How Indy Public Library is trying to meet everyone's information needs
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Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
Public libraries across the country have morphed into all-purpose community centers amid soaring demand for social services.
- Libraries are enjoying a renaissance in usage. They're also battling book bans and bearing the brunt of a host of societal issues — from caring for unhoused people and migrants to distributing COVID tests and Narcan for drug overdoses.
Why it matters: At the Indianapolis Public Library, it's all part of the mission of meeting the information needs of everyone who walks through the doors.
- "We don't believe it's our role to pick and choose what those needs are," said John Helling, IPL's chief public services officer. "Whatever information needs are being presented, we try to meet them."
The big picture: Librarians, while still helping kids with their homework, are helping migrants apply for asylum and jobless people write resumes.
- Libraries are offering expungement clinics to help people erase their rap sheets, and "digital navigators" to help boost patrons' computer skills.
- Libraries are becoming cooling centers and climate resilience hubs.
What they're saying: "We have to think of this in the context of diminishing public investment in public institutions," Emily Drabinski, president of the American Library Association, told Axios.
- "The role that libraries are playing as community centers and social service centers has a lot to do with the fact that we're kind of the only game in town in a lot of communities."
Reality check: Librarians are fending off physical and verbal assaults from angry and unhinged customers — some of whom blame these frontline workers for the content of books they'd like banned.
Zoom out: At the same time, libraries are grappling with everything from the high cost of e-books to the need to provide free outdoor Wi-Fi so people without broadband can have off-hours access.
Zoom in: Because many patrons at downtown's Central Library are people experiencing homelessness, IPL added a social worker at that branch.
- "We are always scanning the horizon to see what needs are walking in our door," Helling said.
Sometimes that's connecting with community partners to offer health resources or hosting career fairs.
- When librarians noticed that they were getting a lot of questions about how to get certified as a nonprofit, IPL created a workshop series on nonprofit management.
- It also means making sure they're addressing the ways that people access information. The new Fort Ben branch became the state's first Certified Autism Center.
The bottom line: Helling said the library is always aiming to provide information — sometimes it comes from a book; other times it comes from a person or organization.
- "As society has changed, we've come to change with it," Helling said. "We are looking at ourselves in a more holistic way and seeing an information need where we, maybe, used to ignore it."