How do you encourage community-building at your public library? I learned a new tool (new to me that is) last night – have meet ups at your library.
To organize a meet-up you tell people where they should meet and when and let them know the focus of the meet up. People show up if they are interested – it is as simple as that.
We’ve been developing craft neighborhood at the library and the manager of adult services decided to arrange a meet up for crafters. She has lots of great ideas and this was definitely one of them. I love rug hooking so I went – and it was wonderful!
We had eleven people in our new craft neighborhood and almost everyone was doing a different craft. We talked about crafts, the library, and the community. I had only planned to go for 30 minutes and stayed for over an hour.
There was no programming involved, just providing a pleasant space where folks could meet and chat – and isn’t that what community is all about? Maybe the lesson here is that community-building happens in little, small steps like getting a group of strangers together to talk about knitting. I just know I’m going again next week.
The irreverent librarian 
This is just what I was looking for. We are planning an Ancestry.com drop in. Learn tips & tricks from each other. “Drop In” wasn’t doing it — It’s a Meet Up! See, if I watched tv, I’d know my trends 😉
I love the idea of an Ancestry drop-in…I’ll have to try that out. Let me know how yours goes. The crafting drop-in is still going strong. Some folks thought it was a class to start with but they decided they liked this concept even more!