Exercises and Assignments
Exercises:
Chapter 5: Our Communities.
Where do adults in your neighborhood work? If they have a long commute into the city, this suggests a need the library can fill: audiobooks for learning and enjoyment. If they stay in the local area, perhaps there's an opportunity to work with local businesses. Where do adults go in their free time? Do you find them at church? In the bookstore? At home with their families? Regardless of what they do, there are many opportunities to serve those people, if you know what their needs are.
Using a tool such as SparkMap, identify areas in your location that have high rates of illiteracy. Collect as much demographic information as you can on one of these areas.
Using a tool such as SparkMap, see if there are any schools or health clinics in the area you identified.
Using a tool such as the phone book or your local government website, identify local businesses in the area you identified. How much information can you find about these businesses? Who would you contact to learn more?
Using a tool such as the phone book or local government website, identify a community service agency in your area. How much information can you find about this community service agency? Who would you contact to learn more?
With a partner or alone, brainstorm potential options for extending library services to the area you identified.
With a partner or alone, identify potential partners in the area you’ve identified.
Chapter 6: Financing Public Libraries
Locate your library’s budget. How is the budget communicated with the public?
Find out if your local library is independent, municipal, city/county, etc., using the Library Search and Compare tool from IMLS. What else can you find about your library using the Library Search and Compare tool?
Does your library have a Friends group? A coffeeshop? A Foundation? In other words, does it have methods of generating funds outside of the taxes? How much funding does it generate, and what sorts of activities do they cover?
Has your library applied for grants for special projects? If so, who are the grants from?
Does your library charge fines? If not, find out when it stopped charging fines, and why. Use the Urban Library Council’s Fine-Free map to explore libraries that have eliminated fines and why they chose to.
Chapter 7: The Public Library Staff
Find the organization charts for two libraries in your state or region. Compare and contrast those organizational charts, noting areas of similarity and areas of difference. How do community type and demographics influence those differences?
Find the Board of Trustees list for your local library. What can you find out about that group of people? Do they represent the community in terms of race, ethnicity, language use, or socioeconomic status?
Search ALA JobList (https://joblist.ala.org/) for two public library director positions. Compare and contrast those positions as they relate to external skills such as advocacy and fundraising.
Find two current job ads for the public library position you want to occupy (e.g., children’s librarian, reader services librarian, director). Compare and contrast those ads, noting areas of similarity and areas of difference.
Find two recent job ads for a public library, one seeking an MLIS-holding employee and one seeking a non-MLIS holding employee. What sorts of duties and responsibilities are required of each type of staff?
Assignments:
History Paper:
During weeks 2 and 3 you will learn about the history of public libraries in the United States. Was there something that surprised you or challenged you in the assigned readings? Is there something that you want to learn more about? This assignment requires you to dig a little deeper into an idea, event, or concept that surprised, intrigued, or challenged you. Consult the references in the readings or use another method of 'digging', finding at least three additional peer-reviewed articles or a scholarly book about a subject or idea that you feel merits further exploration. Your paper should be 1500 words, give or take 200 (so between 1300 and 1700 words).
Looking for more inspiration? You might find some in one of these sources:
LHRT News and Notes
Wikipedia's History of Libraries site. (remember that the paper must be about U.S. public libraries)