Workshop Resources

The goals of this project are to:

• Bring smaller, rural libraries together to begin a conversation among them - and to give them a place to support each other and share tips and best practices. 
  
• Help libraries create simple and effective action plans, by building on these conversations, that each library can take back to their community and implement.
  

These Web pages give interested participants the opportunity to view the WebJunction materials, resources and participant expectations.  It is also the place where we will post handouts from each workshop session as they become available.

History of the Project: 

In February 2006, the State Library sent a consultant to Seattle to be trained by the WebJunction staff on the Rural Sustainability Project.  Initially started in eight states in 2005, Iowa is participating in the second round of this grant project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in cooperation with WebJunction.  The program in Seattle gave us the general outline of the curriculum for the project and the opportunity to brainstorm with colleagues from other second-round states and the WebJunction staff on how to tailor the general curriculum to speak to the unique libraries in our own states.

Upon returning to Iowa, the Library Development staff, working with the general curriculum from WebJunction and keeping these important goals in mind, created a two-day workshop that would speak to the rural libraries across our state.  The result is Libraries on the Prairie: Growing Rural Libraries!