At the City library where I work, there is more of “here are the requirements to the programs you should have” from our main branch while the County library (where I work as an intern) has “community libraries”. This way, programs can be more customized to what the community asks for/loves/needs. When I started my internship at my County library, I asked two supervisors how they figure out what the community needs. They both emphasized looking at what programs are already popular, getting a sense of resources and organizations nearby, and making note of regulars. That made sense, but now I’m also thinking about who isn’t coming. Now, my intention at my work is to be proactive in understanding my libraries’ relationship with its respective community. Specifically, I’ll be carrying the questions in “Reaching All Users” in The Heart of Librarianship:
“…whom do you reach well? Who uses your library passionately?…Who doesn’t use the library? Who in your community could benefit from access, services, assistance?”
There is still a lot of frustration for using certain critical websites/digital platforms for healthcare, insurance, and government assistance. People have to navigate clunky, text heavy, difficult to use websites for forms, assistance, and have to wait for a long time to talk to a real person for help. Even though user experience and human-centered design are trending in the tech world, and I’ve seen great improvements on some services, I think they haven’t fully caught up where people are most vulnerable.
Like Jessamyn West states: “…helping people get online, in whatever fashion that takes, is actually helping them to be citizens, to be interactive, to be part of the information economy, to participating in a democracy.”
When it comes to the balance between emerging technology in the library and meeting users where they are, supporting users for using the internet today with empowerment and confidence is very important, not just from a personal standpoint, but to society as a whole. It takes repetition, patience, and continuing support.
Add AI to the mix, and now there is a layer of fear and resistance to engage with the tools and services available today. The library has to be a space where exploration and curiosity with AI tools is fostered, where people help each other understand, and end up benefiting from taking the step to learn something new. Even though the digital world is the present, not the future, I want to end with what my library had done the first few months this year: cute little paper hearts.
There is an empty wall next to the Information Desk at my library where we started utilizing community engagement. For Valentine’s Day, people coming in wrote “what they love about the library” on paper hearts which we posted on this wall. It has stayed up until now, as we’ll be celebrating the Tanabata festival. We now have a bamboo forest, where the community can hang “wishes” for themselves or for the library on slips of paper we provided next to the wall. It has been awesome to see people stop and admire the colorful wall.
Sources:
Stephens, M. (2016). “Reaching All Users” in The Heart of Librarianship, p. 41
https://www.librarian.net/talks/rlc14/