Adult Services Notes

Recent LVA Training

Building and Evaluating a Diverse Collection

The final session examines soft censorship. Soft censorship doesn't arrive with a challenge form or a board vote — it happens when a selector quietly skips a title, when a controversial book gets tucked behind the desk, when anticipatory anxiety starts making collection decisions for you.

Niche Academy is open to all Virginia library staff members and library associates such as trustees and Friends board members. If you do not have a Niche Academy account, please use your library email address to sign up. If you do not have a library work email, you may register with a personal email, and we will contact you to confirm that you are affiliated with a Virginia library. 

News from Library Development

Virginia Writes Indie Author Project

Information on getting your library started with the Virginia Writes Indie Author Project can be found on the LD Info Center Indie Virginia page, including links and text for your website, promotional materials, and training resources. 

LVA/RUSA Scholarship Reports

RUSA Online Forum

Ed DeButts, Central Rappahannock Regional Library

In Dr. Steve Albrecht’s webinar, “The Safe Library,” we learned from an experienced human resources consultant about de-escalating techniques. He stressed that library staff should “educate with patience and enforce with kindness.”

Our goals are safety, good service, and “negotiating behavioral agreements.” Safety is about awareness, information sharing, and vigilance. He emphasized that security is everyone’s responsibility.

He suggested we should avoid using the word “policy,” and perhaps substitute the word “guidelines.” When patrons’ behaviors become “Business Impact Issues,” they might be low impact, which we can choose to ignore,or midrange impact, which require us to enforce boundaries (with kindness, of course), or high impact, which could result in our asking them to leave or our calling security.

Dr. Albrecht cited Dr. George Thompson’s book, Verbal Judo:The Gentle Art of Persuasion, and his L.E.A.P.S. method: Listen, Empathize, Ask questions, Paraphrase, and Summarize. The problem patron will be most attentive to our paraphrasing – to make sure that they are being understood.

We can better help customers if we use validating phrases (“I see,” “I understand,” etc.) rather than justifying phrases. Another helpful technique Dr. Albrecht suggested was G.R.E.A.T. patron care: Greet (with eye contact), Reassure (I’m here to help), Explain (what I will do), Act accordingly, and Thank them for cooperating. Of those techniques, Dr. Albrecht said that reassuring and explaining were the most important.

Staff should remember not to take customers’ behaviors personally, and to avoid arguing, if at all possible.

For more information, please visit library20.com, and click “The Safe Library.” There Dr. Albrecht shares more experience-based wisdom that is very helpful.

Editor's note, you can also access a wealth of information on library safety and security from Dr. Steve in the LVA Niche Academy's Library 2.0 category.

I appreciate very much the LVA scholarship award which made it possible for me to attend the RUSA Online Forum.

Find It VA Tips

Connect Local Businesses & EBSCOLearning Accel

Accel's Learning Paths are "curated collections of content focused on key topics that enable deeper insights and learning," focusing on topics like leadership and management as well as personal development.

So who might be interested in knowing about the free access to your library's subscription to EBSCOLearning Accel? Here are some organizations to reach out to:

• Your local Chamber of Commerce is a great place to start. They often have newsletters or other communications with the business community where they could share information about Accel. Use the US Chamber of Commerce website to find your local CoC, and then reach out to see how you can share information to their members. 

• It is always useful to connect with the your local funding body's economic development or small business office to let them know about the free resources that the library offers for business owners and entrepreneurs. Check your county or city website to find contact information.

• The Virginia Small Business Development Center has office locations around the state, and is another potential partner for connecting your resources with those interested in starting a business. 

Remember that you can find marketing resources for EBSCOLearning Accel, and all the Find It VA products, on the LD Info Center's Find It VA page, and you can also subscribe to the Monthly Accel Resource Newsletter to get marketing hints and resources in your inbox.

Want to know more about how you can use EBSCOLearning Accel? Check out this Accel webinar in the LVA Niche Academy. 

