Libraries are many things to their communities—and sometimes, they’re everything. The Page Public Library, on the northern Arizona border, is considered not just a library but the essential core of the community, and has been named LJ and Ingram's Best Small Library in America 2023.
Cody Library prioritizes its community’s wellness through a wide range of tools and collaborations. These include the library’s Health Resource Center, with a collection curated in partnership with the Cody Medical Foundation, and an Outreach Garden, which provides hands-on education and nature literacy.
When Marathon Public Library, the smallest accredited library in Texas, adopted a new strategic plan and launched its $2 million Heart of Marathon capital campaign in 2021, it spurred changes and improvements across programs and services for its population of just under 1,400—and library use grew dramatically as well, with annual visits increasing from 841 to 13,623 over the past decade.
At a time when collaboration is endangered by conflict and critical thinking is often jettisoned in favor of the latest “hot take,” I can’t help but feel like library professionals are the leaders we need to secure a brighter future.
Ericson Public Library, IA, needed a program that highlighted the varied dimensions of equity while bringing members of the community together—a program that demonstrated how diversity unites us, rather than divides us. We found that opportunity through round two of the American Library Association’s Libraries Transforming Communities grant, receiving funding to implement an equity project called “Activating Community Voices.”
On any given day, Schuylerville Public Library patrons might find director Caitlin Johnson stacking apples or cleaning the public produce fridge. Collaboration with local farmers, food pantries, and the Southern Adirondack Library System, NY, as part of the Farm-2-Library program has allowed SPL to offer tens of thousands of pounds of fresh produce to patrons free of charge.
When the Democratic nominee for state representative in Ohio’s 99th district was forced to withdraw from an upcoming election after her home was redistricted by 20 feet, Kathy Zappitello stepped into the race, largely to oppose pending censorship legislation introduced by her opponent that would “prohibit teaching, advocating, or promoting divisive concepts.”
From Government Technology: The Maine State Library launched a pilot telehealth program with 10 libraries across the state last year in communities with high instances of health issues or a lack of ready access to health care or technology at home. The goal, said Maine State Librarian Jamie Ritter, was to make access to health care more equitable.
Reference librarians in small academic libraries do a little of everything, from seeing synergies to creating workarounds for staff, collection, facilities, and budget gaps.
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