Library News

Where's the youth?

In February of this year, The Library Renaissance Project met with Archie Williams and Martha Saccoccio of DC Public Libraries to discuss ways to increase outreach.

We emphasized the need to include children and youth, whose presence at design meetings to date has been almost nil. In a subsequent informal conversation, Chief Librarian Ginnie Cooper thanked me for the ideas and suggested that DCPL would do more outreach to youth in future.

DCPL recently held two more Hopes and Dreams meetings, in the Washington Highlands and Francis Gregory library communities, at which the combined attendance of young people at both meetings was one (1).

Here is an article from the Gazette of nearby Montgomery County,
Maryland reporting on the hopes and dreams of teens in Silver Spring for their new library. One official said "Some of the teen's ideas were more interesting and specific than the adults, such as recommending the expansion of the foreign literature collection to include Japanese and Latin, and having historical reference films."

Why do other jurisdictions routinely consult youth about plans for new libraries?

What does DCPL plan to do to increase participation in planning or visioning new libraries by children and youth?