Join Joan and George for a half-day workshop at the Fruitville Library on Monday, May 17th from 1pm to 4pm.
Times, technologies, and funding levels change, and even the best laid plans could probably use a tune-up. Join library futurist Joan Frye Williams and library strategist George Needham for a no-holds-barred discussion of where library services are headed and how to leverage scarce resources to get there. You’ll learn practical, time-sensitive techniques for assessing your current situation, identifying opportunities, refocusing priorities, letting go where necessary, and getting staff reenergized.
Living proof that recruitment can’t start too young, George and Joan both started their careers as public library pages, and have now spent a combined 70+ years tackling a wide variety of library jobs, doing everything from testifying at Senate hearings to emptying the book drop. (Ask them which one of those was more fun!)
Biographical Information:
Joan has worked as a successful librarian, consultant, vendor, planner, trainer, and evaluator of library services. She is an internationally recognized library futurist and the president of her own library consulting firm, with a special emphasis on innovation and emerging library trends.
George’s credits include a number of high profile management posts, including State Librarian of Michigan, Executive Director of the Public Library Association, Director of Member Services of the Ohio Library Association, and Library Director of Fairfield County District Library in Lancaster, Ohio. He divides his time between OCLC, where he is Vice President for Global and Regional Councils, and his practice as an independent library strategist and consultant.
Since 2005, George and Joan have been co-presenting—often humorously—about library trends and topics. (For a sample, tune into their podcast series – George and Joan: Thinking Out Loud.) Their primary focus is on what non-library “civilians” really want, what libraries can do to meet their communities’ changing needs and expectations, and how we can all hang onto our perspective and our principles so that moving forward doesn’t get us down.
