Update on the Ferguson Library

You remember the Ferguson Library. In 2014, the librarian there was our top Book Culture Hero. After Darren Wilson, a white Ferguson police officer, shot unarmed black teenager Michael Brown, the grief and anger in the community led to many months of protests. Many organizations–even schools–shut down during this time. But Ferguson Library kept the doors open. More than that, they provided support for the community, including acting as ad-hoc schools and providing healing kits for children to teach how to cope with traumatic events. In response to the excellent work that the library was doing during this difficult time, news coverage spread across the country (and even internationally), and donations followed. In fact, hundreds of thousands of dollars of donations were given to Ferguson Library! Now, two years later, they want to share what they were able to do with these donations. An email was sent out to those who donated to show the improvements that have been made using this money. Here’s some of what they’ve been up to:

• The extra funding allowed the library to become community-focused, with a design and programming that focuses on the needs of the community. They were able to hire on a full-time Children’s Services and Programming Librarian, Amy Randazzo.
• They worked with Storycorps to directly record the stories of some of stories in the community.
• They were able to replace their computers that were “literally held together with duct tape and wire” and expand the fleet from 9 to 18 (plus a laptop lab that was donated!)