Library Virtual Adult Programming in the Age of COVID-19 - Presented by Ronald Headen Greensboro Public Library

Library Virtual Adult Programming in
        the Age of COVID-19
           May 13 @ 4 pm
    Presented by Ronald Headen
     Greensboro Public Library

The COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 created many challenges to libraries and other services as it
quickly became a pandemic. The Greensboro Public Library closed on
March 17, 2020 and reopened with curbside service on June 1. Limited
“Grab and Go” service began on June 29, 2020. On April 5, 2021, pre-
pandemic operating hours were resumed with maximum 1 hour visits. In
house events and public meeting room use was still suspended until
further notice.

Library Programming

We still wanted to continue library programming and the meeting of the
library book clubs. It was decided that virtual programming was the only
option to continue with them. Other libraries and organizations were doing
the same. Then we had to decide how to implement this by the starting
date of June 1, 2020. Zoom and videos became the format.

Getting Started

Greensboro Public Library programming begins with preparing a matrix for
it. The matrix will contain title, date, description, intended audience,
publicity strategies, amount of staff needed, funding cost and some other
items.

The matrix when completed is sent to the location’s manager for review and
approval. Once approved it is sent to be reviewed and approved by the
library’s programming coordinator. If she approves it, then final approval is
made by the library director. The program is scrapped if approval is rejected
at any of the three stages above. Recurring programs such as book clubs
only require approval once.

The next slide is a blank matrix example. After that we will explores kinds of
programming.

Book Clubs

Each GPL location has one or more library sponsored book clubs meeting
each month. Zoom was the main option available and proposed to the
clubs to continue meeting. Some optimistically decided they would wait
and resume meeting in a “few months when the pandemic was over.”
When it was realized that it would not be over that soon, it was decided
that virtual programming would continue at least through the end of 2020.
It has now been extended indefinitely. We all are looking forward to
meeting again in person in the future.

I reached out to the clubs that had decided to wait, and informed them that
virtual programming would be the norm until further notice. The majority of
the members still chose to wait. The members that were interested in Zoom
were steered to similar book clubs at other library locations.

The clubs that chose to meet via Zoom resumed in June 2020. Not all
members participated. Some said they did not feel comfortable with Zoom.
Others were using Zoom for work, church, and keeping in touch with family
and friends. The latter expressed they were “Zoomed out” and wished not
to participate in any Zoom book clubs. Two of my clubs were innovative.
One started meeting in a local park until the weather turned cold. This club
then started meeting on Zoom. The other met in the home of one of the
members who graciously offered the group use of a recently built library to
her home. Since this group only has 5 members, it was conducive to social
distancing and we all wore masks.

Author Events

One advantage of virtual events was the willingness of many authors
offering to Zoom free of charge. I did a summer and winter series of Let’s
Chat with a North Carolina Author featuring Esme Addison, Linda Joyce,
Brian Lampkin, Jacob Paul, and Lee Zacharias.

Black Family Foundation: An African-American Author Series for
February’s African-American Black History Month featured Edwina Wright
Davis, E. Delores Johnson, and Mary Dowdell.

The big author event was the appearance of Tayari Jones at our annual
Booklovers Social in March of this year. I had my biggest virtual audience
yet and thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with her. She is a great friend
of local author Quinn Dalton, who introduced her.

May 6 featured a Mother’s Day author event with two of the authors from
the anthology of The Voices of the Mothers with Black Sons. It was so
successful that I have invited them for a return visit when the second
volume is released.

Future author programs scheduled feature Coach Alphonso Short for a
Father’s Day event, La Jill Hunt, Vanessa Riley, Love Belvin, and Esme
Addison will discuss the new book in her series with the mystery club.

I am fortunate to have a resource for authors with a local author who has
an author podcast. She has steered many authors my way for
programming.

One of the most helpful resources is an author’s website. There will
usually be a contact window on the website. It has been my experience
that 99% will respond to author visit inquiries. Also, someone you know
that is an acquaintance of an author can be a valuable resource also.

Since the authors are appearing at no charge in most cases, I prepare a
little gift box to send them after the event.

