Outreach
Outreach meets community needs with both traditional and new services, in dynamic and changing environments. Whether providing services to those who can't come to the library, or reaching out to those who are underserved, library outreach and community engagement ensures equitable delivery of library services to all people.
Self-paced courses and webinar recordings on this topic are freely available in the WebJunction Course Catalog.
Photo: Bart Heird, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Most Recently Added
Digital Collections at Your Library: Community, Culture, and Connection
Publish Date: Webinar / 26 April 2022
In this webinar, practitioners will share how their digital collections have enabled their community members to connect with unique histories and cultures, increase appreciation of local history, and foster connections across generations.
Listen. Partner. Follow Through: Community Engagement Principles
Publish Date: News / 4 April 2022
The best part of my job at OCLC is getting to hear about the impactful programs and activities that libraries create to solve community problems and help transform lives. I recently got the chance to talk to Nancy Pacheco and Elizabeth Gray from the ...
Taking Care of Self, Staff, and Community
Publish Date: Webinar / 10 March 2022
In this webinar, we explore ideas for expanding core self-care practices to encompass connections with work colleagues and more broadly with community members.
Socially Connected Communities: Solutions for Social Isolation
Publish Date: News / 22 February 2022
A new report on Socially Connected Communities: Solutions for Social Isolation published by Healthy Places by Design highlights how librarians and other leaders can work together to address this issue. The report was developed based on a series of co...
"Let's Talk Race" Toolkits
Publish Date: Webinar / 22 February 2022
Staff from the Salt Lake City Public Library share how they built picture book-based kits, offering practical and positive ways to talk to children about race.
Pima County Library: Building Community through Cultural Humility
Publish Date: News / 25 January 2022
It’s no secret that a lot of really wonderful people work in libraries. I learn so much from having regular access to motivated, smart people who are so passionate about helping others. The best librarians possess a unique blend of conviction, commit...
2022 National Day of Racial Healing
Publish Date: News / 3 January 2022
The National Day of Racial Healing (NDORH) is an opportunity for people, organizations, and communities to call for racial healing, bring people together in their shared humanity and take action together to create a more just and equitable world.
Pandemic Challenges and Learning Outcomes from RAILS
Publish Date: News / 7 December 2021
Monica Harris is the Associate Executive Director of RAILS (Reaching Across Illinois Library System), which serves approximately 1,300 academic, public, school, and special library agencies in northern and west-central Illinois. We caught up with Mon...
Public Health is Part of Library Outreach
Publish Date: News / 3 November 2021
Outreach efforts in the public library increasingly center around building, sustaining, and leveraging community partnerships, including with public health partners. That fact was evident at the 2021 Association of Bookmobile & Outreach Services’...
Perspectives from the Field: Association for Rural & Small Libraries
Publish Date: News / 18 August 2021
Small and rural library staff have long had a champion through the professional organization, the Association for Rural & Small Libraries (ARSL). Hear from executive director Kate Laughlin as she shares the experience of the association as they n...
Community engagement
Where do you go for inspiration? Invigorate your community engagement efforts with advice from library leaders.