The document details a study tour of innovative community engagement projects in U.S. public libraries, highlighting various practices from libraries across cities like Boston, Hartford, New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and Chattanooga. Key themes include collaboration with communities, diverse programming tailored to local needs, and utilizing library spaces for various activities to ensure accessibility beyond traditional library functions. The initiative emphasizes libraries as pivotal community leaders and change agents, utilizing a proactive approach to address community aspirations and issues.

1. Travelling Librarian 2015
Community engagement projects in U.S. public libraries – a study tour
https://travellinglibrarian2015.wordpress.com
@FrancesTout
Frances Tout
Community Librarian
North Somerset Council

2. Itinerary
• Boston Public Library
• Hartford Public Library
• Red Hook Public Library
• New York Public Library –
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building,
Mid-Manhattan Library,
Bronx Library Center
• The Free Library of Philadelphia
• Washington DC Public Library
• Chattanooga Public Library

3. Boston Public Library (BPL)
Working with Schools
• Shared catalogue
• BPL card issued by school librarians
• Access to online resources
• Reservations - schools, BPL - van delivery.

4. Teens HOMAGO
Hang Out, Mess Around, Geek Out
• Diner style booths
• Laptops
• Games and films room
• Media suite – partner
workshops and peer to peer
learning
• MOOCs – peer to peer support
• Teen Tech Mentors
• Ask teens what they would
like!

5. Other Ideas from BPL
• Sensory Wall
• Wayfinding maps
• Conversation Circles
• Skills Sharing Workshops – new Business Innovation Centre
• Events hire
• Concerts
• Reach stats – combination of online, circulation, community use
and programming.

6. Hartford Public Library
Partnership Working
• The American Place
• Café
• Careers Office
• University
• Co-location

7. HOMAGO – Teen Space
• No adults allowed! Recording studio, games area,
maker tables.
• Young people from community employed P/T
specialising in coding, digital skills and studio
recording. Expertise and peer to peer mentoring.
• Over 80 teens per day using space in the summer.
Itty Bitty Hartford – 0-4 years
• 67% of children in Hartford don’t have
vocabulary and motor skills expected of pre-
school children.
• New development for 2016, model Hartford
street allowing children and parents/carers
to learn about everyday activities –
experiential learning.

8. Mid-Hudson Library System - Future of Programming Workshop
Meeting changing community needs by facilitating knowledge creation.
Emphasis on programmes rather than stock.
Programming librarians commonplace.
Princeton Public Library put on over 1,700 public programmes per year.
Key themes and ideas
• No charges.
• Have a budget for programming. Don’t put on events just because they are offered to you for free.
• Treat your programmes as you would your collections – categorise to ensure diversity, offer range of formats,
weed programmes regularly.
• Think thematically – programme in quarters.
• Community as collaborators – skills sharing, peer-to-peer learning, intergenerational activities.
• Get out of the library, deliver in community spaces, serve the whole community not just library users
• Evenings and weekends to meet needs of community.

9. Red Hook Public Library
• Community of 4,000.
• Designated 5 star library, nationally recognised
for community work.
• 4,000 square ft.
• Open 51 hours per week, programmes also in
the evenings, staff work flexibly.
• Staff – 2 x F/T, 7 x P/T, 5 x pages (3-5 hours per
week aged 14+) plus volunteers.
• Average 15 - 20 programmes per week.
• 150,000 visits per year, 11,000 attending
programmes.

10. Typical weekly and monthly programmes
• Pre-school - Romp and Stomp; Toddler FUNdamentals;
Petite Picasso; Story Time.
• Grade School – Libratory (STEM maker sessions);
Crafternoon; Lego Club; Curators of the Lost Art;
Minecraft; Homeschool Discovery Zone; children’s craft
activities and stories held at weekly Farmers’ Market.
• Teens – After school web design and graphics courses
(held at High School); Latin; Japanese for fun; Teen
Tech Help (teen volunteers to help adults).
• Adults – Spinning Yarns (knitting); Conversational
Italian; Japanese for Fun; 2 x book groups (afternoons
and evenings); Colour Club; Teen Tech Help;
Shakespeare Discussion Group; Job Search; Health
Navigators.
Additional adult evening one off events – often skills
sharing from community - bee-keeping; gardening; maple
tapping; brewing; author events.

