My Library Is… An Important Part of Our Organization

Listen to this!  

The Bakwin Library is an important part of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). Primary stakeholders include more than 500 AAP staff and 67,000 members of the AAP. True for many organizations, the AAP faced a “pandemic turnover” with approximately 40% of the staff being newly hired since 2020. This leaves a gap in knowledge for AAP staff about the role Bakwin Library plays in providing library services, library and historical collections, and spaces for this work. In turn, our members are lacking awareness of the role the Bakwin Library can play in their important volunteer work for the AAP.  

The initial idea of this grant was to create an audio tour that would combine the AAP’s origin story and information about library services into an audio tour that members could access when they attend meetings at the Itasca headquarters. Our intended outcome was engaging members through the tour, which would increase the utilization of library services and awareness of both library and archival collections.  

Unfortunately, drafting a script and getting approval to begin production took longer than this grant period. After several setbacks, we almost abandoned the project. However, a focus on what could be accomplished, rather than lamenting the obstacles, revealed that the project could pivot. 

Look at this! 

The intention of this project was for our users to obtain a stronger awareness of our collection. Knowing our members are incredibly proud of their history, highlighting our archival collections was always part of the tour. Instead of providing an audio tour, we decided to provide a visual tour that corresponds with “stops” in the building to learn more. The AAP Virtual Tour features images from website that are meant to entice visiting members and staff to walk the building and learn more about our collections, including stops at the following:  

• ‘Our AAP Story’ History Wall for the origin story of the Academy 
• ‘The Sky’s the Limit’ sculpture to highlight our focus on child health 
• Red Book (Report of the Committee on Infectious Diseases) Conference Room to view the 1934 original publication 
• Atrium to learn about the environmental and health and wellness features of the building 
• Bakwin Library to view the collection of rare books and learn about library services such assistance with literature searches  
• AAP publications in the Bakwin Library to highlight the largest part of our library collection and how members have contributed to the foundations of pediatric knowledge  

Ultimately, this project will reach the goal of providing new staff with information about how the Bakwin Library’s collection of AAP publications and archival collections can be utilized by our members. Including information on access to library services such as assistance with literature reviews will highlight the most requested service.  

The obstacle in creating an effective audio tour was how to make the script flexible enough to allow for changes in the library collection and services while still being specific enough to provide pertinent details to our audience. Having the capability to make changes to the audio tour is key to success. While our grant had to pivot away from the audio tour, overall, we still expect member engagement to increase as a result of this work.  

Today's blog post was written by Kathy Clark, Library Director at The Bakwin Library.   

This project was made possible by the My Library Is... Grant.