In the 21st century, we’re all reinventing ourselves every day to learn how to live in a digital world.
We seek new ways to work and to create in a new economy. We want to find meaningful relationships, teach our children and help our communities, even though the resources we use have changed. We’re all constantly writing and rewriting our own stories — stories of dreams and human potential. And those stories need new digital resources, new meeting spaces and new opportunities for relationship-building and fun.
Your new stories need a new kind of library to help you write them.
That’s why public libraries like your Central Arkansas Library System are no longer totally hushed, quiet places for reading only. Even though this month marks CALS’ 110th anniversary, at Library Square in Little Rock, there’s always a hive of activity humming around the library’s campus.
Inside Main Library, groups are using the meeting rooms not only for hundreds of free library programs, but also for crafting clubs, baby showers, business meetings, bible study groups or political gatherings of all stripes. Patrons in fitness gear walk by looking dreamy and relaxed after their free yoga or meditation classes. Others come in to get documents notarized by licensed notaries on staff, or to fax or use the internet. In the tech classrooms, in-person instructors are teaching free classes in valuable skills like MS Excel, Photoshop, web design and programming.
Crowds throng to the library’s state-of-the-art theater for movies and concerts, then socialize at our art galleries, gift shop and used bookstore. The Nexus Nook offers coffee and pastries and Jimmy’s Serious Sandwiches makes gourmet quick meals.
This busy hum is going on in all 15 library branches around the system. After school and in summer, the Be Mighty program connects kids and teens with nutritious meals to prevent hunger for those at risk of food insecurity. Jammel Johnson, Library Assistant at the CALS Millie Brooks Library, enjoys the way his job allows him to help kids.
“Whether they have a need for our food programs or they just need a safe place to spend time, play games or read, we really operate like a household,” Johnson said. “We’re very family oriented.”
In 2019, the library system opened a digital studio at the CALS Williams Library to support content creation and marketing for online businesses, including a green screen, tripod, microphone and product photography table as well as computers and design software. Soon, Main Library will add even more creative workspace and resources.
CALS is listening to your stories and rewriting its role to better serve you. With a library card, you can take home an educational toy or costume for the perfect play date, a fishing pole for that weekend getaway, a telescope for backyard camping, birdwatching kits to learn about nature, musical instruments for your children or the tools you need to finish that home repair.
Come in and check out your 21st century library, rewritten, to help you today.