Librarians and The Importance of Community

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 There are many ways that libraries are changing in this new age. This, of course, pertains to many things, but especially how the library is both shaped and shapes the community around it. According to Shana Hinze, the message we should send to the community is that “the library truly cares about the people in our community.” Library staff needs to integrate themselves into the community and listen to input about what the community needs from these libraries.


I’ve seen this in my observations of the two different libraries in my area. One of these libraries provides things like “Bingo Night” and “Technology Assistance” since a lot of their population consists of retirement age people and the other provides “Family Game Night” and “Children’s Storytime” as that library’s population consists more of families. A lot of these activities and programs are made possible by open communication with people in the community and other service centers like City Hall and the local community college.


These connections to the community will make sure that libraries don’t fade out of existence and shows the community and community leaders that there is still something to gain out of having and working with libraries.


Works Cited

Hinze, Shana. “Librarians as Community Ambassadors.” Young Adult Library Services, 

vol. 15, no. 1, Fall 2016, pp. 27–30. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lxh&AN=118843606&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

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