Saint Paul Public Library

The Saint Paul Public Library will continue to provide co-created, culturally responsive services to Saint Paul's ethnic and racially diverse communities. The Library's community services program has successfully engaged nearly 1,000 households, connecting them with vital information about coronavirus, food access, emergency relief resources, and technology and digital literacy supports. The community services team, staffed with community engagement and public services experts who identify with and speak the native language of a cultural community, has been able to transition to virtual platforms and maintain continued community participation because of their responsive, flexible, and engagement-focused approach. The library will fund key staff positions, mobile hotspots, staff technology, and a program evaluation. It will also build its COVID-19 recovery activities, including remote reference supports, such as navigating unemployment forms and translating public health notices, and virtual programming, including language-specific digital inclusion classes, cross-cultural citizenship learning circles, and family learning and engagement nights.