Instructional and Information Videos

One of the mainstays of virtual programming for GPL was instructional
and information videos prepared by all departments in the library. The
majority of the instructional were crafts for all ages and cooking.

Informational videos highlighted specific books or a booklist on various
genres or subjects. Lists of recommended titles from the North Carolina
Digital Library were provided. There was also a monthly film title from
Kanopy highlighted.

I did a series of videos entitled Favorite Authors of the Past Not to Forget
featuring information on Fannie Hurst, James M. Cain, John O’Hara, and
Frank Yerby. Hidden Gems in the DVD Collection highlighted the films
Abby, City of the Dead, It Happened on Fifth Avenue, and Sitting Pretty.

Must Reads for Your Book Club featured The English Wife by Lauren
Willig, Kindred by Octavia Butler, No Ordinary Magic by Eileen McFalls,
and A Piggly Wiggly Christmas by Robert Dalby. New Books Must Reads
highlighted Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson,
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Squeeze Me by Carl Hiaasen, and
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett.

Special & Collaborative Programming

It was not unusual for local organizations or an individual to reach out to
the library to present a virtual program. Examples are noted as follows.

Local author Jennie Spallone asked to present a program on writing and
keeping in touch with others during the pandemic. Program was presented
in summer of 2020.

University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s Department of African
American and African Diaspora Studies invited the GPL to collaborate on
their participation in the National Endowment of the Art’s Big Read. It
featured Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones. Book discussions and theme
based programming were given during the fall of 2020 and winter of 2021.

Cone Health scheduled an informational program on COVID-19 in March
2020.

Dr. Frederick W. Gooding Jr. from Texas Christian University approached
us on doing a presentation featuring his book, Black Oscars: From
Mammy to Minny – What the Academy Awards Tell Us about African
Americans. This successful program was presented on March 23 in
advance of the April Oscar ceremony and telecast.

Some of the many special programs featured are as follows.

Outdoor Adventures of Color: Outdoor Afro with Ranita Anderson,
Outdoor Afro Raleigh-Durham Leader

Flow into Yoga with Stephany McMillan from Rise and Flow LLC that was
voted #1 Yoga Studio in Greensboro 2020.

25th Anniversary of National Poetry Month with former North Carolina Poet
Laureate Joseph Bathanti

Coffee Hour Series With Actress Karen Ceesay, featured actress in the
shows The Walking Dead, Stranger Things, and Black Lightning among
others.

Dr. Elizabeth Catte discusses her new book Pure America and the legacy
of the eugenics movement in the American South and beyond.

Commemorative Dates & Months
Programs are featured for special months and dates. Examples are below.
Speakers, crafts, films, and books are used for these and other events.
1. Christmas
2. Hanukkah
3. Halloween
4. African-American Black History Month
5. National Women’s History Month
6. Hispanic Heritage Month
7. National Native American Heritage Month
8. LBGT Pride Month
9. Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
10. Juneteenth

Promotion and Publicity Resources
One of the most challenging aspects of programming anytime is publicizing
it. Sometimes our efforts pay off with a big audience and other times the
audience is so small or nonexistent we ponder where we went wrong.
We start out with flyers being sent to all locations and other places such as
local businesses, book stores, and anywhere else that will allow us to leave
one. Friends and family may also help distribute them.
Next we focus on emails. I have a program notification list of 228 and ask
everyone on the list to forward it to others not on the list. All members of the
adult programming committee are asked to do the same.
Staff is asked to promote programs when assisting customers. Bookmarks
may be made and distributed for special programs. All programs are entered
on the library and City of Greensboro’s online calendars. There is a printed
calendar usually, but it was suspended after the pandemic started. Current
talk is it may not be revived, but be only available digitally.

My final promotion resources are making entries to community online
calendars and asking our marketing representative to prepare press
releases for selected programs. The community calendars are as follows.

Local cable company (Spectrum covers our area and it usually takes an
average of two weeks for it to post if accepted.

Local radio stations will accept requests to promote library events.

Local free publications or magazines have forms on their websites to
submit to promote local programming.