11. Community Partnerships
• High School library and local private arts
university.
• Facilitate monthly community meeting ‘Red
Hook Together’ for village organisations and
businesses.
• Programmes often held in community
venues. Extensive outreach work, increases
visibility of library.
• Library in constant dialogue with community
– many programmes suggested by public
offering skills sharing workshops.

12. Communities have challenges. Libraries can help.
Hartford and Red Hook are two of 10
libraries across the USA chosen as ALA LTC
Cohort.
Initiative seeks to strengthen librarians’
roles as core community leaders and
change agents and help them to engage
with communities in new ways.
“Turning outward” approach developed by Harwood Institute for Public
Innovation entails:
• Taking steps to better understanding communities.
• Changing processes and making conversations more community focused.
• Being proactive to community issues.
• Putting community aspirations first – before your organisation’s.
• Bring about positive change for whole community.
More information – tools and resources from ala.org/LTC

13. New York Public Library (NYPL)
4 research libraries and 88 branch libraries
Mid-Manhattan Library
Open 88 hours per week.
• eBook Help Hour
• English Conversation Hour
• Author talks and lectures – 3-4 per week
• Open Book Night – themed book social
• Saturday and Sunday Movies
• Story Time for Grown Ups – short stories
Computer classes – 50 classes per month, afternoons and evenings. Basics to using cloud, apps, digital story-
telling. Customers signposted to classes rather than extensive daily 1:1 help – classes frequent and cover most
topics – delivered by librarians and information assistants, whoever has the skills.

14. NYPL Volunteering
1,100 - 1,500 volunteers at any one time.
Branch libraries
High school students – community service 20 hours.
Social housing – community service, 8 hours per month.
Research Libraries
Volunteers often Friends of the Library.
Roles
Shelving; tour guides; events; knitting groups; literacy tutors; English
tutors; homework help; welcome desk and special projects.
Community Oral History Project
Volunteers collecting oral histories, celebrating neighbourhoods,
accessible on NYPL website.
NYPL looking to expand project using research collections to support
memory circles.

15. Bronx Library Center
• Open until 9pm. Busiest in evenings.
• Attendance of programmes rising, circulation decreasing, increased digital
resources.
• Highest amount of programming in the city.
• One member of staff on each floor, two at peak times.
• Staff time spent on planning and delivering programmes.
Wi-Fi used extensively, stock has made way for study tables and seating.
80 computer classes. Classes include catalogue and online resources. Library
orientation classes planned.
Careers Centre
Adult Literacy Centre 24 classes per week delivered by staff and volunteers.
Teens - wide programming and live events. Monthly teen council – teen voice.
Children – homework help, video games, stories, puppetry, eBook discussions, maker
room for crafts and technology. Tweens Innovation Lab – blogging and podcasting.

16. Free Library of Philadelphia
Café
• Non-profit organisation employing formerly
homeless staff.
Business Centre
• Free business programmes from local
business community.
• New Business Innovation Centre (2016) -
legal and financial advisors and business
mentors.
Health
• Two social workers employed by the city
work from the library offering support to
patrons – homeless, older people and those
with mental health issues.
• Library nurse post under consideration -
basic health assessments.

17. Senior Services
• Comfortable homely area.
• Computer area with some assistive technology.
• Programmes - hobbies, history, healthy living, computer skills.
E-Gadget Help Desk
• Originally for eBook help but now deals with anything from using
selfie-sticks to downloading apps.
TechMobile
• Mobile computer lab with
laptops and Wi-Fi.
• Outreach computer workshops.
Community groups.
Community Hotspots
• Three in high need areas partnering
with community organisations.
• Computer labs, workshops and job
skills.
• Open access.

18. Culinary Literacy Centre
• Commercial kitchen, big screen , prep
tables and seating.
• Cooking to develop literacy and problem
solving skills.
• Reading, maths, measurements,
sequencing.
• Programming of demonstrations by chefs
and bakers, cook book author events,
school visits and workshops.
• Courses and workshops on nutrition,
healthy living and budgeting.
Culinary Literacy in Branch Libraries
• Mobile kitchen boxes.
• $200 per box, includes electric wok,
blender and safe utensils.
• Culinary literacy outreach programming
for adults and children.

19. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library
Washington D.C. (DCPL)
Major renovation project in next 18 months.
New Vision
Staff visioning study - 5 anchor concepts for the new library.
1. The City’s reading room – traditional library space.
2. The City’s innovation lab – maker movement and co-working.
3. The City’s gathering place – a place for people to meet and host public
meetings.
4. The City’s classroom – a place for all ages to learn.
5. The City’s forum – a place for the public to discuss things important to
the community.
There will be lots of programming space and the library will rely heavily on community partnerships to deliver
programmes.

