Singing Along: Creating a Local Artist Music Collection

About the Program

Category: Libraries (Best in Category)

Year: 2017

In keeping with its mission to “build a culture of curiosity by connecting people…[to] ignite ideas, excite passions, and inspire action to improve our collective quality of life”, the Erie County Public Library (ECPL) worked with local musicians to create a “Local Artist” CD collection for community members to enjoy. Library staff reached out to the Erie artist community to request donations of locally created music and received a wealth of material. Staff worked to catalog and organize the collection to make it available to the public. Housed in a prominent display at the Blasco Memorial Library, CD titles are now available to all card holders in the County. Since the inception of the program in early 2016, the collection has remained popular and new donations continue to be received. The program was celebrated through a kick-off party and related programming in February 2016. In order to capitalize on the success found in this collection, the Library continued its support of local artists and musicians by creating a monthly open mic Talent Share program in September 2016. This program encourages community members to share their poetry, songs, jokes, and other talents with an audience. Individuals who participate in the Talent Share are encouraged to add their CDs (if they have them) to the Library’s collection in order to grow the pool of titles that the library can share and make available to community members.