News

  • Hopkinton Public Library unites community in library planning

    At Hopkinton Public Library in Iowa, community engagement is thriving. And the secret to this success is including community members in in the planning, from beginning to end. From an annual haunted house to community bake-offs, the library incorpora...

  • Align library services with community aspirations

    The most successful library services are often those that help the community meet its aspirations while also honoring the unique purpose of the library. But balancing the community’s goals and the library’s scope is not always an easy task.

  • Together we heal

    Like many small-town libraries, Jarrell Community Library is an important place for connection. And through a recent Libraries for Heath grant, the library is offering new kinds of connections—to peer mental health specialists and an array of resourc...

  • Easy as ABCD: Using asset-based community development as a lens for authentic relationship-building

    Building relationships with systematically excluded communities is one of the most important things your library can do to support relevant, meaningful services. Co-creation can help librarians embody our EDISJ (equity, diversity, inclusion, and soci...

  • Centering Community VOICE

    Are you looking to deepen or expand your library’s outreach services for children and families from underserved communities, or would you like to build your library’s outreach efforts but don’t know where to begin? Have you been looking for ways to i...

  • Stronger Together: Collective Impact and Climate Action

    Climate change is the grandest challenge of our generation. This requires a level of collaboration that has not been seen before.

  • 2024 National Day of Racial Healing

    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.

  • Programs that Walk the Talk

    Throughout this Climate Action series, we have discussed strategies and practical steps libraries can take toward sustainability, as well as resources to support these efforts. The Sustainable Libraries Initiative can help support a balanced approach...

  • I Partner with my Public Library Award

    As libraries continue turning outward to communities, the importance of collaboration increases. We not only have to share information about core library services, we also have to share information about how and why we work with community partners on...

  • Climate Justice

    While everyone is affected by climate change, the impacts of climate change are not evenly distributed. That’s why it’s so crucial to consider the social and economic impact of our environmental choices in our responses to climate change. This articl...