The Public Library: Co-Designing Community Engagement
搁别苍茅别 Jacobsen, public librarian and programs and community engagement manager at the is the center of a busy hub. The library employs about thirty, mostly part-time librarians. They manage many programs,听including听 a community engagement team who鈥檚听 responsible for building educational programs and coordinating听public outreach. This team works on multiple projects with CU 麻豆影院 alone.
Jacobsen revealed the secret behind the library鈥檚 success,听鈥淲e do a lot with not a lot of hours! My advice is to share the load, if you can. 鈥
There鈥檚 currently an influx of community engagement and most of the people involved are volunteers so delegation is key. Moving forward, Jacobsen plans to delegate the tasks based on the age range and the types of communities the programs serve.
鈥淚 was actually really surprised when I reached out to the Office for Outreach and Engagement. I had no idea how many CU departments wanted or needed an outreach experience,鈥 said Jacobsen. 鈥淪o it was wonderful, but it was also鈥ell, I had opened that door!!鈥
Jacobsen finds the value of such small group meetings to be immeasurable.
鈥淒r. Shaz Zamore from CU ATLAS helped us reach diverse audiences for our Day of the Child event and his group reached a target they were trying to. They brought craniate kits, and we had families and kids doing something they don鈥檛 normally get an opportunity to do,鈥 said Jacobsen.
Zamore鈥檚 group attended existing library events and didn鈥檛 require registration for their presentations, a practice Jacobsen finds helpful.
鈥淩ight there that eliminates many barriers. When we have an event with registration, it鈥檚听a barrier. If there's no child care, right? That right there is a barrier,鈥 explained Jacobsen.
鈥淭he local public library is an ideal venue for coordinating educational outreach, because you're gonna meet people and have engagement with people that you wouldn't normally,鈥 said Jacobsen.