Libraries
Five public libraries
Workforce development, a pirate day, and a patron who learned Swahili before a trip to Kenya.
What librarians told us they were doing with it
Across the country, public librarians have told us what Mango means to their community: Mango movie nights, workshops, parties, all built to meet patrons' needs and add something to a list of online resources.
Here are five libraries that went further than most, and, alongside each, what you could borrow from them.
Five libraries, five approaches
Each one found a different way to fold Mango into how it serves its community.
Salt Lake City Public Library
The main branch of the Salt Lake City Public Library system serves a diverse group of over 167,000 patrons. From Church of Latter-day Saints missionaries preparing to move abroad and professionals from world-class hospitals, to the city's refugee populations and local students, it is not unusual to hear six or seven different languages being spoken in this library.
To reach a community that varied, librarian Lisa Curt makes sure everyone is introduced to Mango. Salt Lake City is a major artery for refugees, so she points people to the English language courses that help newcomers acclimate to the city. But Mango is one part of a wider plan: she runs a full technology lab of high- and low-tech resources, everything from sewing machines to data-mapping technology, all aimed at helping patrons upskill their resumes and market themselves for work.
Try this at your library
Language learning is a skill employers look for, so it belongs in the same room as your resume workshops and job fairs. Whether an English-speaking patron wants Chinese to make themselves more marketable, or a Vietnamese visitor wants help with a resume, the two needs meet in the same program.
Fountaindale Public Library
The films we like best are the ones libraries make about us, and Fountaindale Public Library in Bolingbrook, Illinois blazed the trail for library filmmakers.
While the building was closed, Fountaindale made a video letting patrons know about Mango, plus a tutorial walking them through signing up and getting started. Posting both to social media and their website got the word out in a way a catalog listing never would have.
Try this at your library
If you already have a makerspace, you probably already have what you need. Pull down the green screen, recruit some actors from inside the building, and make a Mango commercial pitched at your own patrons' interests.
St. Clair Public Library
Mango teaches people to speak like they are on the Tibetan steppe, in the middle of the Sahara, or swashbuckling on the high seas. If you have not taken the Pirate course, the people at St. Clair Public Library will vouch for it as the right way to mark National Talk Like a Pirate Day.
At a recent Pirate Day, patrons and staff of all ages dressed as scallywags to promote the course. There was a plank to walk, a live fencing demonstration, a parrot craft, and a run of pirate jokes. Everyone learned some Pirate, heard about the 70+ other languages on offer, and every pirate went home with booty in the form of a Mango bookmark.
Try this at your library
You do not have to wait for Talk Like a Pirate Day. Any event built around food or entertainment from another culture can take some Mango flair, and the specialty courses are their own excuse for a party: Feng Shui for a design workshop, Legal Spanish for a job fair.
Los Angeles Public Library
The Los Angeles Public Library system's online programming goes well past summer reading lists and book clubs. It has answered the call of 21st-century learning by combining computer classes, lectures, workshops and traditional book discussions into one holistic online learning system, and Mango is part of it.
Try this at your library
Integrating Mango into what you already run is often better than giving it a slot of its own. The Wine and Cheese course pairs with an after-work networking event; the English language courses supplement any ESL programming; and Spanish for Librarians helps you and your staff reach more patrons every day.
North Bend Public Library
North Bend Public Library took making the most of Mango a step further by connecting us directly with their patrons to hear how they were using it.
That is how we heard about one patron who used Mango to learn Swahili before a trip to Kenya. He learned enough to safari like a local. By the end of the trip his guide was telling everyone that six more months in the country would make him knowledgeable enough to guide a safari himself.
North Bend also told us which parts of the platform were most popular with their patrons, which let us celebrate what those patrons had done and gave us something concrete to improve.
Try this at your library
Tell us what your patrons are doing. We would love to feature your community's story, and what you notice about how people use Mango is the most useful feedback we get.
About Five public libraries
Five libraries, among them Salt Lake City Public Library, Fountaindale Public Library in Illinois, St. Clair Public Library in Michigan, Los Angeles Public Library, and North Bend Public Library in Oregon, each found a different way to fold Mango into how they serve their communities. Each section below is one library's approach, and what you could borrow from it.
More stories
Other library stories
Lexington Public Library
Lexington, Kentucky
A community-wide language resource that needed no shelf space and no maintenance.
Pikes Peak Library District
Colorado
Fifteen branches, one language resource, and a year of steady growth in patron use.
East Baton Rouge Parish Library
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Budget cuts moved the library off Mango. Patrons moved it back.
Could this work for you?
Tell us about your organization and we'll walk you through what a rollout actually involves.