Learning from a Prairie State
Small cities, potentially big lessons. What a state that is home to 800,000 people can demonstrate to the country as a whole.
Local Institutions
58 posts
Geo-Journalism Illustrates & Expands the Story
An interactive map of the Columbus, Ohio Library system illustrates the power of maps in reporting.
How Libraries Are Leading the Way to Digital Equity
This is a report about how that drama is playing out in one sizable American city, and what its lessons indicate for the country as a whole.
Why Some Libraries Are Eliminating Fines
Are fines consistent with a fundamental mission of libraries: to serve the public with information and knowledge? And to address that mission equitably across the diverse population of rich and poor library users?
What Happens After the Election
What else is going on in the country, with less than two weeks in this consequential election season?
The Post-Pandemic Future of Libraries
"I've never been prouder to be a librarian."
Public Libraries’ Novel Response to a Novel Virus
America’s public libraries have led the ranks of “second responders,” stepping up for their communities in times of natural or manmade disasters, like hurricanes, floods, shootings, fires, and big downturns…
Looking at Libraries
Continuing the photo essay about public libraries, which showed many examples of children’s rooms and adult spaces, this collection shows some of the multitude of activities happening at public libraries. It also…
A Portrait of Public Libraries
Since Jim Fallows and I began traveling the country for American Futures and Our Towns nearly seven years ago, there has been one beat that began as a surprise to me and grew into…
New Jobs, New Residents, and New Possibilities
Here are news items and developments related to trends we’ve been covering in the recent “Our Towns” series, and elsewhere: The furniture business returns, and is looking for furniture-makers. In a…
Report for America Goes Big
It has been another rough period for the financial models behind journalism in general, and local news outlets in particular. Last month Brookings released a sobering report about the spread of “news…
In Memphis, A Lab Experiment for Local News
It’s time for another look at new financial, editorial, and technological models for local journalism. You’ll find previous entries at these links: from Mississippi; from Maine; from Massachusetts; from Southern California and the San Francisco…
A Big Little Idea From Nashville
During our travels visiting towns and cities across the country for American Futures and now Our Towns, Jim Fallows (my husband) and I have encountered story after story of short, sweet initiatives…
The Library That’s Also an Art Gallery
A "hub of Winston-Salem in touch with the people."
The Gift of a Public Library
A legacy that continues.
A Public Library of, by, and for the People
A "how to" on staying relevant through invention and reinvention