CURRENT POSITION Public Service Specialist, Dallas Public Library DEGREE Bachelor of Music Education, Greenville University, IL, 1979 FAST FACT Smith’s wife and son both worked as librarians with the Dallas Public Library. FOLLOW dallaslibrary.librarymarket.com/events/month?keywords=music Photo by Dania Rodriguez

Music for the People

Bill Smith’s love for community service and music led to him work with Dallas Public Library (DPL) staff and volunteers to create a schedule of classes in musical instruction and theory for underserved communities. A recent Texas State Libraries and Archives Commission grant helped expand this into the Music Equity Program, providing access to music education and instruments to Dallas residents in neighborhoods with low-income families and high percentages of people of color. It introduces children, adults, and seniors to stringed instruments, group play, and performance. Live and online classes allow the classes to serve 300 students across the United States and Canada. 

The program is free, and collaborative by design, engaging community members as volunteers and encouraging students to support each other. Smith loves to see “students of any age (the youngest is three, the oldest 92) getting excited about learning or relearning a musical skill, and the mature students interacting with younger ones, encouraging them.” Nominator Tiffany Bailey, DPL branch manager, notes, “Being recognized as someone who is learning an instrument or talented musically changes how our customers see themselves.” In FY20, more than 3,400 people attended.

Weekly classes include music theory, strings, and keys, many taught by Smith. Students in the program can check out the instruments as they would a library book. The program recently expanded to two branches of DPL’s 30, and his goal for the near future is to expand to more branches as staff and funding are available. “It’s always been a tenet of mine that music is an instant connection with others, and a universal language,“ says Smith.