Shane Wallace: Hello everyone and welcome back. Hopefully you can hear me.
Shane Wallace: My name is Shane Wallace and I'm at the University of Utah and I have the honor of being the, the host for the next quick session here.
Shane Wallace: Tom Adam Mitch is going to be speaking to us all about fraternal organizations and veterans programs.
Shane Wallace: I'll be watching chat and what we think we would like to do is have everyone submit their questions as they go and then Tom will answer them as best he can all at once at the end that works.
Shane Wallace: So without any further ado. This session is only half hour long so here is Tom. Tom, you can take off and everyone
Shane Wallace: Oh,
Tom Adamich: Hello, Shane.
Tom Adamich: There. Yeah. Hello everyone. My name is Tom an image, and I look forward to talking with you about veterans organization, the
Tom Adamich: Relationship between veterans programs and fraternal organizations and the role of libraries can play in that relationship and I really appreciate the opportunity to speak with you this is my second contribution to western states. My first one was indirect I work with Suzanne Carroll
Tom Adamich: Several years ago to talk about a group that I've been involved in and go door of the government information for children group, which I'll mention again briefly in a moment, but
Tom Adamich: It's a privilege to be here and I look forward to talking with all of you. Next slide please.
Tom Adamich: This is kind of our agenda of what we'll talk about today. Again, I wanted to kind of give you
Tom Adamich: An overview of what libraries can do I working with veterans services and particularly in the context of fraternal organizations and and those
Tom Adamich: groups that are usually in almost every community, large and small, across the United States. So I think some of the
Tom Adamich: Content will be of interest and hopefully identify some relationships you already have in your communities will look at several use cases. As you can see, the first one will be the
Tom Adamich: Benevolent and protective order of Elks and and their work with veterans and we'll also look at a project that a rotary club in a small town in Ohio.
Tom Adamich: Worked on to honor veterans and and the role is a library played there. And then the last use case will be associated with
Tom Adamich: The Library of Congress veteran history project and how successful it is in Illinois, and we'll talk about that particular project.
Tom Adamich: And again, we'll look at some best practices and hopefully have enough time for any questions that you have and comments so that we can definitely encourage your inquiry and and hear about some of the good things that you're doing possibly so
Tom Adamich: Without further ado, next slide please.
Tom Adamich: I am in introduction of myself. And what I've been doing. I've been working and in the field of librarianship since 1992 and had the pleasure of serving as the government documents library and it's several institutions.
Tom Adamich: Had some great involvement and go to art over the years and and was able to work on.
Tom Adamich: Putting together, the government information for children committee and glad that it's still moving forward and doing great things so
Tom Adamich: And I currently work at a community college setting. And so during a lot of community work.
Tom Adamich: Excited to be kind of in a new area I been writing for a long time, but I been asked to write a local history column for paper or local paper. So that's been kind of fun and
Tom Adamich: Gives you a good sense of what's going on in the community and perspective of what happened in the past. So, next slide please.
Tom Adamich: When talking about fraternal organizations and veterans programs and what veterans are doing there. There's so many different aspects of of what veterans need to have as far as
Tom Adamich: Support for their ability to if they're newly discharged. They're coming back in the community if they're trying to deal with some challenges and what some of the support
Tom Adamich: Functions are that are important to them. And that's where libraries can be a really good partner and a really good intermediary for a lot of the activities that that
Tom Adamich: Local fraternal organizations often undertake to help veterans and hopefully what we'll talk about, again, are some of these use cases. And you can see how the library has contributed to them successfully and then
Tom Adamich: Again, it might prompt you to think of some some possible connections in your own community or again, hopefully, we have some time to share some of your success stories as well. Next slide please.
Tom Adamich: Again, there are many
Tom Adamich: fraternal organizations that are in every community and they're doing great works. And again,
Tom Adamich: We'll be looking at them. Next slide please.
Tom Adamich: The banana one protective order of Elks has been committed to veterans services for a number of years and
Tom Adamich: I think their pledge here says it all. So long as they're veterans, the BP. Oh, he will never forget them. I've been a proud member for 34 years and I can say that it's been a privilege to be involved in a lot of their, their projects and
Tom Adamich: This being one of them as well.
Tom Adamich: Next slide please.
Tom Adamich: Information. If there's a wealth of information available on the Alex veterans website. And of course, this
Tom Adamich: presentation will be available to you.
Tom Adamich: Later following it and and Shane can talk more about that at times as we transition here at the appropriate time. Next slide please.
