Through this initiative we hope to address the need for the community to have access to reading materials while they wait in various business locations. We also help these businesses by providing reading material to their customers, free-of-charge. This also provides the opportunity for Library materials and promotional literature to be easily accessed by more of our community, essentially adding 75 additional access points for information distribution.

St. Louis County Library provides businesses with discarded or donated material as well as fixtures with which to display the material. SLCL staff assesses and restocks each location regularly. At the inception of the project, coordination was necessary between the Library and the business locations to ensure collaboration and understanding. Agreements were drawn up and contacts were made. We coordinated our efforts in buying the fixtures for each location based on their needs and availability of space. Once the fixtures were available, they were distributed to the 19 library locations to distribute them to the business locations. We also created informational material to accompany the displays. All materials were affixed with an informational sticker so that those who use the materials were aware of the program, St. Louis County Library, and were encouraged to make use of the materials, either at the location or in their own homes. Consistent reassessment and restocking is necessary for each location to keep the material fresh and well-stocked.. Given the vast supply of available material coming from our 20 locations, we are able to tailor the offerings of materials at each business to those who may use that location. For instance, we provide more children’s materials to locations that serve a younger population, perhaps a pediatrician's waiting room.

The outcome achieved by this initiative is apparent on many levels. As a library system, we are able to reach into our community and provide a service to those who may not have otherwise entered our doors. An additional viable outlet for excess materials and donations is created through these 75 locations. Businesses are provided with good reading material to make available to their customers. In many cases, when visiting these locations, the businesses are quite eager to accept these free materials on behalf of their customers. Some indicated that they would not otherwise be able to provide reading materials for their waiting rooms. Customers of these locations are provided with information about other library services and programs as well as reading material they may not otherwise had available to them. In general, while promoting the library throughout the community through these locations, we are also promoting literacy and access to literature and materials.