What is Dewey decimal for ties?
Most libraries around the country provide much more than books: They have computers and printers, and some even have telescopes and microscopes for patrons to check out. Several lend American Girl dolls, allowing kids to check out the highly coveted and pricey toys for a few weeks at a time.
And starting last month, a New York library branch began experimenting with new offerings: neckties, bow ties, handbags and briefcases intended for people with limited resources who are heading for job interviews, auditions or any other event for which they need to dress up.
“They can use it for a school performance, or prom if they want a tie,” said young adult librarian Michelle Lee, who came up with the idea for the Riverside branch of the New York Public Library. “It doesn’t matter what size you are — anybody could use them.”
The concept came to her in 2016, when Lee was teaching a free class at the library about job seeking and resumé making. She told the high school students in attendance: “You want to look professional. You shouldn’t be bringing a backpack to a job interview.” Their reaction surprised her. “For a lot of them it was eye-opening, because they never thought about it,” Lee said. “One of the students said he didn’t have anything like that. The other kids were like, ‘I don’t have nice things.’ ”
She realized the students needed more than a resumé class. “It got me thinking if the library could help,” she said. She felt that she already had the teens’ attention because many of them use the library as a hangout spot after school, often doing homework on computers, borrowing laptops or reading comic books. It’s also a gathering spot for younger children and their caretakers after school — Lee estimates there are about 200 young people at the branch on any given day.
“There’s not a lot of places in the city where kids can gather in a free spot indoors and just be,” Lee said.
So she drafted a proposal for the ties and handbags and submitted it to the library’s Innovation Project, a program that allows library staffers to suggest ideas and solutions to problems they come across, with a budget of about $3,000 (U.S.) or less each. After a submission period, the staff voted Lee’s project a winner.
With funding from the Charles H. Revson Foundation, which sponsors the Innovation Project, Lee bought 12 handbags and briefcases new from Amazon, priced from $40 to $120. The ties and pocket squares were donated — including by an employee at Bloomingdale’s.
In August she placed bar codes on them, folded and displayed them nicely, and plans to start advertising at local high schools and colleges now that school has begun.
Lee said she thinks the lending program will be useful because many teens — and adults — use the library to work on resumés or apply for jobs.