Tom Adamich: This is just an overview of some of the BP. OH, EASE programs, the adoptive veteran is designed to help veterans who may be lonely or have little family, especially as they're nursing homes or or
Tom Adamich: VA facilities and communities reach out to them and adopt them provide some funding to support some of that outreach freedom grants are for individuals who are involved in
Tom Adamich: Supporting veterans programs in a community and that the Alex helps to support that and and provide some funding.
Tom Adamich: Assistance for those programs. So again, the library can be a great advocate at for promoting and talking about these things.
Tom Adamich: To patrons and and to others in the community, the VA voluntary service is they were groups of volunteers. The gang go into facilities or nursing homes and reach out to veterans and and it may be again as that Fraternal Order that got group structure.
Tom Adamich: Comes into play there. The Veterans leather as an interesting one. It's designed primarily to help disabled veterans who may be in wheelchairs and and this wonderful little project helps
Tom Adamich: To create and make the gloves that they often use if if someone's wheelchair bound and only is
Tom Adamich: Mobile
Tom Adamich: Using their arms so
Tom Adamich: Just a really nice thing to do. And of course the welcome home is probably one that people might be most able to contribute to even if you're not an L member, or if you're not, but from a community perspective on it provides a simulation.
Tom Adamich: Materials such as cleaning supplies pots and pans some simple furniture for people who may be just coming back and are assimilating back into the community, so it's it's a good way to help and provide some immediate need satisfied media need for those individuals. Next slide please.
Tom Adamich: Mary Morgan is a wonderful person and she has graciously allowed me to share her contact information with you and she's at the national office in Chicago.
Tom Adamich: So feel free to reach out to her. If you have questions or would like to obtain. They do have some print materials and she could kind of course guide you through the website, even more so feel free to reach out to her and use her as a resource. Next slide please.
Tom Adamich: This next use case is long that I'm particularly proud of learning about. It's a wonderful little project and a small town in southeast, Ohio, probably about 70 miles from Columbus.
Tom Adamich: As far as the geography goes this community.
Tom Adamich: It is a rotary club and it's called the molten McConnell's Ville Rotary Club and they created this veterans walk project in cooperation with the library and the library is named the Morgan County Caitlin since and library. And so it's a it's a
Tom Adamich: Small Community area rural very
Tom Adamich: close knit, but the library is a very important part of the the regional area. Next slide please.
Tom Adamich: And what they did was they work to create a walk of honor.
Tom Adamich: And it was part of a renovation project for the library. So they made sure that the
Tom Adamich: Walk of honor has a a dominant spot in the library footprint. So each $50 brick.
Tom Adamich: Allows people to be honored the through their identification information and then they have also have a
Tom Adamich: sitting area and and the landscaped area around the block of honor to to honor the veterans with the flags and
Tom Adamich: The Army Air Force Marines Coast Guard Navy and Merchant Marine flags are represented here. Next slide please.
Tom Adamich: This is a really good kind of a
Tom Adamich: View of the walk and how the marble.
Tom Adamich: Bench. There is integrated and it's just really a wonderful man by the name of Dr. Robert Richmond.
Tom Adamich: kindly gave me this information. He is a veterinarian in the area at 90 years young, he's still involved in this.
Tom Adamich: And. And what's very detailed about the information that he gave me, which I really appreciate it. And it was just such a nice conversation that I had with him, and it really shows how people can can really come together and do neat things and of course the library board and the library.
Tom Adamich: Fully supported this and it's benefiting from it. Next slide please.
Tom Adamich: Here's a shot of the flags and kind of gives you a sense of, of where this is in relationship.
Tom Adamich: To the, to the walk of honor and what they're doing so far. And as you see, there's a lot of room for for development there. So as time goes on, and people become it's still relatively new, so hopefully it will grow and develop over time. Next slide please.
Tom Adamich: Again, this is kind of a closer view. And you can see where they're trying to get people situated near their branch of service and so that that's really a great thing to do. Next slide please.
Tom Adamich: Again, another shot and and showing in relationship to all of the infrastructure. Next slide please.
Tom Adamich: And this is another view of the library and its relationship to the building and the the
Tom Adamich: Structure around it. Next slide please.
Tom Adamich: And again give you another kind of a panoramic view there. I really great project in a town that really relies on its library and it's very, very supportive of it. And again, this serves a rural area too, so it's it's kind of a more of a regional facility. Next slide please.
Tom Adamich: The next project is the Library of Congress Veterans History Project and
Tom Adamich: individual by the name of Jill Layton who serves as Illinois court reporter also as a member of the American Legion auxiliary
Tom Adamich: And of course they are partners with the American Legion to honor veterans and of all wars and conflicts, who have served and she's also the chair of the Illinois court reporters Association.
