GET OUT OF YOUR LIBRARY! NJLA Conference April 21, 2015 Diversity and Outreach Small Libraries

IT’S COZY IN OUR LIBRARIES But there are many more people who don’t know or don’t care about the library

GO FIND THEM! We’re going to talk about different ways to bring the library where people are

Bradley Beach has a special challenge Our population increases six-fold during the summer They have lots of things to do beside come to the library

Our Little Free Libraries And our book bike We reach out to them in two ways

We got the Book Bike idea from other libraries But we wanted something simpler and cheaper

We collaborated with an outstanding partner

The triumphant debut of our Book Bike at last year’s Memorial Day Parade We’re dressed as witches from the Wizard of Oz

For less than $300, which was covered by our Friends, we got exactly what we wanted. We drive our bike around town, bring it to events, ride up to the boardwalk to give away books and information about the library If people have reference questions or want to renew books, we use our phones or the library Ipad

Our Book Bike works for us! It’s got a bit of whimsy It’s the appropriate style and cost for our town People have repeatedly said that the Little Free Libraries and Book Bike make them very proud to live in Bradley Beach make reading easy got them interested in the Library

The first day we rode the Book Bike on the boardwalk, a woman who had lived in town for years snapped this picture to share with her friends. She said she had never even thought about the Library before, but she came down and joined that very day.