FYI,

The Ready Now: Supporting Youth and Families During Crisis project, expands on the co-design work implemented in the summer of 2020. This work led to the publication of Library Staff as Public Servants: A Field Guide for Preparing to Serve Communities in Times of Crisis (fondly known as The Field Guide), that outlines four Essential Tasks that libraries and their staff need to embrace to serve historically marginalized youth and families successfully. 

Following the publication of the Field Guide, the project team recognized  that many library staff would benefit from more training and resources for successful implementation of Field Guide principles. The Ready Now: Supporting Youth and Families During Crisis is delighted to receive funding from IMLS to further expand this work.

The project team is now recruiting teams across the United States to participate in a research study, the first phase of this work. Working with interested State Library agencies, they are seeking one team from states’ that are interested in participating to apply. I am the designated person from the NJ State Library who will select an interested youth services front-line staff member who works with youth, and an administrator from their library, to be a part of the team. The project team will select 5 participating state teams from all the states’ applications. The deadline to apply is Nov. 21^st.

If you are interested in knowing more about this project check out the FAQ and the pre-screening survey. 

The five teams invited to participate in the project will be required to dedicate between 2-3 hours per week over a 10-12 month timeframe, starting in 2024, and receive a $2000 payment made to their libraries. 

The Ready Now project team includes Dr. Mega Subramaniam (PI), a professor at the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland; Linda Braun, a Consultant at LEO; and Nitzan Koren (co-PI), a PhD candidate at the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland. 

If you and an administrator (branch manager, department head, or member of leadership team) from your library might be interested in participating in this initiative, please let me know ASAP.

Thanks.

~Sharon

All the best,