Tom Adamich: This Veterans History Project that they've developed so again to to for eternal groups that are working together so
Tom Adamich: In partnership and I think that's another thing so that it's not necessarily just limited to one organization. There may be multiple ones involved.
Tom Adamich: And and how that can strengthen a project like this. And of course, the beauty of this one is it's directly related and utilizing the infrastructure associated with the Library of Congress Veterans History Project, and we'll talk a little bit more about that and then
Tom Adamich: The course the mission of the project is to collect preserve and provide access to personal accounts of American War veterans and and those can be then utilized in the future. Next slide please.
Tom Adamich: The
Tom Adamich: Other partner major partner in their project, of course, is another library organization, the state library of Illinois and they help to facilitate in and assist with the
Tom Adamich: videography, and if there's that portion of the of the oral history associated and
Tom Adamich: As you can see they've worked on over 300 projects for
Tom Adamich: Capturing veterans stories. There have been 300 interviews and projects associated with that and
Tom Adamich: I think of when you have access to the slide deck here later. I encourage you to explore these links and and and look at the news stories and things that that really talk about the good work that they've done. Next slide please.
Tom Adamich: Of course, the library Congress Veterans History Project was a
Tom Adamich: Public Law.
Tom Adamich: Act that was instituted back in 2000 and it involves being able to
Tom Adamich: Allow this type of work to move forward. And it also was supported later by legislation to
Tom Adamich: Allow the inclusion of gold star family.
Tom Adamich: Contributions, for those of you that may not be familiar with gold star.
Tom Adamich: They are individuals who are members of the families who
Tom Adamich: Are part of and and and associated with veterans and in many cases, due to the unfortunate loss of the individual.
Tom Adamich: They may be the only source of information about that individuals history. So it's good to know that they can be part of this narrative and that they can be supported and and and and encouraged to contribute the information honoring their, their loved one. Next slide please.
Tom Adamich: This is just. And this slide in the next few slides are just a little bit of an overview of what the Veterans History Project database looks like and and what happens when the product of these interviews is then uploaded and and and it gives you a sense of what's available there.
Tom Adamich: As you can see, there's the ability to search and and ability to limit searches by branch or or gender or
Tom Adamich: Or what you're looking for. If we're looking for a video oral history or looking for particular photograph. This is gives you the opportunity to see how its presented and can be searched. Next slide please.
Tom Adamich: This is one of the entries and as you can see, it gives detailed information about the individual where they were their provenance as far as where they were in the service and then
Tom Adamich: Their rank. Next slide please.
Tom Adamich: Again, here's another view and and shows how the database indicates
Tom Adamich: Whether there is a particular format or type of material associated with it.
Tom Adamich: As you can see there are, this one has transcripts and a sound recording. So it was an audio oral history. Next slide please.
Tom Adamich: And then of course there are some that have other
Tom Adamich: Media, whether it be video or
Tom Adamich: Or photos.
Tom Adamich: Associated with the entry and again it shows, as I mentioned, where the person served and what they did and
Tom Adamich: Which
Tom Adamich: War or conflict. They were involved in. Next slide please.
Tom Adamich: And once again, here's another another individuals entry.
Tom Adamich: Next slide please.
Tom Adamich: As we look and reflect upon some of the information that I've shared with you.
Tom Adamich: Some best practices and some guidelines kind of come to mind and
Tom Adamich: One of the things that libraries can
Tom Adamich: Understand is really what organizations are available to them. And again, fraternal organizations are often only identify often identified in communities, of course, the a la
Tom Adamich: Has some some resources for you as well. Next slide please.
Tom Adamich: And one of the
Tom Adamich: Best resources that you can use in addition to either the local ones or our professional organization is the
Tom Adamich: County veteran service organization and and I often
Tom Adamich: Point people here first, because the CV, so is a kind of a clearinghouse for being able to identify either groups that are working with veterans or projects that are working with veterans in a particular geographical area and
Tom Adamich: The links and and video that are provided here. The video link are
Tom Adamich: Good overviews of what the CBS. So does and how it can be a really good resource and and and maybe first place to start.
Tom Adamich: If information is needed. And again, not just programming information or or outreach information, but also some information about
Tom Adamich: Some of those needs that I mentioned, you know, people who are simulating back in the community or people who need help with veterans benefits or things like that. Next slide please.
Tom Adamich: And again, the
Tom Adamich: fraternal organizations, our own professional organization, the LA has a wonderful veterans caucus that is open to everyone.
