Dedicated team boosts Library’s customer engagement efforts
Published on June 16, 2023
You might experience the Fort Worth Public Library even if you don’t visit one of its locations.
That is thanks to the Library’s recently assembled Education and Outreach team, which has boosted the Library’s presence at community events. The team is dedicated to customer engagement, which aims to reduce barriers to accessing library services and resources, expand the Library’s reach and evolve services beyond buildings.
Since October 2022, Fort Worth Public Library staff have attended 256 events so far, making a total of 24,990 connections with residents. The Education and Outreach team has worked at 32 events and connected with 6,014 people in that time.
The team has two major focus areas. Outreach provides an interactive presence at events such as the Main St. Arts Festival, where the team connected with 1,900 residents and signed up 49 for library cards. Education coordinates programs such as a reading challenge for Crowley ISD students, during which more than 60,000 minutes were read leading up to the grand opening of the Vivian J. Lincoln Library in July.
This summer, Education and Outreach team members are training literacy specialists at Fort Worth community centers and summer camps on how to encourage their students to participate in the Library’s summer reading challenge. Before school starts, the team will coordinate its third “Fill the Bag” event for teachers, Aug. 5-6, to provide free resources for their classrooms out of the Library’s surplus materials. In September, the team will coordinate a push to engage new Library users during National Library Card Signup Month.
The team will be involved in National Night Out events at Fort Worth Public Library locations, attending ArtsGoggle and the annual Anime Frontier conference in Fort Worth. The inaugural Fort Worth Holiday Family Story Time is a new initiative, set for Saturday, Dec. 16, at the East Regional Library.
“It has been phenomenal to help develop the Education and Outreach team for the Fort Worth Public Library,” said manager Ayesha Hawkins. “Our team is committed to telling the story of how the Fort Worth Public Library is creating equity in knowledge access for the residents of the City of Fort Worth.”
Invite the Library to your event
Currently, Education and Outreach offers programs to enhance community events and connect with organizations:
- How to Get and Use a Library Card
- Using Physical Resources and Programs
- Using Databases and Digital Resources
- Working at the Library or Library Professions
- Library tours
Get in touch with the team by filling out the form on its webpage under “Make a request.”