Fanwood Memorial Library director Dan Weiss participated in a workshop presentation in Chicago over the weekend at the American Library Association’s 2017 Annual Conference. Over 75 librarians from around the US and Canada gathered to hear Dan speak about his award-winning project, Libraries and Autism: We’re Connected (www.librariesandautism.org).
The project, which centers on autism awareness, customer service and programming tips and includes a training film and website, promotes universal service and best practices to libraries and librarians serving individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder and their families.
Dan began the project in 2008 with his colleague Meg Kolaya, which has, over the past nine years, had significant national impact. It has helped to spread awareness and information to libraries and librarians, informed other training initiatives and projects and inspired others to innovate and share ideas on service, programming and community support and interaction.
Dan told librarians that he was, “gratified that the project has reached so many librarians and inspired libraries to take another look at thinking about and providing these kinds of services.”
