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RT @WEAadulted: The importance of Community libraries for the 21st century http://t.co/5sJlRuxh "Arts Council England and the LGA have developed guiding principles which will assist local authorities who are considering reviewing the delivery of their library services to work with their communities. Some of these guiding principles include: the importance of local authorities taking a strategic view across their whole library servicethat there is no one model recommended for community involvement – locally appropriate solutions usually work bestthat community libraries are testing new approaches to library service delivery You can read more about the guiding principles in the report: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/what-we-do/supporting-libraries/community-libraries-research/
By Claire B. Gunnels, Susan E. Green, and Patricia M. Butler: "A public/community college joint-use library is an especially good combination. The missions and the service populations are similar enough to provide significant overlap and allow for excellent services to all users. For example, community college students find that the public library’s collections of materials and resources meet many of their academic needs and provide an excellent complement to the materials owned by the college. Likewise, community college students respond well to the friendly service orientation provided by a well-trained public library reference staff. I think that other combinations, such as a high school/PL or university/PL joint-use library, present additional challenges to good service that we do not face."
Via Afroditi Fragkou
By Rebekkah Smith Aldrich: "The library caught the attention of the UN’s Sustainability Initiative, The Future We Want/Rio+20, for its commitment to investing in a new library facility with the goal of attaining near net-zero energy usage.
Net-zero has been defined by the U.S. Department of Energy as a building that produces as much energy as it uses over the course of a year. Net-zero energy buildings are very energy efficient. The remaining low-energy needs are typically met with onsite renewable energy.
This small rural library, with an operating budget of just over $70,000, has been saving for years to address its space issues. With just 750 square feet, the library is serving its community in a facility less than one-quarter of the size necessary."
Via Patrick Provencher
Private Library Labors to Be Relevant AgainNew York TimesPublished: August 7, 2012. [...] "the Huntington Free Library and Reading Room in the Bronx [...] trying to reinvent itself in a more humble role: that of a traditional community library. It still does not lend books and it remains privately owned and operated. But instead of catering to scholars studying American Indians, it now hosts monthly meetings about Bronx history. It invites children for arts and crafts, and it organizes an annual scavenger hunt for historical artifacts. Last month, it allowed HBO to make over its reading room as a backdrop for the series “Boardwalk Empire.” “We don’t want to be ‘This is what a library used to look like,’ ” said Thomas X. Casey, the library’s president. “We want to be an active participant in the community, not just a museum.”
ABC7Chicago.comWoman keeps library alive with book donationsWDAM-TVEARL PARK, IN (WLFI/CNN) – An Indiana woman's giving spirit and love for literature is helping a small town library flourish, despite a small budget.
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"Jonathan Donner, Microsoft Research, India and Marion Walton, UCT on: the non-educational uses of libraries for things like setting up bands or businesses; the need for the human support and training libraries provide; how the whole ecosystem of mobile and PC can work better; and the benefits teens get from using the different elements of the ecosystem" [...] "libraries are more than education space and how public access spaces need to reflect the mobile ecology"
Stacey A. Aldrich: "When an initiative known as Family Place introduced a new children’s programming model that encourages libraries to go beyond summer reading programs and story hours to reach their full potential as community hubs, the California State Library took notice. As a collaboration that began in 1996 between New York’s Middle Country Public Library and the now-defunct nonprofit Libraries for the Future, the Family Place model promotes spaces within libraries that focus on the learning and literacy of children ages 0–3, while also supporting the needs of the entire family. Family Place principles have now been refined and translated into a replicable framework that gives all libraries the chance to look at their children’s services in a fresh way. More than 300 sites in 23 states are currently part of the expanding Family Place Libraries network. Stacey Aldrich, state librarian for the California State Library, was impressed by Family Place when she was introduced to the concept through Libraries for the Future. "Family Place is amazing," says Aldrich. "They really make libraries think about the environments they’re creating for families. Family Place library spaces are designed for the family to fully engage and interact—parents and caregivers, as well as children."
Via Buffy J. Hamilton
Ariel Schwartz: "It’s not about checking out more books. An initiative is focusing on libraries around the world as centers of social and economic change, as well as centers to help the most disadvantaged citizens."
Via Trudy Raymakers
By ALLISON BERRY: "Many branches of these public institutions are dying from lack of funding—and reinventing themselves in surprising new ways (How Libraries are Reinventing Themselves for the Future: http://t.co/hNF4tlXm...)" "Today’s libraries aren’t just trying to fulfill what a March study by the Pew Charitable Trusts calls the institutions’ “shadow mandate” of bridging the widening gaps in social services that used to be provided by non-profits and public agencies. Libraries are also trying to meet people where they are. The cash-strapped Free Library of Philadelphia, a stalwart system founded in 1891, has set up six “Hot Spots” to expand its reach in underserved areas. It’s much cheaper to open these freestanding mini-libraries, which are equipped with computers, printers, and a reference collection, inside facilities owned by community organizations than it is to open a new branch. In a similar move, the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh has opened what it calls a “library without walls” in the Pittsburgh Public Market in an effort to deliver library services on the weekends in a place where a lot of people do their food-shopping. Some libraries are even venturing outdoors. In response to recent branch closures in Detroit, the University of Michigan this spring partnered with students at a local elementary school to set up six outdoor libraries, whose waterproof bookcases, unlike book mobiles, don’t come with expensive gas bills." Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/06/22/how-libraries-are-reinventing-themselves-for-the-future/#beyond-the-book-mobile#ixzz1ynvY8uhf
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