How Libraries are Reinventing Themselves for the Future

Many branches of these public institutions are dying from lack of funding—and reinventing themselves in surprising new ways
Beyond the Book Mobile

by Allison Berry

Today’s libraries aren’t just trying to fulfill what a March study by the Pew Charitable Trusts calls the institutions’ “shadow mandate” of bridging the widening gaps in social services that used to be provided by non-profits and public agencies. Libraries are also trying to meet people where they are. The cash-strapped Free Library of Philadelphia, a stalwart system founded in 1891, has set up six “Hot Spots” to expand its reach in underserved areas. It’s much cheaper to open these freestanding mini-libraries, which are equipped with computers, printers, and a reference collection, inside facilities owned by community organizations than it is to open a new branch. In a similar move, the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh has opened what it calls a “library without walls” in the Pittsburgh Public Market in an effort to deliver library services on the weekends in a place where a lot of people do their food-shopping. Some libraries are even venturing outdoors. In response to recent branch closures in Detroit, the University of Michigan this spring partnered with students at a local elementary school to set up six outdoor libraries, whose waterproof bookcases, unlike book mobiles, don’t come with expensive gas bills.

*The above article is not the works of Peta-Gay Lewis but republished on this blog as a means to encourage children to read.