Image of multiple drawn faces with different moods.

Working for Well-Being

June 3, 2024

Institutions continue to innovate while meeting community needs, piloting targeted tools, dedicating roles and spaces to well-being, and investing in specialty programming and services for both patrons and staff. American Libraries spoke with workers from four libraries that are pioneering mental health practices in the field. Supporting Staff Strategically Oak Park (Ill.) Library When, in … Continue reading Working for Well-Being


Kelley Woolley poses with items from the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance library collection

Bookend: From A to Zoo

June 3, 2024

“I’ve been a huge animal person my whole life,” Woolley says. Today, she oversees the library and archive for the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance (SDZWA), the nonprofit that runs the zoo and park. Her workplace is one of a handful of zoo libraries across the US that employs a full-time librarian. SDZWA’s 16,000-item library comprises … Continue reading Bookend: From A to Zoo


A sheep, a woman knitting, and knitted potholders

Close-Knit Community

November 1, 2022

Hickory (N.C.) Public Library (HPL) Community Engagement Librarian Dacy Shute was looking to host a program that would celebrate the city’s agricultural legacy as well as create connections among its maker community. In March, she launched the Sheep to Sweater program series—five sessions that showed patrons, step-by-step, where wool comes from, how it’s made, and … Continue reading Close-Knit Community


Images from Morgantown (W.Va.) Public Library System’s 2021 Wild and Weird fundraiser calendar, featuring library workers and adoptable cats

Raising Money for a Good Claws

December 30, 2020

Created as a fundraiser with the help of local animal adoption agencies, Morgantown (W.Va.) Public Library System’s (MPLS) limited-edition 2021 calendar features librarians posing with adoptable cats. Thus was born our 2021 Wild and Weird calendar. Each month features library workers from MPLS—all fully clothed, of course!—alongside an adoptable cat, including Cadillac Frank (a gray … Continue reading Raising Money for a Good Claws



From left: Punxsutawney Phil, 134 years old and living at the Punxsutawney (Pa.) Memorial Library since the 1970s, inside his burrow; at the front of the library, visitors can see Phil's Burrow through the viewing window. Photos: Punxsutawney (Pa.) Memorial Library

Burrowed in Books

January 31, 2020

Editor’s note: This story was originally published in January 2020. You read that correctly. When Phil isn’t swarmed by media and visitors clamoring for his shadow-dependent spring predictions on Groundhog Day every February 2—in 2019, 25,000 people gathered before the stump at Gobbler’s Knob—the well-known woodchuck lives in a burrow at the front of Punxsutawney … Continue reading Burrowed in Books


Vaping

New Trends in Library Security

June 1, 2017

Library directors and staffers in all parts of the country and in all types of libraries continue to be concerned about challenging patrons who sometimes adversely affect library services, including people who are homeless, have a mental illness, or abuse substances. But what follows are real experiences seen firsthand or recounted by library employees—security concerns that … Continue reading New Trends in Library Security


A Bedford, Indiana, student reads on pajama day at school to Bridget, a therapy dog owned by Mary Hall of Bedford Public Library. Photo: Mary Hall/Bedford (Ind.) Public Library

Library Waggin’ Train

March 1, 2017

Thankfully, Hall, assistant director of the Bedford (Ind.) Public Library, had an ally she knew could come to the rescue: Bridget, a beautiful Golden Retriever therapy dog waiting in her office. “When she told him [about the dog], he stopped crying immediately and got up from the floor where he had been lying face down,” … Continue reading Library Waggin’ Train



A girl reads to Minnie from K9 Reading Buddies of the North Shore.

Dog Therapy 101

December 22, 2014

“I started pitching it at the school, and my principal was absolutely against it,” Weibling tells American Libraries. The former 3rd-grade teacher, who was then working toward her master’s degree in library science, was eager to find new ways to get students excited about reading and comprehension. “Reading therapy dog programs weren’t common knowledge to … Continue reading Dog Therapy 101