The Hennepin County Library system is massive. More than 5 million books, CDs and DVDs in 40 languages are at the fingertips of the avid bookworm or the curious student. But what happens when you can no longer walk through the door of a library to check out a book?
Marlene Weeks was at quite a loss when she couldn’t go to her local library anymore. “I read a lot,” says Weeks, who is visually impaired. When she moved into an assisted living facility in Wayzata, Weeks could no longer rely on a friend to drive her to the Plymouth library for the large-print books she enjoyed.
But Weeks qualified for At Home Service, an outreach program from the Hennepin County Library where she receives her favorite books by mail. “It’s wonderful. It gives me the freedom to read again,” says Weeks, who looks forward to the package every five weeks.
Weeks’s story is like many residents in Hennepin County who can’t physically get to the library. The library’s Outreach Services program began in the 1970s as a way to provide library materials to the homebound, nursing home residents, hospital patients and inmates. Today, it’s an area of library services that continues to grow. In the first half of 2011, people requested more than 25,000 books through the service.
“Circulation is only going to continue to increase,” says Patrick Jones, a senior librarian who oversees the many facets of the program. “For the 18-year-old man at the workhouse to a woman with a disability in the nursing home, we are as much their library as the person who can walk in and use the Minnetonka library.”
But not everyone who uses the library’s Outreach Services is an active reader. Some have never even had a library card before. At Hennepin County’s correctional facilities, many experience the library and all it offers for the first time.
“It’s interesting that the notes we get from people at correctional facilities and the notes we get from people who are homebound are similar—they are unable to use the library and we bring that experience, that freedom, to them,” says Jones.
The library collaborates with the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and the Hennepin County Department of Corrections to provide a variety of materials and special programming to inmates.
At the Adult Corrections Facility in Plymouth, outreach staff has developed a nationally recognized program called “Freedom Ticket” that teaches inmates how to utilize library resources when they reenter society. Inmates learn how to use the library’s job resources, how to explore the entrepreneurial opportunities offered, and how to sign up for computer classes.
One inmate named Ray told the library that the services have been a key and vital part of his rehabilitation. “I will leave here better prepared and confident because of the services the library provides. I cannot imagine what my stay here would have been like without it,” says Ray. “Thank you for keeping this one window of freedom open to me.”
Besides activities at the Adults Corrections Facility, outreach services also deliver books and materials to the Public Safety Facility, County Home School and the Juvenile Detention Center.
Because of the sheer volume and reach of outreach services, the library has consistently relied on volunteers for help making deliveries to homebound seniors. Volunteers say it’s a convenient, rewarding experience to be the bearer of good books. “It brightens their lives,” says Ginny Miller, who has volunteered for the library for about two years.
Miller will call and ask the reader for book requests, fill the order at the library, then deliver the books. She lives in Mound and delivers books to seniors in a nearby senior living complex in Spring Park, so it’s convenient way to volunteer, too.
“It really adds to these people’s lives, especially this one woman who couldn’t read but could watch television and listen to books on tape,” says Miller. “She would just wait for those tapes.”
In June 2011, librarians filtered through thousands of information requests on books, DVDs, CDs and other library materials. While more computer savvy seniors are able to request materials online, alleviating some of the workload, librarians like Jones admit they still enjoy connecting with seniors on the phone who are searching for the next great read or a song when they only can remember a snippet of the lyrics.
“When one guy who lives at the nursing home gets his blue bag of CDs, the staff tell us he’s a joy to be around,” says Jones. “The day that man gets his Conway Twitty CD is a good one for us.”
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To volunteer to deliver books to customer’s homes, assist at senior assisted living facilities, or donate magazines to correctional facilities, complete a volunteer form online at www.hclib.org or call the Volunteer Services coordinator at 612.543.8545.
