2023 Spring Directors Institute

Public library directors of Northeast Kansas, please join us at the NEKLS office for the 2023 Spring Directors Institute on Friday, April 21. At this continuing education event, the sole Directors Institute of 2023, public library directors will have the opportunity to network, ponder big issues, have a delicious lunch from Wheatfields, and participate in two workshops. If you cannot make it in-person, consider registering to watch the workshops over Zoom.

Location

• NEKLS Office
• 4317 West 6th Street
• Lawrence, KS 66049

Overview of the Day

Friday, April 21

• 9:00 a.m. NEKLS Upstairs Meeting Room: network with early-birds, Limited beverages and snacks available
• 9:30 a.m. Start Time, Introductions/Housekeeping
• 10:00 a.m. Morning Workshop – Lacie Griffin, Collection Development Manager for Johnson County Library: Collection Development (available in-person and online)
• 11:30 a.m. Announcements
• Noon NEKLS Downstairs Meeting Room: Lunch catered by Wheatfields
• 1:00 p.m. Afternoon Workshop – Ray Petty, Technical Assistance Coordinator for Great Plains ADA Center: Accessibility (available in-person and online)
• 2:30 p.m. Issues in the profession conversation
• 3:20 p.m. Wrap-up
• 3:30 p.m. Adjourn

About the Workshops

Lacie Griffin is the Collection Development Manager for Johnson County Library; a public library system on the Kansas side of the Kansas City Metro area. In this position, she is part of the Materials Handling Management Team and coordinates collection selection, deselection and materials movement across a 14 branch system. Lacie also handles material challenges, intellectual freedom training and collection development policy maintenance. This past year, she became a member of the newly developed KLA Intellectual Freedom Committee, supporting libraries and librarians throughout the state of Kansas. 

The past year has been complex and difficult for libraries with many challenges to books and collections. While the number of material challenges rise, there are steps you can take to prepare your library and uphold intellectual freedom principals. In this workshop, the presenter will discuss collection development policies, supporting selection practices, international publishing, diversity collection audits, and handling challenges to the collection.

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Ray Petty has been involved with the ADA since before it was a law, he has served as the Kansas coordinator for the Great Plains ADA Center since 1994 and serves as Technical Assistance Coordinator for Region VII.  In 1997, he helped found the ADA Symposium, which has become the National ADA conference, in May 2023 the annual conference will be in KCMO. During the past 20 years, he has also been a consultant for local governments as well as secondary and post-secondary educational institutions and private businesses. Ray has been a long-time member of the ADA Resource Center for Equity and Accessibility at the University of Kansas. 

Informed by a lifetime of fieldwork and recent ethnographic research, in this workshop, Ray will help us ensure ADA compliance and make our public spaces accessible. In this session participants will be provided best practices, accessibility audit resources, and be given plenty of opportunity to ask questions specific to their library.