The Zoom call to unite them all during the pandemic built on a strong foundation of library staff engaged with the staff of other organizations throughout their service area. Knox is a member of the the Chamber of Commerce and also participates in monthly meetings of the Lake Orion Area Collaboration Team – an organization that includes the library, the schools, local government, the downtown development authority.

All full-time library staff also have as part of their paid duties the expectation of being involved in some sort of community-wide agency. The agency outreach coordinator Beth Sheridan participates in is a Senior Advisory Committee in which all members share what their organization is doing related to seniors. Sheridan said “I do believe the reason we do all these collaborations, including the healthy living ones, is that our director does encourage that.”

To illustrate the benefit of participating in these community-wide agencies, Knox described how Lake Orion Area Collaboration Team led to Orion Living Magazine. Now, according to Knox “instead of doing our own [library] newsletter, now we’re part of this Orion Living Publication that is mailed to every household. It’s cheaper, if everybody comes together to share the cost. And then the information is out there too. Everybody can see how the library is doing stuff.”

During the pandemic the Lake Orion Area Collaboration Team expanded even further to include other community leaders and faith leaders, who all come together online to figure out how everyone can stay connected and support each other, and the community. 

Knox’s advice about how to get started doing this work is “to be out in the community. You have to get to know who’s out there in the community. If I was talking to a new library director that was trying to figure out how do I do this, [I would say] go to the chamber meetings, go to the municipalities, talk to parks and rec, talk to your schools and make a relationship with your superintendent, so that you can become known as the library person in their community. And then invite them in to your library, invite them in to see what you have.”

Knox also acknowledged that the work never ends. She told a reporter, “Even with all of the things that we try to do outreach-wise, partnership-wise, when Orion Living Magazine came to be, all of this stuff — I still feel like there is a very large lack of awareness of what our library offers this community and what an amazing resource it is. I also think libraries have that across the country. How do you get people to understand when they’re so focused on so many other things? There’s just so much going on in the lives of people.”

Library staff also said that building a culture of collaboration takes time. Knox and Sheridan said that in the past there was less interest in outreach among some of the library’s staff, but as outreach work has been successful – and when others in the library see the benefits of that outreach work – then more library staff want to be part of that culture, and want to do it themselves.

According to Head of Youth Services Ashley Lehman, at the end of the day this work comes down to building relationships between people. Discussing her work to build working relationships with local schools, Lehman called it her “grassroots campaign to start a school partnership: I tried to talk with whoever was in charge, like the principal. And they’re like, ‘Yeah, great. That’s awesome.’ But really, the person who got it going was one fifth grade teacher. Specifically with that battle the books program, it was myself and one teacher were the ones that put it together. And it kind of just grew from there.”

As this quote illustrates, sometimes the most successful way to build relationships is to start with organization leadership. In other instances, the most successful approach is to start with front-line staff. There is no one way to build inter-organizational collaboration. Having the persistence to keep searching for a partner is key to success.

The final part of this library’s success has been to be up-front about what the library needs in these partnerships. Molly Lalone shared that Knox “is very clear about what she thinks that the downtown should be doing to help support the library. She very clearly lets us know what we should and shouldn’t be doing. And that’s good. That’s it’s important that we understand what the needs [of the library] are, and and what our role is. And I appreciate that she communicates those things with us.” 

As the library strives to work collaboratively with others, it never loses sight of the fact that it also needs others to work collaboratively with it. Being up front about what the library needs is key to long-term success.

The culture of collaboration in this community has produced so many health benefits!

This section briefly describes some of those health impacts.

Molly Lalone described how the library staff have increased awareness of the community’s trail system, while inspiring all to get out walking and biking on those trails to explore the community. Lalone stated that “this area has has an extensive Rails-to-Trails [greenway] system, and the downtown is connected to that [as is the public library]. When the book bike comes in to downtown from the library, people are reminded that we have a trail system that allows the library on the other side of town to come see us downtown by using their bike. Furthermore, having a librarian ride their bikes, these book bikes are big, gigantic — and they’re wearing their bike safety gear — really helps remind the public that everybody can be healthy. And it’s clean energy! It is a point of delight for the children, when they see their librarian that they know, from their library, at their playground in the park, or, you know, somehow in their town where they didn’t expect to see them [such as downtown]. They are just so delighted to see their friends, the librarians, on the street instead of at the library.”

