Evolution of Our Elevator Speech

Katie Baxter January 30, 2017, 8 comments

I am almost back to Kodiak. Icy morning forced the 6:30am from Anchorage back to Anchorage. So, lucky me, I have a few hours to do my CoP homework.

Even before I knew the homework assignment I started practicing telling friends and family what I was doing in Atlanta before heading to Boston for a brief visit. Here are phrases that twirled off of my tongue:

You know how libraries have been offering AMAZING programs for youth and families over the decades? We got really good at community outreach and coming at you with a program we felt kids needed to do better at school, learn to read, take care of their teeth, enjoy being playful. Then, libraries had an aha moment -- we're more than outreach, we're about engagement -- about working alongside the career center, the  4-H groups to design and support a community-based offering for middle school. yadda yadda yadda ------- needs work

Thanks to middle schoolers who come to the public library I'm seeing this age group as a quirky, excited group of adventurers who love being in exploratory space. Future Ready with Libraries is a series of conversations, field trips, maker spaces, and knowledge labs where middle school youth have a chance to see that "work" is gratifying, valuable playfulness that adds a whole new dimension of fun to life. Libraries are malleable spaces where the future can be imagined by these middle schoolers, and, we librarians, want to be the semi-conductors of that life-enhancing energy.   We'll create an image of a village, and, ask the middle school youth -- you tell us, what's it going to take to make this village work and be a desirable place for you to live your life.  OK -- too vague, 

Future Ready with Libraries is for and by middle school youth who want to figure out paths to their livelihoods using the spaces, experts, field trip opportunities, and resources the librarians make available just for them. For a middle school youth to have a vibrant future, first, that youth needs an engaging, creative, fluid present to launch questions, pose solutions and test out answers. Middle schoolers aren't feeling as overwhelmed by life's choices as juniors and seniors in high school, so they are ready to play with options and different scenarios. Librarians know how to connect dots, so we'll be engaging with a few community partners like sports teams, municipal departments, career centers to create exploratory stations for kids to connect with the behind-the-scenes of what makes a day work-- OK, here I am rambling BUT I kind of like the germ of the idea that Future Ready is about Behind-the-Scenes Know-how to make the future pop with meaning, fluidity, kindness, generosity, choice, pathways, support, etc.

Will keep at it,

Katie

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