Propagating Promising Practices Application

Public libraries have great potential to increase education and workforce development opportunities for adults, especially those with low language literacy, numeracy, and digital literacy skills. Three libraries, Providence Public Library, Chicago Public Library, and Los Angeles Public Library, who have implemented strategies to meet the needs of these adults, have partnered on an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) National Leadership grant to further develop and document their practices and support additional libraries in implementing similar strategies to meet their communities’ needs. Three promising practices, all technology-enabled, have been identified: Learning Lounges, learning circles, and mobile learning. Propagating Promising Practices for Literacy and Workforce Development at Libraries’ (P3) goal is for public libraries to be effective and welcoming hubs for lifelong learning, digital inclusion, and economic empowerment.

In year one of the P3 project (2018–19), the three partner libraries met regularly to support and learn from one another’s implementation, and to understand the contextual factors that shape the scope and design of each of the three practices. They identified their conditions for success which other libraries can use to evaluate their own capacities and to assess which practices best fit their own community’s specific needs. An online toolkit has been developed to support libraries in the implementation of the practices.

In year two of the project, six libraries will be selected to learn about and implement one of these three technology-enabled practices to extend learning options to adults with limited English, academic, or digital skills. The project will offer the selected libraries access to implementation tools and strategies, peer mentorship and technical assistance, and a community of colleagues to address common implementation challenges.The goal is to broaden understanding of how the practices can help libraries expand their approaches to serving adults with limited skills and how these practices can be implemented in varied library settings.