This quote illustrates the power of librarians physically out in the community, using book bikes and greenways to model healthy habits and inspire others to be active as well. Learn more in this segment on Books on Bikes made by the local public television channel.

The library now volunteers that also take the book bike out into the community. Director Karen Knox encourages all staff to give the book bike a try as well. The bike goes to bus stop routes to meet kids after school, and the model was shared with the Michigan Library Association to inspire other librarians to consider getting active outside. 

According to Sheridan, the book bike was made possible entirely through community partnership – a community member donated the money for it and Holy Spokes, a non-profit community organization maintains it for the library. The library and Holy Spokes have also organized biking and walking programs on the local Rails-to-Trails greenway to get local residents active outside on this amenity. 

Food as an outcome of opening the library up to the community

Another product of this culture of collaboration is the ability for those in need to drop off food at the library. The library has facilitated food drives, or the collection of food, to be distributed by Oxford/Orion FISH Food Pantry. Knox said “it’s important for the library to be seen as a key service in the community” and offering the space to help out, not only in food drives, but by hosting blood drives at the library as well.

Another example of the library opening up to the community appears in the Gardening Angels community initiative. Local residents volunteer to build and maintain the gardens around the library, which ensures the outside of the library always looks great. It also creates opportunities for community members to learn about gardening and to share information and expertise about gardening.

Building interest in health is critical

Beth Sheridan said that it takes time to build staff interest in health, and that without that personal interest it can be hard for library staff to feel motivated to engage in community health partnerships. Sheridan said, “I really think it takes having a staff member that’s interested in the topic to make it happen. The [Youth Services Librarian] has developed a lot of healthy living programs for for youth, more than the person before, although the person before was a great youth department head, but maybe didn’t have the interest. I’m looking at all the programs I’ve done over the years, and I think I’m the only one [doing adult health programs]. It just helps to have a staff member that is very interested in the topic to make it happen at the library.”

Karen Knox said in her previous library work she had not been engaged in health promotion partnerships, but she is a huge proponent of workplace wellness, and she sees community wellness as an extension of workplace wellness. Furthermore, by prioritizing the health of library staff, Knox also inspires them to consider the health of the community. Knox embraces a broad approach to workplace wellness, which has included everything from January weightloss challenges to making sure staff have good insurance coverage to prioritizing mental health.

As an example of how workplace wellness can become community wellness, Knox shared that during a staff in-service day the library brought in a holistic nutritionist to do a program for staff. That program went so well that they brought back the nutritionist to do a public program.

1) Create a list of potential partners and the contacts you plan to use for that organization. Example: Beth keeps an updated spreadsheet of contacts.

2) If you hit a dead end think about who else you could contact in priority organizations. Example: Ashley had trouble with the school leadership, so started with a classroom teacher

3) Consider creating the expectation that all staff participate in community-wide agencies, and model how to do this work. Example: Karen participates in Chamber of Commerce and makes sure to prioritize what library needs from partnerships, as well as what library can contribute

4) Email priority partners and ask them to meet with you

5) Ask yourself ‘where is our library strong, and where is our library weak.’ If your library has historically not done much in terms of health partnerships, perhaps you need to get library staff excited about health and wellness. That excitement could start from something as simple as a workplace wellness event featuring a fun, interactive healthy cooking demonstration.

6) Whenever you do something collaboratively with a partner, take time to debrief. Enquire as how it worked for them, and also share with them how it went for you and for your library. Library staff here have found that partners appreciate this opportunity to reflect with library staff.

7) Be open to ideas from your partners. In this community, the Downtown Development Association say that a nearby community did a poetry walk in which poems were posted in the pages of downtown businesses. Molly took this idea to Ashley and they then worked together to make it happen.

8) Be aware that your partners may not always work the same way you do. When working with grassroots non-profits, capacity can ebb-and-flow over time. The library has found that it is key to be understanding when non-profits and faith-based partners do not always work at the same professional level that they and other governmental institutions are accustomed to.

9) Keep the momentum going to inspire change! This library has over time built momentum internally and externally. Historically, the library had not been very involved in community partnerships or health promotion work. A few staff members made huge changes. Start where you are and see where it leads!

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