Building Skills, Building Futures: The Pivotal Role of Public Libraries
by Liana Lin, Kristine Joy Bacani, and Brittney Donovan
The John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, has worked closely with the New Jersey State Library as well as local libraries throughout New Jersey to understand the breadth and depth of the public library system’s relation to, and impact on, the workforce development system in the state. New Jersey libraries are trusted institutions embedded in the communities they serve and provide a unique learning environment for adult learners. Libraries do much more than lend books; they serve as a resource to the community and provide a wide range of social services that include key adult literacy and career pathway programs. Public libraries actively support the public workforce system by offering a wide range of career services and job-seeking activities, as well as by addressing local workforce needs (Holcomb, Dunford, & Idowu, 2019). Public libraries provide essential supports in advancing employment and education at more than 16,500 locations across the United States (Sheketoff & Cherubini, 2015). Due to their convenient location, welcoming environment, and responsive nature, public libraries often become a first stop for community members looking to reach higher levels of educational and professional achievement.
The Pivotal Skill-building Role of Public Libraries
Libraries are institutions of learning and have held a significant presence in the literacy and digital literacy development space for many years. The literacy services libraries provide are foundational. Hosting these services within the library, a publicly accessible resource at no cost, creates pathways that make it easier for community members in need to discover the services that can assist them. Libraries offer an array of educational classes and resources, including but not limited to: literacy, digital literacy, and English as a Second Language or English Language Acquisition classes. These educational programs offer individuals essential, indispensable skills. More specifically, these programs and resources provide skills that are the key to success in employment and civic life, particularly for individuals new to residing in the United States. These competencies also constitute a critical baseline that is essential before an individual can engage in more extensive training, such as a skill or job training program. In this way, libraries play a fundamental function within the workforce development system, equipping individuals with the skills they need to make progress in their professional journeys and career growth. Job readiness begins with foundational skills such as literacy, digital literacy, and English literacy, which are all supports libraries provide to their community members, often free of charge.
Libraries have shown to be the ideal setting for these foundational learning programs due to their convenient accessibility via public transportation, flexible operating hours, and provision of free Wi-Fi and meeting facilities, among other amenities and resources. Due to their prime locations in communities, libraries often serve as a trusted first point of entrance, bringing people in for foundational services and setting them up to continue to acquire more skills and training via the library or other community partners, such as One-Stop Career Centers, community colleges, vocational-technical schools, and more.
Moreover, libraries often advocate for literacy at a community and policy level. They work to raise awareness about the importance of literacy and push for policies that support literacy development in schools and communities. An example of this commitment is through participating in state grant-funded initiatives such as the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development’s Community Library Adult Literacy and Career Pathways (CLALCP) program. Programs such as CLALCP enable libraries to broaden their scope and enhance their capacity to offer literacy services and career pathway programs, all with the backing of state support. In sum, libraries provide essential foundational skills and support for their communities and act as a vital bridge to further education and training opportunities, making them invaluable partners in fostering individual empowerment and community development.
The Lasting Impacts of COVID-19 on Service Delivery in Libraries
While public libraries continue to serve as a safe haven and valuable resource for their respective communities, they were not immune to the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the onset of the pandemic in 2020, many public libraries across the nation limited or completely shut down in-person operations, adversely affecting community members who relied heavily on their services. In response to the pandemic, public library staff encountered unprecedented challenges as they swiftly transitioned operations to virtual platforms to ensure uninterrupted access to essential resources and services for the community. This included adapting in-person offerings such as adult literacy services and career pathway programs into virtual formats. Library staff had to navigate online platforms, handle online registrations, promote digital literacy, and seek volunteers and instructors willing to teach online. Despite the challenges they encountered, public libraries have significantly enhanced their preparedness, adaptability, and outreach to serve their community members in the wake of the pandemic. Public libraries, like many other service-based institutions, quickly pivoted to multi-modality service provision, thereby expanding their reach beyond the bounds of their immediate geography to be able to serve more people in a variety of more accessible ways.
The disruption and/or absence of these services during parts of the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the way in which these critical services are both fragile and critical to their communities. The provision of free and foundational services via the public libraries is a uniquely effective service offering. Thus, libraries assume a pivotal role in creating greater and more equitable access to learning opportunities, often expanding entry to robust free services that an individual seeking education and training would typically have to pay to access. More specifically, libraries often serve their customers through programming that is not tied to restrictive conditions and/or extensive paperwork, thereby broadening the population that can access services. New Jersey boasts remarkable diversity, and within the state, there are sizable communities that face barriers to accessing education and training due to their immigration status. As previously discussed, literacy, digital literacy, and English literacy programs are on-ramps to jobs and career advancement. In the absence of these readily accessible entry points provided by libraries, certain demographics within New Jersey would remain underserved and be excluded from essential programming and the opportunities that come with learning. COVID-19 exposed the necessity of these programs and how, when taken away, populations throughout the state go underserved and cut out of essential skill-building programming.
Moreover, in this period of adaptation and learning, the COVID-19 pandemic also served to highlight the critical nature of literacy and digital literacy skills in being able to communicate and access needed services in a time of struggle. Having digital and language literacy skills empowers individuals and often underpins the ability to access supportive services and interact with their community and surroundings in a meaningful way. Equipping people with skills such as English as a Second Language, literacy, and digital literacy, allows them to more significantly engage with their everyday surroundings and participate in their communities. Some specific examples include: a parent being able to better communicate and advocate for their children in school, an individual being able to understand their doctor and advocate for their medical care, and an individual or family increasing their participation in civic engagement in the community where they reside. All these scenarios empower individuals equipped with essential skill-building skills — such as literacy, digital literacy, and the English language — to advocate for themselves and their families in a variety of personal and professional circumstances. The COVID-19 pandemic, and its isolating impacts, highlighted the way in which in-person and digital communication are essential and non-negotiable skills in today’s world.
Overall Summary of Public Libraries
Libraries are an invaluable asset in their communities, serving as a hub of service, learning, opportunity, and more. Libraries connect people to services, particularly services certain populations may not have had access to otherwise. Libraries are a critical and sometimes underutilized extension of the workforce development system, as they provide important on-ramps to community and career pathways for vulnerable populations. In essence, the role of public libraries in providing equitable access to service provision, specifically services that help people form foundational skills, such as literacy, digital literacy, and English Language Acquisition, makes these embedded institutions of learning critical in their communities.
References
Holcomb, S., Dunford, A., & Idowu, F. (2019). Public libraries: A community’s connection to career services. John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, Rutgers University.
Sheketoff, E., & Cherubini, T. J. (June 15, 2015). [Letter regarding Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Notice of Proposed Rulemaking].
About the Authors
Liana Lin is a Research Project Manager, and Kristine Joy Bacani and Brittney Donovan are Research Project Coordinators at the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University.
