Creating a culture of partnering in your organization can open up a world of possibilities for your staff, your library and your community. At Asotin County Library, that culture began in April of 1988 when the Valnet Consortium, a group of five public, school and academic libraries, went live with our first integrated library system and shared courier. It has since grown to over 20 agencies with more than 40 locations and we now share databases as well. It has nurtured a community of librarians and library staff sharing materials, training, policies, frustrations and celebrations. One of the best results has been an expectation of belonging to cooperative partnerships. Because we partner every day with other libraries and schools in our region, it comes naturally to think of forming other partnerships when opportunities arise.
In 2001, many Valnet and non-Valnet libraries in our region came together to start our Everybody Reads program. Like most One Book programs, we select a book and members of our communities read and discuss it. However, Everybody Reads also features a four-day author residency, wherein the author visits libraries and schools, presents signed books, and gives school children and adults alike an opportunity to meet and talk with the author.
Because our library has developed a reputation for being open to trying new and innovative things, we were approached by the Washington State Library about participating in an open data project called Digital Equity for Main Street, alongside the Washington Office of the Chief Information Officer and the California State Library. The project was funded by the Knight Foundation and focused on developing an open data curriculum for librarians and patrons. Initially, we had no idea what open data was, but we said yes. For the next two years we worked with a team of open data professionals, librarians, professors, teachers and civic tech advocates to develop the curriculum we still use today. That was the beginning of a series of grant projects that have opened up possibilities for our library.
The first of these was a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to publish open data for Asotin County. When using the Data Equity for Main Street curriculum with members of the public, we discovered that there was no open data for Asotin County, with the exception of data in state and federal datasets. We saw this void as an opportunity for our library to provide local information in a curated collection and a format that is more useful than what people would be asking for in public records requests. We applied for an Accelerating Promising Practices for Small and Rural Libraries grant and were awarded over $49,000 to take on the project over a two-year period.
A vital part of this grant was that we became part of the Accelerating Promising Practices Digital Inclusion Cohort. Mentored by librarians from the Kansas City Public Library, this group met virtually and in person, attended conferences, and worked together to learn about digital inclusion and how we could make an impact on our own libraries through what we learned. We were also encouraged to become involved with National Digital Inclusion Alliance at the time when they were developing the Digital Navigator Model that is now ubiquitous in libraries across the country, including Asotin County Library. Our cohort began in 2019, perfect timing for us to be ready to face the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic when people worked and attended school from home in a woefully inadequate digital environment. We expanded our hotspot checkout program, installed parking lot Wi-Fi, and implemented Wi-Fi printing.
The project strengthened relationships we had with people at the Washington State Library, particularly their Open Data Librarian, and with the University of Washington, which included us in their Open Data Literacy grant project that provided us with an intern and group of undergraduates who are currently working with us on our open data grant. In addition, we were asked to participate in IMLS grant projects with Indiana University to build public libraries’ capacity for open data services.
Another key aspect of our IMLS open data project was that it enabled us to build new or stronger partnerships with entities in Asotin County. Cities, counties, police, fire and health departments, and public utilities districts all consulted with us on the best datasets to publish, then provided us with those datasets. These relationships have helped the library in many ways. In addition to these formal partnerships, it has also benefited the library with donations ranging from a huge donation of LEGOs from the Clarkston Mayor, to a set of air scrubbers provided by the Health District so that we can serve as a clean air shelter during the fire season. More importantly, it highlighted the library as a potential partner to community agencies and organizations.
Following completion of the first IMLS grant, we applied to IMLS again for a National Library Leadership grant to develop a toolkit for small libraries across the country to use to do their own open data projects. We are currently in the process of recruiting cohorts of partners around the country to help us develop the toolkit. Several partners from previous open data partnerships are serving on our Advisory Board.
On a much larger scale, these open data partnerships led to an increased willingness to partner with the library when we decided to form a Broadband Action Team (BAT) to identify the high-speed internet and digital equity needs of the residents of Asotin County and find ways to fund fulfillment of those needs in December of 2020. The library, having already participated in a smaller group focused on internet infrastructure in 2013, took the lead. We now have over 40 partners, including several internet service providers and have worked together to create a community needs assessment and to prioritize projects to get service to everyone in the county. This resulted in the BAT and its members being awarded several grants to expand infrastructure and digital navigator services.
Table showing Asotin County Library partnerships including Valnet Consortium, Everybody Reads, Broadband, Open Data, Co-Designing for Trust.
We continue to engage in new partnerships as opportunities arise. The Co-Designing for Trust research project being conducted by the University of Washington through a National Science Foundation grant is our most recent partnership. It is a “community-led collaboration between researchers, librarians, educators who support their communities to find trustworthy information”.1 The mission is to “work with communities to create customized and practical educational resources that they can use to address the impacts of false and misleading information”. The project is exciting because it is addressing a current major problem in our society by tapping the creativity of concerned professionals and the communities they serve.
The majority of the work on these projects has been done by the Library Director and Assistant Director. We have not asked front line staff to take on this work because they do the vital work of one-on-one service to our patrons.
Partnerships have enriched the careers of our library staff, increased the visibility of our library, and brought new and innovative resources to our communities. Libraries everywhere have the opportunity to create partnerships and to respond positively to offers when they arise. One never knows where a “Yes!” might lead!
Jennifer Ashby is Director of Asotin County Library in Clarkston, Washington. She has a BA in English from Whitman College and an MLS from the University of Arizona. Before coming to Asotin County Library in 2001, she was a faculty member at Lewis-Clark State College for 18 years. She is married with two grown children and enjoys travel, scuba diving, time with family and friends and bringing innovative ideas and projects to a small community.
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