History

The Barbour Branch library is located in the Northeast section of the City of Hartford. The branch opened in October 1927 at 572 Windsor Street and remained there until 1939. During this time, it was called the Windsor Street Branch. In April 1939, the branch moved to rented quarters on Barbour Street and was renamed the Barbour Branch. In July 1974, the Barbour Branch moved to its current location, 281 Barbour Street, in Unity Plaza, which is also a rented facility.


Branch Facts

Size: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,775 sq. ft.
Holdings: . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20,471 items
Public Access Computers: . . . . . Seven
Hours Open: . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 hours per week
Attendance: . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,228 visits per month
Circulation: . . . . . . . . . . . 1,583 items borrowed per month
Program Attendance: . . . . . . . . 475 attending programs per month
Information Services: . . . . . . . . . 1,560 questions answered per month


Population Served

Population: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,137
Census Tracts: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5010, 5011, 5012, 5013, and 5015
School Aged Youth: . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,337
Percentage of Free or Reduced School Lunches: . . . . . . . . . . 100%
Percentage of Adults with High School Education: . . . . . . . . . . 58%
Percentage of Owner Occupied Housing: . . . 24%
Percentage of Households with Access to Vehicles: . . . . . . . . . . . . 55%
Percentage of Single Parent Households with Children Under 18: . . . . . . . . . . . . 58%


Community Information

The Barbour Branch serves schools and daycare centers in the Northeast neighborhood area.  There are four elementary schools John C. Clark, Fred D. Wish, Simpson-Waverly, and the Global Studies Academy, and several daycare centers including Heritage Head Start Child Development Center, CRT Head Start, Waverly Early Learning Center, Mount Olive Day Care, and Clark Street Early Learning Center. Story hours and book selection sessions are provided to each day care with each child offered an opportunity to get a library card.  The Abundant Life Counseling Center is located next door and shares a close relationship with the Barbour Branch. The branch is within walking distance of the Salvation Army and the Kelvin D. Andersen centers, which are two local facilities that host many after school programs for neighborhood children. The branch is also located within walking distance of the old Stowe Village neighborhood, which has been rebuilt into single family homes. The houses have not been occupied yet, but will help to increase the number of owner occupied housing units in the neighborhood.

Community Relationships/Services

A new and larger separate facility for the Barbour Branch has been a wish and a request from the patrons and Northeast neighborhood residents for several years. Such a facility would support the more than three thousand patrons who actively visit the Barbour Branch each month for books, videos, programs, and computer usage.  Barbour Branch staff have participated in or have been key contributors to school programs such as PTO meetings, Simpson-Waverly School’s Winter Chorus Concert, Clark School’s Library Card Drive, and Clark School’s Second Cup of Coffee. Staff members are proud to partner with Waverly Early Learning Centers’ School Readiness Program by providing teachers with books and story hours.   Staff members attend meetings of organizations that serve the Northeast neighborhood area. These meetings include, but are not limited to: Northeast Revitalization Association (N.E.R.A) NRZ. And Wish School Governance Council.

Barbour Branch Library has three strategic and noteworthy partnerships: TERC, a local group of parents and professionals who help strengthen mathematics kills at the elementary level by volunteering for a monthly program called “Mix In Math;” the Urban League of Greater Hartford’s Read and Rise program; and the Abundant Family Center.

Noted Trends

The Northeast neighborhood has an estimated population of 10,137 persons with 79% Black/African-American, 18% Hispanic/Latino, and 3% White. Customers of Barbour Branch are predominantly Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino. Visits by children significantly outnumber adult visitors and make up the bulk of program attendees.

Branch Initiatives

Barbour Branch is open 31 hours per week, including Wednesday nights until 7:30 P.M.  and on Saturdays. Youth are encouraged to participate in the nearly twenty average monthly programs offered at the library as well as participate in the homework assistance program offered daily.  The assistant youth librarian visits each daycare center monthly to provide story time and books to the preschoolers. Story times are also provided in the library and many preschool teachers come to the branch to checkout picture books for their classes.  Barbour Branch participates in the free Summer Lunch Program, which served over 8,000 lunches throughout the Hartford Public Library system in 2009.  Adult circulation of library materials remains consistent each month because the branch attracts regulars who are big fiction readers. Adults come to the library to check out the branch’s holdings by African American authors and borrow from the large collection of DVDs.  The library participates in voter registration and actively encourages adult library card applicants to register.