Supporting children and teens after school: a library approach

Purpose – To report on New York Public Library's implementation of the Learning in Libraries initiative, which has the goal of serving New York City's children and teens more effectively. Design/methodology/approach – Breaks the initiative down into phases, describing each phase with its goals and outcomes. Includes descriptions of what was needed for the project, and how initiatives were vetted for implementation. Findings – Overall, youth participation at the library increased between 4 and 15 percent, with the number of books read increasing between 1 and 34 percent. The greatest increase in participation was with teens, who had not been included in previous outreach initiatives. Originality/value – Documents the process of developing a new library initiative and implementing it system‐wide.