hold information sessions for permanent residents interested in learning about U.S. citizenship;
•  Increase awareness of citizenship rights, responsibilities, and the naturalization process among eligible permanent residents.

As of the information that I have received from the Office of International Communities, September 17th is the National Citizenship Day and there will be either a press release or a press conference formally announcing this partnership. To meet one of the objectives of this partnership, a Citizenship Corner has been set up at the Central Library on the 1st floor near the Local Authors display. You will find books related to the Citizenship test preparation and informational brochures from the USCIS. Donna Jackson is working on the signage for this Corner.

I highly recommend setting up a display to highlight the Citizenship Test preparation resources you have in your collection. Please assist customers looking for the test preparation material by showing them the Virtual Citizenship Corner on our Databases page. In addition there is an audio of Citizenship Test preparation on Hoopla! So far, Bracewell; Southwest Express and Walter Neighborhood Libraries have set up a Citizenship Corners in their neighborhood libraries. Once you have your Citizenship Corner set up, please send me a picture to add to my collage of pictures.

Last, but not least, www.uscis.gov/citizenship has resources for teachers, students and agencies. Please let me know if you have any question or suggestions.

Thanks,

Shammi