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...

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...

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...

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...

Earlier this year, in Thinking Outside: Libraries and Placemaking in Pandemic Times, we shared how some libraries were moving library programming and services to the outdoors, as a way to stay engaged with their communities during the pandemic. And n...

WebJunction's series of free, self-paced courses, Creating Pathways to Civil Legal Justice, will augment your ability and confidence to meet civil legal justice information needs in your community. Created in partnership with Legal Services Corporati...

The StoryWalk® ranks among the most ingenious ideas of the last 20 years. From humble origins in Montpelier, Vermont, this idea has spread throughout libraries across North America, and beyond. And in recent years, and especially with libraries close...

As libraries begin to consider offering services and programming in new or reimagined ways, some are looking at how to use outdoor spaces as a way to connect and engage with their communities. From parking lots to baseball diamonds, there are public ...

In part 2 of the series, Audrey Dingler, from Cape May County Library, and Noah Lenstra, from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, explore how libraries assess community needs in relation to outdoor tourism and recreation economies, and ex...

Audrey Dingler, from Cape May County Library, and Noah Lenstra, from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, reflect on preliminary research into how rural counties with outdoor tourism and recreation economies benefit from population sta...