Tobacco shed storing drying tobacco leaves in South Windsor, CT. Photo by Rusty Watson on Unsplash
For this project, the diversity focus is to meet the needs of their Black adult readership. The Wilson Branch of Windsor Public Library serves those in Deerfield, Wilson, and even neighboring Hartford, the capital of Connecticut. While all of Windsor is welcome, there is a need for further circulation of books in the primary service area. As the library recovers from the covid-19 pandemic, events for people of all ages are becoming more popular, but is not reflected in further use of the library. The majority of in-person events are catered towards children, but the library dissolved the role of Teen Librarian during the pandemic. Along with this, the largest age group in Windsor, CT is middle-aged, with the range of 50-59 making up 16% of the population in 2019. Combining ages 40-69 shows us 44% . In 2021, the town was 38% Black, non-Hispanic, which is much higher than the statewide figure of 10% (there is presence of Black Puerto Ricans but they are counted in the 9% Hispanic/Latin popuation) (CT Data Collaborative, 2021). There is certainly potential for more cross-generational participation in this community space, though it is significantly smaller in size than the main Windsor Public Library, located centrally on the Town Green. Hopefully, by knowing more about the middle aged population of this area, we can meet the needs of this age group that often accompanies younger children attending more popular events.
The tobacco industry and the overall impact of the Great Migration brought more diversity to the Hartford area, but the black population was pushed north towards Bloomfield and the Wilson neighborhood of Windsor starting in the 1800s (Vernal and Kolb, 2022) Discriminatory real estate practices pushed this further, while black residents of Windsor moved further from the tobacco fields near Windsor Locks throughout the 20th century; on the home loan end of business, Windsor Federal Savings & Loan Association and other banks were revealed to be one of the conventional home loan providers in the area providing unfair treatment to applicants (Agosto, Iorio, and Dougherty, 2022).
AdvanceCT & CTData Collaborative. (2021). Connecticut Town Profiles by CTData Collaborative. https://profiles.ctdata.org/
Agosto, J., Iorio, V., & Dougherty, J. (book-in-progress). Mobilizing Against Racial Steering and Redlining. In On the Line: How Schooling, Housing, and Civil RIghts Shaped Hartford and its Suburbs. Trinity College. https://ontheline.trincoll.edu/