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62 books match the query 'Libraries and community' and 5 start with i

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Incubating Creativity at Your Library

A Sourcebook for Connecting with Communities

Laura Damon-Moore

American Library Association, 2019

Creativity needs a platform. As technology consultant David Weinberger puts it, “A platform provides resources that lets other people build things.” The library is an ideal platform, and in this book Batykefer and Damon-Moore, creators of the Library as Incubator Project, share the experiences of numerous creative library workers and artists who are making it happen. Their stories will show you how to move beyond merely responding to community needs towards actively building a platform with your community. And best of all, you don’t need to start from scratch—rather, you amplify what’s already working. Filled with ideas and initiatives that can be customized to suit your library and its community, this book

discusses the four elements (Resources, Invitations, Partnerships & Engagement, and Staff) and the two lenses (Community-Led and Evaluation) of the Creative Library platform;
outlines six steps for surveying your community’s artistic landscape;
gives methods for expanding partnerships and connections with individuals and organizations through exploration, hands-on learning, and engagement with the community;
shares perspectives on the “ideal library” from several artists, with three examples of artist-in-residence programs;
offers examples of community invitations in action, such as the Pittsburgh Fiberarts Guild workshops on creating flowers using recycled materials;
shows how to use “orphan photos” from your archives for creative inspiration;
advises on using qualitative evaluations to effectively “weed” your initiatives; and
shares tips for encouraging library staff to express their creativity, turning avocations into library initiatives like Handmade Crafternoons, the Yahara Music Library, or BOOKLESS.

By building on existing elements at your library and filling in the gaps with community-driven additions, your library can be a space that cultivates creativity in both its users and staff.

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Information Services to Diverse Populations

Competent Humility for Library Professionals

Nicole A. Cooke

American Library Association, 2026

Foreword by Cynthia Sturgis Landrum

The development of cultural competency skills and social awareness benefits LIS students, their future employers, and the library profession at large―not to mention library customers and society as a whole. Cooke's freshly updated text introduces readers to the contexts and situations that promote the development of empathy and build cultural competence. It marshals cutting edge research and relevant best practices to give readers a strong grasp of the political, social, economic, and technological divides among library patrons. It also covers outreach and library services to diverse populations, how to evaluate such services, and many other key topics. Complete with an updated syllabus, lesson plans, and exercises ready-made for course use, Cooke’s text

demonstrates why social responsibility is a foundational value of librarianship;
considers library services to members of marginalized racial or ethnic groups, older adults, people with mental health or physical disabilities, neurodiverse library users, refugees and immigrants, people experiencing homelessness or hunger, those growing up in or experiencing poverty, members of the LGBTQIA+ communities, and people who are incarcerated;
features a myriad of testimonials drawn from a wide variety of settings that highlight the experiences of library and museum practitioners who are working with diverse populations;
introduces a new model of cultural competence and cultural humility;
authoritatively covers such essential concepts as intersectionality, privilege, marginalization, cultural competence, cultural humility, and counter-storytelling along with discussions of how they interplay in the communities that libraries serve;
explores the impact of overwhelming whiteness of the library profession and what can be done to recruit, welcome, mentor, and retain racially and ethnically diverse library workers; and
identifies potential employment and networking opportunities related to diversity and social justice in librarianship.

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