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>> JENNIFER:  We've created a learner guide for you to use as a tool to take some of those action steps.

It's an excellent tool to bring to others, whether it's those you're working with in your library or with others.

It can be customized so if you have specific questions you want to tackle together, feel free to customize it, but it's really auto resource for you to -- a resource for you to leave the session with next steps so be sure to check out the guide.

I'm going to turn it over and have Steph Harmon represent you all.

Welcome, Steph.

>> Thank you, J.P.  it's good to be here today.

This is part of a National Science Foundation project, building resilient communities, to work together on urgent challenges tied to environmental changes, challenges in a can affect community health, sustainability, it has brought together folks from other sectors -- these are policymakers, STEM he had  -- 

educators all with how environmental effects health equity.

We explore how libraries are getting ready to adapt to these challenges.

This is going to focus on how libraries can effectively communicate and whether you're hosting community conversations, offering hands-on STEM learning or facilitating participatory science activities, libraries and their locally-rooted partners can strengthen resilience to stay strong and adaptable for whatever comes next.

I'm also very pleased to introduce our presenters.

Our first two presenters, Rebekkah and Matt, will share information about strategies they've developed in their work over ten years with the Sustainable Libraries Initiative, which they co-founded.

Our second presenter, Rose Hendricks, is getting talk about some persistent public beliefs about climate change and share compelling data with the real story behind those perceptions.

We hope today's session will provide you practical information you can use when you're talking about this issue in your library and in your community.

With that, I'll offer it to you, Matt and Rebekkah.

Take it away.

>> MATT:  Good afternoon, everyone, or wherever you are in this great world.

Happy to be here to talk to you about this topic.

I'm going to start off with physically a little bit of our story with the Sustainable Libraries Initiative and just about ten years ago Rebekkah and I were traveling back from a conference that was not in our industry.

It was a part of the US Green building, green conference and we were inspired because we were probably the only two librarians with building trades and architects and all the rest and we looked at each other, why aren't there more libraries or why aren't libraries doing more in this space?

And I was involved with a project with a green building and Rebekkah is a lead AP, and we were, we should be doing more about this and more organized about it, and nine years ago we're still figuring it out, trying to do good work in this space.

But after that conversation we decided we needed some help and some friends and we got together and started talking about, what would it look like to actually provide some guidance in the sustainable space.

And I'll tell you one of the first things we had to talk about was what to call ourselves.

The words that you choose, are very powerful.

They carry a lot of meaning.

And this is nine, ten years ago.

The word "sustainable" was a confused word and a lot of people brought their own definition or had a preconceived notion of what you were talking about.

But we really wanted to make it so that it wasn't always about just the climate at that time.

It was a much more open term that allowed whatever a community was facing, whatever was a concern to them, to shine through.

So if your community was dealing with a real social issue that there was a stage for you in our world.

If you were dealing with economic concerns about being, you know, that idea of sustainability, to be able to open your doors and pay salaries and keep the lights on, that was an issue you had to deal with.

So we felt the idea of being sustainable, to keep going, was most important regardless of what that disruption was in your community.

So that's why we settled on the word "sustainable."

-- I shouldn't say settled.

Agreed to the word sustainable.

So in 2015 we launched this community of practice, provided tools and continue to provide tools to librarians who want to deal with these topics and make sure their library is a vibrant place, a place that's growing, wherever you are, whether it's on a campus, in a school, on your community, wherever you happen to be.

So part of that work was systemic.

We have agencies and associations that we're members of, and we wanted to make sure that from the top down, from the bottom up, we were working on tools to make sure that our profession was talking about this issue.

And so the one thing is the American Library Association adopted sustainability as a core value.

Now, this was a really big deal because it would help influence thinking, specifically, a library school, as people were getting trained on how to become a librarian, get their masters of library science or information science degrees, there was this idea that you wanted to know what the core values of our profession were.

And at the time we got added to a list of -- I think it was 11 core values and there was a decision made to think about that list to understand what those different words meant on that list, and the list got pared down.

We definitely thought about where sustainability could live with other words that might have been chosen, but it turned out that sustainability was and met the definition of what this group thought was a core value.

After that was pared down, sustainability remains one of the core values of the profession and I believe that was recommitted to last year's annual, waiting for Rebekkah to shake her head.

