Start Date
1-6-2022 9:45 AM
End Date
1-6-2022 10:00 AM
Description
Libraries are typically thought of as the realm of books. Historically libraries were the places that collected and housed the books of the community. For much of the history of libraries, books and the information in them were reserved for the elite. The development of public libraries enabled the general public to access these resources that were previously out of reach. In the last couple of decades public libraries in the United States have shifted from just providing access to books and online resources to additionally providing access to a wider variety of information and resources to assist the community. This shift has included adding makerspaces, loaning out tools, and creating spaces for the Human Library. Public libraries create services that provide needed resources or information to their community and have become knowledge creation spaces. Some of the challenges that affect many libraries throughout the United States are food deserts, lack of nutrition and lack of cooking knowledge. While libraries could just provide cookbooks, to help mitigate these challenges for their community many public libraries in the United States have created nutrition and cooking programs. This paper will explore this shift in public libraries towards nutrition and cooking programs and how this shift has led to having teaching and mobile kitchens in public libraries.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21427/0q5a-yg62
Cooking in the Library
Libraries are typically thought of as the realm of books. Historically libraries were the places that collected and housed the books of the community. For much of the history of libraries, books and the information in them were reserved for the elite. The development of public libraries enabled the general public to access these resources that were previously out of reach. In the last couple of decades public libraries in the United States have shifted from just providing access to books and online resources to additionally providing access to a wider variety of information and resources to assist the community. This shift has included adding makerspaces, loaning out tools, and creating spaces for the Human Library. Public libraries create services that provide needed resources or information to their community and have become knowledge creation spaces. Some of the challenges that affect many libraries throughout the United States are food deserts, lack of nutrition and lack of cooking knowledge. While libraries could just provide cookbooks, to help mitigate these challenges for their community many public libraries in the United States have created nutrition and cooking programs. This paper will explore this shift in public libraries towards nutrition and cooking programs and how this shift has led to having teaching and mobile kitchens in public libraries.