News from LVA

Virginia 250 Programming Opportunity

Readers' Advisory Tips and Tricks

New in NoveList Plus

A new Books with Buzz carousel on the homepage shares titles that have been featured recently in the media, including listing the network and show information. Titles are pulled from NoveList's Media Mentions Index, which curates titles from dozens of news and talk shows, celebrity and media book clubs, and screen adaptations of books (both streaming and theatrical release).

If you want to know more about why a readalike is suggested, you can now find a “View Reason” link when viewing readlike titles. If you mouse over any title in the readalike list you will see the View Reason link. Clicking it will open a sidebar that has infomation about the readalike title, including a brief description, and sentence that makes the connection between this book and your original title. This language can be very useful when working with a reader in a genre or topic area that you are not as familiar with. 

NoveList has also made some improvements in the About this Book section. You can now "find your own unique mix of elements to find a new book or a read-alike, [as they have] broken down the About This Book section by story elements. [To] make it easier to find what makes a book special and help readers find their next great story faster."

It is always a good practice to hop onto NoveList from your library's website to check out the new features and view recently added titles. You can also share these features with readers in your community so that they can also take advantage of NoveList to find stories that speak to their condition. 

You can also sign up for the monthly NoveList News to keep up with new features and get ideas for working with readers. 

Awards

2025 I Partner With My Public Library Awards

The library noted in its nominating letter: “The library and Plenty! have a wonderful working relationship. Both parties care deeply about our community. We have a common goal and work together to ensure that, although, we offer different services, that our partnership remains true to both of our missions. The library also nourishes the community, in the way that libraries do, but we also nourish that community with food that they may not have had without Plenty!’s help.”

Featured Virginia Programs

Suffolk Public Library System

Eau de You: Custom Perfume and Cologne Blending

For more info, contact Maura Zurfluh, mzurfluh@suffolkva.us

Mary Riley Styles Public Library

Meet and Greet: Cast of Meridian High School's

Production of "Rock of Ages"

Mary Riley Styles Public Library invited the community to come out and meet the cast of the local high school's production of Rock of Ages (Teen Edition), the 80s rock jukebox musical. A school bus brought the cast members (fully costumed from their dress rehearsal) to the library for this Sunday afternoon drop-in program.

Attendees could get their picture taken with cast members Stacee Jaxx, Wolfgang Von Colt, and all the denizens of the Sunset Strip decked out in big hair, bigger attitudes, and all the leather and denim they could carry. Afterward, the student musicians offered an acoustic jam session.  

The school was happy to have the chance to promote their production of this fast-paced, high-octane comedy packed with favorite 80s Hair Band rock tunes--and the audience loved getting a sneak peek of the show. One attendee urged the library to "do this for every high school show!" The show's director is on board, so we hope to make this an annual!

For more info, contact Paula Hawkins, phawkins@fallschurchva.gov

Prince William Public Libraries

Hauntings, Wreaths, and Tombstones

I wanted the class of 15 to experience creating their own designs, so I was there for guidance.   Afterwards, the class created amazing tombstones with three dimensional carvings, etchings, nice distressing, some decided to recreate tombstones from the pictures.  I will do this program again because everyone left with the knowledge of local history and the significance of local cemeteries, confidence to create their own Halloween crafts, and I was happy because they left talking about local history and that was the best outcome.

For more info, contact Mary Kitiyakara, mkitiyakara@pwcgov.org

If you have a successful or interesting library program that we should feature here, please submit a program description and images.

In the News

Recent articles on topics of interest to Adult Services

• Knoxville Public Library Partnering with Marion County Extension for Growing Tomatoes
• Birmingham Public Library’s Beyond the Bell Program Drives Student Success and Stronger Families  
• PEN America Reports a rise in nonfiction book bans in public schools
• DC Public Library pressures publishers on e-book licensing costs
• Starting a new chapter: Auburn Public Library launches new reading service
  

This newsletter is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services. It is published by the Library of Virginia Library Development Division.