<
https://www.ourtownsfoundation.org/how-libraries-are-becoming-sustainable/>
"Libraries are having their day. They’re no longer the “best kept secret in
town”. They’re no longer whisper-quiet. They’re still about books, but also
about so much more. Libraries have come full-circle in a way, with today’s
maker spaces harkening back to Ben Franklin’s experiments with electricity at
the Philadelphia Library Company. And the community-center features of today’s
libraries date back to one of Andrew Carnegie’s early libraries in
Pennsylvania, which had a swimming pool and a music hall.
What are libraries doing today, with their new identity? They are creating
programs that touch some of the most fundamental issues of our time: improving
school-readiness for their youngest patrons, and basic literacy for the oldest;
helping new immigrants become settled, with English and citizenship classes; providing safe day-shelter and pathways ahead for the homeless and recently incarcerated; helping job-seekers; offering counseling on issues of health, law, social services; introducing basic technology skills and access to devices and the internet; hosting community conversations about racial issues, immigration, book bans, sometimes even politics.
Libraries have established themselves as “second responders” to natural and
man-made disasters like hurricanes, floods, or riots, which they answer with
emergency shelter, electric power, information, and sympathy. When the pandemic
shut down normal life, libraries threw out their own rule books and started
over, collaborating with overwhelmed local governments, schools, and health
services, shifting their own programs online and moving services out of doors,
and opening their phones to anyone who needed to hear a human voice.
Now, libraries are moving beyond being
responders and into a fast lane as
initiators around arguably the biggest issue on the planet—our
sustainability."
Via
What Could Go Right? Every Second Counts
https://theprogressnetwork.org/public-warning-systems/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