Yes.

In 2024.

So right now, there's a task force out there working to write a statement to what sustainability could mean to members of our profession, to outside people, but that definition will include this idea of the triple bottom line.

When we settled on that word sustainability, it was confusing to folks because they brought so much of their own experience to that word.

And then when we started to use this idea, this triple bottom line idea where in order to be or to have a sustainable decision, place, activity, or the rest, it really needed to meet these three criteria, and that is is it doing good for the planet, environmental sound?

Is it socially equitable, or are the people being taken care of, and finally, and economically feasible.

So for so long, we focused on what was the cost.

We never asked the questions about what was the impacts to the people involved with the service or product, or activity, and also, what did the earth have to give up in order to make that happen?

And so it really started to expand people's thinking and their vision over what this could all be.

So let's go some of the words that got used by us that we tried to put out into the library world and we spent a fair amount of time trying to get that message across.

So I think almost every presentation that I've ever given on this topic and Rebekkah, you could say the same thing, so okay, what do I do?

Where do I start?

Where do I go?

This is such a huge topic.

You want libraries to save the world?

Well, the answer is yes, and you've already been doing it.

But what does that look like?

Where is a place to begin?

And the national Climate Action Strategy for Libraries was put together by a dedicated group of folks in our profession to think about and to come around, what are those basic strategies that you can do?

And there's basically three.

It's a one-page strategy.

Any library can start at it, regardless of where you are.

Some of them might be a little bit more about strategic planning or goals that you might have, but some are as easy as making sure you turn the lights off at night.

But this is the reduction of greenhouse gasses that you've heard hundreds of times, thousands of times throughout the media.

We have to reduce our greenhouse gasses in order to try to get through whatever the next 40 years looks like on our planet, and we should have a part in that for the real estate that we occupy, to be examples to our communities about how to do that.

Then we're going to help our communities through climate change adaptation and contributions to community resilience.

So bad things happen.

What do we do to help?

Do we have plans and services in place?

Are we thinking through that?

And then climate justice work, the impacts is not consistent across the groups that are in our places that we serve.

Some parts of our towns or communities or counties or states get more affected greater than others do.

So we have to make sure that we're thinking about that all voices are at the table, that all voices are shared when it comes time to plan for these things.

And I think one of the big parts of the implementation guide for the strategy is that talking about climate smart libraries, why are libraries in this space?

Why are we doing that?

And what I always talk about is, it's our mission.

So my mission, the library I work on the, which is the Hauppauge Public Library, why would not -- the sky, the air, the water quality and land use, all of those things matter.

So the library may not have a direct influence over it, but I can convene a conversation about it, I can bring experts in from the community to talk about it.

I can make sure the community is aware of what's happening in their community in relation to those things that we all share and I think the library is perfectly suited to be that place to be a catalyst and to convene those conversations and to hopefully make their communities better.

So Rebekkah, you're going to take us on to more about what we talked about, right?

>> REBEKKAH:  Absolutely.

That was so interesting to create the National Climate Action Strategy.

We didn't do it in a vacuum.

We conducted a national study of ALA members and the biggest concern they had to barriers was concerns about political backlash if they were to take a strong stand on doing quote/unquote climate work, and Matt works and so do I and they don't think of New York as a conservative state but once I was in long Island, it's a very conservative area and we totally understood what people are saying.

I'm worried about backlash.

If I say this, will I get into a fight about climate change, global warming, to really turn the tide on what's been happening with climate change.

So we were not unaware that was a concern, but it was very helpful come out that the number one barrier that people were concerned about.

So in the implementation guide you see talking points about this, we'll go over this today, which I think helps to start empower more library professionals on the topic and helping you understand that regardless of what you're confronted with in your local community, work still has to continue.

So figuring out that path forward is really important.

I know not everyone on the call is in a public library call and I know not everybody has what we have in New York, but we deal with public votes on an annual basis so we're used to be in a space that's highly political, campaign messaging, we do that all the time.

So this is another version of that in our book that we're using because we know it's essential this work happens and we have to continue to make sure that invest comes our way and luckily things are going in the right direction on that.

So the climate communication program, to get a wider view of how voters feel about these topics.

