My PFE will be completed at the West Warwick Public Library. The PFE is focused around improving my administrative skills by working with the Friends of the WWPL. The focus of the PFE project would be to work with the Friends of the West Warwick Public Library, in areas of fundraising, marketing, recruitment, and developing a social media presence. I feel the hardest part will be keeping to my PFE hourly schedule which is self-administrated. We are in the snow and bad weather season of our school year. Plus, the library may have staffing problems due to COVID which may close the library at night. I need to put in 5 hours one night twice a month for meetings with the Board of Trustees and Friends of WWPL board plus one workday of 7-hours each week. My first meeting with the Board of Trustees was already rescheduled because of COVID.

I met with the director, we talked about the unique administrative

duties that have come across his position because of COVID and the recent snowstorm. During this conversation, he described what it took for the library to Open on the Saturday after the snowstorm. The library is not a department in the local city, but they do get some funding from the city. The library is responsible for all maintenance and capital improvements on its building which they rent from the city. The library’s maintenance person was out with COVID during the storm. The library director called the town manager asking if the department of public works can plow, shovel, and sand the library's walkways and parking lot. This has never been asked before and a lot of roadblocks happened. Long story short… The DPW workers and the library's maintenance person are in unions but not the same union. The library director and the town manager needed to contact each union steward to ask permission to allow the DPW workers to plow, shovel, and sand the library property at the expense of the library. The library needs to pay the DPW staff time and a half because they had to complete the work after they finished the town's snow removal. This all needed to be done in less than a 24-hour period.

I also met with two of the Friends. They explained that on Wednesdays they organize the Book Nook donations. The Book Nook is a continuously run bookstore offered and maintained by the Friends. They have a nice size room which is well organized on the main floor of the library near the circulation desk. This Book Nook is open during all the library hours. There are two locked cash boxes, one inside the Book Nook and one outside near display shelves. The Friends also have a large room on the ground floor for storage. This ground floor room was the original location for the Book Nook. When the Book Nook was on the ground floor, it was only open on Saturdays if they had volunteers to run the register.

I keep grabbing all the flyers, handouts, and local newspapers as I walk around the building. This will help me research the library’s offerings, how they promote themselves and the Friends group, and give me a sense of the vibe of the library.

After lunch I will create a chart for each of the main points of this

PFE, fundraising, marketing, recruitment, and developing a social media presence. They write down ideas for each. My first meeting with the Friends is in two weeks. I would like to have a few suggestions or options for each point.

List of things to bring and do for Week 2:

• Bookmark with my name - in bag

• Label maker - in bag

• Demonstrate Canva.com for larger shelf labels and signs

• Tote Bag for borrowing

• Ask Caitlin how to use Cricut machine - Library does not have one

• Organize the DVD’s and CDs in Book Nook

• Organize the display shelves outside the Book Nook room

• Review recruitment form, Informational Flyer, and handout get them digital

• Schedule meeting with Facebook updating person

• Create spreadsheet with main goals and hopeful outcomes

• Research creating a Free Library sponsored by the Friends group

• Organize a package of suggestions and completed work for 1/31/22 meeting - Working on

This week I met with one of the Friends board members to help organize the book donations then incorporated these items into the Book Nook or on the storage shelves downstairs. This board member consistently uses Wednesday mornings to work organizing the Book Nook. This member also organizes the bi-annual basket raffles, one in December and one in June. She is a wealth of knowledge and an active Friends board member. It is great to talk with her because she grew up in this town which is very helpful in figuring out the wants and needs of this community. While she rearranged and cleaned, I did more research on this community. Trying to figure out which community organizations and businesses to approach for support or partnerships, the civic center, local baseball team, community bank, local boutiques.

When thinking about contacting these organizations and businesses I get a little queasy and scared. This is not my home turf and I do not want to offend or turn off these groups toward this Friends group and the library. I also have this thing about going around town advocating for the library without a library staff or Friends with me. Should I think of myself as a consultant, or should I have representation with me? I do not want to be someone else's voice. No one has offered to help with this community outreach or contact. I need the Friends group to engage with me to accomplish Goal 4. Management and Leadership 4.4. Graduates recognize the importance of partnerships, collaborations, networks, outreach, and advocacy and support community-building activities in library and information organizations. Hopefully I and the director will see evidence that the Friends group is ready to take on this partnership and start this goal.

I created a few word clouds to update the social media sites and to display on other advertising. The library’s colors are blue and green. I also created a Google Form registration form which I will have to change because it uses my URI email address and is owned by URI, to implement Goal 3. Media and Technology 3.3. Graduates identify and analyze technologies and applications to design and implement innovative services is applied to this online registration form and the word clouds written about below.

This Google Form will be a demonstration item for the upcoming monthly meeting in two weeks. I used wording or rearranged wording from the current sign-up form, brochure, newsletter. The technology specialist was not at work today. Hopefully he will be back at work next week. Hopefully he will help me get access to the Friends email account then I can create the form using that email account. I want to create a logo for the Friends. The library has updated their social media, logo, and brand over the past few years, but the Friends social media still use the old logo. I created these word clouds to use in advertising and promotional items. These are demonstration items for want we can create together.

