This study analyses how community resources are integrated into four areas of the Australian Curriculum: Languages (Chinese), The Arts (Visual Arts), Sciences, and Humanities and Social Sciences (Economics and Business). It examines four case studies to compare the use of rural resources and local partnerships in achieving educational goals and…

There are many intersections between public and community college libraries, both in the populations they serve and their functions within their local communities. Both types of libraries play a crucial role in supporting the diverse needs of their communities, serving as hubs for education, information, and essential services. Maximizing…

This article introduces the Health in All Policies (HiAP) approach to the LIS community to propose a new way of thinking and teaching about how health is supported in public libraries. The topic of consumer health literacy has been a mainstay in the discourse of public librarianship, but we argue that this approach has not fully supported public…

Lack of funding, equipment, and expertise tops the list of reasons standing in the way of many smaller cultural heritage organizations digitizing their archival collections. Expanding on existing relationships with regional public libraries and museums, a pilot project was developed to address these reasons, partnering a university library's…

The Exploring Making Through Mobile Emergent Technologies (EMMET) program sought to disrupt the trajectory from rural high school to factory floor by introducing STEM and computational thinking (STEM+C) skills through mentorship training and hands-on activities involving creative production--often referred to as "making." The program…

Pathways to higher education can appear opaque and unattainable to rural adults, despite the affordances provided by modern broadband and increasing provision of university online learning options. This paper describes an innovative partnership model that connects rural adults to university and technical and further education pathways through…

Often, the conversation about Detroit features the same words used over and over again: poor, broken, abandoned, blighted. But the authors' experiences in the Motor City have shown them something completely different--a community that, in the face of overwhelming challenges, maintains a profound commitment to making Detroit a better place. This…

Background: Increasingly clinical and health research awareness is a priority for health and medical research communities. Translational research, including the prevention and treatment of conditions, relies upon proper funding as well as public participation in research studies. This requires executing more effective communication strategies to…

Community-driven design is a current movement in the forefront of many designers' practices and on university campuses in design programs. The authors examine work from their respective public state universities' design programs as examples of best practices. In these case studies, the authors share experiences using community-based design…

Public libraries are ideal contexts for supporting child development and family involvement (Families and Work Institute, 2015; IMLS, 2013). Families with children often attend public libraries to participate in educational programming and experiences, yet university-based developmental scientists who study how people develop and adapt across the…

This chapter examines the parallel histories and visions of public libraries and land-grant universities' Cooperative Extension in providing lifelong learning opportunities; it illustrates how partnerships between organizations can enhance the vibrancy of adult education in the context of learning cities.

Many previous reports demonstrate that there is a significant need to drive innovation in adult learning and that there can be advantages to entering the market. There are 36 million low-skilled adults in the U.S. who can benefit from new approaches to learning. The effects of low rates of literacy, numeracy, and basic skills are widespread.…

Academic and public libraries are facing the challenge of finding new avenues of service and of creating value for their constituencies. This value is in the form of outcomes that result in bettering the people who use libraries and the community at large. The authors feel that librarians must find creative ways to make their communities better…

This report describes several linked empirical studies that examine the activities of public libraries in increasing the financial literacy of their service population. A qualitative field study examines librarians' perceptions of the challenges in offering information and services in this domain; a second set of interviews centers on the…

Public libraries have long supported the literacy goals of public schools in their communities by providing access to printed and electronic resources that enhance learning and teaching. This article describes an ongoing collaboration between the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh's BLAST outreach program and the Pittsburgh Public Schools that has…