Urban Libraries

The Urban Libraries Council will partner with the Safe Routes Partnership and the Association for Rural and Small Libraries to establish a proof of concept for Safe Routes to Libraries, increasing the physical accessibility of public libraries across the country. The Safe Routes to Libraries Planning Project will complete a national scan, building a comprehensive understanding of the work libraries are already doing to establish safe paths to their locations. The project team will collect feedback from libraries on the Safe Routes program through listening sessions and surveys and leverage existing national models for schools and parks to create a prototype Safe Routes to Libraries toolkit with examples from rural, suburban, and urban libraries. The project team will then disseminate the toolkit and their initial findings. The planning project will conclude with a national webinar showcasing the project’s learnings to date and exploring the feasibility of developing a national Safe Routes to Libraries model.