Report: “How Will Public Libraries Adapt To New School Year Norms?”

From an Article by Kelly Jensen on BookRiot:

This year is anything but typical. With so many unknowns about schooling broadly—will local schools be all online? all in-person? a hybrid model? for how long?—and many parents electing to home school, the demand for other community public institutions to step up is already growing.

Libraries across the United States have been reopening at varying rates, with varying staff levels to match both what’s acceptable by their state’s reopening guidelines and what the reality of their struggling budgets decides.

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Public libraries and schools across the country don’t usually have formal partnerships as organizations, but in many communities they work closely with one another to provide resources and tools for their communities. A lot depends on the logistics, and because those logistics change community by community, even within a single city, some schools and libraries may have a fantastic working relationship while others don’t have one at all.

Which isn’t to say that libraries and schools don’t want to work together. They do, as it’s in their best interest in public stewardship to do so. So with the ever-shifting landscape of fall 2020 education, librarians are preparing themselves the best they can with the tools they do—and do not—have to make their resources as accessible as possible across a wide range of scenarios.

Learn More, Read the Complete Article, Access Data File (about 2400 words)

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