GLR Week 2022 launched with a session celebrating public libraries as a mainstay of the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading since its inception. Public libraries serve as trusted centers of communities in the unique position to attract potential partners and provide benefits and resources to community members with diverse interests and needs, as uniquely captured by panelist, Melanie Huggins of Richland Library in South Carolina:

When we meet people where they are, we treat them with dignity and respect, they have agency. That’s how libraries do their work.

Prior to the panel, our salute to public libraries began with a unique video featuring national partners and local colleagues providing endorsements about the role and significance of public libraries addressing key issues and initiatives. Jill Bourne of the San Jose Public Library discussed digital equity; Gregg Behr of the Grable Foundation focused on Remake Learning; Greg Lucas, State Librarian of California, discussed Lunch at the Libraries; summer learning was addressed by Aaron Dworkin and Brodrick Clarke of the National Summer Learning Association; Tiffany Pizzino of the Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority focused on The Book Rich Environments Initiative; and Liz McChesney of the LaundryCares Foundation discussed literacy in the laundromat.

The video highlighted important data about libraries’ contributions:

• 95.4% of public libraries provide summer learning programs.
• Over 100 libraries support the LaundryCares Foundation’s Play & Learn Spaces.
• Through the National Book Foundation’s The Book Rich Environments Initiative, more the 1.6 million books have been distributed through 50 library communities.
• 18 public libraries are members of the Remake Learning Network, and libraries are program partners in each of the 17 regional Remake Learning Festivals nationwide.
• More than 88% of public libraries provide digital literacy programming.
• Libraries help to feed the 84% of children who are eligible for free lunches but unable to access them when school is out.

Following the video, Siobhan O’Loughlin Reardon of CGLR welcomed attendees and gave special recognition to public libraries supporting communities in crisis, recognizing the El Progresso Public Library in Uvalde, Texas, and the Merriweather branch of the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library. Reardon then introduced moderator Susan Hildreth, library consultant and former director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), who engaged a panel of library leaders in a discussion about what they saw and heard in the video, the importance of partnerships in aligning and advancing the work of libraries, the current spectrum of community-led ideological approaches to library service, and the current challenges facing public libraries. Following the panel conversation, CGLR Founder and Managing Director Ralph Smith closed out the session with a big thank you to Susan Hildreth for her role in bringing together CGLR and IMLS and libraries overall many years ago, and he acknowledged the panelists and the work and value of public libraries in advancing the goals of CGLR.