Atlantic Provinces Library Association 2021 Conference

The purpose of the proposed presentation is to share the preliminary findings of a SSHRC-funded research project that asks two questions: (1) to what extent have Canada’s public libraries leveraged, or not, the model for community-libraries as defined in the Working Together Project toolkit (2008), distributed more than twelve years ago? And (2) what new opportunities for public service innovation exist when librarians and social workers share the same public space? The findings --based on the voices of those interviewed-- resonate closely with conference themes. For example, cross-pollination is inevitable when: a library hires social workers to deal with the most vulnerable; a technical services space becomes transformed --during the first COVID lockdown-- into the city’s foodbank distribution centre; and, when library staff are set free in the community and charged with finding and engaging with those living at the margins, whom the library has failed to reach.  Equity, inclusivity, race and class all play a role in this re-imagined community-led library.