by Ginnette Calvo
Nowadays, public libraries are characterized mainly by their proximity to the community, offer a wide variety of services for all types of users and the development of strategic alliances.
In the Program we had the opportunity to visit several public libraries, the Chicago Public Library, the Indianapolis Public Library, the Westerville Public Library and the Arthur Public Library. This was a very enriching experience, since it allowed me to obtain a more concrete vision of the development of this type of libraries.
The amount and diversity of services offered by these public libraries is amazing, only some of these are addressed in this post. Therefore, the services that most caught my attention in the public libraries visited are outlined below.
Chicago Public Library
- Maker Lab It’s not just about technology, also it’s about art.
- Maker Lab work with free software.
- Promotes broad access and inclusiveness.
- It is an opportunity for high school studentsl.
- It is a space to create things, for example creating computers, making audiovisual production, among others. According to the Chicago Public Library (2018):
“It’s an open environment where you choose what you want to do, and mentors and experts provide coaching and assistance” (para. 3).
Source: Chicago Public Library. (2018). Services FAQs [Website]. Retrieved from https://www.chipublib.org/faq/services/#faq_81484
- Learning Circles: Peer to peer collaboration courses online, then the users go to the Library and discuss together what they learned.
- Children’s Library: was recently remodeled, offers customized learning experiences for beginner students, elementary students and pre-teens
- Summer Learning Challenge: The Chicago Public Library offers one of the most complete programs I’ve seen, in addition to the promotion of reading has two more levels that involve applying what has been learned (Discover and make at least one creation), this really reinforces the new learning.
Indianapolis Public Library
Community Engagement Services:
- They are related to libraries in 9 countries, they make exchanges of 1 month, either of staff members or materials, this helps to obtain new ideas and provide better services.
- They develop ideas for inclusiveness: life skills such as how to create a budget, living alone; difficult conversations such as race, violence; LGBTQ Services Commitee, among others.
- Relationship between the Library and the outreach team (social workers, police) to support homeless patrons.
The Learning Curve: According to the Indianapolis Public Library (2018) the Learning Curve:
“Is a high tech, high energy, hands-on information environment designed for today’s children” (para. 1).
Source: Indianapolis Public Library. (2018). About [Website]. Retrieved from http://www.indypl.org/curve/?page_id=82
- This year the theme was superheroes; through this themes, values are promoted.
- Based on the school curriculum.
- Product-based activities.
- This was at the request of the teachers and makes the activities more profitable for the students.
Approaches:
- Build permanent and ongoing relationships.
- Hands-on, seeks active participation.
- Communication, they focus a lot on this element to maintain informed their patrons and to promote their initiatives, programs and services.
- The approach in their advertising is diversity and cultural sensitivity.
Principles that caught my attention:
- Philosophy: make connections and make people feel good.
- Partnerships, playing well with others. They work with schools, local artists, etc.
- They manage a database of contacts, every time they make a new contact they must register it and this is associated with a specific strategic plan and a specific goal, in order to be as productive as possible.
Westerville Public Library
- It is very popular in the community, it has a lot of demand.
- The library staff goes to the School Assemblies to promote the program.
- It allows to reinforce reading ability.
- Aimed at people of all ages.
- The Library selects the theme, this gives them the freedom to attend what users prefer.
- They also have the Guest Storytimes, where they look for people to read stories but at the same time to tell their own story. Guests can be athletes, artists or anyone.
- The Library prepares learning kits for the children.
- The kits contain different resources such as books, toys, games, movies and activities to develop life skills.
- This material is borrowed like any other resource in the library.
Interesting facts that caught my attention:
- Have creativity and being innovative are requirements to be hired in this library.
- They stopped charging fines a year ago in order to increase the satisfaction of their users. Fines was the complaint number one in the library.
- Their advertising is done with the library staff photos.
- Home Deliveries, they deliver material to people in the community who need it.
- Embedded Librarian.
- Seed Library, they provide seeds and teach how to plant.
- RFID Technology, the loan and the return are automated.
Arthur Public Library
- Provides service to a rural community, included the Amish community in Arthur.
- They also develop a Summer Reading Program.
“Outreach to Seniors, The Library offers Home Delivery Service to home-bound individuals living in Arthur” (Arthur Public Library, 2018, parra. 10).
Source: Arthur Public Library. (2018). Home [Website]. Retrieved from http://www.arthurlibrary.org/
My new learnings:
- Partnership and collaboration are the key to success.
- The importance of taking into account the opinion of the user in the development of the service and timely respond to this.
- We must pay attention to the services we provide, use the indicators and take into account the opinion of users to improve services. For example, in public libraries printed collections are consulted less and less, so electronic collections are being reinforced.
Everything learned will serve as a guide to identify where public libraries should be oriented and contrast with the reality of public libraries in Costa Rica, in order to improve services through the observation of successful cases such as the public libraries visited.