How can libraries build caring communities?

Libraries of all types are taking on new roles and responsibilities. Through robust programming agendas, they’re at the center of community-building efforts all across the US. As part of the National Impact of Library Public Programs Assessment (NILPPA), Knology sat down with advisors from across the library sector to discuss the impacts libraries aim to have on the communities they serve. During these discussions, we also brainstormed ways to track these impacts across various domains of community life. Two important ideas emerged from our conversations:

• Impact Domains
  Specific areas where library programs can make meaningful differences in people’s lives. We defined nine of these. Libraries can help create: (1) connected communities; (2) knowledgeable communities; (3) creative communities; (4) civically engaged communities; (5) healthy communities; (6) economically vital communities; (7) welcoming communities; (8) joyful communities; (9) caring communities.
• Indicators
  Ways of measuring the real-world impact of library programming. These Indicators allow us to determine whether or not programs are having their intended effects.

In this series of blog posts, we’d like to talk about each of these impact domains individually, and talk about how libraries are contributing to each of them. In this post, we focus on caring communities.

What are Caring Communities?

A caring community is one that provides support to those in need, and whose members treat one another with compassion and empathy. Caring communities promote prosocial values and behaviors, and help people make commitments to each other in ways that lead to interpersonal awareness and mutual helping. They also foster a sense of social responsibility, especially for the most vulnerable community members. Libraries can help build caring communities by creating spaces that allow for cooperative learning and group collaboration, and by developing programs that foster kindness, justice, tolerance, considerateness, and concern for others.Read more and comment

How can libraries create joyful communities?

Libraries of all types are taking on new roles and responsibilities. Through robust programming agendas, they’re at the center of community-building efforts all across the US. As part of the National Impact of Library Public Programs Assessment (NILPPA), Knology sat down with advisors from across the library sector to discuss the impacts libraries aim to have on the communities they serve. During these discussions, we also brainstormed ways to track these impacts across various domains of community life. Two important ideas emerged from our conversations:

• Impact Domains
  Specific areas where library programs can make meaningful differences in people’s lives. We defined nine of these. Libraries can help create: (1) connected communities; (2) knowledgeable communities; (3) creative communities; (4) civically engaged communities; (5) healthy communities; (6) economically vital communities; (7) welcoming communities; (8) joyful communities; (9) caring communities.
• Indicators
  Ways of measuring the real-world impact of library programming. These Indicators allow us to determine whether or not programs are having their intended effects.

In this series of blog posts, we’d like to talk about each of these impact domains individually, and talk about how libraries are contributing to each of them. In this post, we focus on joyful communities.

What are Joyful Communities?

Joy is one of the most basic and profound of all human emotions. It refers to feelings of happiness, delight, and elation, and can be experienced in connection with both the simple pleasures of life or as a deeper, abiding sense of contentment and fulfillment. On a collective level, joy is associated with feelings of community spirit and pride. A joyful community is one that enables its members to experience all of these different forms of joy. More specifically, joyful communities create spaces where people can come together to have fun, be entertained, enjoy each other’s company, celebrate one another’s lives, and affirm both their histories and the futures they are making together. Libraries can help build joyful communities by creating programs that meet patrons’ needs for entertainment, amusement, and diversion, and that build a sense of place attachment and pride within the community.Read more and comment

How can libraries make communities more welcoming?

Libraries of all types are taking on new roles and responsibilities. Through robust programming agendas, they’re at the center of community-building efforts all across the US. As part of the National Impact of Library Public Programs Assessment (NILPPA), Knology sat down with advisors from across the library sector to discuss the impacts libraries aim to have on the communities they serve. During these discussions, we also brainstormed ways to track these impacts across various domains of community life. Two important ideas emerged from our conversations:

• Impact Domains
  Specific areas where library programs can make meaningful differences in people’s lives. We defined nine of these. Libraries can help create: (1) connected communities; (2) knowledgeable communities; (3) creative communities; (4) civically engaged communities; (5) healthy communities; (6) economically vital communities; (7) welcoming communities; (8) joyful communities; (9) caring communities.
• Indicators
  Ways of measuring the real-world impact of library programming. These Indicators allow us to determine whether or not programs are having their intended effects.

In this series of blog posts, we’d like to talk about each of these impact domains individually, and talk about how libraries are contributing to each of them. In this post, we focus on welcoming communities.

What are Welcoming Communities?

