Dedham Public Library Flourishes with Innovative Programming

DEDHAM, MA - In the two years since Dedham Public Library Director Bonnie Roalsen took the helm of the Dedham Public Library, community utilization of the Dedham Public Library has skyrocketed. While the library has always been a beloved institution in Dedham, patronage and circulation numbers had been decreasing in recent years prior to Roalsen’s arrival and many assumed public libraries were becoming more obsolete in modern society, due to the plethora of information and entertainment available at the fingertips of most students, parents and professionals. With the Library Director’s steadfast commitment to providing equitable access to public library service, Dedham Public Library has experienced an explosion of visitors to the Main Library and the Endicott branch, coming to enjoy its updated collections, expanded services and hours, and wide range of events and programming designed to appeal to all in the community.

When the opening for Library Director came up in the spring of 2016, 130 years after Hannah Shuttlesworth left $10,000 to the Town of Dedham to purchase and build what is currently the main library on Church Street, the library Board of Trustees took a leap of faith and hired Roalsen. She had been working as Head of Youth Services in Dover, MA for 15 years, at a public library recognized by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as one of the best small libraries in North America in 2012. Roalsen is a nationally recognized speaker, innovator and educator in the library science field, honored by Library Journal as a ‘Mover and Shaker’ in 2007 as an emerging leader and changemaker in libraries for her work transforming libraries and helping them move forward. When she arrived in Dedham in August of 2016, Roalsen wasted no time setting the stage to dramatically increase library programming, services, equitable access, as well to make major updates to the physical buildings, their collections, and technology.

Over the years, many community members had been advocating for the library to undertake a capital campaign to do extensive renovations and additions to one or both of the library branches, or to build a new library with the capacity for a large collection and many community meeting spaces. When Roalsen stepped inside the main branch of the Dedham Library, however, she was struck with the beauty and integrity of the handsome historical building and was sure that she could help steer the solid foundation of the organization into a more modern, vibrant and active community treasure.

These days, the typical day at either location is filled with bustling activity and community, as well as quiet reflection and connection. Circulation is up, even though the size of the collections on-site has been pared down, removing out-of-date unwanted items, to create allow more public gathering, flexible community spaces, and greater accessibility to collections, services, and programming to those with limited mobility. Roalsen is quick to point out that the large public libraries in the surrounding towns have reciprocal lending agreements with the Dedham Public Library, and that cardholders have easy access to the full collections, more than 6.5 million items, in the Minuteman network.

Roalsen’s passion lies in providing equitable access for all of Dedham’s residents to a full spectrum of resources available at public libraries. A broad range of technology is available at the library, including the typical computer access that most public libraries provide.

Dedham, however, has increased its offerings to include coding and robotics workshops to help residents build their digital literacy skills, video gaming consoles (for on-site use and for circulation), 3D Design and 3D printing (Dedham is the first library in the country to provide 3D printers as part of its circulating collection), drone flying and training, immersive as well as curated virtual reality experiences (where residents have explored everything from coral reefs and the aurora borealis to the U.A.E and the digestive system), and circulating laptop computers, iPads, surface pros, kindles, and more.

Additionally the Dedham Public Library recently launched an augmented reality app which overlays and maps the town’s rich historical information and digital content over the physical environment making accessible to mobile phone users as they navigate the Dedham area. This is one of the many ways the Dedham Public Library is working to deliver digital content, knowledge, and information into more distributed and physically relevant places to increase equitable access and civic engagement within the town.

The lending collection now includes not only books, audio materials, streaming content, online training and databases, magazines, newspapers, and movies but also has a flourishing “object collection.” Yes, you can borrow everything from lawn games, kitchen appliances, and tools to sewing machines, telescopes and arduino kits. Why? Following in the long standing library tradition reaching back to Benjamin Franklin’s first library in America which contained fossils, an air pump, and had spaces used for scientific and electrical experimentation, the Dedham Public Library strives to engage people with all different learning styles and interests, as well as provide equitable access to knowledge and support its creative application.

New books are now arriving ‘shelf ready’ in the libraries with RFID tags which will result in faster delivery times into the hands of patrons looking for them as the complete tagging on the collections is finished. Books and items are also all being qrcoded, linking to suggested readalikes which can be easily requested with the click of a button as well as suggesting additional related resources, digital resources, museum passes, etc. which might be of interest to the patron. The Dedham Public Library also recently hired a Reading Advocate to promote reading, books, and literacy within the community in addition to a Community Access Professional : Special Populations whose sole focus is on making library and its offerings welcoming, inclusive, and accessible to all.

After ramping up programming for patrons of all ages over the past two years, the library staff took on a new challenge this past summer - becoming a federally funded open site distributing free breakfast and free lunch at the library to any child under the age of 18 who needed it, to fill the void left by the lack of school lunch programs during the summer months. The certification process was detailed, and in the end, the main branch was approved for reimbursement by the federal agency that oversees meal programs. In an effort to reduce any stigma around in participating in the program, the library staff also planned open family-friendly camp-like activities each day to coincide with meal times, so that many members of the community would be together. The summer meal program was a success, with slightly less than 4000 free breakfasts and lunches served during the summer.

Another successful program begun last year, that continues this fall at the Endicott Branch, is the library’s ESOL tutoring program. Started in response to the evacuees from Puerto Rico, living in Dedham after being displaced by Hurricane Maria, the program serves parents of Dedham school-aged children in small groups, to help practice understanding and speaking English.

Both library branches offer other popular programs for children including “Super Awesome Fun Time” - an thrice-weekly interactive sensory learning environment for parents and toddlers, a baby dancetime program, drop-in storytimes, lego and anime clubs, Arabic story time, American Sign Language Storytime, Dungeons and Dragons club, and more.

The staff has also installed a wind tunnel in the youth area as well as a working beehive to provide more experiential and scientific learning opportunities within our facilities. For adults, the library manages five active book groups. Adult board game nights, a pinterest craft group, a visual journaling club, open piano play, an ongoing music concert series, regular Author events, rotating art exhibits, outside speakers on a variety of topics, community meeting spaces for residents to utilize, and more.

To round out its offering, the library has a popular Museum pass program, a door-to-door delivery service, and can be booked as a wedding venue. And yes, they also livestream the library events on Facebook to provide remote and distributed access, as well as archive them on the Library’s YouTube Channel should you be interested in an event at a later date. Building upon its long and storied history, Dedham Public Library is now a modern, vibrant and active community with a dedicated and innovative staff, quickly becoming a nationally recognized example of excellence in community utilization and public library services.

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