A school project for 50 Masters of Education students at UNC gave North Regional Library an opportunity to collaborate with the neighboring Hub Farm to help both organizations meet their community-centered missions. The challenge was coming up with a way to “link” the library and the farm. With the help of library summer camp participants, the concept of a Library Link Trail was born. The Trail would help the library and the farm meet the following objectives:

• Increase awareness of the environment.
• Encourage intellectual, interpersonal, social and physical development in children.
• Help children escape the grip of technology (which sometimes causes them to see the outdoors as unappealing).
• Provide hands-on and instantaneous learning in an outdoor setting to spark greater excitement and creativity in children.

From vision to creation, the process required teamwork to develop the station concepts, clear away brush and locate both recycled and natural items to make the literacy stations interactive. Young people who attended library summer camp helped build and test the trail to ensure that it would be kid-friendly and fun. The Library Link Trail was built with five literacy stations: a Sound Garden to boost brain power; a Reading Center to build literacy; a Theatre for reading comprehension; a Math Center to improve problem solving, reasoning and information analysis; and a Fossil Dig to develop fine motor skills.

This project is the first of its kind at Durham County Library, but the success of the partnership provides a good roadmap for future, similar collaborations. The summer camp children who participated in this program interacted well with the Masters program students, providing an opportunity for mentorship. The children were proud that they could help in the development of the trail. In this way, the trail became an educational tool and opportunity for learning even while it was under construction. From the building of the trail to the ongoing programming, we have seen that the children are very excited to be outdoors, and they demonstrate a sense of appreciation for nature. Planning is underway for more library/Hub Farm collaborations using the Library Link Trail.