A Boon to the Workforce: How Librarians Help Workers in Need of 21st-Century Skills | LJ Feature Story
Libraries have stepped into the gap to help workers, but there is more to do Sept. 1, 2011| In this Article |
| 21st Century Workforce |
| Project Compass |
When the economy faltered, people turned to libraries for guidance. For many of the newly laid off, library staff were the first responders to their anxiety and confusion. As the economy climbs a slow and painful path to recovery, libraries of all sizes have continued to be a beacon of support for those impacted by economic forces and a source of skill development for people at all points in their careers. Perspective gained from Project Compass, designed and conducted by WebJunction (see sidebar), indicates that going forward, libraries can do even more to anchor themselves as a hub for keeping up with 21st-century skills.
Trusted for lifelong learning
In OCLC’s Perceptions of Libraries 2010 study, 37 percent of respondents report that they used the library more often since the economic downturn. In a recent 12-month period covered by the Opportunity for All study conducted by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and University of Washington iSchool, an estimated 30 million Americans used a library computer or wireless network for some form of job help. That’s ten percent of the U.S. population.
Why libraries? In the United States, the library is regarded as a trusted institution at the center of the community. Not only do library visitors expect a broad spectrum of resources and connection to community agencies, they rely on the library staff to help them navigate. Yes, it is possible to google “I lost my job what do I do now” and get some worthwhile links to information. But an Internet search doesn’t work with a patron to discern the needs underlying the question. It’s true, government workforce offices nationwide offer services and resources targeted to the unemployed, but there are about 3000 of them compared to the more than 16,000 public libraries. Stepping into one’s local library does not carry the stigma of crossing the threshold of a government agency. The library also offers services and support for the whole family.
| Kathy McAfee, author and marketing expert, presents a workshop to job-seekers at the Russell Library in Middletown, CT |
But, of course, libraries have always been about lifelong learning. Long before the current recession, they played a critical role in helping citizens build skills and knowledge that keep our nation strong and viable on the world stage. They have long been fostering many of the IMLS-targeted 21st-century skills. As libraries continue to design programs to help the unemployed, they are primed to build a bridge to the multitude of changing 21st-century workforce realities (see sidebar, above) and help patrons across. With the 21st-century skills framework underwriting what’s needed, they can help shift the mind-set while building the skill sets.
Libraries nationwide, large, small, and in between, have been taking action on the front lines of workforce recovery and development. The following series of examples describe ways in which libraries are meeting the needs of the economically impacted now and offer suggestions for next steps to foster an ever more robust workforce with enhanced 21st-century skills.
Five library lifelines: now and next
1) Advance technology literacy Ever since the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation first put public computers in over 11,000 libraries as the century turned, the public has relied on libraries for access to computing, the Internet, and instruction. Now that most government services and job applications are online, every job-seeker needs basic computer skills. Many workers, especially from manual or service trades, have not been exposed to computing. They may find the technology learning curve daunting, worsened by the distress of joblessness.
NOW Pasco County Library System, FL, created the E-Government Tools Page, a focal section of the library website with information about e-government sites and processes. The library recognized the paradox of trying to teach basic computer skills to new users with a computer-based tutorial. If a person doesn’t know how to work a mouse, he’s not going to be able to navigate a tutorial. Pasco’s solution: create a few simple videos to tour the parts of the computer and demonstrate the actions to get started. In short: watch someone manipulate the mouse, open and close programs, and do primary maneuvers. It’s a no-pressure introduction to these new and necessary tools.
NEXT Given the rapid pace of change in technology, this is a critical area in which to build patrons’ abilities in self-directed and continual learning. Design instruction on specific technologies in a way that stimulates problem-solving skills and self-reliant learning. Rather than the typical step-by-step procedural approach, include challenges for learners to figure out solutions for themselves and to discover sources for their ongoing technology learning.
2) Support job-seekers Workers who have not had to look for a job in 20 years are now confronted with major changes in the search and application process. Even those from the younger generation just entering the workforce, who are Facebook- or Twitter-savvy, are not necessarily skilled job-seekers. They may be computer literate but still unprepared for the complexities of a wired marketplace.
NOW Many libraries have ratcheted up technology training to meet current needs. The New Mexico State Library, for example, offered a series of workshops around the state on beyond-the-basics computer skills such as how to build a personal website with free tools and how to market or sell online. The Russell Library, CT, offers a New Job Search Paradigm and a LinkedIn for Job Seekers class. The District of Columbia Public Library has a three-and-a-half-hour class on Job Searching on Monster.com.
NEXT Helping someone land a job with help from the library makes for a noteworthy patron success story. However, it is only the beginning in this era of continual learning. Encourage job-seekers to think beyond the job offer, acknowledge the reality of constant change, and understand what it will take to stay viable in the workplace. Success on the job requires adaptability, productivity, teamwork, and the flexibility to be prepared to retool again when future shifts occur.
