Partnerships & collaboration
When the library builds partnerships, it strengthens the ties to its community, shares resources, and builds positive relationships with diverse stakeholders. Reaching out to initiate community partnerships begins with identifying both traditional and non-traditional partners and exploring new ways to work together. Effective collaborations are sustained through a shared commitment to serving the ever-changing needs of the community.
Photo: jenlen, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Most Recently Added
Public Libraries and Public Health: Partners for Community Health
Publish Date: Webinar / 19 October 2021
This webinar provides an introduction to public health, and shares how public health practitioners and library staff are partnering for success.
Skills for Community-Centered Libraries Curriculum Available
Publish Date: News / 23 September 2021
Like many libraries across the nation, the Free Library of Philadelphia is undergoing a paradigm shift. Increasingly, our focus is not only on extensive collections but on how we are engaging with our communities. To address this shift, the Free Libr...
CFPB’s Your Money, Your Goals: Financial Empowerment for Your Community
Publish Date: Webinar / 22 September 2021
Learn about Your Money, Your Goals, a comprehensive tool created by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to help empower people in your community who are developing financial knowledge.
OurStoryBridge: Creating Community Through Stories
Publish Date: Webinar / 17 August 2021
The OurStoryBridge project has released a free toolkit of resources for libraries to create online, three-to five- minute oral histories.
Partnerships as the Key to the Future of Rural Library Services to Older Adults
Publish Date: News / 3 August 2021
When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, public librarians grappled with the challenge of how to continue supporting the types of social connections they had, pre-pandemic, facilitated through engaging programming and inviting spaces. For many older adult...
Community of Practice for Telehealth at the Library
Publish Date: News / 1 June 2021
Even before the pandemic, Pottsboro Library in Texas had begun to focus more on health, through their community garden, and programming like cooking classes for families on a SNAP budget. But when director Dianne Connery witnessed the added challenge...
Smart Spaces are Community Places
Publish Date: Webinar / 27 April 2021
In this webinar, learn design thinking principles that can be used in collaboration with the community, to identify and meet space and programming needs for active learning.
Mental Health First Aid and Trauma-Informed Approaches for Libraries
Publish Date: Webinar / 13 April 2021
This webinar explores how the principles of trauma-informed care and Mental Health First Aid can equip staff with the knowledge and confidence to communicate with compassion.
Envisioning Future Library Experiences: Service Design Techniques for Responsive Libraries
Publish Date: Webinar / 18 February 2021
The second in a two-part webinar series, this session will expand on design principles applied by case study libraries, who have been working with the design teams.
Find Community Collaborators and Partners
Publish Date: News / 26 January 2021
This resource is part of the Toolkit for Creating Smart Spaces, a toolkit to help you re-envision your library’s place as a center of community learning. As you interact with many members of your community through a variety of discovery stra...
Community engagement
Where do you go for inspiration? Invigorate your community engagement efforts with advice from library leaders.