Community Engagement

Library outreach refers to any engagement or programming, usually outside of the library’s walls, that ensures equitable delivery of services to your community. Especially with tweens and teens, it can be difficult to get them inside the library, so you will need to be creative and find places outside of the library to meet with them, and provide services. Some questions to help you guide your outreach efforts:

• Where do tweens and teens hang out in your community? After-school programs, church, coffee shops, sports games? Are there ways that you can partner with these organizations to provide library programs in their spaces?
• What community events can you attend that have high public attendance? Farmers markets, local fairs, parent-teacher night, PTA events, etc. Can you set-up a booth at these events to talk about resources and programs?
• Grocery stores, laundromats, pharmacies, and other businesses also see a high number of visitors daily, and might have a different group of patrons than who you see in the library. Providing information to these businesses to distribute, or doing a pop-up booth every once in a while can be a great way to reach new groups of patrons.
• Nonprofits who focus on youth development and empowerment can be another great resource to work with.

Please see the workbook for a reflection activity on Programming and Outreach.