Libraries Transforming Communities: Turning Outward

Communities have challenges. Libraries can help. Libraries Transforming Communities (LTC) seeks to strengthen librares' roles as comunity leaders and change agents using the Harwood Institute's Turning Outward approach to community engagement. Libraries Turning Outward. The Turning Outward approach involves asking the right questions to find out what your community really wants, and bringing together the right teams to help make those dreams a reality. Libraries around the country are using the approach to better understand their communities and to bring about positive change. Expore their stories below.

Case Study: Columbus (Wis.) Public Library: Innovative Solutions to Bridging Community Divisions

Blog: Suffolk (Va.) Public Library: Turning Outward to Chuckatuck

Case Study: Hartford (Conn) Public Library: Building on a Foundation of Success...and Going Deep to Go Broad

Case Study: Spokane County (Wash) Library District: Building an Organizational Culture that Puts Community First

Case Study: Red Hook (NY) Public Library: One Small Win Creates Huge Ripples of Change

Blog: San Jose (Calif) Public Library: Navigating a Community Conversation with Language Barriers

Blog: Evanston (Ill.) Public Library: An Interview with Jill Skwerski

Case Study: Los Angeles (Calif.) Public Library: Two Paths, One Destination: Culture Change in a Major Library System

Blog: Blue Valley (Kan.) High School: Transforming School Libraries

Explore free LTC resources

View a 60-minute webinar

Attend a training

Libraries Transforming Communities (LTC) was an ALA initiative with the Harwood Institute for Public Innovation. The two-year initiative, offered in 2014-15 and made possibly by a grant from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, offered training and resources to libraries based on the Harwood Institute's "Turning Outward" approach.