Quantcast
Channel: ALSC Liaison with National Organizations – ALSC Blog
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 23

Welcome Neighbor: Block Parties and Public Libraries

0
0

The City Library in Salt Lake City works with local organizations like the National History Museum of Utah and Hogle Zoo. One unique partnership, however, has City Library going “back to college” with the University of Utah‘s  University Village Student Housing Block Party.

Students at the University come all over the world, often bringing their families with them while they are enrolled at the school. There are more than 1,100 apartments in the complex. Many families living in student housing have young children – in 2011, over 600 children under the age of six lived on campus!

block-partyEach September, University Student Housing welcomes new families with a block party in partnership with the Anderson-Foothill Branch of City Library -located just blocks away from the housing complex. The library joined this partnership years ago with a booth introducing library services and free children’s books as give-away items. It is now a beloved tradition for the branch to participate in this event.

One aspect that makes this particular service special is the library being on site at the University to meet new patrons -instead of waiting for new community members to locate the library themselves. Some have no idea the library exists until they meet staff at the event and hear about free library services available to them, even as new immigrants from different countries.

Participants at University Village Student Housing Block Party
Participants at University Village Student Housing Block Party

One of the most beneficial aspects of this partnership is it brings young children and their caregivers to library programs. There often is a line of baby strollers looking to attend story time. With an average of over 100 people visiting the branch daily, many come from University Village! Is your library located near a large university or college? Invite them to a party with the library. The library’s newly found patrons will thank you!

 

 

Hyunjin Han is the new children’s librarian at the Mandel Public Library of West Palm Beach, Florida.  http://www.wpb.org/Departments/Library  She previously worked at the Anderson-Foothill Branch of Salt Lake City Public Library as an Associate Librarian. She moved to Florida in October 2016 – right before Hurricane Mathew welcomed her.

The post Welcome Neighbor: Block Parties and Public Libraries appeared first on ALSC Blog.


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 23

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images