The May 2025 newsletter of Let’s Move in Libraries includes:

• A new open access article on food justice and public librarianship
• How to join the new Public Library Community Partnership Coalition
• How to join our monthly Birds of a Feather online conversations

This month’s featured image comes from our I Partner with My Public Library initiative.

For the third year, beginning on June 1, 2025, Let’s Move in Libraries will be accepting nominations for the I Partner with My Public Library Awards. This initiative was launched in 2023 to create an international platform to celebrate the power of community partnerships involving public libraries. This year, nominations will be accepted from the beginning of June to the end of August 2025.

We are living through some very challenging times, and we need to work together more than ever to help all communities thrive. We must be strong and resilient, together. Join us in this celebration of the power of community.

Look for the call for nominations in the June 2025 newsletter.  You can also serve as a reviewer. For the second year, the Awards have a review structure wherein reviewers will spend approximately 3-5 hours reviewing nominations and filling out an online form based on that review. Learn more and serve as a reviewer! You can both submit a nomination and serve as a reviewer: We’ll make sure you don’t review your own nomination!

All are welcome to serve as reviewers. You do not need to work in a public library to be eligible, and in fact among the 50+ reviewers in 2024 approximately 1/4 came from outside public libraries.

Learn more about the I Partner with My Public Library initiative.

A new open access article on food justice and public librarianship

We’re thrilled to share that the open access Journal of Creative Library Practice has now published our peer-reviewed article, Public Librarianship and Food Justice: Working With and Alongside Communities. We invite all to read this new article. Here is a brief excerpt:

“From November 2023 to March 2024, a team of researchers engaged 49 public library workers and students in a series of focus group interviews designed to better understand the intersections of public library work and food justice. This research found that many public library workers feel a great deal of pressure in their jobs. This was best expressed as an expectation that they be “all things to all people.” Library workers knew the value of collaborative approaches but too often felt constrained by the urgency of the need and the limitations of time.

These findings have implications for how we support creative practices in public libraries through research, teaching, advocacy, and professional development. Rather than only present public libraries with blueprints for programs they could offer (e.g., a seed library or a Little Food Pantry), a more sustainable and strategic approach would be to invest in the institution, ensure it has secure and sufficient resources to fulfill its mission. That approach would also nurture and support skills-building in ways that help public libraries think and work creatively with others in their communities to support food justice. Part of this work includes developing tools and resources that will help public library workers and administrators frame food justice in terms of the enduring values of library work: social justice, equity of access, and community-engaged and community-led services.

The work public libraries and library workers do in communities requires renewed commitment to the idea of a public good. That commitment informs a common understanding of the unique role and a full appreciation of the values that guide the work of public libraries with and alongside communities.”

Read the full article.

How to join the new Public Library Community Partnership Coalition

In February 2025, a group of librarians, library workers, educators, consultants, and allies came together to launch a new organization: The Public Library Community Partnership Coalition.

This Coalition’s Mission is to support – through collaboration among members – the development and sustainability of community partnerships involving or led by public libraries.

The Coalition’s vision is an integrated ecosystem in which public libraries are aligned, connected, and working hand-in-hand with a wide range of community partners. This ecosystem includes local, national, and even international dimensions, with coalition members working collaboratively to create and sustain a wrap-around infrastructure. Our ultimate vision is one of true symbiosis – in a world in which needs are increasing and resources are shrinking, we literally need each other to survive, thrive, and grow. To make this work possible, we envision the coalition growing to include MLIS education, Continuing Education & Professional Development, Library Associations, Library Funding & Advocacy, Library Administration, and the disparate sectors that represent common library partners.

If you’d like to be part of building this critical new infrastructure, we invite you join us! All are welcome.