Attend a preconference workshop and come away with new tools for the toolkit.  Learn from experts, best practices, and real world experience in the areas of Strategic Planning, Early Literacy, and Maker Services.  Preconference workshops are from 1 to 5 p.m. on Monday, October 16 at the Harvey's Lake Tahoe Hotel & Casino and registration is $25 per person.

Is it ever too early for literacy?  The old saying applies, “it takes a village to make a literate community.”  Join us to learn about early childhood development, reading as a family affair, and how to make reading a doggone good time!

Topics include:

• Early Childhood Development & Libraries – Connections that Matter for a Lifetime.  This presentation will explore Nevada’s early childhood population, those that provide early education and care in formal settings, and why early childhood is so critical for lifelong success. We will explore how libraries can make a difference for children by partnering with early learning providers and families. Ideas for creating partnerships to increase early literacy opportunities will be discussed.
• Northern Nevada Literacy Council’s Family Reading Program.  Parents are often told to read to their children at home to build literacy, but are seldom shown HOW to read to children for optimum literacy-building benefit. This session describes how the Family Reading Program (FRP) has worked with parents in communities across northern Nevada to model simple reading techniques for reading with children that support their literacy development.  Ideas for implementing the Family Reading Program in other communities will be discussed, along with challenges and successes experienced by FRP staff.
• Paws 2 Read.  Each month, therapy teams visit area libraries to participate in this engaging program where friendly dogs lend a loving, non-judgmental ear to beginning readers. Research has shown that when a child is given repeated opportunity to read to a dog, the child grows more confident in their reading ability and develops a desire to read on their own.     
  

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Are you a maker?  You may not think so, but we all make every day.  Have you been pondering starting your own makerspace, wondering where to start, fretting over your lack of expertise?  We’ve all been there, and it’s easier than you think!  Attend this interactive session for the what, where, how, and why of maker services.

Topics include:

• Making makerspace: turning up the volume on engagement, advocacy, and innovation
  Library support of makers and making is increasingly being seen as part of the core mission for libraries of all types. Is this a brave new chapter in library practice, or a natural extension of what libraries have always done? Learn how to leverage engagement and turn up the volume on advocacy and innovation. Gain real-world insights and practical tips from this session with Dr. Tod Colegrove, an internationally recognized leader of the makerspace in libraries movement. Building from a foundation of community engagement, explore the successes, failures, and challenges faced transitioning the library into vibrant hubs of the supported community. Bring your questions and explore the art of the possible!
• You want me to do what?!
  Come and experience hands-on with DeLaMare Science & Engineering Library's lendable technologies including Virtual Reality, Leap Motion, 3D Scanning & Printing, and more! Join VAR Libraries and former Carson City Library Director Sara Jones, (currently Director of Marin County, California, Library Services) who has partnered with John MacLeod of New Media Learning as they share best practices for the use of virtual reality technologies in libraries.
• Studio 775: a place to make, take, and ideate
  Starting from the ground up, find out about the process of conceiving and implementing Maker/STEAM programs and services at the Washoe County Library System.  From low-tech to mid-tech to high tech, there’s a place to start for every library and every library budget.  Try out the Idea and Experience Boxes.  Make up your own!

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Strategic plans come in all shapes and sizes and can be confusing if not downright intimidating.  Where does one begin?  What needs to be included?  How can it be successfully executed?

In this preconference session, learn about the different types of strategic plans, the process, and implementation. 

Topics include:

• Planning for Results, the inside story. Learn the ins and outs of using Planning for Results to develop your strategic plan. Learn the players, make the ask, and get results.
• Data, Listening, and Courage: The Multiplier Effect in Library Strategic Planning.  Use data, listening, and courage to create an implementation multiplier effect. The multiplier effect results when staff get on the same page around community and library usage data, hear what the community wants through listening, innovate services to deliver on their desires, and then has the courage to change the library culture and organization.
• Your Strategic Plan for Political and Funding Success.  Explore many of the strategies and tactics used by some of the best community organizers, political action committees, and politicians to build support and learn how your library can adapt these techniques to encourage the public to take action on behalf of their local libraries.
  

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