You might have a lot of assumptions about how people feel or you might have one very outspoken person or a crew of outspoken people who are intimidating on this topic, but across the nation, we're seeing a super majority of voters do see a need to decrease greenhouse gas and spending tax dollars to do so.

So there is more widespread support than there has ever been so that's something to embrace.

Now, thinking about the talking points we put into the climate action strategy and I want to thank those putting shout-outs in the chat, some of the key things the working group pointed out, libraries in general -- and certainly, we've had a rocky past four years when it comes to the cultural wars, libraries have been nonpartisan in terms of how people think about them.

I've been here about 25, 26 years.

Helped with -- I'm going to say 300 public votes on my libraries here, I have 56 libraries, and they always win, across party lines, to a very high degree of success, 97% of the time.

They're not seen as partisan here in our area of the country.

That's not true everywhere, and we acknowledge that.

So thinking about how we position to talk about libraries and the important work that we can do to help out with climate action is incredibly important.

We're highly influential.

And one of the papers that you'll see on the slide that the staff shared at the beginning is something I wrote for the symposium in September talking about why libraries are so well positioned to do this work, because we're highly trusted, information professionals, we understand how to get to the facts of the situation.

So couching this in terms of children's health, understanding that everyone deserves a healthy place to live, that everyone wants to be safe here in the Hudson Valley, and every community we work in, the number one concern is being safe and having a safe neighborhood to raise families in and this is part of that conversation that people don't always recognize.

The other thing we're talking about is the economic impact of climate action and when you look at some of the devastating impacts of climate change, like hurricane Helene, the economic discussion is also incredibly powerful.

So this is about positioning, it's about framing, and it's about knowing your locals.

So you understand where the person you're talking to is really coming from and understanding the problem is so large and so massive and it's completely unprecedented the amount of energy and effort that has to go towards keeping us healthy and save in the future in the light of climate change, so locking arms with others doing good work in this area is our responsibility as citizens and as professionals.

So these are some of the talking points you'll find in the implementation guide, that we've worked with the last ten years with the Sustainable Libraries Initiative that inform some of that work but we have over 200 libraries across the country and this Canada with the certification program.

That's 200 libraries in real time, getting this work, getting real feedback, adjusting on the feedback they get and Matt and I have been working on this over a decade with the help of a lot of really good people.

But it's just about any conversation with the public.

You have to know your community and understand them.

Putting it in the local context.

Focus on local.

I'm going to give you a tool to make sure you're well versed.

What is the local impact of climate change?

If you're talking about things people have never seen, it's hard to relate to it.

Remember two years ago we had that flood or four years ago we had that drought?

It could be in the same place.

You have to know your local, the local impact of climate change and thinking about the savings.

So a lot of the solutions, particularly in climate change mitigation, actually result in savings, operational savings for your institution.

So having that return investment calculation done, how much money you've saved over time and I encourage you to check out Sustainable Libraries Initiative, there is an economic savings to that as well as an environmental benefit to that work, so talking about the savings by the triple bottom line is something we're getting better about talking to the people about.

It's an unexpected work of some of the sustainability work that we've been doing.

And some of the things we've learned, I think is very, very cool and helpful, more conservative folks than not as well as people in general are intrigued by ingenuity and innovative problems that communities are facing.

I brought some examples here to show you and Rose is going to take a deep dive on public health as George Mason has indicated is the most impactful way to talk about climate change and its impacts on our community.

This is the resource that I talked about, not only the environmental facts but also the social factors.

When Matt says the triple bottom line, social equity is a part of this, a very complex topic.

We have to understand the social fabric of our community indicates how well we will do against climate change going forward and FEMA lets you see what the vulnerabilities are as well as the social as a rulevulnerable, they're really catching good attention and have been affordable for the communities that have invested in them and I'm going to apologize right off the bat, I forgot to put a label on this building, 2018, time magazine, one of the best buildings in the world, and it's a drought-prone area.

It's a super well-thought-out building that is taking public health and the realities of the environment into play.

You have the library farm in northern -- super cool use to have agricultural programming on library property.

In the middle, the first Public Library in the country could be certified, passive house design standards, which means the building is more than twice as big as it used to be but the electricity bills are less than a quarter that they were before.

