Hello, Columbus!
California Humanities’ nationally-recognized Library Innovation Lab: Exploring New Ways of Engaging Immigrant Communities through Public Humanities Programming (LIL) program was the subject of a panel presentation by program participants and staff at the annual Public Library Association conference this April in Columbus, Ohio. The conference was also a wonderful opportunity for staff and librarians to learn more about the important work being done by and in libraries across the country to promote literacy, empathy, and the importance of intellectual freedom to our democracy.
Over 400 librarians from across the country attended Breaking Barriers: Engaging Immigrants and Building More Inclusive Communities, a conversational-format session on April 3 facilitated by California Humanities staffer Felicia Kelley, that enabled three LIL alumni-mentors, Michelle Gordon Hartman (Sacramento Public Library), Patty Mallari (San Leandro Public Library), and Sonia Bautista (Commerce Public Library) to share how the program has enriched their work with immigrant communities and led to personal and professional growth. Many attendees expressed interest in being part of this program in the future.
“I was honored to see the overwhelming response and to have so many people show up and want to hear from us!,” Sonia observed. “Attendees expressed how grateful they were to learn from our work and that what we shared will help them better serve their immigrant communities.”
Patty concurred: ”In my head, I was expecting 100 people max! Many of the strategies for engaging immigrants we shared are remarkably simple to administer but highly effective. I, too, was honored to be able to participate.”
“Creating Impactful Humanities Programming in California Libraries,” an article co-authored by the panelists and a fourth LIL alum, Guadalupe Gomez (Anaheim Public Library), was solicited by the editors of Public Libraries, PLA’s bi-monthly magazine, and published in the April edition, which coincided with the conference. In addition to an account of the program’s development over the past eight years, the article provides reflections by each of the four librarians about their experiences as project directors and mentors and how their participation in the program has made a difference in their own lives as well as in their communities.
“It was the training and the encouragement of the LIL cohort, and the community connections within the immigrant communities in Fresno County, that helped me forge ahead and create successful programs. These programs allowed me to build on existing community connections and also to create new ones.”
—Michelle Gordon Hartman, then-librarian at Fresno County Public Library and participant in very first LIL cohort in 2017
Read the article below or download a copy:
Now in its eighth year, Library Innovation Lab is a nationally recognized program that supports public libraries as they welcome new Californians and build more inclusive communities. To date, 84 librarians representing over 50 library systems have participated in the program, which provides a ten-month practice-based professional development experience to each librarian along with grants of $5,500 to research, design, implement, and assess a small scale, short-term public humanities project at their library.
