Community Profile

Recently, I completed a demographics analysis of the city of Philadelphia. Sources for this demographic data include the 2020 Census Bureau. The current data suggests that city and school libraries should expand their collections to include more media content in languages other than English, more content that represents diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, and an increased amount of literature on the K-12 and early literacy levels. Since Philadelphia is a sanctuary city the population, diversity, and need for library resources can be predicted to increase.

Completing this project made me aware of how to use the Census Bureau website to predict resource needs of a library according to local demographics. It reinforced the notion that facts should guide a librarian's decision making process when selecting new resources for patrons. It also made me realize how important participation in the census is for creating public policies. I plan to become a stronger advocate for census participation and review this data as it changes in order to better accommodate all users of the library.