STOLTZ CREATIVE CONSULTING

VIDEO CLIP PROMO OF AN EXCELLENT RESOURCE Expect the Unexpected

Dorothy is a professional librarian, author, consultant, mentor, and trainer. She has decades of experience in the field of librarianship having served as programming and outreach manager and community engagement director. She firmly believes that both the quality of our thinking and our love of learning are incomplete without the support of each other. 

Introduced to great thinkers in a 1994 creativity course, Dorothy immediately integrated creative thinking tools into her professional and personal activities.  

After over 40 years of service in public libraries, Dorothy retired as director for community engagement with Carroll County (MD) Public Library.  She is owner of Waldo Publishers, LLC, inspired by the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson.  She offers a range of Stoltz Creative Consulting Services for libraries and others, including mentor, consultant, and trainer on creativity.  She is the lead author of Activate Peer Learning in Your Library and Community, (Waldo Publishers 2023) and several publications for the American Library Association, including Inspired Thinking (ALA Editions 2020) and Transform and Thrive (ALA Editions 2018). 

Dorothy believes the most important creative expression is the skill of thinking.  Good library services, programs, and collections need to include the use of the mind to think creatively and thoroughly. Designing compelling library services that help communities thrive must originate from a reservoir of strength – our ability to think effectively and enjoy lifelong learning.  In these ways, librarians can encourage people of all ages to activate and nurture their best, including approaching life with a sense of joy and a discerning mind. 

Learn to Think As the Great Thinkers Taught

This introductory demonstration/activity session illustrates powerful tools that can inspire value-added staff development and public facing programs for children, teens, and adults.  It can help managers to prioritize and empower library staffers to balance "too many projects and not enough time."  

For example, Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats, an international bestselling book, looks at things in different ways while using a deliberate process for drawing out one’s thinking abilities. Participants explore a subject in parallel, rather than argue who is right or wrong.  Roger von Oech's Whack on the Side of the Head, another creativity classic book, uses the four roles of the creative process – explorer, artist, judge, and warrior – to generate and implement new ideas.  Exploit the power of play and “playing the fool” as ways of finding the “second right answer.” 

Learn how positive, easy-to-use, and fun tools like these streamline decision-making, reduce meeting time, increases productivity, and focuses on not telling you what to think but showing you how to think for yourself, both creatively and inclusively.  

1 hour Learn to Think As the Great Thinkers Taught webinar with 1-hour follow-up consultation meetup via online, phone ($400)

1 hour in-person Learn to Think As the Great Thinkers Taught workshop with 1-hour follow-up consultation meetup via online, phone ($400 plus travel)

Other learning activities vary in length and price.  To book a virtual or in-person session, send an email to stoltzcreative@gmail.com, or call 443-465-0912 for more information.

Learning activities include Activate Peer Learning; Transform and Thrive: Fostering Wellness in Our Work; Library In-Reach to Boost Morale and Realize Our Full Potential; Media Literacy in Youth and Children’s Programming; Strengthen Library Purpose: Enlightening Humanity; and, Nurturing Ourselves as Library Advocates.

Recent projects include Erikson Institute’s Media Literacy in Early Childhood for Youth Library Staff, the Hatchlings program in Maryland, STEM programming in libraries for the Maryland STEM Festival, and the Peer Coaching to Improve Technology, Information, and Digital Media Literacy for Families project in Maryland. 

Dorothy pulls together teams of wonderfully talented people to help create book content (check out Books and Resources).  As an active member of the American Library Association (ALA), Dorothy is serving on the ALA Learning Roundtable Executive Board.  She has served as co-chair of the PLA/ALSC Every Child Ready to Read Committee (2014-2015), a mentor for the Core division’s leadership mentoring program (2018 – present), and co-author of the ALSC white paper, Media Mentorship in Libraries Serving Youth.  Examples of service include the board of DVA and More (Drug and Violence Awareness) (2021 – present), the Maryland State Library Agency Hatchlings Steering Committee (2019 – 2023) and as president of the Maryland STEM Festival Board (2017 – 2022).