Organization description

On an island with no public library tradition and few existing communities or public libraries, the private non-profit Jane Stern Dorado Community Library has kept growing and reinventing itself over the five decades since its founding. The Library is fully engaged with its community’s emerging informational and access needs. Today the facility is an oasis for children, a learning center for teens, and a support space for senior citizens. By reaching beyond the limits of the town to create library spaces for the underserved populations of eight rural neighborhoods, it fostered new enthusiasm for learning for entire families and more than doubled the number of library users in the region. The Library served as a catalyst for community cohesion, nurturing an inclusive space with the mission to advance literacy, inspire lifelong learning, and transform lives. ​

Begun as a lending library by community activist Jane Stern in 1974, the Jane Stern Dorado Community Library quickly became a bilingual learning center for language, literacy, and after school programs as a 501 (c) (3) non-profit corporation. To expand the reach, Jane Stern Library was able to open eight satellite libraries in collaboration with elementary schools in rural pockets of the municipalities (counties) of Dorado, Vega Alta, Toa Alta, Vega Baja, and Toa Baja.