The Library of Virginia has an unparalleled collection of private papers that includes records of businesses, organizations, churches, and individuals. These records span 400 years of Virginia’s history and provide not only a perspective on “big moments,” but also a valuable record of day-to-day life in the Commonwealth.
This online program from Trenton Hizer, the Senior Manuscripts Acquisition and Digital Archivist at the Library of Virginia, will cover the LVA collections and practices for dealing with inquiries about donating business, organizational, and/or private papers to public library collections, including clarifying what LVA considers adding to its collections and to whom at LVA you can refer people for further help.
Want to get a better handle on program success? Looking for ways to consider success beyond the numbers?
LDND director Nan Carmack explores the ins and outs of outcome-based evaluation, looking at techniques and tools. This training will help program and service planners think about how to do a better job of developing outcomes in addition to outputs to measure effectiveness.
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 & Networking
Find It VA Tips
Start the New Year Learning with Universal Class
January is a great time to promote the lifelong learning opportunities in your library's subscription to Universal Class.
Part of the Find It Virginia collection available to all public libraries in the state, Universal Class offers the chance for library users to build their skills and explore new hobbies and passions.
Library patrons can access Universal Class on your library website, and explore more than 600 self-paced courses in 35 subject areas, including:
Crafts and Hobbies
Computer Training
Health and Fitness
Finance
Music
Pet Care
Writing
And much more!
Many of the classes offer Continuing Education Units (CEUs) accredited by International Accreditors for Continuing Education and Training (IACET). Patrons have unlimited access and can complete courses at their own pace, anytime on any device. Real human instructors grade assignments and provide feedback to build deeper understanding and mastery of subject matter.
If you need marketing and promotional materials for your Universal Class subscription, you can find posters, bookmarks, flyers, web banners, social media posts, and a host of customizable materials in the Universal Class Library Marketing Kit.
If you have any questions about Universal Class access, please contact Barry Trott, barry.trott@lva.virginia.gov.
Let Universal Class help support your users' New Years resolutions to learn something new in 2025!
Grants and Opportunities
Peggy Barber Tribute Grant
Does your library not have a small or nonexistent programing budget? ALA's Peggy Barber Tribute Grant project "recognizes, promotes, and supports meaningful programs in libraries that have limited and/or no access to budgetary support for programming."
The theme for 2024-25 is programs related to combatting isolation for older adults.
Grant applications will be accepted from December 3, 2024, to February 3, 2025.
Are you looking for some interesting reading challenges for 2025 that can help you connect with your community of readers?
Check out the 2025 NoveList Reading Challenge for monthly reading challenge ideas to use at your library. You can use the monthly challenge to build your own list of suggested titles or follow NoveList on Facebook to get title suggestions.
Reading challenges are a great way to build your connections with readers. And challenges can encourage your readers to consider expanding their reading horizons to try new authors and types of books, building empathy and tolerance, and ultimately as stronger community.
Virginia Library Projects
From the editor: This is a new feature in the newsletter to share interesting projects that Virginia libraries are implementing to improve access to resources or improve services. If you are interested in sharing a project your library is doing, please reach out to Barry Trott, barry.trott@lva.virginia.gov, to discuss writing it up. We are delighted to kick this column off with a piece from the Mary Riley Styles Public Library in Falls Church (the editor's childhood library).
Digital Asset Management Software
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, but how do you know when your digital asset management software (DAMS) needs a refresh?
For us at the Mary Riley Styles Public Library Falls Church History Room it was pretty clear when we surveyed the landscape of digital collections that other cultural heritage institutions were using, that ours could be a lot better.
We wanted something that was attractive and would invite online users to explore our digital collections and might even lead to more in person visits to our archive. Additionally, we hoped that this new software would be easier to use for staff and adding a large amount of digitized content
it’s a common practice in the field to reevaluate one’s digital collections instance every five years or so and for us it had been since the 90’s. Obviously a lot has changed in the offerings and capabilities of software in the intervening years and it was time for us to see what was out there. After doing some research and communicating with vendors who were happy to tell us about their products’ strengths, weaknesses and costs, we settled on six companies – three who used open source tools to create a platform and three proprietary vendors. With assistance from the purchasing officer in the city’s finance department we submitted a request for quotes to these six companies. We heard back from two who we met with and further evaluated, ultimately choosing Quartex from AMDigital in March of 2024.
Since that time we have been working with Quartex to get our legacy collections ready to migrate to the new system and make choices about how we want our digital collections to look. It’s been a lot of work rearranging and cleaning metadata in addition to considering usability and appearance for the site. The end result we hope will lead to more exposure to the residents of Falls Church and beyond.
We made the decision to do a soft launch – making the site live and accessible from our website without making a big to do about it. We plan to do some user testing and perhaps make some tweaks before we promote the site in January. Please take a look for yourself and let us know if you have any feedback or questions about the process: https://archive.mrspl.org/.
For more information about this project, contact Peter Sullivan, psullivan@fallschurchva.gov
Featured Virginia Programs
Arlington County Public Library
Getting Around Arlington by Bus
A manager from Car-Free Diet led an interactive presentation about public transportation options, followed by a free ride along on a local ART bus. The program helped people experience a bus ride rather than just learning about it. They interacted with the bus driver and with one another, adding a social connection element to the program. The program focused on sustainability, community resources, senior discounts and accessibility.
We had great participation and positive feedback following the event.
For more info, contact Jennifer Odlum, jodlum@arlingtonva.us
Pulaski County Public Library System
Around the World
We have a Community group that transports special needs adults to various locations throughout the area. They visit the library on a weekly basis. We developed a regular program called "Around the World" where we would focus on a country of the group's choosing.
We feature snacks, drinks, a craft centered around that country's culture, and usually a YouTube video of the country's music. This program has been wonderful! The participants are so thankful to have it, and will often check out books about the country we focus on and talk about it for weeks after it takes place.
For more info, contact Aaron Jarrells, ajarrells@pclibs.org
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 and Networking Division.
Library of Virginia: Library Development & Networking Division 800 E. Broad St., Richmond, Virginia 23219 804-239-3510 https://vpl.lib.va.us