So huge savings, getting it right for the environment, super, super smart.

The first library in Maine to be certified using edible landscaping because they're concerned about food security in their community.

So a really cool entry point into talking about that, how the library is a fun and smart place to learn about that.

And below that, I know the text is tiny, but the Winthrop Public Library out in Washington, to be an air -- we talked about cooling centers and learning centers as places of refuge, this will be an air quality refuge given the amount of wildfires they have in Washington.

Again, super smart, didn't cost them any more to do than normal construction and because they thought ahead of time they were able to do that, being relevant and responsive moving into the future.

I want to wrap up here to make sure we know from Rose and know what questions you have from us, but to give you clear examples of what we mean for framing, framing to values and strategic goals.

Being very attuned if you're in a public library or school library, you're very attuned, what are the strategic goals of our institution and our municipality so to advance these very important actions is a frame that's going to be the most receptive to and these are two great examples, the things that work well across party 

lines, again, making the decisions related to mitigation, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, being more efficient, using less electricity, moving over to renewable energy, all of these safe dollars and that's an aattractive thing in this economy, and solid goals, community-based preparedness, the implementation guide for the climate action strategy, we talk about climate change adaptation, which is really talking about how communities shift and be prepared in the face of the most dire impacts of climate change in their geography and we have to understand the library as a community asset.

So being at the table for conversations, being ready for execution, not just to cover your own, but to be forward-facing for those you serve as they recover from the impacts of climate change, whether it's hurricanes or droughts, floods, to help people connect with the resources and honestly, their neighbors that they need to be with in those moments.

So I just want to put you in touch with a lot of the resources we talked about, the Sustainable Libraries Initiative, check us out online, sign up for the webinar, and I gave you a QR Code, and the numbers are already out of date.

We have almost 50 certified libraries now, 200 libraries pursuing certification, almost 7,000 people across the world really sharing what's going on there and figuring out how to iterate in the political climate we all find ourselves in so Steph, thanks so much and I'm excited that folks get to hear from Rose next.

>> MATT:  Thanks, Steph.

>> 

>> JENNIFER:  I think we're going to continue on and I'll have Rose shift us on to her presentation and keep your questions coming.

We'll have time to address questions and share your resources and ideas as well.

Welcome, Rose!

>> ROSE:  Thank you.

And thank you so much for the invitation to share with you and certainly to Rebekkah and Matt for that really helpful context.

It's always really cool to see the similarities and even some differences.

So I'm Rose Hendricks, I'm the executive director at Seeding Action, which is the Association for Science and Technology Centers, ASTC, children's museums, gardens, public gardens, and many other types of public engagement organization.

And part of the action in Seeding Action it cultivating a climate action for health.

Seeding Action, the big picture of who we are, what we do, science centers, museums and other public engagement networks, cultivate an action of hope to improve community and planetary health, working towards reductions in pollution, addressing climate change, slowing biodiversity loss and recognizing these social issues are all intertwined.

They should be addressed together.

Why is this the way we describe our work?

One of our starting places is some work for the climate change communicators, starts from 2021, but the information remains, 72% of the American public and beyond agrees that global warming is happening in all states are above 50% agreement with that statement.

There's also widespread agreement that citizens should do more to address global warming.

Again, more than 50% from every state.

And yet firsthand and the data tell us that widespread action is not taking place.

This is some action, a third of people said they made climate-driven purchases, 19% signed a petition, 8% volunteered, 9% contacted government officials.

And these are self-report measures.

So likely, these numbers are higher than the reality.

We're not even talking about the issue.

And I think this is particularly notable because it doesn't cost money.

It's incredible flexible.

We can do it in lots of ways and climate change affects our lives but in every state, fewer than 50% say they discuss global warming at least occasionally.

So a large majority are never discussing the issue.

One of the pieces of data that serves as an important premise for us is what they have done, the six Americas, you might be familiar with this, more dismissive, people who are not very concerned forcing their way to the continuum to the right side, the alarm or the most concerned, most aware of the issues.

And you see the majority, 58% are concerned or alarmed, in either of those categories.

Additional segmentations of the alarmed group looks at the portions are inactive or not willing to act, I don't want to do anything about it.

I'm willing to act if given the opportunity.