A welcoming community is “a location that has the capacity to meet the needs and promote inclusion of newcomers, and the machinery in place to produce and support these capacities” (Esses et al., 2010). That is, a welcoming community is one that takes a positive attitude toward newcomers and cultural diversity, and that is able to meet the needs of those newcomers. Similarly, Welcoming America (n.d.) focuses on support from local leadership in ensuring equitable access to public services, education, and participation in work and civic life. While these initiatives were developed in response to immigrant and refugee populations, the communities libraries serve may also be welcoming newcomers from within the US. For NILPPA, we define a welcoming community as one with a broad interest in protecting and promoting human rights.Read more and comment

How can libraries make communities more economically vital?

Libraries of all types are taking on new roles and responsibilities. Through robust programming agendas, they’re at the center of community-building efforts all across the US. As part of the National Impact of Library Public Programs Assessment (NILPPA), Knology sat down with advisors from across the library sector to discuss the impacts libraries aim to have on the communities they serve. During these discussions, we also brainstormed ways to track these impacts across various domains of community life. Two important ideas emerged from our conversations:

• Impact Domains
  Specific areas where library programs can make meaningful differences in people’s lives. We defined nine of these. Libraries can help create: (1) connected communities; (2) knowledgeable communities; (3) creative communities; (4) civically engaged communities; (5) healthy communities; (6) economically vital communities; (7) welcoming communities; (8) joyful communities; (9) caring communities.
• Indicators
  Ways of measuring the real-world impact of library programming. These Indicators allow us to determine whether or not programs are having their intended effects.

In this series of blog posts, we’d like to talk about each of these impact domains individually, and talk about how libraries are contributing to each of them. In this post, we focus on economic vitality.

What are Economically Vital Communities?

Economically vital communities continuously create the conditions that promote economic development and individual and collective prosperity. Much of this depends on governmental policy, but there are many ways that community members and community institutions (including libraries and local chambers of commerce) contribute to economic vitality. Economically vital communities work towards job readiness and help community members develop the skills to reach their full potential. Economically vital communities support local providers of goods and services, and help new entrepreneurs break into the marketplace. These activities lead to equitable participation in the local and regional economy, and ensure the equitable use of community goods, services, and natural and human resources.

Example: Libraries as Entrepreneurial Hubs

One of many ways libraries can promote economic vitality is by providing resources and support for community members starting or running their own businesses. Entrepreneurship can take many forms: a “side hustle” or a full-time job, a registered business with employees or a one-person operation, an online shop or in-person, providing goods like food and art, or services like writing and health coaching. No matter what form their business takes, entrepreneurs face a number of challenges, from planning to obtaining funds to identifying customers to balancing budgets — not to mention adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic. From 2018 to 2022, 12 large public library systems received funding from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to expand their support for local entrepreneurs.Read more and comment

Libraries of all types are taking on new roles and responsibilities. Through robust programming agendas, they’re at the center of community-building efforts all across the US. As part of the National Impact of Library Public Programs Assessment (NILPPA), Knology sat down with advisors from across the library sector to discuss the impacts libraries aim to have on the communities they serve. During these discussions, we also brainstormed ways to track these impacts across various domains of community life. Two important ideas emerged from our conversations:

• Impact Domains
  Specific areas where library programs can make meaningful differences in people’s lives. We defined nine of these. Libraries can help create: (1) connected communities; (2) knowledgeable communities; (3) creative communities; (4) civically engaged communities; (5) healthy communities; (6) economically vital communities; (7) welcoming communities; (8) joyful communities; (9) caring communities.
• Indicators
  Ways of measuring the real-world impact of library programming. These Indicators allow us to determine whether or not programs are having their intended effects.

In this series of blog posts, we’d like to talk about each of these impact domains individually, and talk about how libraries are contributing to each of them. In this post, we focus on healthy communities.

What are Healthy Communities?

By the most straightforward definition, a healthy community is one where all members are able to lead physically and mentally healthy lives. Meeting these needs sometimes depends on medical care, but healthy communities promote wellbeing in a more general sense — for example, through programs focused on nutrition, exercise, or navigating the health system. On a broader level, healthy communities undertake actions aligned with the five “social determinants of health” outlined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: healthcare access, safe living conditions, positive social relationships, financial stability, and access to quality education (HHS, n.d.). Healthy communities take responsibility for individual and collective health. They provide opportunities for community members to learn about health issues affecting them and their community, and work together to improve health outcomes.Read more and comment

Libraries of all types are taking on new roles and responsibilities. Through robust programming agendas, they’re at the center of community-building efforts all across the US. As part of the National Impact of Library Public Programs Assessment (NILPPA), Knology sat down with advisors from across the library sector to discuss the impacts libraries aim to have on the communities they serve. During these discussions, we also brainstormed ways to track these impacts across various domains of community life. Two important ideas emerged from our conversations:

• Impact Domains
  Specific areas where library programs can make meaningful differences in people’s lives. We defined nine of these. Libraries can help create: (1) connected communities; (2) knowledgeable communities; (3) creative communities; (4) civically engaged communities; (5) healthy communities; (6) economically vital communities; (7) welcoming communities; (8) joyful communities; (9) caring communities.
• Indicators
  Ways of measuring the real-world impact of library programming. These Indicators allow us to determine whether or not programs are having their intended effects.

