The Libraries and Veterans National Forum is intended to engage library workers from all types of libraries who are actively engaged in working with the veteran and military communities. In addition to attending sessions at the Forum, participants will contribute to an online toolkit for working with the veteran and military communities in libraries.
The Libraries and Veterans National Forum was held online from September 13 through 24, 2021, between 10:00 am to 2:00 pm CST each day. Recordings of Forum sessions will be made available in the near future.
The Libraries and Veterans National Forum was born out of efforts from librarians at the Texas A&M University Libraries and their desire to better learn from others libraries' efforts to support the veteran and military communities. Collaborating with librarians from academic, public, school, state, and VA libraries, the Libraries and Veterans National Forum project team crafted a vision of a gathering of librarians engaging in this work. Attendees will have the opportunity to share their success stories, brainstorm solutions to their challenges, and gain new ideas to bring back to their libraries. The online Forum will host 250 participants from a variety of library types, so public librarians can share their strategies with school librarians, and academic librarians can find new opportunities for partnerships with government librarians. And because many libraries have not yet begun efforts to serve the veteran and military communities, attendees will contribute to an online toolkit. This toolkit will contain lesson plans, program outlines, collection development policies, best practice documents, and more to help ease the way for those just getting started in this work - and to make it easier for those already engaged to find new ideas and new strategies to increase the success of their programs.
Contact the Libraries and Veterans National Forum Organizers, Sarah LeMire and Stephanie Graves, at:
Sarah LeMire
Coordinator of First-Year Programs
Texas A&M University Libraries
(979)458-9785
slemire@library.tamu.edu
Stephanie Graves
Director of Learning and Outreach
Texas A&M University Libraries
(979)458-1351
stephaniegraves@library.tamu.edu
This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (LG-12-19-0114).
The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation's libraries and museums. We advance, support, and empower America’s museums, libraries, and related organizations through grantmaking, research, and policy development. Our vision is a nation where museums and libraries work together to transform the lives of individuals and communities. To learn more, visit www.imls.gov and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.