That is 50 million Americans, which is this massive people which are willing to act if given the right invitation and active, 34 million are doing something that could do even more if given an opportunity to do that.

So that's the opportunity we see.

This in the past summarizes it for us, the far left slide, lots of people understanding it.

As you understand, concerned and desired change and taking action, you lose people at each step and embody action, the idea of kind of having action for a climate and planetary health be embedded in your community, it's how you see the world and act in it, the ultimate goal, not just for one-off individuals, but as the bedrock of a culture and building a culture that embodies action.

How do we do this?

At a high level, we're working as a network and each of these dots kind of helps a different museum of public engagement that takes a different approach to planetary health, public engagement.

As we discussed, we are all in very different communities, all have different missions and strengths and histories everywhere.

But by doing it in coordination, by sharing insight and sharing some problems and activities with each other, we're moving in the same direction that really allows us to amplify impact.

Let me get a little bit more specific.

Seeding Action does a few things.

We support relationships.

Again, that's another foundational piece, so helping connect with each other, serve as collaboration.

And connect with others outside the museum network as well.

So certainly, libraries, other researchers, even building professionals.

We also need to co-creation and provide materials, including some funding opportunities for members, templates for different programs, evaluation tools, training, coaching, workshops, those sorts of things.

And because we're a network, we've done some cross network evaluation, the museums building a culture of action, bring publicity to our members and provide collaboration and content co-creation.

So the last thing I want to share before we turn over to some discussion is some of the promising communication approaches that we've learned from our lenders and how we look and practice.

These are great, you know, robust evidence-based spaces with evidence spaces in a number of different disciplines but also tested in formal learning institutions that we work with.

The first one -- and this really pervades Seeding Action, active hope.

The idea that -- probably the most essential message for our culture shift, they are urgent, but are not yet designed, so they all make a difference, all contribute to a healthier difference.

So one has active hope, they feel they have the ability and power to do that, that their action makes a meaningful contribution to collective effort and collective effort can make a meaningful difference.

This is one example I really like, from the Science Museum of Minnesota, and we can find our way into these disasters, but we can also design our way out of them.

So that addresses the core efficacy message here.

Just more of a can-do tone, it's essential to make it clear that planetary health or plant action aren't an either-or, so mass extinction on one end and a thriving, balanced planet on the other and other possibilities in the middle.

So we're not just debating between those two.

We're figuring out which is the future but push us closely to that thriving future that we're all envisioning.

The next kind of theme we see in some of the most effective communications is a big emphasis on solutions.

We recognize that one challenge that limits action is that many people aren't actually sure what they could do or what solutions make a difference or what's available to them.

And so in solutions with an active hope tone compared with, here are specific things we can do together, is quite effective.

A few other considerations when we talk about solutions are trying to offer a variety.

So if there's something or everyone, so don't want to talk about buying electric dumps -- 

pumps -- they are part of a solution landscape.

We like to talk about those that are beneficial to those disproportionately harmed and we talked about the political landscape and these are environmental justice solutions.

In others, we can say, those most prone to flooding and be talking about the same thing and emphasizing the same solutions.

It's also ideal to kind of spotlight solutions that are already happening or available, not necessarily theoretical.

There is certainly some place for solutions like someday, we may have this.

That will make a difference.

Or we are working towards this.

Those all have a place.

But those don't really give people a sense of how they plug in today and make a difference.

So looking for those solutions that do that is really ideal.

Evidence-based and impactful.

What I mean by that, focusing on solutions that do make a dent in the issues that we're talking about.

So one of the things that I'd be often -- when people are asked what they can do about climate change, they say recycling.

It's an important thing.

It's not a big contributor to reducing climate change so showcasing things that are helpful to those we're talking about.

Solutions that are championed by trusted and relatable messengers are also particularly helpful.

So sometimes, you know, we -- 

museums are not the right messenger for certain types of solutions or certain communities.

So looking for those messengers who are going to be -- the audience and who have some stake and the ability to think, to assessable solutions is a great strategy.

We talked about this already, Rebekkah and Matt have alluded to it, shared values is a key strategy that we see effectively.

Messages that remind people of the big reason that we should all care about the health of the planet and we all have a stake in it.

Bringing forth things that, this is about fairness.

This is about our health, the health of today and future generations.

