Nonprofits are everywhere. Wherever you are located, it's likely that there are numerous nonprofit organizations at work in your community that you've never even heard of. In 2009, the Hayward (Calif.) Public Library merged with another city department and took on the city's community grants program. They found that in this city of 150,000Â there are over 2,000 nonprofit organizations!Â
In the month of March, Activate Elgin’s March into Health programming, led by Gail Borden Public Library District, moves our whole community. In this celebration of National Nutrition Month, we facilitate more than 30 free wellness events for all ages and interests.
“Students are too busy nowadays.” I’m sure we’ve all heard it. So here are a few tips — from my own experience and crowdsourced from other very helpful librarians — to break through the haze of busy-ness and reach students.
This six-session pilot program encourages creativity — and interest in library services — for elementary- and middle school-aged children through open-ended art projects such as Watercolor Resist Paintings and Continuous Line Monsters.
We offered this program in collaboration with the organization Phoenix Family, which provided us with access to their existing after-school program and art supplies.
Just over a year ago, my branch of Baltimore County Public Library started doing monthly outreach visits at the Charles Hickey School at the Maryland Juvenile Detention Center for Boys. We do regular outreach to all the other schools in our area, we thought; why not bring library-led reading and discussion to this one, too?
Creating a physical literacy program at your library doesn’t always have to happen under your roof. Take to the streets (or trails)! Are you already an avid runner or walker? Share your enthusiam. Would you like to be? Get motivated with some helpful volunteers.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many academic libraries were faced with the challenge of supporting academic success while most students were off-campus and taking online classes. Many outreach librarians turned to virtual programming.
Pet Grams were developed as a way to reach out and connect virtually with patrons, no matter their location. The main outcome for Pet Grams is to share kindness and motivation during a stressful time in the semester, especially for students but also for other community members who may also need support.
Though fun STEM tech programming is often reserved for the younger crowd, many libraries are hosting successful programs that introduce retirees to robots, VR headsets and other trendy tech.
Albert Einstein once said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” One way to get a different perspective on things is by using a SOAR Analysis.
Like many libraries across the nation, the Free Library of Philadelphia is undergoing a paradigm shift toward the community.
Communication is complex. The way people communicate and the beliefs we have are deeply layered; our life experiences impact how we connect and communicate with others.
People with whom we’re communicating also have a lived experience that they’re bringing to our interactions. They also have lenses through which they see the world.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought out some of the very best in libraries.
Library workers need to be skilled in outreach and marketing so they can promote their libraries’ programs and services and advocate for their organizations. But in many MLIS programs, skills like outreach and marketing — things that many programming librarians do every day, but that fall outside the “typical” librarian job description — often go untaught, leaving workers to learn on the job.
In the library world, we often talk about how knowledge of the community is one of the most important, if not the most important, skill a librarian should have. If that’s the case, then who could be more knowledgeable than a librarian born and raised in the town they work in?
As a child, I was very curious, annoying my family with my constant questions. In adulthood, that curiosity led me to librarianship. I am constantly trying to learn new things.
Libraries are key to expanding people’s curiosity, not just about the world, but about each other. For your library to truly be open to all, a place where everyone is welcome to learn about each other, you need to engage all segments of your community — not just those that you are intrinsically a part of.
As I write this, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems like online programs are the only way for librarians to connect with their patrons. Digital storytelling is a creative way to engage patrons virtually right now — and as a bonus, you will learn some fantastic skills you can take back to your libraries when this is all over, for intergenerational workshops or homeschooling projects to improve digital literacy. So let's get started!
In 2016, Sacramento Public Library Deputy Director Kathy Middleton took part in a three-day workshop with The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation, a nonprofit organization that helps people and organizations solve pressing problems and change how communities work together.
Middleton hoped to use the Harwood Institute’s approach, called “Turning Outward,” to learn how the library could better serve people with disabilities. Here, she shares how what she learned in the workshop led to concrete changes at her library.
Joe Shemtov is a special collections coordinator and primary source specialist and a participant in Cohort 1 of the Skills for Community-Centered Libraries trainings.Â
There are profound health inequalities for migrant and seasonal farmworkers. In an effort to reduce the health information gap, East Carolina University (ECU) led an outreach program to help future leaders and college students from rural farmworker families access health information.Â
Our last blog post — in which we assessed our community's needs and set out to create a health and wellness program series for older adults — ended with a good idea, lots of enthusiasm ... and approximately zero dollars. How were we going to fund this fantastic smorgasbord of health, wealth and self-care program opportunities for the 55-and-older crowd on the Peninsula?
