This article details the findings from Project LOCAL (Library Outreach as a Community Anchor in Learning), a mixed-methods study that explored how public libraries contribute to educational equity by going into community locations to reach and serve families and children in underserved communities who cannot come into the library due to a variety…

Among public institutions, the library has great potential for helping the poor and disenfranchised. For many, the library is the only refuge for information, literacy, entertainment, language skills, employment help, free computer use and even safety and shelter. Experts Glen and Leslie Holt, with decades of service to inner city communities…

Librarians have been working with families for years within and outside of libraries, providing access to print, motivating young children to read, and making connections with schools. Through interviews, observations, and an analysis of outreach documents from libraries in urban, suburban, and rural counties, this study sought to investigate what…

The causes for the failure of the High John project--an attempt by liberal white librarians to make a significant contribution to the redress of American blacks' grievences, and to make the public library a more relevant institution--lie in librarianship itself. (11 references) (Author/SJ)

The good news is that many public libraries are now overflowing with teens. The bad news is that most teens still don't visit libraries, and that's a shame. Teens would use libraries if they clearly understood their value. But for years, young adults have been mostly ignored by librarians. The solution is to initiate a major paradigm shift, one in…

Sandra Tauler has tailored her collection and services to the needs of a community that is 97 percent Hispanic. Unfortunately, that's only half the job. The other half is getting potential users through the door. The solution Tauler and other Imperial Valley librarians came up with was Proyecto Televista. With LSTA funding, and the assistance of…

This article details the work of Lorena Mata of the San Jose Public Library. Fresh out of library school, Lorena Mata has already made a mark on her community. At the San Jose Public Library (SJPL) she conducts public Internet classes in Spanish and English and gives quarterly English and Spanish-language presentations at neighborhood academies.…

The North Shore Community College Library Training Institute, "Serving the Under-Served", was a five-day conference of public and community college librarians, designed to foster cooperation and communication and to focus attention on those people not being adequately served by either type of library. The activities of the Institute,…

The origin of the idea that public libraries ought to provide social service and entertainment can be traced back to the voluntary uplift and cultural societies of the nineteenth century. The book-reading public was never large, leading librarians to seek a function in other areas, especially those better served today by social workers. From an…

Chicago's library and police partnership have created interactive programs for city youth. This article describes the partnership's Get Hooked on Fishing, Not Drugs program, Mystery Beat Book Club, Ghosts in the Graveyard and other art programs and discusses benefits for the children and participating organizations. (PEN)

Living in the vast shadow cast by the spires of the Magic Kingdom presents special challenges for Orlando's Orange County Library System (OCLS), the most formidable of which is increasing its relatively small user base. The library additionally faces tension between the administration and staff, political strife on the board, and looming contract…

The Appalachian Adult Education Center (AAEC) provided non-formal library training institutes in ten southeastern states over a three-year period, 1973-1976. With the cooperation of the state libraries, AAEC conducted institutes at 77 individual libraries and involved whole library staffs, as well as useful and interested community and agency…

Explores the continuing role of the public library in society, discussing the mission of the library (highlights the Chicago Public Library's new mission statement), funding collections and buildings, technology, capital improvements, challenges to intellectual freedom, librarian education, library outreach, and private-sector partnerships. (PEN)

Though the major emphasis of this bibliography is public relations in general, reference is made to titles concerned with specific ideas for establishing a public relations program for a library. Among ideas suggested for use in establishing a library public relations program are: (1) educating the community in terms of what the library has to…

A theoretical overview was developed as background for the Appalachian Adult Education Center (AAEC) research into cooperative service to disadvantaged adults by the public library and the public schools. Enormous needs to expand educational services to adults in the United States were identified. An historical review of educational and library…