Or we are resourceful and innovative community.

We can make a difference on this issue.

We can tackle this issue.

Those are all ways of tackling the "we" in all of it and breaking through that polarization or reducing the inclination to polarize.

And treasured places or parts of local culture, it could be common experiences that create a positive evaluation, connections to priorities or local issues, really, anything that will speak to a wide swath of the community can be considered a shared value.

And then final strategy I wanted to share on it spotlighting local, local challenges, local solutions.

The problems are here, they're now, and so are the solutions.

This is the climate action museum is not showing up here, but this is the climate action museum in Chicago and you see the big -- where Illinois is, the historical baseline, and then yellow and in red they show the climate of Illinois in the years -- I can't actually move them.

Some year in the future, I believe it's 50 or 100 in the future, under a lower emissions scenario, it could be under the climate of 

Louisiana, it could be more like southern Texas, so making it more concrete to say, we know what Illinois feels like.

This is where we could be and they show a range in different years.

So finally, let me just close with an example that really hit on all of these from the natural History Museum of Utah, the climate of hope.

So one of the key things at the exhibit, they're telling stories of climate, the work that is happening to improve the climate happening every day, right now, in their local community in Utah.

So they're really focused on the here of it.

Their goal through all of their work is inspiring what they all rational hope, what I referred to as active hope forged for lasting solutions.

With that, let me just share, again, my contact information.

This brings you to the Seeding Action website.

I neglected to say libraries are welcome to join, there is no cost to doing so, we ask that you prioritize planetary health in ways that make sense to you and contribute to some of our ongoing network efforts and I would be delighted to connect with anyone who has ideas to connect on.

The other thing I'll say, on this QR Code on our website, there are several resources, including a communications guide that includes all the strategies I mentioned today and much more information and for examples as well.

Thank you for this invitation.

I'm looking forward to the conversation that volumes.

>> JENNIFER:  -- follows.

>> JENNIFER:  Lots of great questions and conversations in chat.

I'm going to introduce now, you've seen him in chat and you've probably are familiar with his amazing work, Noah Lenstra is here to moderate the discussion.

Noah, welcome, and thank you so much for being here to help surface all the great questions you have as well.

>> NOAH:  Thank you, Jennifer, and thank you, everyone.

I want to start with a question we had early on which I think many of you have encountered which is this idea that we -- if you're here, you probably know global warming is an issue, climate change is an issue.

You've also might not necessarily see things the same way you do.

So I want to hear from Rebekkah and Matt and Rose, either at your libraries or the people that you work with across the country, what have been some strategies that you've seen in terms of getting that buy-in and support to really make this is a priority?

>> REBEKKAH:  Thanks, Noah, I know I was chatting with someone, while I'm sitting in the chair I'm sitting in, I used to be a staff person in this organization and I was very excited about this work and saw the potential for our member community, and I talked to the person at this desk several years ago and made my pitch, and he just said no.

That was it.

No.

We don't have time for that.

And I was really ticked, and I went back and thought about it, and I thought, I just made a classic mistake.

I was thinking about it from my perspective, not his.

I wanted to go back and reframe, what were the major challenges that our organization were facing.

At the time it was an economic challenge.

We were struggling coming out of the recession and the recovery from staff morale was at an all-time low and I came back and I pitched it using those two frames, knowing that -- I could guarantee to save him money and would turn things around in his building and that caught his attention and I tried a few little things and he said, keep going with this.

He could see the potential then.

It wasn't that he didn't believe it wasn't real.

It's just, we have a lot on our plates, a lot of scarce resources we are contending with.

So unless we contextualize it in a way to make it relevant, align it with our mission and use the language of the people who are sitting in the chairs that make the decision, that was a hard lesson learned, but a valuable one.

>> MATT:  Thank you.

The only thing I would share, you are hopefully with someone who cares about you, cares about you as a professional.

If I was someone who was not the director or even when I went and spoke to my board, it's not that I'm going to make the decision and if I get it wrong, the next day I'm out the door.

It's not a fireable offense to bring this up.

Hopefully you're bringing this up to a group of people who care about the institution as well but have different priorities, at Rebekkah faced back in the day.

So before you make the big presentation or running it past people and saying, I'm really passionate about this topic.