Local daily newspapers usually have a community calendar and will post
shortly after item is submitted. So do other community calendars at
www.patch.com, www.nextdoor.com and www.allevents.in

Zoom, Zoom Webinar & Facebook Live

With Zoom, you can start or join a program. By default, the Zoom mobile
app displays the active speaker view. If one or more participants join the
meeting, you will see a video thumbnail in the bottom-right corner. You can
view up to four participants' video at the same time. Screen share, chat,
raise hand, mute and stop video are also available. Participants must
register for a Zoom link to join all library programs. We only have a few
Zoom coordinators, so links must be provided by them. Then the links are
distributed by the staff member in charge of the program. There is usually a
limit of 100 participants allowed. Any zoom program has the option of
being recorded and posted by the library on Facebook or YouTube.

Zoom Video Webinar allows you to broadcast a Zoom program to up to
10,000 view-only attendees, depending on the size of your webinar license.
Webinars can be held once, can reoccur in a series, or can be the same

session held multiple times. Participants are automatically muted and
not displayed except for presenters.

Facebook Live lets you livestream events, performances and gatherings
on Facebook. Viewers can watch from a phone, computer or connected
TV. Reactions, shares, comments, and other interactive features enable
you to engage with your audience. Live streaming on Instagram is
separate from live streaming on Facebook. Some of our major programs
have been presented simultaneously on Zoom and Facebook Live.

Film Programming

Film programming became especially difficult during the pandemic. Each
GPL location has film screening licenses from Swank and Motion Picture
Licensing Corporation. MPLC is the sole license source for 20th Century
Fox Studios and output from many television and foreign film production
companies. The issue surfaced that our licenses only covered on site
screenings. Streaming licensed product was strictly prohibited. Swank’s
streaming service is academic only licensing for classrooms and
students. Outdoor screenings from Swank required a single license and
special fee.

We were able to screen some films that were in the public domain.
Kanopy advised us that all films from their service were available for
streaming without paying special fees. This is how we were able to
salvage some film programming.

Earlier this year we were notified by Swank that they had put together a
package of films that would have the outdoor screening fee waived
through December 2021. We are taking advantage of this with outdoor
screenings of the Hairspray 2007 version and Disney’s The Princess and
the Frog.

On site film programming will resume when public meeting room use
opens up.

Adult Summer Reading

Adult Summer Reading for 2020 was suspended while we decided on the
logistics of such programming during the pandemic. During the fall we
offered the following.

Normally, participant requirements to earn the prize was to read at least
three books and attend at least one summer reading related adult program
based on the year’s theme.

The above changed with Fall into Reading Challenge. Registration and
participation was through Beanstack.

We currently plan to resume Adult Summer Reading this summer and
currently are working on how to administer it.

The GPL’s biennial One City, One Book is upcoming for Fall 2021. It normally
runs from the last week of August and ending shortly before Thanksgiving in
November. Last week voting began on the following three contenders.

The process began with a selection committee that reviewed over 50 titles
and submitted a short list to the executive committee which included the
library director, representatives from the Library Board of Trustees and
Greensboro Public Library Foundation along with a group of community
partners. The executive committee then narrows the list to a few titles.

Voting is available online at our website and paper ballots distributed at all
GPL locations. Voting will end the latter part of May and announcement of
the top vote recipient shortly afterwards.

Committees will be formed in June and meet to plan events for One City, One
Book. Of course, all will be virtual which will be a challenge not faced in
previous One City, One Book years.

What the Future Looks Like

The future of programming beyond virtual for the GPL is difficult to
determine at this time. We know that it will definitely last through 2021.
After that many ideas have been suggested, but nothing has been
confirmed as being put in place. The idea of hybrid programming with a
combination of Zoom and in person participation keeps coming up. It has
been said there has been discussions on how to open up the meeting
rooms and effectively limit the number attending and feature social
distancing. We have been told not to expect in house programming to
resume until sometime in 2022 or even later. We will just wait and see.

Next is a short video on library virtual programming ideas.

Library 101: Adult Virtual Programming

I would welcome hearing from other libraries and how they
administered programming in the pandemic and their future plans.

My contact info is ronald.headen@greensboro-nc.gov.

Thank you for attending and I will now be happy to answer
questions or accept any feedback or comments.