In the small rural community of Parker, as in so many other Arizona towns, the population was swelling with an influx of recently retired baby boomers. The eagerness of these older residents and visitors for learning and intellectual engagement placed a strain on the library’s limited resources.
Fortunately, in 2004, library staff attended a training opportunity offered collaboratively by Libraries for the Future and the Arizona State Library. At the EqualAccess Institute, the library’s staff members opted to concentrate their training on Lifelong Access Libraries, a new service framework for working with active older adults.
This training helped the staff to think about how they might improve and expand library spaces to meet the needs of mid-life adults. They applied for grants to create a Lifelong Learning Center, and they won an award of $127,500 for construction of the center from the Arizona Department of Housing, and another of $20,000 for computers, furnishings and materials from the Arizona State Library. In addition, the Friends of the Parker Public Library donated $3,500 toward two study rooms. According to the library director, Jana Ponce-Wolfe, the center is very popular and its six computers often have waiting lines.
More about Lifelong Access Libraries and services to baby boomers.
Family Place Programming Helps
Libraries Attract Private Support
in NY, CT and FL
Family Place Libraries is an approach to early childhood services that emphasizes support for parents and caregivers, access to child development specialists, and school readiness. It offers children’s librarians a framework for working with families with very young children that is based on recent research concerning healthy child development and emergent literacy. It also positions the library as a central resource for parents, caregivers and early childhood-services providers, and as a partner with other agencies serving families with young children.
Developed by the Middle Country (NY) Public Library and Libraries for the Future, the program division of Americans for Libraries Council, Family Place Libraries is now operating in more than 200 communities nationwide. In a large number of these communities the introduction of Family Place Libraries has been made possible by private support from individuals, businesses, or corporations. Middle Country Public Library is the national Family Place Libraries training center.
- In 2004, Amy and Horace Hagedorn announced a gift of $1 million to Middle Country for the Hagedorn Endowment for Family Place Libraries.
- In New Haven, CT, a specially equipped room in the new Wilson Branch Library is named “The Family Place.” It provides space to carry out programs for parents, caregivers and their very young children. The room was donated by an individual who wanted to ensure that families in the neighborhood would have access to Family Place programs.
- For over six years the Friends of the Martin County (FL) Library System have supported participation in the national Family Place network. This has enabled Martin County librarians to attend the Family Place Libraries Institute and to offer Parent/Child Workshops and other Family Place programs in all six county libraries.
Topsham, ME
Fishing Tackle Loan Program Attracts
New Users and Donors at Topsham
Public Library
The Topsham Public Library in Maine has initiated a successful program that not only attracts new users to the library but attracts new donors as well. The first of its kind in the state, Topsham Public Library's fishing tackle loaner program complements the library's collection of angling books and videos by making it possible for library patrons to check out fishing equipment the same way they do library books.
The Library won a New Century Community grant that underwrote some acquisitions and expenses. Equipment was donated by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and L.L. Bean. Fishing rods and reels are available from the library for a week at a time. A variety of saltwater, freshwater and fly fishing set-ups are available.
This innovative approach to expanding services is appealing to community members, even those who may never have used the library. It has been so popular that it was recently expanded to include binocular loans. To deepen its connection to residents who are anglers, the library co-sponsors an Annual Fishing Derby with Topsham Parks and Recreation Department and the Topsham Solid Waste Facility. A variety of community, cultural and business organizations support this annual event. According to library staff, “Developing partnerships and sharing resources forms an informational network within the community, enhancing the library experience for everyone.”
The fishing tackle loaner program is more than a new service. It is a vehicle for generating funding partners, attracting new library users, and developing new partnerships—all of which are strategies for library advocacy that result directly or indirectly in library investment.
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