“Libraries are one of the last free and open public spaces where everyone can come in and is welcome,” said Skye Patrick.
With that, for the LA County Librarian, comes the challenge of meeting the needs of the most populous and diverse county in the U.S., numbering nearly 10 million residents — more than the population of 40 states.
The library system itself, spanning 86 libraries across 3,000 square miles — one of the largest systems in the country — receives nearly 11 million visitors making about 10 million checkouts annually, roughly half in digital and half print.
Patrick, who worked at library systems in Miami, Queens and San Francisco before becoming director of the LA County system in 2016, said the movement to expand libraries into community social service hubs “is a trend that’s happening across the country. As much as I would love to claim it, it’s not ours exclusively. Most forward-thinking libraries understand that they have to change with the times and provide the resources their communities need, if they want people there.”
Alongside more orthodox high-tech services like multimedia streaming platforms, audiobook or eBook download apps and digital newspaper or magazine subscriptions, Patrick has expanded the library system’s reach through free youth lunches, laptop andd house tool lending, safety gun locks, naloxone and fentanyl test strip distribution, mental health resources, statewide digital banned book access and 15 mobile service units offering interactive eBook readers and hands-on STEM projects to children in underserved neighborhoods.
“We get some of the most positive feedback when we connect people to communities they’re not from,” she explained, adding that last year saw roughly 375,000 people participating across all LA County Library programs.
One such program was Faith, Culture & Community, a series of interfaith panel conversations involving Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Native American and other spiritual leaders in late 2023; another is an ongoing Rainbow Storytime series inviting LGBTQ+ families and their children to share their parenting experiences and favorite books.
Over 75% of LA County residents are non-White, with over 33% being born outside the U.S.; while, collectively, they speak over 200 languages, many adults and children are low-literacy, while 19% of adults over age 25 lack a high school diploma.
To that end, one of Patrick’s greatest successes has been Summer Stars, an in-person program where elementary school students get tutored by credentialed professionals across 48 libraries; since the initiative was launched last summer, reading and math test scores for participants have risen by an average of 20% to 25%.
The program also has a spinoff during the school year called Winter Stars; an online diploma completion program for adults; and Spanish-language literacy classes for non-native English speakers.
“When you have those outcomes, the feedback I get most from parents is just ‘Thank you,’ especially for kids who had a difficult time getting on track with their education after the pandemic,” said Patrick. “I want to emphasize to people: Come join us and learn, while we still have the money to support it.”
To expand that support, last month, Patrick received a $350,000 annual Leadership Award from the philanthropic James Irvine Foundation last month.
“I’m the first librarian to receive this; hopefully I won’t be the last. It gives me such an opportunity to put a modern face to the work we do for people who need it,” she said. “We’re mostly going to use the money to continue these programs and train our staff, but it’s hard to overemphasize how crucial that training is — both for basic needs like diapers and period products for our hygiene resource distribution, and for emergencies like the recent fires.”
During the deadly wildfires last January, the LA County library system had eight branches along the rim of the northern burn corridor that functioned as family shelters, FEMA intake centers and Small Business Administration recovery aid application sites.
“For several days, in two of those FEMA centers, we stayed open many hours after closing because we had three pages of people waiting for help,” said Patrick. “We received about 300 air purifiers and we set them up so when you came in, you finally had fresh air.”
“We had water, device charging stations, food, just simple things but so needed,” she continued. “The LA park department also set up care camps that we staffed for families to drop their kids off while they used our library to reestablish their lives. We became a respite for people who found themselves suddenly without a home.”
As the library system is not federally funded, these programs won’t be directly impacted by the ongoing Trump administration cuts that began that January.
However, because many of these programs rely on local, state and even federal government partnerships, Patrick predicts “a trickle-down effect,” both in shrinking collaboration and in increasing hesitation of locals to use the library, particularly undocumented people fearing deportation.
While the expansion of social service programs not traditionally associated with libraries may be new, it continues the same old aim: “to meet whatever the need is of where you live,” she explained.
“When I was growing up in foster care in the Midwest, I was always in libraries. I loved that I could always read new books for free, but it was more than that. I was in the children’s education programs, and when I got older, it was a safe place to hang out all day, and even later in high school and college, to work in,” Patrick continued.
“What a library can do for its community, it’s one of those great secrets that should never be a secret,” she added. “We’re bustling in a changing world, and if I had a message, it’d be: We welcome you in. Hopefully you’ll come in.”
