Real Stories

Tell Your Stories This National Library Week
Is your library looking for a new way to celebrate National Library Week, April 19-25? Here’s an engaging idea from the Bridges Library System in southeast Wisconsin: Share your patrons’ library stories with the community.Jill Fuller, marketing and communications librarian for the Bridges Library System, explains, “Our plan was to collect a variety of stories from patrons and feature them in a series on Facebook and Instagram.” Library staff at the system’s 24 member libraries helped connect Jill with patrons who were willing to share their stories. She started by asking them questions such as “why do you visit the library?” and “what is the value of the library in your life?” READ MORE
Because Teamwork Works
To make an impactful connection with their community, Texas Library Association District 5, which represents librarians in the northeastern part of the state, created a video with members reading Libraries Transform Because statements. Each member selected a statement that spoke to them and reflected what was important to them about libraries. It’s evident in the video that the participants connected with what they were saying, making the video more effective at reaching District 5’s audience. READ MORE
Because One Week Can Make a Big Difference
When the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library System in North Carolina staff realized National Library Week (NLW) was fast approaching, they knew they wouldn’t have the time or resources to plan a major event or campaign. Cordelia Anderson, director of marketing, communications and advocacy for the library, said, “We didn’t want to miss the opportunity to engage with our community during National Library Week, so we decided to do a simple digital campaign using the Libraries Transform toolkit.” She continued, “With so many other programs, promotions, campaigns and announcements happening in April, we felt this was the best strategy for celebrating the week without competing with ourselves.” 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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