I find that I am working right through my arranged lunch hour. Need to work on taking a break at 2 pm next week.

I contacted the individual who does the Facebook page. She does not use social media. She does not repost anything that the library posts on the Friends page. She does not share library or Friends posts on her social media page. There is no one reposting posts about the Friends groups which means that the groups are not being seen by anyone other than the 85 people who like the FWWPL Facebook page. This is a tough thing to change if no one wants to step up to change their social media habits. Again Goal 3. Media and Technology 3.3. Graduates identify and analyze technologies and applications to design and implement innovative services by analyzing the use of or lack of use of Facebook or Instagram. I cannot even have a conversation about Instagram if they are not even using Facebook.

Goal 4. Management and Leadership 4.5. Graduates define the concepts, issues, and strategies pertaining to principled leadership. At this point only one member shows leadership roles within the Friends group. When asking the library staff, her name is the only one that is constantly spoken. What she does for the group is amazing, she is dedicated to the tasks she does and will do them without prompting. The group needs other members to step up to take on other responsibilities like advocating for the library, which could be as easy as reposting social media posts from the library on their personnel, local town page, and the FWWPL page. This will get the library information out further than what the library can and can be done right in the comfort of their home.

This is a tough position to be in, how much can I accomplish if the members do not help. I will keep organizing ideas for the monthly meeting then will figure out which direction they are willing to go, what suggestions are stimulated by our conversation, and which ideas they want to help complete. At this point I feel like I am gathering or creating a lot of ways to communicate with this group and the local public but to achieve Goal 3. Media and Technology 3.5. Graduates communicate effectively to a range of audiences using written, oral, and digital media may need to happen face to face at the friends monthly meeting in two weeks. Now the communications are one sided, started by me without responses or approval from the group. I sent this email to the Friends Boards hoping for a positive response.

“Wondering if anyone would like to meet with me next Wednesday, Jan 26 to work on advertising development for the upcoming book sale in February. We could also work on a new group logo and updating the graphics on your brochure, flyers, and registration handouts. Your group's guidance is needed to complete these tasks effectively.

I arrive at the library at 9 am and stay until 5 pm but will shift my time if anyone wants to work on these items that night. I can also meet on Friday, Jan 28, anytime.

Looking forward to creating new items with you.”

List of this to organize for next week:

• Create a Friends logo that is in style with the library’s

• Research creating a Free Library sponsored by the Friends group

• Organize a package of suggestions and completed work for 1/31/22 meeting

• Organize the DVD’s and CDs in Book Nook

• Organize the display shelves outside the Book Nook room

• Find out if the library creates Wowbrary Facebook post with new items weekly

• Ask if staff repost library Facebook post on their personnel pages or groups

My PFE went well this week. Two Friends board members met with me, in response to my email, in the morning to work on creating flyers and Facebook posts for their upcoming February book sale in the Book Nook featuring romance paperbacks large and small, with romantic music CDs and Movies, which was a suggest by me. I introduced them to the Canva.com site. With my help and guidance, they created a flyer that they liked. I will be working with the members more closely to improve their skills with this graphic design website.

I also brought in my label maker, purchased at Walmart to show the members. There are a lot of DVDs and CDs that do not have the cover art. I showed them this inexpensive label maker and demonstrated its abilities by labeling the CDs without cover art. Creating a spine label with the artist's name for easy viewing by shoppers. The members stated they label the Book Nook shelves with 36 font labels. I need to find a label maker that has this ability. Demonstrating and guiding the Friends board members to learn about and then use new technologies like Canva.com, a graphic design site, and the Walmart/Target label makers helps me achieve Goal 3. Media and Technology 3.3. Graduates identify and analyze technologies and applications to design and implement innovative services.

Then I alphabetized the newly labeled CDs and recently donated CDs onto the storage shelf. We did pull the more romantic movies, music artists and music for the February sale. I suggested that they promote a sale with the DVDs without cover art in March. There are so many in the Book Nook and it needs to be trimmed down. I also suggested adding a Red Book sale for February. Not everyone likes Romance during this time of the year. By displaying just red books the customers will see items from all genres at a reduced price. This suggestion, I am unsure if they liked. I will see where we stand next week, see if I should suggest it again.

I showed the two board members my suggested online registration form. I explained that I would need to create this using their email address which I hope has Google Forms. They seemed positive about this technology. The computer/tech person is still out with Covid. The director suggested I could ask him about my questions on formatting this online registration form in Google and the ability to share it on the Friends page on the library website and Facebook. I brought up updating the Friends logo which was not as positive. I will revisit this discussion because their logo is blurry on Facebook and in their promotional flyers. I started the conversation about recreating the Friends brochure, which again was not accepted in a positive way. Maybe too much too soon in the graphic design department. Next week I hope to go out into the community hanging flyers about the February Book Nook sale.

I am playing around with a new logo that keeps the feel of their current logo but will give the group better quality to use on all their documents, posts, pages, and flyers. This logo is the center circle only. The graphics on the side are examples of what could be placed in the center. Or they can keep it as is or create a new one together. Will need to update the EST. year, which I do not know.