How can I make it better?

How can I make this case better with you?

Starting a conversation, having it be that champion, being an advocate for, we have to have some strength and belief in ourselves that we can try to move this forward.

If that fails, I don't know what you do then.

But you're trying your best to advocate or at least it's in that person's head.

>> ROSE:  I can talk briefly from what I've observed.

I think there are a couple of approaches, whatever you want to do is central to the mission of your library, city, county, whatever is the right entity for you.

And so for example at ASTC, one of our stated public strategic approaches, building more equitable and sustainable futures.

So we said we're doing this and here we need to do it is one strategy.

And the other thing is pointing out the fact that your community is looking to your organization, your library, for guidelines and leadership on this.

The map that I referred to earlier actually allows you to drill down to the congressional district level to see the data for your very local region so you can show, here are the concerns, here is the interest of our community and a thoughtful way to meet those.

>> NOAH:  Thanks, everyone, and Matt, I like what you said a minute ago, what do you do if it doesn't work even after you reframe and I wonder if the answer is, you keep trying to reframe.

And I'd love to kind of follow-up on that.

Rebekkah, you talked about the importance of framing and knowing your audience, and I love that example that you just provided, Rebekkah, of you came in with one message, it wasn't resonating, you reframed it around economics and staff morale and yeah, there was an entry point, some common ground you could build upon.

And I'd love to just follow up on that to see if you had any other advice about kind of how to reframe, how to not get frustrated if your message isn't being received and how to look for opportunities to shift the conversation if the way you're looking at the topic isn't landing or resonating, whether it's with your boss, your community, with your board, with whoever.

>> REBEKKAH:  Yeah, I'm in this profession because I like to help people.

And I work, system library, the Public Library system level so I get to see how 56 libraries do things, what resonates with them.

One of the things I've learned, people care about the kids in our community, passionately want those kids to have the best possible future and that's why they believe in libraries, their values are reflected in libraries as well as people of all ages, of course.

But when we start centering our hopes on what does it look like, what does this world look like for the kids of the future and are we all stepping up and doing our part, sometimes that moves the dial on the conversation.

Community preparedness definitely is something that also works with folks.

So, you know, when I try one message and I really tune into people's body language and facial expressions, I try to see as quickly as possible is not landing and I quickly change that tactic.

But I don't go in unprepared.

I need to understand, what are the issues that community is facing, what are the national disasters they have dealt with in the past, were they formerly an agricultural community, when I'm talking to my colleagues, my boss, my fellow libraries or an elected official, my best advice is don't take it personally.

Know that your passion for it will sustain those "nos" that you get, and I don't want to say it's a fun challenge, because it's not fun.

It's really serious and important work but it's a big enough and important enough topic to go back to the drawing board and figure out a new approach.

>> MATT:  You have to believe that libraries belong in this space.

You have to believe that you as the work that you're doing, whether you're, you know, in administration or work at a desk or you're a clerk or whatever your role is in the libraries that libraries belong there.

Libraries belong in helping their community with the upcoming challenge, that you have an example -- we had that thing that happened to us.

We have a forest fire, we were a cooling center, a heating center.

When you're sharing that story of how you had three dozen people come in over the hottest day of the summer and be thankful for the fact that you were there, that is very powerful for someone to hear that story.

If you told that to a local official, they would say, you did what?

Rebekkah can tell the story better than me, but New York City got some funding back because of that very reason.

The city council didn't realize how important the Public Libraries were to the safety of the people.

We need you open.

If you're not there, where are these folks going to go?

So, you know, you've really got to think through at the base -- 

someone in the chat before, I can't remember who, said -- I think it was -- we have a geothermal, but I don't know if that gets out there.

Get it out there!

I mean, the point is that our hope and the work that we've been doing is to help libraries feel confident to tell these stories and to be a little moremore -- outside voice going about what you're doing day in and day out.

That's what matters.

And I think what Rose is offering is such awesome ways to display and share the story and have people communicate and interface with it.

People could learn a lot about better storytelling.

I'll turn it over to Rose, but that would be my thought.

>> ROSE:  I'm not sure I have too much to add to that.

Maybe saying that I could speak to is that -- first of all, it's a really good opportunity as well, I saw that thread in the chat, wow, going in the chat.

