Community Matters

Some call it Civic Engagement. We call it Community Matters! The Library has a plethora of programs, events, services and resources for you, yes you, to be a more informed citizen.  Ashley Fick drops by to share her journey to becoming our Civic Engagement Librarian. We get the inside scoop on the "how," "what" and "why" behind Legislative Coffees, Civics 101, Gather at the table, the News and Views group, Librarian Research Guides and Elections.  

Members of the Civic Engagement committee phone in to share why they participate on this important team and explain why community matters. 

Charles talks to Community Matters book club coordinator Melanie Fuemmeler. Our music guest is Jill Westra & Them KC Boys sharing the track "Speedin' Again" and an essay from author Virginia Brackett.

Come spend an entertaining hour with us. Who knows, this might just be the episode where we finally find Paul Rudd! (Spoiler alert ... it's not.)

Discover Your Library: The Arts

We're back again for your monthly Library Insider. it's the Did you hear? podcast and we are on part 4 of our Discover Your Library special. This month? The Arts! 

Music, art exhibitions, writing ... we have so much to offer artists and you!

In this episode:

• Musical guest The Wires
• Local Writer Martha Gershun reads her short story: "The Hatch"
• Local Arts Librarian Bryan Voell chats about exhibitions, our new Artists in Sight on demand offerings, and the local music blog 
• We sample an interview with Artist Sol Anzorena
• A talk with artist Dianna Bartel
• and so much more!

Art is transformative and transcendent. Let us take you away for the next hour or so.

Librarians

We wanted to hear our Librarians' journeys. 

We were especially interested in stories from Librarians who’ve:

• • had multiple positions at Johnson County Library
  • held the same position for many years
  • had interesting career paths leading them to us

Now, we used the label "Librarian" loosely. We wanted to include the stories public-facing staff as well.

This is the third episode in our Discover Your Library series of the Did you hear? podcast. 

Join us for these often funny, sometimes touching and always compelling stories!

Discover your Library: Patrons

"Our Patrons" is the second in a series of seven episodes we're devoting to the theme: Discover You Library! here on the Did you hear? podcast.

Our Librarians chime in to share their favorite stories about our patrons. It's sometimes funny, often heart-warming and always interesting. Join Charles and Dave as we attempt to answer the question, "just who are our patrons?"

Discover Your Library

Exciting news! We were able to record in-person for the first time since the onset of the pandemic. Not-so-exciting news...the audio isn't perfect—we're rusty. But, listenable? Yes! 

In this episode we have even more exciting news. We're introducing a 7-part storytelling series we're calling "Discover Your Library." From now until the end of the year we will be sharing stories from patrons and Librarians. We'll look behind-the-scenes of our events and our collection. We'll explore the connection between the Library and civics. We'll reveal how the Library plays an important role in supporting local arts.

We introduce you to our new series AND we play some fun getting-to-know-you games so you can learn a little bit more about your podcast hosts. Did you hear?

The Poetry Episode

It's another Did you hear? podcast episode with Shannon, Jack, Charles and Dave!

In this episode, we offer closure to poetry month and suggest poetry should not be confined to a single month. We crammed this episode full—like an over-stuffed el grande burrito—with flavorful content from all kinds of tasty angles. (OK, we're not poets, but we love poetry!)

• Hear poets featured in elementia
• A look back at our Poetry Walk and how it lives on digitally
• Exciting upcoming poetry writing programs and a visit from an impressive author
• Physical art as poetry
• What happened to KCUR's New Letters on the Air?
• Our haikus!
• Your haikus!
• And the latest installment of In Search of Paul Rudd

All this and more! It's the Poetry episode and it's not to be missed. When is this delightful episode available? Right now! 

Parents as Teachers

What do we mean by "Parents as Teachers"?

Well, parents as teachers can mean being involved in your child's K-12 education--COVID distance learning or not. But, COVID has maybe forced many of us to be a bit more involved. Whether it's homeschooling or home learning that complements traditional school, Library resources available to help. Parents as Teachers describes the role, relationship and resource of you as a critical educator.

We pursue stories loosely-related to this broad theme and have some fun as well. Be sure to stick around until the end for another edition of In Search of Paul Rudd.

Things You Can Still Do at the Library

The Did you hear? podcast makes its triumphant 2021 return. It's been a while since you last heard from your Library insider, but we're back! This year, we have some changes. We are now a monthly podcast. New episodes are released on the first day of each month. Also, we now have a small group of hosts who bring behind-the-scenes stories to life for our thematic episodes. This month's theme? "Things You Can Still Do at the Library." We bring you stories about Udemy, the MakerSpace, a retiree helping you make sense of mint.com and budget, and bringing famous authors to storytimes. All this and Dave has a brain glitch causing him to forget the name for the prestigious annual award for children's book illustrators (Before you scream at your phone or computer, it's the Caldecott Award.) Enjoy!    

Promotional Punch of Podcasting

Did you hear? host Dave presented on podcasting--specifically for Libraries and nonprofits--at the Kansas Library Association's annual conference. We share his presentation as a podcast episode. Enjoy.

Here's the description we provided for the program:
We believe subscribable communication is an effective and fun way to reach library audiences—even those you’d never think are podcast addicts. We want to share the lessons we’ve learned over the course of two years and counting while producing the Johnson County Library’s “Did you hear?” podcast. It’s been a twisting and turning journey. We’re ready to help you develop your own pod-voice! Find about strategies taken to engage listeners (and listeners-to-be), how to include library staff in unexpected ways, and why we don’t devote every episode to an upcoming library event. Don’t let the maze of equipment and platforms or time that might be involved intimidate you—we cover all that technical stuff too!

This is our last episode of 2020. Look for our return in 2021 with some fun changes!

Cash Bail

Cash Bail. What is it and why are we talking about it on the Did you hear? podcast? The Library has always been engaged in the community and we're committed to serving all of our patrons. If you weren't aware of the numerous community outreach services we offer, have a look! Representing our incarcerated services, Librarians Kate and Flannery interview Lauren Worley of KC Bail Fund.