AoU Community Engagement 268 - Library Outreach Tricycle Initiative

The Library Outreach Tricycle Initiative LOTI will provide a novel means of outreach service for the Miami-Dade Public Library System. The Allapattah Branch Library henceforth, the library serves the Village of Allapattah in the City of Miami and Miami-Dade County, Florida. With grant support, The library will procure outreach equipment in the form of a cargo tricycle with a library box, an accompanying tricycle, tablet and internet technology for exhibiting and accessing health resources, and a small collection of books and materials to be housed on the book tricycle. The outreach equipment will permit the library to expand on its outreach programming in a fun and visible fashion in the community of Allapattah. These outreaches will include, but not be limited to, the promotion and extension of consumer health information services through access to high quality materials and computer databases. Health information resources education, informing about the research initiative which seeks to survey a larger proportion of underrepresented populations, and ensuring the visibility of the library in the community beyond the walls of the building are the projects primary purposes. The outreach equipment will allow the library to attend to locations frequented by the community in an effort to bring the library to where the people are. Outreach ensures the library is perceived as relevant third spaces in the community with the missions of life-long learning and informal education. The outreach equipment will foster curiosity as an unusual means of conducting outreach. The trikes also reflect a dedication to healthy, active lifestyles, even while working. A multitude of outreach sites and opportunities present when as options for the trikes for first-mile sites such as schools, parks, colleges, recreation areas, and partnered events.