Free Wi-Fi, e-magazines, dial-a-story: Kansas City libraries' popular pandemic services

As popular music has become digital and immaterial in the twenty-first century, record stores are hard to find and those in business struggle to be commercially viable. Used Kids record store in Columbus, OH has been in business for thirty years and is perhaps even more popular now that it was ten years ago. The current management treat the medium of vinyl not as a museum artifact, but rather as a commodity in demand by selling online, holding private events with collectors, and selling the materiality to young people.

In New Mexico, public libraries are funded by municipalities. That means, if you live in an unincorporated town, there’s no funding stream for a local public library. But, in northern New Mexico, residents in several towns have joined together to create independent libraries that have transformed their communities.

Many families in rural New Mexico still do not have high speed internet access at home. In Farmington, the public school district, a local college, and nonprofits are working to close the gap in the digital divide for students by addressing access to technology and the internet.

Libraries in the United States have traditionally been centers to consume information, offering users books in quiet isolation. However, a new movement across the country is transforming libraries by providing internet access, creating spaces to study and learn, and meet with members of the community. There has even been the creation of pop-up happy hour libraries at bars, and bike book deliveries to distribute free books. These new libraries are re-inventing how communities learn and demonstrating that even the oldest institutions are elastic to communities' needs.

Gun crimes with no leads can torment police investigators and agitate communities. NIBIN is a database that tracks the unique marks that guns leave on shell casings, showing whether that same gun was used in another crime or could lead to evidence.

With new mayor-ordained shelters and support services unlikely to function until 2020, NYC’s 60,000+ homeless population is left in need of assistance in the meantime. But recently, an anti-homelessness nonprofit—Breaking Ground— has paired up with the Brooklyn Public Library to provide social and administrative services to New York’s homeless population. This unique partnership works collaboratively to build engagement, trust and a housing action plan for homeless people; while the librarians help patrons gather practical housing resources and sift through complex bureaucratic matters, social workers build positive community rapport, and provide more holistic, psychosocial assistance with individual cases.

From New York to Ohio to California, librarians have teamed up with the USDA summer food service program, along with other non-profits, to feed kids dependent on free/reduced-price lunches during the school year. Using census data to locate communities of greatest need and data to measure participation trends, the collaborative has witnessed a surge in effectiveness and impact across the states. Families, librarians, and public officials alike express satisfaction and enthusiasm for the initiative and its future.

New York Public Libraries are closing the digital divide by offering tech trainings, that have already been very successful as indicated by their long waitlists. Attention is now turned towards growing these programs, providing free wifi hotspots, and reaching out to demographics that are not well represented in the tech industry.

Libraries have expanded their roles to be community centers where people can connect with social services and other local agencies for needs from homelessness to food insecurity to mental illness. Libraries are one of the few places where people receive access to resources at no charge and are meeting this need by hiring social workers and other specialized staff.

In New Mexico, independent libraries that operate as non-profits provide services—in addition to traditional library services—that are not readily available throughout the state and especially in rural areas. Libraries provide early childhood education and pre-school classes as well as spearheading community projects such as a radio station and mural creation.