In this series of blog posts, we’d like to talk about each of these impact domains individually, and talk about how libraries are contributing to each of them. In this post, we focus on civic engagement.

What are Civically Engaged Communities?

“Civic engagement” comes in different forms. Perhaps the first that comes to mind is involvement with political issues. Certainly, voting in local and national elections, attending town hall or school board meetings, and engaging in public discussion of issues affecting the community are important forms of civic engagement. But for NILPPA, we look at a wider range of activities, including membership in community organizations, volunteering, and community service. We define a civically engaged community as one whose members are encouraged to play an active role in civic life, and where public participation in community governance is an established norm.

Example: Land Development Discussions at the Waimea Public Library

The Waimea Public Library, located on Kauai, Hawaii, received a grant from ALA’s Libraries Transforming Communities initiative to host discussions around a new land development project in their service area. The county had recently purchased 417 acres of land, and sought community input to guide future plans for the property. Even before receiving LTC funding, the library volunteered to collect written comments from visitors, but with financial support, they were able to host two in-person discussions, which they called “Talk Stories.” At these events, visitors had an opportunity to learn about the many potential uses for the land, ask questions directly to county officials, and share their own thoughts.Read more and comment

How can libraries build more creative communities?

Libraries of all types are taking on new roles and responsibilities. Through robust programming agendas, they’re at the center of community-building efforts all across the US. As part of the National Impact of Library Public Programs Assessment (NILPPA), Knology sat down with advisors from across the library sector to discuss the impacts libraries aim to have on the communities they serve. During these discussions, we also brainstormed ways to track these impacts across various domains of community life. Two important ideas emerged from our conversations:

• Impact Domains
  Specific areas where library programs can make meaningful differences in people’s lives. We defined nine of these. Libraries can help create: (1) connected communities; (2) knowledgeable communities; (3) creative communities; (4) civically engaged communities; (5) healthy communities; (6) economically vital communities; (7) welcoming communities; (8) joyful communities; (9) caring communities.
• Indicators
  Ways of measuring the real-world impact of library programming. These Indicators allow us to determine whether or not programs are having their intended effects.

In this series of blog posts, we’d like to talk about each of these impact domains individually, and talk about how libraries are contributing to each of them. In this first post, we focus on creative communities.

What are Creative Communities?

This is one of the more straightforward impact areas: creative communities nurture the arts and promote participatory creativity. In such a community, members have opportunities to express themselves through art, music, and other creative endeavors — and to earn a living through such pursuits, if they want. For a career as a creative professional to be feasible, a community needs to provide support and resources to these professionals, as well as opportunities for their creations to find an audience through exhibitions, performances, festivals, or other cultural events.

Example: Keeping Music Alive at McCone County Library

George McCone Memorial County Library serves the rural community of Circle, Montana, and its surrounding counties. In 2022, the music teacher in the local school retired, and finding a potential replacement willing to move to a small, isolated town was a difficult proposition. The library applied for a grant through ALA’s Libraries Transforming Communities initiative, and used part of the funding to purchase music-related resources, including books, DVDs, and sheet music. They also held an open conversation with community members on how to support music education in the absence of formal school lessons. One solution the group came up with was “micro-lessons,” where students could sign up for one or two lessons at a time with community members, requiring only a small time commitment from individuals interested in teaching. Additionally, they expanded the library’s collection of sheet music through community donations, helping to ensure that students taking “micro-lessons” would have access to materials.

For more information, check out ALA’s case study here.Read more and comment

Libraries of all types are taking on new roles and responsibilities. Through robust programming agendas, they’re at the center of community-building efforts all across the US. As part of the National Impact of Library Public Programs Assessment (NILPPA), Knology sat down with advisors from across the library sector to discuss the impacts libraries aim to have on the communities they serve. During these discussions, we also brainstormed ways to track these impacts across various domains of community life. Two important ideas emerged from our conversations:

• Impact Domains
  Specific areas where library programs can make meaningful differences in people’s lives. We defined nine of these. Libraries can help create: (1) connected communities; (2) knowledgeable communities; (3) creative communities; (4) civically engaged communities; (5) healthy communities; (6) economically vital communities; (7) welcoming communities; (8) joyful communities; (9) caring communities.
• Indicators
  Ways of measuring the real-world impact of library programming. These Indicators allow us to determine whether or not programs are having their intended effects.

