I had a lot of anxiety going into this meeting. I was worried that either too many people would show up, or that no one would show up. Cecil B. Moore's meeting room is not that large, and too large of a crowd would have been uncomfortable for everyone. All six of the North Philadelphia Neighborhood Library Managers were very diligent about distributing the invitation. We had RSVP's from close to 50 people from various organizations, large and small. Fortunately, in regards to space, not everyone came. We had approximately 30 people from a variety of groups.
Each
attendee was given a sign-in sheet which asked for complete contact information. It also provided space for comments in response to two questions. The following are the responses, with an indication of the organization the respondent was representing.
- Which Free Library of Philadelphia services could assist my organization or enhance my community.
a. Materials
i.
More
Spanish materials (Providence Center)
b. Space
i.
Hosting
meetings (Philly Rising)
ii.
Portable
board in the vestibule for current events ( Falomi)
iii.
Meeting
space to conduct character building workshops (Sturdivant)
c. Hours
i.
Saturday
Hours ( Falomi Club)
d. Program
i.
Job
Readiness, Literacy, after school, STEM (Philly Rising)
e. Computers
i.
Any/all
computer access and training services. Specifically for job preparation (Philly Rising)
f.
Outreach/Partnership
i.
Book
or topic talks @ summer day camps or Wed. night youth groups (Philly Open Air Church)
ii.
Attend
Final Friday Community Dinners
iii.
Networking
opportunities to leverage the services we provide (Sturdivant)
iv.
Libraries
host Intro to Jazz Workshops – free concerts (Philadelphia Jazz
Project)
v.
Help
to get word out about Clarifi (Clarifi.)
- 2. Comments
a. Libraries across the city have been
terrific partner for these services and we hope to expand to more (PhillyRising)
b. Would like to offer workshops to the
Free Library, starting with this group of libraries (Philadelphia
Jazz Project)
c. The library is a place of
learning. I’d like to see more STEM
(Men and Women for Human Excellence)
d. My family loves the story time for
toddlers at LMB. It would be good to do
the story time on Saturdays when other preschoolers are not in preschool
e. The library should seek funding for
prime time advertisement telling residents just how the library can make a
difference in their lives using real people who have benefited from their
library experience.
f.
This
is a great opportunity as it affords organizations the opportunity to leverage
social capital.
Agenda
There was no
formal agenda for this meeting. We
allowed the representative from each of the organizations to describe the work
they do in the neighborhood, and for other people to ask questions. When all of the groups were finished, each of
the six library managers had a chance to tell the group about their library and
what makes it unique.
Most of
those present were from grassroots organizations. One is working with the formerly incarcerated
to help them be job ready and get employment.
Several groups are working with children, especially in the areas of
math and science. The value in this was
that some of these groups had no idea of the existence of the others and were
able to network. (I see this as a “real”
value-added benefit of these meetings. I don’t know that high-level work will
be accomplished here.) The “higher”
level groups present, (Clarifi, Philly Rising, SEPTA and Phila Police, Mayors
Commission on Literacy, as well as the library) were able to get their messages
out to the grassroots organizations.
There were multiple “ah-ha” moments among them.
Based on
some of the activities shared, we were able to tell the group about resources
they can access immediately, such as Learning Express Library and the Job and Career Help Center on our databases
page.
We are
planning the next meeting for some time at the end of February, or the
beginning of March.
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