Tom Adamich: And and looking for members and people who are interested in talking and helping with veterans causes as librarians and and how we can support each other and support our
Tom Adamich: Our efforts in our communities. So I'd encourage you to reach out to and Sarah mirror is the founder of that organization, she's written several books on that topic and she's a really good resource and an expert on
Tom Adamich: Next slide please.
Tom Adamich: These are other organizations that are local and regional ones that that may be of use to you again and I encourage you to explore these links as, as you have time to sit down and look more at the deck and then it'll give you some good information that you can use.
Tom Adamich: Next slide please.
Tom Adamich: As I mentioned, there are also other projects nationwide. One of the best ones is the veterans connect at the library, the California project that has done some really good good works and and interesting things. So really connect with veterans and guide libraries.
Tom Adamich: To work together and and
Tom Adamich: The article link also provide some good background and some things that have been done.
Tom Adamich: Next slide please.
Tom Adamich: Again, this is my, you can always reach out to me. I'm happy to help you if you have questions, and this is my work contact. I also have my other contact information. Next slide please.
Tom Adamich: That this is my visiting library and service and I can certainly you can reach me through that as well. I guess we're I'm reaching the time. Next slide please. For questions.
Shane Wallace: So as I'm looking now, Tom. I don't see any questions in there yet. We only have a couple minutes left.
Shane Wallace: I'm wondering personally what your experience has been with these organizations performing outreach to the library or most of these been initiated by the librarians contacting
Shane Wallace: The various fraternal organizations or is it just kind of a case by case basis. I'm just thinking about in terms of best practice. Should we encourage librarians to cold call their local Elks is that kind of do you think what you would recommend is the best path.
Tom Adamich: Oh, most definitely. I think there again.
Tom Adamich: Being able to offer what we can help with or support or or be able to facilitate, you know, provide meeting space provide
Tom Adamich: Interesting opportunities for partnership. I think that would definitely be encouraged and appropriate
Tom Adamich: And also to be able to understand how best to to help identify and really figure out what you are trying to help them do or what you'd like to partner with them on again.
Tom Adamich: It really provides some so and. And again, feel free to reach out to me. I'm happy to answer your questions and and if I can refer you to anyone, I can certainly I've had the pleasure of meeting some really wonderful people who are very passionate about this work.
Tom Adamich: And again, yes, definitely reach out to those people at the state level.
Tom Adamich: And and again they can certainly help you that that Illinois project is a great example of how the state organizational structure helped make that successful because the video for those oral histories originated from the state library that they helped facilitate that. So,
Tom Adamich: Yes.
Shane Wallace: Excellent. So yeah, some I had someone echo that same question I asked, just so you know, Tom. The reason I reverse the slides is someone was asking for your contact information.
Tom Adamich: There's happy to help.
Shane Wallace: There's also a comment here.
Shane Wallace: That says if you are plugged into state humanities councils and return. Researchers think about what your library can offer to people seeking or administering NEH dialogues on the experience of war grants. So these are NIH grants. There's a list of awards providing the link there.
Shane Wallace: But it's ways of connecting to the library to this potential resource. So that's a useful tool for everybody else to take a look at to
Tom Adamich: Definitely because funding does exist and and whether it be through again NIH or or other organizations that in fact the CV. So the national organization that I showed you that slide. They have grants and and funding opportunities so
Shane Wallace: Excellent. And also, just as a side note, I've noticed with my own experience with fraternal organizations, they will often have
Shane Wallace: Their own internal potential funding streams their own grants and projects that they can eternally solicit say within the Elks, for example, they may be able to apply for a grant with to the larger organization to support a local project with the library to
Tom Adamich: Definitely, definitely, and they are very
Tom Adamich: Able to help with that or and and actively looking for those partners. So, there again.
Tom Adamich: Feel free to reach out to them.
Shane Wallace: Well, very good. Anyone else have any other questions for the chat.
Shane Wallace: Well, Tom, you time to that to absolute military perfection set right there. So it's appropriate.
Tom Adamich: I'm here.
Shane Wallace: When you're talking about veterans issues.
Shane Wallace: I do thank you for your time.
Shane Wallace: I will be muting myself, presumably will be handing back over to someone else to talk about the break coming up, but one more time, Tom. Thank you very much for your time.
Shane Wallace: And your content to address one thing that you mentioned early on. Yes, the slides will be available as well as the recording are all available. So there's links, I believe.
Shane Wallace: Will just be on the the conference website and also there was information in that last email but look for it. Also in the rapid female. So all of that will be available.
Shane Wallace: And I will see my screen control.