3) Support local entrepreneurs The idea of “economic gardening” sprouted in Littleton, CO, after a major industry pulled out of the small town in the mid-1990s, leaving the community bereft of jobs. This is an all-too-familiar story as globalization, outsourcing, and the economic downturn take their toll. The economic gardening initiative seeks to nurture local entrepreneurs rather than “hunting” or trying to attract big corporations to the community. Libraries can be productive partners in this local economic development.
NOW The Colorado State Library (CSL) has been a leader in promoting the role of libraries in the economic development of their communities. Working with the expertise of thought-leader Christine Hamilton-Pennell, CSL has delivered workshops and webinars to help libraries connect with local entrepreneurs and support them at whatever level aligns with the capacity and resources of the library. Even small-town libraries are surprised at how much they have to offer the business community.
After DHL pulled its shipping operation out of town and laid off over 8000 people in rural Wilmington, OH, the local library responded. In addition to addressing job-seeking needs (job applications, résumés, interview skills, etc.), it set up a small-business center with information to encourage would-be entrepreneurs. It also hosted a job fair for adults and teens and an event on transforming personal hobbies into a business.
NEXT Budding entrepreneurs are ripe for engaging in a range of 21st-century skills. First of all, the library can stimulate global awareness by helping to research the competition across the global marketplace. The library can also introduce aspiring entrepreneurs to the power of social networks for marketing and can facilitate peer-knowledge exchange through in-person or online networking opportunities. The library can provide current information about innovative ideas, like PieLab or microlending in the United States.
4) Advance financial literacy The longer the recession drags on, the more likely it is that fluctuating unemployment rates mask a darker trend—the rise in the number of people who have dropped below the radar, who are no longer looking for a job or are working part-time at a reduced income. When there are no jobs to be had in a community and hopelessness sets in, how can the library help patrons take some level of control over their lives?
NOW The South San Francisco Public Library (SSFPL) recognized that people coming into the library for job help often needed guidance with other financial worries. SSFPL staff also realized that Project Read, the library’s successful adult literacy program, could serve as a template for building a financial literacy program. They offered a series of classes followed by the kind of personalized one-on-one tutoring that is so effective in teaching people to read, only this time the tutors were volunteer financial coaches. Knowing that financial issues are usually a family affair, the program incorporates story times to engage parents and children in learning responsible money management.
In another example, to support the critical role that public libraries can play to help community members become more financially adept, the Ohio State Library assembled a set of Financial Literacy Program resources, an arsenal of templates and ideas to get library programs up and running. One template contains suggested actions, budget estimates, and partnership possibilities. A Financial Literacy by the Month calendar offers lots of ideas and links to resources.
NEXT Financial education offers an excellent arena in which to structure programs so that patrons can do their own problem-solving and assume accountability for their financial well-being. People who have experienced the short end of the economic stick may be the best source of creative solutions to help others ease out of their financial problems. Develop mentoring or peer-sharing opportunities so patrons can help one another from the essential perspective of having been there themselves.
5) Create connections and collaboration Libraries are not at all new to collaborating and forming partnerships, but the current recession has introduced new opportunities for partnering, especially with workforce agencies, which are tooled to meet many of the needs that people are seeking from the library. There is also room for growing connections among libraries.
NOW The Rhode Island Office of Library & Information Services (OLIS) established a key partnership at the state level with the Department of Labor & Training (DLT) to address workforce needs. OLIS made its AskRI database available at One Stop Centers, while DLT trained library staff about its services and held patron training sessions in libraries statewide.
In pursuit of creative collaborations, the New York State Library (NYSL) partnered with two local PBS stations, the state Department of Labor, and several other agencies to create the 26-episode documentary television series Help Wanted: Tools for Tough Times, which focused on helping New Yorkers deal with the current economy.
After participating in a Project Compass Summit in 2010, the Connecticut State Library assembled its own in-state summit of public library directors and staff to focus on assisting the workforce. The real-time exchange of knowledge, ideas, successes, and lessons learned stimulated all the participants to return to their libraries with renewed energy.
NEXT It is critical for libraries to continue to develop and enrich partnerships to deliver augmented services to their communities. It should also be on the agenda to nurture collaboration and connection among patrons. Offer programs and events that promote cross-cultural connections, design programs and classes to foster teamwork, and cultivate strong communication skills.
Two paths forward: get smart and get valued
In their book 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times (Jossey-Bass, 2009), Bernie Trilling and Charles Fadel declare that “SMART is the new RICH,” but how many people are clamoring to be smart? Success for the individual and for the country as a whole hinges on the mental agility and learning capacity of the workforce. Libraries are pivotal in cultivating and enabling everyone’s desire to be smart. Libraries already do this so well—from early literacy efforts, story times, and teen programs up through adult education. Most libraries provide access to some sort of career development database to offer just-in-time job-search skills, résumé help, GED preparation, and basic literacy tools.
Working with patrons affected by the economic turmoil presents excellent opportunities, not only to build specific skills but to shift the mind-set to 21st-century thinking—one that is ready to embrace a lifetime of learning and expansion. Even a basic computer skills class can include a discussion of the online and digitized nature of our modern world. Library staff must first model the mind-set and demonstrate their own grasp of the globally interconnected society and the crucial nature of continual learning. From that place of strength, they can in turn prepare the workforce for greater success in the modern world.
