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Grow your own branch
Boston's Chinatown neighborhood has been without a library since 1956. In 2001, the Chinese Youth Initative of the Chinese Progressive Association started a campaign to bring a library back to Chinatown so that local residents can have access to the wide variety of services that a local branch offers.
How do we know that Chinatown needs a library branch? Because hundreds of people are already using one. In July, 2009, the Storefront Library Project set up a mobile version of the library as part of the Chinatown Main Street Festival, and in October the project transformed a vacant commercial space into a temporary library that will be open for three months. This is no symbolic gesture - the library offers internet access, periodicals, a children's reading and drawing area, and special events along with book lending services.
The library is intended to be temporary - a way of showing how important a library will be to Chinatown rather than a substitute for a branch of the Boston Public Library. But it is also acting as a testing ground for a future library. Staff and volunteers are collecting data on usage and trying out different services and configurations to find out how to make the eventual permanent branch fit the needs of the community.
If you're in Boston, be sure to stop by the library soon. I thought it was a great idea when I first heard about it, but you can't really understand how vital a space it is until you've walked through the door.
The Storefront Library Project is run by Boston Street Lab. Thanks to Program Manager Amy Cheung for the library tour.
