One of the harder questions for many librarians is how to best engage with their audiences, particularly when they work in lower-income or immigrant communities who may not be aware of the existence of the public library, or who don't have the time to visit a library during working hours? So many library policies often limit who can access the library, unintentionally, and the goal of every public librarian is to serve the public, at their core.
Above is a picture of a pop up library set up at a farmer's market.
When I worked in outreach, I was tasked with building a roster of organizations that served youths in our community and wanted to build a partnership with youth services at our library. One of the first organizations that I reached out to was the Department of Parks & Recreation. I was able to secure this partnership by suggesting the idea of a "pop up library," which just meant that I would visit a site once or twice a month and bring the experience of the library to the youths. This included allowing children to browse and select from a physical colleciton of 100-150 children's books, signing families up for library cards, promoting the services and programs of nearby library branches within our system, and providing a fun and engaging activity for youths. While this task list may seem like a lot to do as one person, with a little planning, the idea was a major success and led to our outreach team accumulating a roster of almost 20 sites each month, between myself and one other team member.
Here is what a "pop up library" program looked like:
Planning: The first time I visited any site, I would bring a planned activity and have conversations with the staff and youths about libraries, what activities they were interested in, and what types of books they liked to read. I would also share with them the closest branches to their sites and sign youths up for library cards. This always made for a smoother process during the actual pop up library visits. I would often bring along something cool from the branch closest to their site to get children excited about this new partnership as well. Below is an example of some kits that one our branches had available for patron check out. The kids loved learning that libraries had more than books!
Activities: Activities that were chosen for the pop up library programming were based on holidays, large events going on in the area and within the library system, and the interests of the children. I planned most programming a 9 months out and made sure there was always enough supplies to engage up to 40 participants. Some of the kits that I used are featured below:
Here are a couple of websites that I used to research kits ideas:
Ontarian Librarian: https://ontarianlibrarian.com/category/childrens-programming/
Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls: https://frugalfun4boys.com
The Lego Librarian: https://legolibrarian.com
Book Browsing and Check Out: Prior to every site visit, I would stop by the closest branch to an intended site and use our outreach team library card to check out 100-150 books based on the interests that the kids had shared with me during my previous visits. Naturally, this included every copy of Dog Man, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and Dork Diaries that I could find, but I also would always grab new books, multilingual books depending on the location, and diverse stories. After I set up and introduced the activity that I brought with me that day, children would be called up in groups of about 1-3 to "visit" the pop up library cubes and select up to 3 books to check out from me. With my travel scanner and lap top, I was able to see smiles galore as children got to borrow books from their library.
Above is a slideshow of children browsing the "pop up library."
Book Returns: Every site recieved a large container that allowed children and families to return library books directly at the site. This encouraged returns, although it wasn't perfect, and helped bring the library experience to communities that may not have had it otherwise.
Would you try a pop up library?
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