Beyond the Books
Beyond the Books
Fairhill's Lillian Marrero library branch brings the poorest Philadelphians services that expand the definition of literacy far beyond the stacks. It's a model for the future of libraries
Jun. 29, 2018
Within Due north Philly's Lillian Marrero branch of the Gratuitous Library, community organizer Tania Ríos Marrero—daughter of the branch's namesake—scribbles neatly at the summit of a notebook: "What is the role of a public library?" Word by word, she dissects the meaning of her message. " Role : Function, purpose. Public : Social access, people, rubber, society."
At the nearby computer lab, one of the library staffers explains to an elderly Latino human how to admission social security benefits online. High school students laugh together as they gather effectually a table doing their homework. A human being in a comfortable chair sifts through the daily newspapers. Puerto Rican hurricane evacuees wait in line for staff to help them navigate their new lives—everything from housing and jobs, to accessing federal emergency programs and other services.
Ríos Marrero looks around and smiles. Finally, " Library ? What is that?" she says. "I think that a library is a tool, and a tool is to be used by the community to serve community purposes."
"Libraries are essential to under resourced communities," Moody says. "They shape the customs and the community shapes the library."
Lillian Marrero is one of Philadelphia's 21st Century Gratuitous Libraries , a groundbreaking initiative to rethink how libraries serve their neighborhoods in today's world. That has come to mean much more than just lending books, especially in poor communities with a lot of need—to pin from being "citadels of stuff to externally-facing, outwardly-reaching organizations designed to help create excitement and borough appointment around the collections we have," as Free Library Managing director and President Siobhan Reardon puts it .
Launched with a $25 million grant from the William Penn Foundation, the project aims to attain many different kinds and definitions of literacy—fiscal, social, emotional, digital—for different populations: task seekers, entrepreneurs, new Americans, children under five, people with disabilities. So far, four neighborhood branches take relaunched as community hubs, serving the particular needs of their communities.
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In South Philly, for example, Children's Infirmary of Philadelphia spearheaded a public-private venture that opened a new branch under CHOP offices and a public health center, with a make new rec heart and playground side by side door—offering health and literacy services to the whole family. Tacony Library reopened last twelvemonth with a small-scale business resource center, to assistance community members offset, manage and grow their business organization. And work is underway at the Parkway Central branch to create a series of community spaces for teens, concern owners and others; they are slated to open up in the fall.
For Fairhill's Lillian Marrero branch, re-opened last November after 18 months of renovations with a new drinking glass-enclosed gathering space, this has meant against the issues facing some of the urban center'south poorest and nigh disconnected residents. On North 6th Street, the branch serves as a coincidental border between neighborhoods: To the due east, Puerto Rican flags fly on every block, just Dominicans, Ecuadorians and Colombians have also found their way. The westward side is mostly African American. The 19133 zippo code where the edifice sits has up to 80 per centum poverty rates in some areas.
But even before its renovations, the branch has long been a model for how libraries can get beyond books to serve their constituents—piece of work started past Lillian Marrero, when she was caput librarian from the 1990s to 2005. Originally from Puerto Rico, Lillian Marrero moved to Philadelphia at age 30 with her husband, who was pursuing a PhD at Temple. She jumped effectually unlike branches before finally settling into the formerly-named Lehigh Avenue co-operative.
"Whatever gave and held life, that was her honey language, her life work," says Ríos Marrero of her mother. Lillian would make it early to clean up the trash that piled upwardly around the library overnight, a symptom of the neighborhood'due south larger issues with littering. Inside the infinite, she kept potted plants and flowers. Information technology was her hands that planted the magnificent trees that all the same stand today outside the building.
Lillian nurtured the library so it would give life to its Fairhill community. She helped North Philadelphians find housing, chase jobs, acquire English, develop digital skills—long before any of that was a mandate of the library system. She was a "guiding lite who laid the groundwork for what nosotros would hope is a model of community engagement for the libraries," says Joe Bedford, deputy director of customer engagement at the Free Library.
It's this same deep community date the library'due south current supervisor, Mieka Moody, brings to the work. Similar many of the library's constituents, Moody is an African American, Muslim adult female raised in Northward Philadelphia. This July, she will have worked at the Costless Library for xx years. She applied to her first job to brand ends meet as a young female parent with two daughters. In fourth dimension, she understood the significance of a public library in a poor, urban community.
21st Century Libraries aim to attain many different kinds and definitions of literacy—financial, social, emotional, digital—for different populations: job seekers, entrepreneurs, new Americans, children under five, people with disabilities.
"Libraries are essential to nether resourced communities," she says. "They shape the customs and the community shapes the library." Moody somewhen connected her studies with the Free Library's support and became a librarian.
Moody shares many of the lived experiences of the folks who employ the the infinite, which influences her work. "I can chronicle to people coming in and looking for jobs, people in survival mode," she says. She recently organized a wellness circle for women of color, mostly attended past African American women. "Nosotros taught yoga, Afro-poetry, meditation, and more," she says. For a group of low-income, black and brown women who aren't often afforded down time, the initiative was a radical learning experience in self-care.
Since the fall, Saturday mornings have brought activists and staff members to Fairhill to help hurricane evacuees, sometimes dozens in a day. Every Wednesday afternoon, information technology hosts a free farmers marketplace outside with Philabundance. Staff members and neighbors have planted a community garden. The branch hosts weekly yoga and science classes for kids during the summer, hip hop workshops, email tutorials, moving-picture show nights and other events planned by the staff to answer questions and gather the community.
Lillian worked at the library until the end of her life. She had a cancer in her leg that wouldn't go abroad. But even through the surgeries and procedures, she dutifully showed up to fulfill her responsibilities each day. "Her life'southward devotion was this library," Ríos Marrero says. "She went too before long, she wasn't done at the library, and she wasn't done with her work in the community."
Today, on the other side of Lehigh Avenue is a landscape of Lillian Marrero. She stands proud and smiling, with a rainbow guacamayo on her left elbow and an open volume in her right mitt. Light-green vines spill out unto the wall, firmly rooted in the text she is holding. Strings of words hang delicately from the plant'south bright green, spiraling limbs: Gente. Amistad. Educación. Ayuda. Empleo.
Lillian Marrero Facebook 
Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/beyond-the-books/
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