20. Memory Lab
• One year residency funded by The Library of Congress.
• Project to raise awareness of personal archiving and digitisation.
Launching February 2016.
• The public will be able to transfer obsolete formats to digital files on
memory sticks and external drives.
• VHS, mini DVs, audio cassettes, photos and transparencies.
• There could be donations to the Washingtonia archive.
• Information available on how to preserve your digital files once
you’ve visited the lab.
• A series of workshops on personal archiving e.g. How to archive your
Facebook pages.
• Detailed workshop lesson plans so the project can be replicated in
other public libraries.

21. The Labs
Digital Commons
• Espresso book machine.
• Skype booth.
• Dream Lab co-working space.
• Incubator spaces for occasional meetings or regular
use.
• Free use in return for monthly workshops to patrons.
Studio Lab
• Recording studio, interview and podcasting booths,
rehearsal space, photography studio.
Fab Lab
• Maker space, 3D printers, 3D scanner, laser cutters,
traditional tools.
• Wide range of programming in the evenings.
• Two makers in residence - inspiration and programme
delivery.
• Staff employed with technology backgrounds.

22. Chattanooga Public Library
Work in progress - Innovative ideas, challenging building, limited budget.
Patron Requests
• Partnering with customers to build collections through patron
request system.
• Customers can ask library to purchase items of stock (not carte
blanche) and they will be the first to borrow it.
• Turnaround about a week.
• 11,000 items through patron request since 2012.
• Broader range of stock.
• Popular with customers.
Comment Cards
• Feedback/comment cards placed
around the library as well as
suggestions for learning and skill
sharing.

23. 4th Floor Makerspace
Forefront of the makerspace movement in libraries.
Storage space now 12,000 ft of public laboratory and educational
space.
Sharing of knowledge by providing access to tools, facilities and space.
Limited staffing.
Self-directed learning.
Encourage skill sharing workshops.
• 3D printer
• Vinyl plotter
• Laser cutter
• Fabric making area
• Loom
• Zine making (cutting and
sticking)
• Traditional tools
• GigLab
• Virtual reality gaming.

24. Teens and Tweens
• No enquiry desk, 1-2 members of staff
floorwalk.
• Walk up programme stations – self-directed
learning - Spirograph, science experiments,
tracing table, badge making, iPad photo booth.
• Chromebooks, not desktops.
• Gaming area.
• Makeanooga.
• Films.
• Yarn bombing.
• Manga and graphic novels very popular.
• Staff book recommendations.
• Teen focus group.
• 180 teen volunteers – no set roles, very
flexible, help with pop-up programmes,
designing activities, engaging with customers.

25. Children
Sensory pod for infants.
Sensory story times.
Walk-up programme stations based on
STEAM learning (STEM + arts).
• Felt table
• Lego and Duplo tables
• Magnetic letters
• Dressing up
• Write a postcard
• Hopscotch
Children’s and Teen areas had been
wall to wall shelving, very extensive
weeding (controversial) to make light
open spaces.

26. General Observations
Funding
• Funding – state and local taxes.
• Philanthropy, endowments, grants, civic groups and friends groups.
• Commissioning to provide services.
• Donation boxes in libraries to help fund programming.
Roles and Staffing
• Boards of trustees – governance.
• Very few staff on floors – often only one, two at peak times.
• Teens employed as ‘pages’ – entry level – shelving, shelf tidying, support programmes, simple clerical duties.
• Interns from MLS courses widely used.
• Volunteers – varies from state to state. Most common role - shelving. In many places a large number of
volunteers are sent from the courts for community service hours. Other volunteers - skills sharing workshops
and courses.

27. Opening Times
• Peak times lunch times and evenings – all libraries open
in the evenings, smaller libraries until 7pm, larger
libraries between 9-11pm.
• Adult programming and courses often in evenings.
• Libraries not usually open before 10am.
• All open Saturdays, many on Sundays.
Online Resources
• Major growth area, use has rocketed.
• Traditional reference but also Hoopla (film & media
streaming), ebooks and Zinio magazines, Brainfuse
(homework help) – all very popular.
Fees
• Usually charges only apply for printing and overdues.
• Virtually everything is free to customers, no charges for
courses, events, activities, reservations, DVDs.

28. Thank you
https://travellinglibrarian2015.wordpress.com
@FrancesTout