But that provides an opportunity to model, and we had some say we can't do too much public safety programming on these, walking the walking, and I don't think that's true.

We all have fears, we all have things we can do and play roles.

But you can model things too and pick up small initiatives as well and sure, we may have really great ambitions and I'm all for those, but proper facts shouldn't stop us from doing the first small steps.

 N>> NOAH:  Great.

Thank you.

I want to go to the chat, Rich, talking about connections with FEMA and the way I want to ask about this, is really asking about, how do we kind of convey and communicate, as Matt just said, you have to believe that libraries belong in this space.

So how do you -- how do you communicate with people who might not believe or understand that libraries belong in this space?

And Rebekkah, I might start with you.

I'll just give some context.

I had the opportunity to attend an amazing panel presentation that Rebekkah organized at the New Jersey Library Association last summer with representatives from FEMA and a volunteer organization active in disaster, and Rebekkah, you've been so effective not only talking with libraries but national organizations about how libraries fit into climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Do you have any thoughts or advice about how we communicate with other sectors that care about this topic, all the way that libraries can be a part of the -- 

>> REBEKKAH:  Full credit goes to Michelle Stricker at the New Jersey state library and she's the one that did the groundbreaking work to connect with FEMA.

For those who aren't familiar with Michelle's work, check out the New Jersey state library, they have a preparedness handbook that's solid gold.

For 12 years, she's been working with FEMA, region 1, to help them understand the power of libraries, what we bring to the table, and we learn from them, thanks to her communication and opening those doors to understand some of the tools they use in emergency situations that we can use at institutions to prepare our workers, to prepare our institutions, our buildings, and be a part of a positive asset in those environments with first responders.

So I think that recognition is there from FEMA, and I would say in the chat that actually the federal law was changed in 2011 after the floods in Iowa, it was called the Stafford Act to recognize public libraries to be brought up online after major devastating effects like that because we are considered recovery centers in the eyes of the federal government and more money comes because of that.

Rich in the chat there, not mentioning cooling centers, we talked about air quality refuge, thinking about what assets we have that we can bring to the table and make sure that others know about that, that we're on the right list.

Here in New York we have this crazy situation where the department of policy didn't know they updated the cooling center list every year and we were one of the only agencies that knew that and I have 3,000 square miles, 75% of those communities, libraries were the only cooling centers on that list.

So as Matt said, use your outside voice, get to the table, ask the first responder community to understand who we are and what we bring to the table.

As Matt said, own the role in the space.

I think that's very important and VOAD and FEMA are amazing, amazing people and coordinate the people across your community that libraries need to be a part of.

>> NOAH:  Yeah, thank you, Rebekkah and Jennifer, feel free to chime in.

I think we're approaching the top of the hour.

I think everyone will receive a certificate, but Jennifer, any closeout you want to do?

>> JENNIFER:  Yeah, I want to emphasize the slide we have on the view here, I'll put it in chat, is a great place to stay tuned because we'll be adding more, including a forthcoming call to action report next year so keep an eye out for that and all three of the sessions that we hosted as a part of this series are available as well as Rebekkah alluded to some of the work she did with the previous series with six webinars and six really robust articles that I encourage folks to check out, including the one with Michelle Stricker.

So definitely, there's a lot more to explore on this topic at WebJunction and we continue to collaborate with these fine folks to make sure you know about it.

So stay tuned.

Yes, I will email you all later today, once everything has been posted to that event page, thanks to folks who shared resources in chat.

I'll add all those so those are be there as well and yes, I'll send you all a certificate early next week.

You don't need to request that.

But I'm going to send you to a short survey as you leave.

The link to the survey will also be in the email.

So if you do need to run, know that once you get that email, we appreciate your email.

We'll share that with the presenters and helps us guide our ongoing programming.

So thank you so much, everyone.

Thank you to our wonderful panel.

Thank you to Noah and Steph for being here as well, for the project, all the great work that has come out of this amazing project.

Super excited to be able to continue to share your work.

So everyone have a great rest of your day!

Great week, and our thoughts go to the people in northern California.

I definitely had not heard about the earthquake yet.

So hang on tight, take care of each other.

Let's take action and be prepared!

Thank you all so much.