In the United States, 92% of public library funding comes from local sources, and there are no national standards that determine what libraries can and cannot do. The result of these facts is that public libraries can do basically anything that aligns with their mission to support lifelong learning.

Aimee James, the director of the Wilkes County (NC) Public Library in the rural foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, told me “as long as it’s something that benefits our patrons and it’s not illegal, I’m willing to try anything once.”

One can see this attitude play out in the extraordinary variety of services public libraries have offered, which span the range from checking out snowshoes to parkour classes to hosting community gardens. Some libraries have teaching kitchens, others have bike fix-it stations, others are located in the middle of parks, others have no greenspaces around them. Some have large meeting rooms open to the public from sun up to sundown. Others have spaces the sizes of large closets and are open twice a week for a handful of hours. Some have specialized staff with backgrounds in public health, social work, nursing, and community development. Others only have one part-time staff member with a high school education.

What are the implications of this fact for partnering with public librarians? If you don’t get traction in one place or with one individual, keep stepping!

Read the full article about library partnerships by Noah Lenstra at Shareable.