Worcester Library Initiative Named as 2015 Harvard Ash Center Bright Idea

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Thursday, February 19, 2015

GoLocal Worcester News Team

Worcester Public Library's One City, One Library Initiative has been recognized by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University as part of its 2015 Bright Ideas program.

The initiative is one of 124 programs recognized for being at the forefront of innovative government action.

“One City, One Library would not have been possible without the support of organizations across the city. The entire community has been a part of this effort,” said Patricia Eppinger, chairwoman of the Worcester Education Collaborative and member of the committee that helped develop One City, One Library. “This unprecedented collaboration has put libraries back into our schools, where they’re most Community organizations have provided joint programming, volunteers, and over $1.5 million for sites designed to address unique needs of the neighborhoods and to involve the public in achieving literacy."

“The Bright Ideas program demonstrates that often seemingly intractable problems can be creatively and capably tackled by small groups of dedicated, civic-minded individuals,” said Stephen Goldsmith, director of the Innovations in Government Program at the Ash Center. “As exemplified by this year’s Bright Ideas, making government work better doesn’t always require massive reforms and huge budgets. Indeed, we are seeing that, in many ways, an emphasis on efficiency and adaptability can have further-reaching effects than large-scale reforms.”

One City, One Library is a dynamic public-private partnership between the City of Worcester, the Worcester Public Library, the Worcester Public Schools and organizations dedicated to education focused on opening neighborhood public library branches in the city’s elementary schools. These branches offer the wealth of resources found at the public library, including technology, new materials, and professional librarians, and bring them into our schools. They are accessible to students and teachers during the school day, and open to the public when school is not in session One City, One Library has opened public branch libraries at Roosevelt Elementary, Tatnuck Magnet School, and the Goddard School of Science and Technology. 

“One City, One Library has opened new channels of collaboration by focusing on a common goal: providing equal access to resources for students and neighborhoods,” Worcester City Manager Edward Augustus said. “In a city where 59 percent of children fail to read at grade-level, nothing is more important than making sure our kids have access to quality books and educational materials.”

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