How Libraries Are Becoming ‘Sustainable’
An ambitious goal of "making choices that are good for the environment, make sense economically, and treat everyone equitably."
Libraries
38 posts
Florida Man!
How a regional Florida newspaper informs its citizens and encourages activism.
Reading Banned Books Out Loud
When books themselves come under assault, public read-outs give new voice to the choir of believers. A note from the nation’s capital during Banned Books Week.
Libraries in the Age of Book Bans
Across the country, libraries are coming under political pressure. Here is how they are upholding their role as anchors for their communities, 'Open to All.'
Global Effort Takes Libraries to the People
Libraries Without Borders finds innovative ways to meet community residents where they are to provide equitable access to the range of services today’s libraries offer.
A Library Garden Celebrates Reading, Art, and Nature
In 2015, Dillsburg, Pennsylvania relocated the town's library to a bigger space to better serve its growing population. A year later, when tragedy struck, the community stepped up to grow the library to include a reading garden.
A Remarkable Woman Builds a Remarkable Library
This is the story of how a late-1800s free public library built by Amelia S. Givin in Mt. Holly Springs, Pennsylvania continues to bring the region together today.
Building Bridges within and among Communities through Stories
Not all bridges are physical. The ways communities are connecting with one another, and themselves, is happening differently in light of COVID-19 and with new tools like OurStoryBridge: an online platform that captures and houses community stories.
Libraries Lead the Way—Again
Every aspect of civic life has involved reinvention and adjustment, through this pandemic era. One of America's most "traditional" institutions has adjusted fastest and best.
Learning to Expect the Unexpected
Anythink Libraries Serve Adams County Through a Spirit of Hospitality and Innovation
How Libraries Are Leading the Way to Digital Equity
This is a report about how that drama is playing out in one sizable American city, and what its lessons indicate for the country as a whole.
Why Some Libraries Are Eliminating Fines
Are fines consistent with a fundamental mission of libraries: to serve the public with information and knowledge? And to address that mission equitably across the diverse population of rich and poor library users?
The Post-Pandemic Future of Libraries
"I've never been prouder to be a librarian."
Public Libraries’ Novel Response to a Novel Virus
America’s public libraries have led the ranks of “second responders,” stepping up for their communities in times of natural or manmade disasters, like hurricanes, floods, shootings, fires, and big downturns…
Looking at Libraries
Continuing the photo essay about public libraries, which showed many examples of children’s rooms and adult spaces, this collection shows some of the multitude of activities happening at public libraries. It also…
A Portrait of Public Libraries
Since Jim Fallows and I began traveling the country for American Futures and Our Towns nearly seven years ago, there has been one beat that began as a surprise to me and grew into…