In this series of blog posts, we’d like to talk about each of these impact domains individually, and talk about how libraries are contributing to each of them. In this post, we focus on knowledgeable communities.

What are Knowledgeable Communities?

We consider two factors to be essential for a knowledgeable community; libraries have long contributed to both. The first is access to reliable information on a wide range of topics — the bread and butter of libraries. However, making information available is not in and of itself sufficient for community members to be knowledgeable on the issues that affect them. The community also needs high levels of information literacy: that is, the critical thinking skills and norms needed to identify reliable information sources and make evidence-based decisions. Helping patrons acquire these skills is an area libraries worldwide have increasingly focused on in recent years (see the references listed below for more on this).Read more and comment

How can libraries make communities more connected?

Libraries of all types are taking on new roles and responsibilities. Through robust programming agendas, they’re at the center of community-building efforts all across the US. As part of the National Impact of Library Public Programs Assessment (NILPPA), Knology sat down with advisors from across the library sector to discuss the impacts libraries aim to have on the communities they serve. During these discussions, we also brainstormed ways to track these impacts across various domains of community life. Two important ideas emerged from our conversations:

• Impact Domains
  Specific areas where library programs can make meaningful differences in people’s lives. We defined nine of these. Libraries can help create: (1) connected communities; (2) knowledgeable communities; (3) creative communities; (4) civically engaged communities; (5) healthy communities; (6) economically vital communities; (7) welcoming communities; (8) joyful communities; (9) caring communities.
• Indicators
  Ways of measuring the real-world impact of library programming. These Indicators allow us to determine whether or not programs are having their intended effects.

In this series of blog posts, we’d like to talk about each of these impact domains individually, and talk about how libraries are contributing to each of them. In this first post, we focus on our first impact domain: connected communities.

What are Connected Communities?

The word “connected” can mean many things to many people. For NILPPA, we’re defining connected communities as those with high levels of social capital. “Social capital” is a term used frequently in sociology, with various definitions. For NILPPA, we follow Robert Putnam’s definition of social capital as “the intangible benefits people gain access to through social relationships, and in particular, to those norms and networks that facilitate trust, cooperation, reciprocity, and collective action” (paraphrased from Putnam, 1995). That is, communities with strong connections (high social capital) follow mutually agreed-upon norms and give back to others and to the community as a whole. This can contribute to other impact areas such as civic engagement, welcoming newcomers, and caring for others, which we’ll go into more depth on in future blog posts.Read more and comment

How can partnerships help libraries reach their programming goals?

Over the last few months, we’ve been sharing results for a field-wide survey we conducted to better understand library partnerships. The survey asked libraries to describe one particular partnership that worked well for them, and in our last four posts, we discussed findings in connection with some of its key questions—including Who do you consider your public?; What did your partnership focus on?; How did you interact with your partner?; and What makes a partnership effective?

In this post, we focus on a fifth key question our survey asked: What makes partnerships valuable? We left this question rather open-ended and allowed respondents to define “value” as they best saw fit. Our results allowed us to create a new model for understanding partnership value for libraries.Read more and comment

How can partnerships help libraries reach their programming goals?

Over the past few months we’ve been sharing findings from a field-wide survey that asked libraries to tell us about one partnership that worked well for them. In previous posts, we shared information about the libraries who responded to this survey, and discussed responses to three of its key questions: Who do you consider your public?; What did your partnership focus on?; and How did you interact with your partner?

In this post, we focus on a fourth key question our survey asked: What makes a partnership effective? Our results highlight five factors that are key to the development of strong and effective relationships between libraries and their partners.

What Did Libraries Tell Us?

