[PL-Directors] Request to Participate in LibrariUS

[Jim Scheppke]

Dear Library Directors:
The State Library is partnering with Oregon Public Broadcasting on an exciting new project called LibrariUS. The American Library Association, the Public Library Association and American Public Media are the national sponsors of this project.

LibrariUS will provide your library users with the opportunity to give feedback on your library via a widget on your website. We are taking the liberty of adding the LibrariUS widget to all of the Plinkit websites over the next few weeks. But if you have a Plinkit website and would prefer not to participate in LibrariUS, just let Darci Hanning know and she will remove the widget.

Below is more information from our partner, Amanda Peacher, at Oregon Public Broadcasting. If you don’t have a Plinkit website, the widget you can use on your website to participate in LibrariUS is attached.

Please contact Amanda with your questions about LibrariUS.  I will appreciate your consideration of this opportunity.

Jim Scheppke, State Librarian
Oregon State Library

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>From Amanda Peacher at Oregon Public Broadcasting:
Oregon Public Broadcasting is pleased to be partnering with the Oregon State Library on an outreach project to collect stories about how library patrons and staff across the state are using their libraries. We think that this will be a very positive and beneficial partnership, and we’re hoping that your library will participate.

The project is called called LibrariUS (/ly-BREHR’-ee-uhs’/), and its purpose is to explore the information, civic and social needs of communities across the nation, through the lens of local libraries.  OPB and the State Library are heading this effort in Oregon; nationally, this project is led by American Public Media, the ALA and the Public Library Association. You can have a look at the national website for the project here: http://www.publicinsightnetwork.org/librarius/

Here’s how it works: Libraries embed the LibrariUS widget on their website that asks patrons to answer this simple question: How are you using the library today?

When people respond, their story gets mapped on the LibrariUS website. Here at OPB, I read their responses as they come in, and then I follow up with people on stories we’d like to report on.  I will also compile responses and provide them to each library.

For libraries, LibrariUS is a way to learn more about what people are doing at the library with personal narratives (not just statistics) to help demonstrate how you are serving your community – in traditional and new ways – and to get more stories about libraries in the news.  It’s also an opportunity to help your patrons tell their own stories, and have a greater voice in the media.

Please feel free to get in touch with me if you have any questions. In order to participate, all your library needs to do is embed the LibrariUS widget on your homepage (or some other visible place on your site) and then let me know that you’ve done so. As of now, there’s not a sunset date for the project, and you can keep the widget up for as long or little as suits your needs.

A few Oregon libraries have already agreed to participate, so please feel free to check out how the widget looks on their websites:

  *   Baker County Library: http://bakerlib.org/
  *   Harney County Library: http://www.harneycountylibrary.org/

I’ve attached the basic FAQ sheet that answers questions about how patron’s stories and information will be used by OPB, and also another document with the embedding codes for the widget.

Again, OPB and the Oregon State Library are excited for this partnership, and we hope that you’ll participate. You may be hearing from me again as I follow up with various libraries individually, but please feel free to get in touch with questions.

Sincerely,
Amanda Peacher

--
Amanda Peacher
Public Insight Journalist | Oregon Public Broadcasting
7140 SW Macadam Avenue | Portland, OR | 97219
503.445.1882 office

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