Supporting our Library and Community

OUR VISION

The Somerville Public Library Foundation supports and advocates for Somerville Public Library’s leadership role in serving the City of Somerville. We mobilize private financial support and build public-private partnerships with individuals, businesses, foundations, and community organizations. The Foundation serves as a catalyst for innovations in services, programming, and library spaces to meet the evolving needs of the community, and offers major financial support for cultural and learning opportunities beyond what public funding provides. To realize our shared vision, we work in concert with the Friends of the Somerville Public Library, the Library Board of Trustees, and the Library staff.

The Foundation was created to drive innovation in our public library system and reinforce its role as a trusted community connector that supports the educational, cultural, and informational needs of Somerville residents. Foundation resources will build on the city’s library operations budget to add new services, programs, facilities, and technology. The purpose of the Foundation is to give Somerville Public Library the resources to help lead and shape our city into the 2020s, 2030s, and beyond.

EXAMPLES OF WHAT A FOUNDATION COULD DO FOR OUR CITY

Girl and older woman working on puzzle.

  • All learning, all the time: Extending hours for branch libraries.

  • Thinking outside the box: Supporting creative ideas like “pop-up” satellite library branches.

  • Cutting edge: Expanding and updating technology for patrons.

  • Meeting community needs: Supporting innovative collaborations, such as using the library as hub for social services, school partnerships, maker spaces, and fostering Somerville’s creativity.

  • Inspiring and educating: Endowing a speaker series to bring prominent authors to Somerville.

  • Honoring our heritage: Preserving and developing the local history collection.

  • Contemporary spaces: Supporting the planning for renovations at East Branch and Central Library, creating clean, efficient, comfortable, and versatile library, learning, and community spaces.

  • Somerville’s intellectual repository: Ensuring a future of support for our libraries; creating a fertile environment for scholarship, for new understanding, and new ideas.