Find hope in your local library; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 1/10/17

Marilyn Jenkins, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; 

Find hope in your local library:

"While it is important to celebrate their success during the past 25 years, ACLA and member libraries will continue to look ahead. Constant changes in technology, pressure on the RAD to fund a wider range of assets, the growing demands of residents for current information in new formats and the continued need to diversify library funding are just a few of the issues with which we’re dealing. Fortunately, Allegheny County’s libraries now are building on a solid foundation of collaboration.

Our libraries took “A Quiet Crisis” a quarter century ago and turned it into a model of regional cooperation. It is remarkable what can happen when committed individuals share a common vision, roll up their sleeves and work together.

So, if you get discouraged in the days and weeks ahead as the new year unfolds, just pull out your library card and remember what’s possible. And if you don’t have a library card — make getting one your easiest resolution for 2017!

Just visit any local library or www.aclalibraries.org to find out how.

Marilyn Jenkins is executive director of the Allegheny County Library Association."

Allegheny County library systems look to cooperate; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2/2/14

Kaitlynn Riely, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Allegheny County library systems look to cooperate:

"Starting last month, the Allegheny County Library Association and Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh began what the organizations anticipate will be a six-month, countywide conversation about the future of library service. Both groups hope the discussion will include input from the people who use the county's 45 library systems and the communities where they are based.

"The question is, how can we create a comprehensive 21st century library service to best serve the citizens of Allegheny County?" said Diana Bucco, vice president of the Buhl Foundation, which is facilitating the discussion.

That question is already being asked. A website -- located at www.countycitylibraries.org -- has been launched to explain the initiative and to obtain the ideas and opinions of community members.

Library users are asked to complete by Feb. 14 a survey that poses questions such as what libraries can do to support communities and patrons and what ideas should be considered for funding and structuring library services in the community.

The ideas are expected to build on some of the collaborative initiatives already in place, such as the Electronic Information Network, or eiNetwork, that provides city and county libraries with their technology structure."