Week 4: Communities

(I just realized that my post titles are technically a week behind.  This is our 5th week of class, but our 4th week of blog responses.  So I'm keeping it the way it is.  Just so you know that I'm aware.)

Okay, this week was all about communities and how we can better include our communities in the library and make them a part of our library.  What I thought was interesting was that the focus wasn't on getting the community to come to the library, but the librarian needs to be a vital part of the community.  They need to be in the field, participating in the events that the community believes to be important.  I think this is fantastic advice.  The quote at the beginning of the thread is as follows, "One of the things I learned in library school is that when people have an information need, they'll always ask people they know before they ask a librarian.  The trick is making sure that librarians are some of the people they know." -Jessamyn West.

So by becoming involved in the community, you are essentially doing just that, letting the community get to know you, so you will be the one they come to when they have questions.

Before coming to New York, I had volunteered at a local public library.  As I was reading the thread, I kept thinking of this library, and how this library seemed to have a lot of concepts down when it comes to the community.  This library, I feel, was community centered.  They knew their community and the needs of the community.  There were a lot of stay at home moms who had young children (this was Utah, after all) and one of their main focuses was on story-time.  I was lucky enough to volunteer during their story time hours, and it was hugely successful.  They always had a huge turn-out, and one librarian that I talked to told me that she had many parents come up to her and thank her for the program, saying that they used story time as thir child's preschool. 

I also worked in the back of the library in the area of the story time faculty, and overheard many of their conversations when it came to planning and implementing the program.  They had story times for different age groups, but they were constantly discussing what the different age groups needed, and if it was even needed to have an older aged story time.  They were assessing and evaluating what they were doing so they could fit the community's needs.