FORT WAYNE, Ind. (ADAMS) – In alignment of its mission of “enriching the community through lifelong learning and discovery,” the Allen County Public Library has announced it has provided $3,420,011 in value to local entrepreneurs and businesses in 2021.
The library’s $3.4 million economic contribution, which includes the value of ACPL’s business-related training and education, research services, physical spaces and technology and equipment use, is an estimate based on the Urban Libraries Council Business Value Calculator and research completed by St. Louis Public Libraries.
The calculator incorporates the number of uses for each business-related library resource or service and multiplies those numbers with the average cost of purchasing the services commercially.
ACPL representatives released the following:
As an example, the library offers individual support for job-seekers about seven times each day. Similar support by specialized consultants typically cost $100 or more. This service alone provides more than $250,000 of value to the local economy.
Local businesses have experienced the benefit from ACPL’s business-related services. One grant administrator for a local healthcare non-profit stated, “During the pandemic especially the library has been so helpful. We don’t have reliable internet service, so we’ve utilized the mobile hotspots and also meeting space at the branch. It has helped tremendously to be able to continue doing [our] jobs remotely. When I know that I have a lot of meetings scheduled on Teams or Zoom, in order to get a really good internet connection, I’ll schedule a meeting room at the library here in Monroeville and it just works so well.”
Further, Vanessa Hayden, founder of accessible interior-design service Partly Whimsical, was connected to the library through ACPL’s partnership with the Northeast Indiana Innovation Center. “As we teamed with the library, it allowed me to do my business plan,” Vanessa stated.
“I would spend time there, doing research and be able to talk to someone and get advice and direction. The library was a big part of that. We would have meetings and the librarian give us ideas about resources and I [decided] to use the help. I went to the library several times. I’d bring my stuff and try to look up things. I needed someone to guide me. [The librarian] helped me define my business and structure my business, and it helped. Just going there and talking to different people was a blessing for me. I used a lot of the resources.”
During the height of the pandemic, many library services were curtailed due to pandemic-related restrictions, as a result, ACPL expects that the economic impact of its services for the county will be significantly higher during a non-pandemic year.
