Neat Ideas in Communities

Leslie Burger, president of the American Library Association, presented at the opening session, "Your Library on Steroids: How Public Libraries are Transforming Communites." Some of my conference blog colleagues will, I hope, add their thoughts. One of the ideas that I came away with was the collaboration with and involvement of the community in your library--and it does not have to be public libraries, either.

She related the story about the Robin Hood Foundation and its L!brary Initiative in New York City, a "unique collaborative project to re-imagine and rebuild public elementary school libraries." Volunteer architects were involved, some of whom designed sets for Broadway plays. All right, so maybe you don't have Broadway theaters in your neighborhood, but you do have parents with talent. Get to know your parents--just as important, have them get to know you and show them how your library and your school really does benefit your child. Find out some of the neat things your parents can do and get them involved in some kind of improvement project--even if it's only donating a couch or even a bath for a reading corner!