Understanding what makes partnerships effective is not a straightforward matter, as the question of what “success” looks like depends on many things: the community, the library, the partner, the goals of programming, and factors outside libraries’ control (for example, COVID-19). Nevertheless, the responses we received to this question point to five key factors that contribute to the success of a partnership. The graphic below illustrates these:

Libraries defined each of these five areas as follows:

• Strategic Alignment
  Many library staff pointed to shared understanding of the community and its needs as part of what made a partnership effective. Organizations with common goals (or that work to develop shared goals) are well-equipped to collaborate on programming that is both valuable to each partner and that creates change in the communities they serve.
• Effective Teamwork
  Assigning roles in a way that plays to each partner’s strengths allows programs to be implemented with less burden on either organization. Library staff noted that taking the expertise and limitations of both organizations into account in the division of labor contributed to effective partnerships.
• Communication & Expectations
  Frequent, open, and continuous communication were frequently mentioned as part of an effective partnership. Good communication leads to clear expectations of what each partner is realistically able to contribute and hopes the other can provide, allowing programs to be developed and implemented more smoothly.
• Interpersonal / Relationship Qualities
  Library staff pointed out a wide range of attributes in a partner that contribute to strong working relationships, including flexibility, dependability, enthusiasm, willingness to compromise, sense of humor, and leadership skills. Furthermore, they pointed to qualities that develop over the course of a relationship, such as mutual trust, acknowledgement of each partner’s contribution, and seeing one another as someone to ask for help.
• Tackling Operational Concerns
  Limited time, funding, and staff are issues facing both libraries and the organizations they partner with. Accommodating one another’s needs, whether for volunteers, branding, specific timing, a formal contract, etc., contributes to the effectiveness of partnerships, as does demonstrating impact to ensure administrators see the value in continuing the relationship.

Let’s Put It to Work!

We are confident that our findings are true for a range of libraries, but we’re curious to learn more about this. Some questions we’d like to get your feedback on include:

• What do you think makes a partnership effective?
• What are the elements of a successful partnership in your library, and do they match the findings laid out here?
• How effective overall have your library’s partnerships been?

We’d love to know more about these things, so please let us know how our survey results square with your own library’s experience. You can do this either by commenting below or by emailing us at programminglibrarian@ala.org.

Funding

These materials were produced for National Impact of Library Public Programs Assessment (NILPPA), a project funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The authors are solely responsible for the content on this page.

Photo by Vardan Papikyan at Unsplash

How can partnerships help libraries reach their programming goals?

In previous posts, we shared information about a recent survey that asked libraries to talk about one partnership that worked well for them. So far, we’ve discussed responses to two of our survey’s key questions: Who do you consider your public? and What did your partnership focus on?

In this post, we focus on a third key question our survey asked: How did you interact with your partner? Our results show that libraries are deeply invested in the partnerships they’ve forged, and that they’re collaborating in lots of different ways with their partners. The diverse nature of these interactions underscores just how valuable partnerships are for libraries, and highlights the variety of ways that local organizations and institutions can help advance libraries’ community outreach and engagement efforts.

Read more and comment

How can partnerships help libraries reach their programming goals?

As part of our research in this phase of the National Impact of Library Public Programs Assessment (NILPPA), we developed and administered a survey designed to give library workers an opportunity to talk about their experiences in partnering with community organizations. In previous posts, we shared information about the libraries who responded to this survey and discussed how libraries understand the “publics” they serve.

In this post, we focus on a second key question our survey asked: What did your partnership focus on? Our results show that libraries are pursuing partnerships to create a wide range of programs, and that many of these programs simultaneously address lots of different topics. Taken together, this indicates that partnerships are an incredibly effective way for libraries to further their community outreach and engagement efforts, and that there are lots of opportunities for forging partnerships with local organizations and institutions.Read more and comment

How do libraries define the “public” they serve?

At its heart, the National Impact of Library Public Programs Assessment (NILPPA) explores the impact of public programs on the people served by libraries. But how do we understand a library’s public? For this project, we have previously understood the term to mean “the audiences the library tailors its programs to and the people the library serves.” For a recent survey we developed and administered, we wanted to give libraries an opportunity to further define their specific “publics.” In a previous post, we shared information about the libraries who responded to this survey.

In this post, we begin sharing key findings from our survey, focusing on one key question: Who do you consider your public? A total of 350 libraries responded to this question, and their responses varied significantly. Our results show that libraries are defining their publics in lots of different ways, and that when considering who their programming audience is, they’re thinking about both the community on the whole and about specific groups.

Read more and comment

How can partnerships help libraries reach their programming goals?

Libraries of all types are taking on new roles and responsibilities. Through robust programming agendas, they’re at the center of community-building efforts all across the US. As they do this important work, libraries are increasingly forging partnerships with different groups and institutions within the communities they serve. Working with schools, churches, healthcare providers, and a variety of other organizations, they’re creating joint programming to directly address people’s needs.

These partnerships are key to libraries’ community engagement efforts. We know that libraries do some of their best work when working with other community organizations. But how exactly do they do this? Who are libraries partnering with, and how are they interacting with their partners? What kinds of partnerships work well, and what makes these effective? And how can partnerships be leveraged to support libraries’ programming goals?Read more and comment