The Library Down Under: Outreach Services

 ─ Bringing the Library to You

“You cannot know what your service means to people who do not get out. To have you bring us books is really wonderful.”

by David Miller

More than 5.6 million visits were made to Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County last year. However, many area residents are not ambulatory and cannot get to any of the Library’s 41 locations. For them, the Library’s Outreach Services is a lifeline for those who cannot access traditional library services. Although it has no public service desk, Outreach Services, which is located “down under” the Main Library in its lower level, touches many lives in the community.

Among these services geared toward meeting the needs of users with special needs and the professionals who work with or care for them are:

• Mailing over 9,000 books to the homebound

• Providing over 700 programs for children with special needs at area hospitals and schools such as puppet shows, storytelling, and booktalks

• Delivering materials to adults in over 160 nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and community centers each year and conducting booktalks and bookclubs for adults at senior facilities

• Loaning much in demand Bi-Folkal kits offering multi-media programming aids on numerous topics, designed to arouse memories and stimulate discussion in groups of older adults and other users with special needs

• Providing materials for the Hamilton County Justice Center and other local correctional facilities

• Delivering, on average, over 500 teacher collections each month to schools in Hamilton County. Since many schools no longer have staffed libraries, or libraries at all in many cases, teacher collections delivered to the school are often the only access students have to reading and research materials in the classroom.

• Offering one of the most extensive collections of large print books in the U.S. including popular fiction, nonfiction, and classics for browsing in the Main Library’s Popular Library and in rotating collections to the branch libraries to help keep their selections fresh.

This touching comment from one of the department’s new Books by Mail customers says it all. “Not too many things good happen when you’re old and in a nursing home. The Library delivery service is a wonderful service.”

Watch a video tour of the department with Elizabeth Zuelke.