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Of particular use for local residents will be information about improvements being made to the asset offer
(Table 2.11).
Table 2.11: Improvements to products and services that can be marketed
Enhanced security
Expanded roles for buildings
Expanded roles for staff
New (accessible) locations for assets
New building types
New services
Special offers
• Presence of parks police, as done in Minneapolis, where the Park and Recreation
Board has its own police that seeks to establish rapport and visibility with youth and
the local public through appearances at neighborhood summer festivals.
• Volunteer community service patrols, seen in communities such as Detroit’s
Grandmont Rosedale neighborhood.
• The Baltimore public library system and the city’s Health Department now operate
Virtual Supermarkets in three library branches located in “food deserts.” Local
residents can order fresh food online (at home or from the library) and then collect
it from the library at a pre-arranged time.
• In Arizona, the state university and the Scottsdale Public Library system recently
created the Alexandria Co-Working Network, a new initiative that brings together
inventors, problem-solvers, entrepreneurs, and small businesses in collaboration
spaces in community libraries across Arizona.
• In Brooklyn, New York, a public bathing deck near McCarren Park Pool is converted
into an ice rink during the winter.
• At a branch of Hennepin County Library in Minneapolis, librarians now also serve
as early learning facilitators (see below).
• At the Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks, staff responsible for
issuing permits also give advice on how to put on events and how to secure funding.
• Locating libraries in retail areas, as the Baltimore County Public Libraries is doing at
Owings Mills Metro Center.
• Pools that are usable for lap swimming but that also offer play features such as slides,
jacuzzis, and waves.
• Rec centers that offer jazzercise, zumba, yoga, and climbing walls. They also
sometimes include DVD players, TVs with Netflix access and games consoles for
youth.
• Libraries offer e-books, music, magazines, DVDs, CDs, free wi-fi access, and online
access and material renewal
• In Minneapolis, the Hennepin County Library is opening a new Early Learning
Environment at one of its branches aimed at supporting children’s development of
crucial early literacy skills. 26
• Museum sleepovers such as at the non-profit National Aquarium in Baltimore that
offers a “Sleepover with the Sharks.”
• Library after Dark: On one night per week, two St. Paul public library branches open
their space to teens only for a few hours after it closes to the general public. Teens
have access to all the computers, books, and movies.
• In Colorado, membership in the Basalt Public Library entitles you to a packet of
seeds. After growing the fruits and vegetables and harvesting the new seeds from the
biggest and best, you return them to be lent to others (Runyon 2013).
• In New York, the Queens Public Library System has a demographer on staff whose job
is to watch what’s happening in the community, and as the community (in particular
languages) changes, collections and programs change accordingly (Berger 2012).
• Michigan State Parks sometimes offers free day passes. These passes are on display
around the state, such as, for example, in certain public libraries.
26
See Bayliss, S. (2013), “Design to Learn by: Dynamic Early Learning Spaces in Public Libraries,” School Library Journal, Aug. 1.
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