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. You have gathered a lot of feedback and generated a lot of insights into your community...

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...

"Yes!" That’s what Kathy Zappitello, Executive Director of the Conneaut Public Library wants her staff to be able to say to patrons, to colleagues, and to new opportunities. The library, which serves a community of 12,841 residents in north...

When libraries look to expand or revitalize the programs and services that they offer, they often turn to their community for inspiration and ideas. And the best way to learn what the community wants, is to ask, listen and observe! Using a design thi...

Putting a focus on accessibility helps create a library that can be enjoyed by more people and can connect more people to the information and resources they need. Opportunities to make libraries more accessible can include decisions about your collec...

ALA Annual is always overflowing with sessions to help library staff take a step back and think about their libraries, services, and approach to their communities. This year was no exception, and there were many stand-out sessions dedicated to rethin...

For the cohort of small/rural libraries that participated in WebJunction's Small Libraries Create Smart Spaces project in 2017-18, the most transformational aspect of the process was realizing new ways to meet and collaborate with their communities. ...

Assessment can be time consuming, intimidating, stress inducing, and just overwhelming. Where do you even begin? What do you do with the data? In the recent webinar,

Lynn Silipigni Connaway has collected sage advice from the trenches, for those working through assessment projects, and in anticpation of the next session in our webinar series.

Assessment projects can be intimidating and overwhelming. I hav...