This is a guest post by Tanzi Merritt, a native of Lexington who has lived here most of her life. She earned a BA in History/Spanish from Transylvania University and an MS in Library & Information Science from UK. She currently works in the Administration Office of the Lexington Public Library.
The Lexington Public Library (LPL) recently completed a successful search for a new Executive Director. As one of the staff members who lived and breathed the process for several weeks, I became familiar with the backgrounds of the candidates and heard each of their visions for our library system. The process got me excited about being a librarian and thinking about the importance of libraries in a way that I haven’t in a while, including their often overlooked influence on economic development.
Did you know…
- 300,000 Americans receive job-seeking assistance at a public library daily.
- 2.8 million owners & employees of small businesses use the library every month to access resources to support their business.
- 5,400 libraries offer free technology training classes and 14,700 people attend these classes daily – a retail value of $2.2 million dollars.
- Public libraries circulate as many materials daily as FedEx ships packages worldwide.
- In a single year, Americans visit a public library more times than they attend live sporting events or go to the movies.
Does this surprise you? Despite working in libraries nearly 10 years, it surprised me. More importantly, it means something when thinking about a community’s economic development and the role public libraries can play. Public libraries contribute to economic development through literacy programs, particularly early childhood literacy, which is the most cost-effective investment strategy for long-term economic development. Even more so than investments in youth programs, adult education, or job training programs. In response, public libraries are expanding traditional story-time and providing reading development programs, support services for childcare professionals and parenting programs. Children’s librarians are now required to receive specialized education to prepare for these targeted services. Increasing literacy and engagement in early learning increases school readiness and future success and public libraries are a valuable partner in this process. In FY 2010, more than 48,000 children attended programming at the Lexington Public Library and this year’s Summer Reading Program experienced one of the highest enrollment and completion rates since its inception.
Public libraries are greatly supplementing the efforts of local workforce development agencies through the creation of career information centers and specialized services for job-seekers, including computer skills training and resume assistance. Public libraries also provide free internet access to customers who may have no other method of access. As it’s increasingly common for online submission to be the only way to apply for a job, this service is more important than ever. In FY 2010, LPL provided formal classroom-based technology training to more than 5,000 individuals, and informal training to many thousands of others. Public computer usage soared beyond 530,000 individual sessions.
Small (read: local) business support is also available at the public library. Small businesses are the greatest net source of new employment in urban areas, but few small or new businesses have the wherewithal to meet all of their own information needs, as business-related data is some of the most expensive to access and often takes time and specialized research skills to survey and interpret. Since the Small Business Administration eliminated its federally-supported Business Information Centers, public libraries have begun to fill the gap with free access to specialized and expensive resources, along with professionals to assist with data interpretation. LPL created a web-based Business Portal, with access to resources for business planning, investing and other small business needs.
Besides their considerable contributions to economic development, libraries are sources of entertainment and contribute to the advancement of arts and culture and community services. LPL provides varied programming such as book groups, knitting groups, film screenings, gardening programs, jazz concerts and consistently maintains great exhibits in the Central Library Gallery (and is always open for Gallery Hop!). LPL also has a number of programs to provide non-native speakers with English speaking practice, as well as free basic Spanish classes, and provides access to free meeting room space for non-profits.
If you haven’t thought about the role of the public library in the continued development of a strong, progressive, creative and dynamic city, you should. If you aren’t using the public library, you definitely should start. It’s much, much more than a place to get books, music, and movies for free. It’s a valuable community and educational resource that offers so much – most of us would be stunned to know half of what you can find/do/see at the library. My challenge to everyone is this: if you haven’t visited your public library recently, stop by and look around. There is something there for everyone.
As a librarian, I am obligated to cite references:
- “How Libraries Stack Up: 2010”
- “Making Cities Stronger: Public Library Contributions to Local Economic Development” from the Urban Libraries Council
- Lexington Public Library’s annual report to the Kentucky Department for Libraries & Archives for FY 2010
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In publishing this post, I also discovered that the LPL is offering a fine amnesty through 9/15 – so dig up all those “lost” books and forgotten returns. All fees waived & all blocks will be lifted. They just want their stuff back!