2012 Best Practices for Government Libraries

268
BEST PRACTICES 2012
free to choose one of these themes as the basis for their discussion or to talk about
something completely different.
The room had been conveniently arranged with several couches, so the participants
pulled these into three conversation groupings. We selected a conversation
motivator for each group and asked someone to take notes on the group’s
discussions. The three facilitators circulated among the groups, dropping into each
of the conversations to contribute, raise questions, or just listen.
While each of the groups selected one of the suggested discussion themes, none of
the conversations covered much of the same ground. As Marie summarized, it was
like attending three different conference sessions simultaneously. At the end of a
45-minute discussion period, each note taker reported the highlights of their
group’s discussion to the entire room. Marie facilitated the discussion by asking for
additional detail, while Karen created a visual representation of the conversation
through a mind-map and Deborah recorded key thoughts and lessons for inclusion
on a word cloud.
MIND MAP