I am in charge of scheduling programs for adults here at the library. I need your help to find programs that are of interest to you - our patrons. We have had some successful programs that have attracted a large audience such as Jamie Novak's De-Cluttering Program and the How to Sell on eBay program that the Post Office gave but we have also had some programs where we have brought in an outside presenter and no one has attended. I would like to get feedback from our patrons on what kinds of programs they would like the library to offer.
We have had quite a few financial professionals come and talk on a variety of topics...are there some we haven't covered? We continue to have local medical personnel come and offer seminars on all kinds of aliments and treatments - are there others that you would like information about? We have a scrapbooking group that meets periodically in the library and a knitting and crocheting group that gathers on a weekly basis to create things in yarn! Are there other crafts that you have always wanted to try for which we might be able to find an instructor? Are there other interests you have that you think the library might help you explore? We are always looking for people to come in and share their own knowledge about either their vocation or their avocation. Do you have a unique hobby or collection you might like to share with your neighbors? Please let me know.
We are focusing this fall and into the spring on getting more crafting opportunities for adults and on finding other Professional Organizers to come in to give us more insight on the process of simplifying our lives. Do you have particular trouble areas our speakers should address? We have had requests in the past for science and history lectures, particularly World War II history, but we have had no luck in finding the resources to provide these lectures. We will be starting to use Internet resources this fall to offer discussions on intellectual topics and current issues. We are starting to show TED Talks during our Wednesday Wisdom lecture series which is offered on the first Wednesday of every month at 1:30 p.m. TED stands for Technology, Engineering and Design and the 900+ lectures that are collected and disseminated on the TED.com website are on those topics and more. There are other lecture series, like the one we showed last spring by Harvard Professor Michael Sandel on Justice, available from other universities around the world. There is a wealth of information on the Internet that we will try to make available to our patrons.
Please let us know what interests you, what areas of your life you could use some help with, what topics you would like to see covered and what resources you may like us to provide. We can't promise you that we will be able to make "all of your dreams come true." We have had some pretty deep budget cuts that will prevent us from paying for well-known performers and lecturers, but I suspect there are a lot of talented people that we can contact to provide the community a wide variety of opportunities to support life-long learning at the library.
Thank you for your help. Barbara Battles, Outreach Librarian outreach@sbpl.info
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8 comments:
I love TED talks.
can you make the blogs shorter and to the point please?
free psychotherapy?
How about self help programs like http://www.artofliving.org/us-en introductory free course
you have yoga so why not something like this?
1.gardening courses in spring, summer, fall
2.how to be a teenager's mom or dad,
3.how to be an american while preserving your roots,
4. help your child to excel in school and be successful socially
5. continuing education courses for adults- with minimal charge
6. taking care of your 80 plus parent of a foreign origin
baking, cake decorating class,
writing workshops
how to do your own wills
simple finance lessons, how to keep your account straight using Excel
etc.
Thanks for these suggestions - the library can't charge for programs, except for a materials fee, and we don't allow cooking on the premesis so we are somewhat limited but we'll do what we can. What is the best time of day or day of week for programs for adults?
Yes, we have Yoga classes that are offered by the Friends of the Library. Besides the book sales, this is one of the only fundraisers that the Friends do to help support programming in the library. We try not to offer competition for our own programs. As to self-help groups, there are so many that would like to have space in the library, we could not accomodate them all and some get to be close to a religion, which, as a public facility, we can't support.
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