Erica Freudenberger

Outreach librarianship meets community members where they are, building  relationships that improve libraries and lives.

Library gardens help address food insecurity, ease environmental impact, provide stress relief, and serve as pandemic-safe space for community connection.

In the messy middle of the pandemic, library leaders share how things have changed since March 2020, their takeways, and continuing challenges.

How do you reopen a library with no guidelines or best practices to work from? That’s the question public leaders and staff are considering as library buildings gradually open across the country.

With buildings closed to flatten the COVID-19 curve, libraries respond with a rapid pivot to contactless service.

As recommendations to slow the spread of COVID-19 across the country become common knowledge, public events have been canceled, public schools have closed, and calls for social distancing to flatten the curve have become the norm. But some libraries remain divided on whether to remain open but suspend public programming, outreach, or meeting room rentals; limit hours; or close entirely.

In Seattle, WA, considered by many to be Ground Zero for the coronavirus in the United States, directors have have been modeling how libraries can deal with a public health crisis calmly and compassionately. 

Merchandising can be implemented strategically at libraries, just as it is in retail, and can increase circulation, stimulate robust discussions, and generate foot traffic. To drive circ, how you showcase your materials can be as important as what you buy.

In times of tight budgets and fewer staff members, passive programming—temporary, self-directed activities or exhibits that users interact with in their own time—can answer a library’s need to engage patrons with less funding and fewer human resources. Many libraries have taken the idea a step further, creating initiatives that don’t require active staff interaction or dedicated program hours, but still interest and challenge patrons, address specific community needs, and even contribute to a library’s greater mission.