Real Stories

Because There's Power in Coalition
New Mexico’s libraries first adopted the Libraries Transform campaign as a theme for their 2016 conference, co-sponsored by the New Mexico State Library and the New Mexico Library Association (NMLA). The conference brought together librarians, policy-makers and other local leaders to review a recent assessment of public, school, academic, tribal and special libraries across the state, providing an opportunity to critically reflect on how New Mexico’s libraries can continue to transform communities—focusing both on their achievements thus far and the possible challenges lying ahead. READ MORE
Because Libraries Bring Communities Together
The Bridges Library System, which serves 24 public libraries across Wisconsin’s Waukesha and Jefferson counties, covers a wide and diverse community—but this February, their month-long Libraries Transform campaign will bring together local residents in celebration of libraries. Timed to coincide with National Library Lovers Month, the festivities will use the ALA’s Libraries Transform campaign as a starting point to raise awareness of the crucial role of the library in the community. The Bridges Library System staff has worked closely with their two dozen member libraries to unite staff in their common goal of community engagement. READ MORE
Because Libraries Transform Is Going Global
The Higher Colleges of Technology Ras Al Khaimah Men’s campus planned a series of highly interactive Library Week events and activities to help students, faculty and staff discover the fun and enjoyment that libraries provide every day. To better engage students and increase participation during Library Week, the library created a specially themed Libraries Transform photo booth to encourage image sharing on social media and ran a contest for library users to write their own “Because” statements. According to Librarian Muram Abdelmageed, they found the Libraries Transform easy to customize for their libraries. She said judging from all the comments she received about the Libraries Transform theme and activities, Library Week was a big success among all the students and faculty. READ MORE

READ MORE LIBRARIES TRANSFORM STORIES

Stories from Library Lovers

Jill from Wickliffe, Ohio
When I first set out to home school my then 13 year old son several years ago, I was completely at a loss for where to begin. I am not a trained teacher. As a single mother with a degree in nutrition, curriculum design had always been far from my mind, but I did know his interests and how he learns. Apprehensive but hopeful, I turned to our local library. They did not disappoint. I was able to easily search topics throughout the entire Clevnet system in a variety of modalities including books, videos, cds, and audiobooks. READ MORE

Do you have a story about how your library is transforming to meet the needs of your community?
Has the library transformed your life in some way?

 

TELL US YOUR STORY

 

Ted Talks

Libraries Present and Future – Chrystie Hill | TEDxRainier
Chrystie Hill works with libraries around the world and shares her knowledge to help make libraries great places.

Librarians of the Future – Lis Pardi | TEDxSomerville
As the sale of eBook readers rise many people assume the library is dying—that it has no place in our device obsessed future world. But librarians are re-inventing what a library is and sometimes removing it from the big building full of books.

 

The Library of the Future – Melanie Florencio | TEDxCreativeCoast
The introduction of a "Maker Space" at the Beaufort, SC public library system marks a transition for libraries where content is no longer simply absorbed, but also created.

 

Articles

Neil Gaiman: Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming

A lecture explaining why using our imaginations, and providing for others to use theirs, is an obligation for all citizens.
It's important for people to tell you what side they are on and why, and whether they might be biased. A declaration of members' interests, of a sort. So, I am going to be talking to you about reading. I'm going to tell you that libraries are important.

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Not Your Mother's Library

How Columbus, Ohio, is building community spaces for the 21st century.
The Columbus Metropolitan Library recently asked its Facebook followers to give them ten words: five to describe the library of their youth and five to describe the library of the future, 20 years from now.

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The Library Card

A summation of James and Deb Fallows’s 54,000-mile journey around America in a single-engine plane
s we traveled around the U.S. reporting on the revival of towns and cities, we always made the local library an early stop. We’d hit the newspaper offices, the chamber of commerce, city hall, and Main Street for an introduction to the economics, politics, and stresses of a town. The visit to the public library revealed its heart and soul.

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