It is painfully clear that libraries are not immune to the impact of economic crises. Cuts to library budgets and staff have been deep, and the threat continues unabated, all while the demand for services increases. Communicating the value of libraries is crucial. As we provide essential services to a stressed-out workforce, as we support entrepreneurs, as we guide patrons to take control of their lives, we must broadcast these successes loud and clear. Our work and our story of that work will help show that the library is not a dispensable resource but an essential factor in the economic recovery and the ongoing health of our communities.
| Author Information |
| Betha Gutsche (gutscheb@oclc.org) is a Program Manager at WebJunction.org in Seattle |
LANDSCAPE OF THE 21st-CENTURY WORKFORCE
Dramatic shifts in the nature of the global economy, coupled with a strong financial downturn, have amped up expectations for the workforce in our country. Eleven years into the 21st century, the forecast is for continued planetwide tectonic shifts in the societal landscape. Technology will become ever more enmeshed with our daily lives, communications will become ever more fluid and global, and the economy will continue to be a tangled international web of interdependent factors.
| SOURCE: Museums, Libraries and 21st Century Skills, Inst. of Musuem & Library Services, 2009 |
This shift, of course, has been building for decades. Change intensified with the large-scale adoption of the web in the mid-1990s. In The World Is Flat, Thomas Friedman attributes a rapid acceleration of global interconnection to the advent of cheap ubiquitous telecommunications. Increasingly, services and applications have moved to the access-anywhere Cloud, overlain by the wildfire adoption worldwide of ever-smarter mobile devices. The economic playing field has become much more geographically equal and competitive.
This flat world has major implications for the U.S. workforce. As manufacturing has moved overseas, especially to China, the blue-collar middle class has crumbled. As outsourcing expanded, white-collar work, like engineering, computer programming, and scientific research, has been given to lower-cost skilled labor in other countries. Nineteen percent of wage and salary workers in the United States today have been with their current employer for less than a year. Although lists of the latest annual “top jobs” fluctuate, technology figures prominently. This level of job displacement and employment instability requires workers to upgrade their marketable skills continually throughout their working lives.
The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) tracks the transition from a traditional, largely manufacturing economy to the contemporary workplace in its future-facing Museums, Libraries and 21st Century Skills publication. The chart above summarizes key factors impacting the workforce.
The IMLS report goes on to define a muscular set of 21st-century skills critical to thriving in the future. Even after condensing the list to those skills most relevant to workers, it looks daunting: critical thinking and problem-solving, communication and collaboration, technology literacy, media literacy, flexibility and adaptability, social and cross-cultural skills, creative thinking and innovation, productivity and accountability, teamwork, and global awareness.
Most of these skill sets are not new. Expectations for productivity and accountability have always been high. Innovation and creative problem-solving have always been key ingredients for success. The rewards of effective teamwork are as ancient as work itself. The difference is that the demand for all of these skills is heightened and intensified across the workforce by the accelerated pace of change and by the shift from a manufacturing economy to a globally networked knowledge economy. Almost every job today requires at least basic computer skills. Historically, it was possible to earn a solid middle-class income working at the same job for 40 years, with limited pressure to express creativity, technology savvy, or global thinking. Now, competition for jobs is no longer just local or even national—it’s global.
As if the pressure to become a nimble, innovative, self-directed, multifaceted, team-playing employee were not intense enough, then the world got into financial trouble. When the recession hit the United States in 2008, unemployment numbers soared, and laid off or underemployed workers collided full force with a constricted job market.
The job search process is different, too. Almost all job applications are accomplished online, a process that can be confounding even for the computer literate.
The intensified demand for workforce skills boils down to one major ability: lifelong learning. The 21st-century workplace does not indulge complacence. It is not so much about what to learn but how to learn. Enter, the library, with the mission and the skills to address the problem head on.
The examples of library services in this article surfaced through Project Compass: Libraries Lead the Workforce in the 21st Century, an Institute of Museum and Library Services grant-funded effort to support state and public library responses to workforce recovery. This strategic partnership between WebJunction and the State Library of North Carolina launched in October 2009.
In the first year, the project brought state libraries together to focus on how statewide efforts could augment public library services to the unemployed. Through a series of summits, state library participants exchanged knowledge and strategies to tackle the ongoing challenges. Most participants found it “enormously helpful” to learn what other states were doing, to share resources, and to focus intently on a specific issue. (Read the full report, "A Year with Project Compass.")
In this second year, the project has developed and delivered workforce recovery workshops directly to front-line staff, targeting states with the highest chronic unemployment for full-day face-to-face sessions. To reach a broad spectrum of staff, the project conducted two online workshops and in-person programs at state library association conferences. The curriculum covers how libraries support basic computer training, job-seeker preparation, local economic development, and patrons’ personal financial skills.
Throughout the project, WebJunction has been growing a central repository of resources to help library staff handle workforce recovery efforts (www.webjunction.org/workforce-resources). All resources are freely available and may be copied and repurposed, including the Project Compass Workshop Curriculum.