I had a great conversation with the director. We both feel that the baby step forward with the two board members this morning while learning new graphic design skills is forward progress. Even accepting my suggestion of selling romantic music and movies is a positive move forward. It is teaching the group different ways to think about marketing the large collection of donations they store.

List of this to organize for next week:

• Create a Friends logo that is in style with the library’s

• Research creating a Free Library sponsored by the Friends group

• Organize a package of suggestions and completed work for 1/31/22 meeting

  • Printed Flyer

  • Printed online registration form

  • Printed logo each individual version

  • Printed Borrowing Bag design

  • Wording for the Red Book Sale

• Organize the DVD’s and CDs in Book Nook

• Organize the display shelves outside the Book Nook room

• Find out if the library creates Wowbrary Facebook post with new items weekly

• Ask if staff repost library Facebook post on their personnel pages or groups

My PFE is going well. I attended my first Friends meeting. I was not sure how to approach this meeting. At first, I thought I would print out a few pictures and documents that I have been working on. Then I came up with a very ambitious idea of creating a presentation with the materials I created and ideas. I changed my mind and decided to go small. This decision goes with Goal 4. Management and Leadership 4.5. Graduates define the concepts, issues, and strategies pertaining to principled leadership. The Friends are afraid or have shied away from technology, going in too strong will not be good. I presented a word cloud, possible logo ideas, and showed the flyers created in Canva.com. I did suggest again the Red Book sale with an edited flyer. This idea did get approved. A new logo was created by the children's librarian. She created the library's new logo. This logo is liked by the Friends but has not yet been approved because one member could not attend the meeting. The group did have a forum but liked to vote when all members were attending. This slows down the process of growth for the group during this PFE time.

My second day this week, I worked on creating a Canva.com account for the Friends group using their email address. Now the group has a graphic design place to create, store, and share with other members. I pulled items for the Red Book sale and helped arrange the items and signage. The Friends member volunteering today asked what we could do for Black History month. I suggested highlighting the items written by Black authors. I worked on pulling those items after lunchtime.

During my conversation with the director about recruiting new members today, I had an idea forming in my mind about attending events at the library to hand out brochures and flyers, but I have not spoken about this yet. I love talking with other members of staff, during these conversations, I find myself finding new ways to promote the Friends group. Need to add this to my To Do List.

Even though the logo did not get approved, I started to use the newly created Canva.com account to create a new brochure for the group and included the new logo design, first draft below with all its typos and need for editing. Hopefully once the logo is approved, we will have all the new signage and promotional items ready to print and post.

I spoke with the former president of the Friends group today. She now works for the library as the Community Outreach Coordinator. This was a nice talk, which stimulated a few ideas like creating the brochures in different languages, Spanish, and Portuguese, or at least having links to these brochures attached to the Friends webpage. While she pulled up the Friends Facebook page, I was excited to see the February flyer posted. This employee shared the post from the Friends page onto her personal page and two other work pages she runs. This was a very exciting thing to see. The post had 3 shares last time I checked. I also spoke with the Technology Specialist for the library and set up an appointment next week to learn how to create an online registration form. Things are moving forward for the group. These new technological items will be ready for discussion and editing at their February meeting, maybe even approval. Both conversations and the ones I have with the director work on Goal 4. Management and Leadership 4.5. Graduates define the concepts, issues, and strategies pertaining to principled leadership.

I really feel this was a big week. I was able to connect with many people, technology specialist, past president, children’s librarian, at the PFE site and set future meetings and work assignments.

Working on two different ideas for collaboration and partnering with other community groups. The first is a collaboration with the WWPL itself. Creating and designing a tote bag borrowing program. The suggestion is for the Friends group to purchase 20 tote bags that the patron can borrow when they have many books or on rainy days. This is an example picture of the item. The front design will be created with help from FWWPL and one library staffer who has a Cricut machine. Once the design is finalized it will be sponge painted on the tote bag. We want the bag to be sturdy but not so attractive that it will be kept by the patrons.

This is my drafted proposal ­­­­­­which is still a work in progress.

This proposal will add to the work I am doing to complete Goal 3. Media and Technology 3.5. Graduates communicate effectively to a range of audiences using written, oral, and digital media.

The second idea is to set up a Free Community Library someplace in West Warwick. This will be a great way to stimulate community interest in the FWWPL group and show the groups continued support of reading and libraries. This idea has not been spoken about; it is just sitting in the back of my mind. Both ideas will help support Goal 4. Management and Leadership 4.4. Graduates recognize the importance of partnerships, collaborations, networks, outreach, and advocacy and support community-building activities in library and information organizations.

List of this to organize for next week:

• Find out if the library creates Wowbrary Facebook post with new items weekly

• Figure about events or programs to attend and hand out flyers and brochures

• Ask if staff repost library Facebook post on their personnel pages or groups

• Research creating a Free Library sponsored by the Friends group

• Organize a package of suggestions and completed work for 2/28/22 meeting

  • Demonstrate online registration form

  • Present Borrowing Bag design and paperwork

  • Print Brochure