Hampton Public Library wins award for Living Library program with HCS students

The Hampton Public Library has won the Unique Outreach/Engagement Award from the Virginia Public Library Directors Association. The library submitted the award for the Living Library program. The program was a collaboration between Hampton Public Library, the Academies of Hampton (Hampton City Schools), the Charles Taylor Visual Arts Center, and community members throughout the Hampton Roads Area. 

The Living Library was an innovative program that connected classroom learning with real-world exposure to diverse careers and community roles. As the kick-off event to the 8th grade signature experience, the Living Library was one piece of a yearlong experience to help students explore career paths, community engagement, and personal passions by providing living “books" for students to check out and have one-on-one conversations with. These books consisted of community members throughout the Hampton Roads area representing technical, paraprofessional, and professional careers.

Eighth grade students visited the main library branch of the Hampton Public Library to meet community members they selected based on their personal interests. These community partners were organized in alignment with the academy career paths, ensuring the chosen partners aligned with career fields that resonate with the student's future goals. In addition to meeting their partners at the library, the students also visited the Charles Taylor Visual Arts Center, previous site of the Hampton Public Library. There students explored various works of art and then created their own pieces inspired by the artist they studied.

Public library employees, school staff, and community members came together to recruit the living library "books," to organize the logistics to ensure a smooth experience for the students, and to end the event with a keynote and panel discussion regarding the program presented to the Ford Next Generation Learning leadership.

For many students this signature experience provided their first visit to the public library, and many have returned to explore the collection, our programs, and the new Maker Space in the main branch.

As always, the library was thrilled to partner with the Academies on this project, which truly brought community members, the city, and the students together.

Text provided by Neva White of the Hampton Public Library.