Report: “How Public Libraries are Becoming Community Hubs in the Midst of Disasters”

From Fast Company (via MSN)

Amid the catastrophic damage from extreme weather over the past few weeks, many people have found public libraries to be a refuge, from coordinating supply distribution to serving as meeting spots. 

And this isn’t anything new. Increasingly, libraries see themselves as more than just a place to escape into a good book. Across the country, they’re adding services, making sustainability improvements, and launching initiatives to help communities adapt and respond to climate disasters. With 17,000 U.S. locations, and a majority of Americans within two miles from a branch, libraries are uniquely positioned to play this role.

“Libraries, librarians and library boards, and those that govern libraries are seeing the impacts of what’s happening around them,” says Matthew Bollerman, vice president of the Sustainable Libraries Initiative (SLI), and CEO of the Hauppauge Public Library on Long Island, New York. “They’re dealing with wildfires and flooding, so their own libraries, their own institutions, are getting stressed by the weather and conditions that they’re around. They’re trying to find ways to think through that holistically.”

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Writer Deborah Fallows calls libraries places of refuge that increasingly fill gaps in the social safety net, and become the needle that pulls together the threads of fraying communities. As climate change, and the extreme weather and displacement it brings, becomes more prevalent, libraries will likely find their roles continue to expand, becoming even more vital for disaster-hit residents across the country.

Learn More, Read the Complete Article (about 1100 words)

See Also: National Climate Action Strategy for Libraries Now Available (July 25, 2024)

Filed under: Libraries, News, Public Libraries