In February 2009 the staff and Boards of all the libraries were invited to participate in an online survey. The purpose of the survey was to engage the group in thinking about the library services they felt were most important to their communities.
Two hundred twenty-two completed surveys were received, and results are reported here.
Question 1: Most public libraries provide a very wide variety of services to their communities. Here is a list of typical services. Recognizing that libraries can't be all things to all people, which five of these services would you consider to be most important?
|
Create young readers by supporting early literacy
|
|
158
|
71%
|
|
Provide resources for readers, viewers, and listeners to stimulate their imaginations and enjoy
|
|
134
|
61%
|
|
Teach people of all ages how to find, evaluate, and use information
|
|
129
|
58%
|
|
Provide public internet access
|
|
119
|
54%
|
|
Help learners satisfy their curiosity about whatever they want to know
|
|
98
|
44%
|
|
Help students achieve academic success by providing support throughout the year
|
|
78
|
35%
|
|
Build community by providing physical and virtual spaces for social interaction
|
|
59
|
27%
|
|
Provide programs that inform and entertain
|
|
51
|
23%
|
|
Provide a virtual branch library (website) with 24/7 access to library services
|
|
49
|
22%
|
|
Provide information about local community resources
|
|
43
|
19%
|
|
Help adults, teens, and families learn to read and write
|
|
41
|
19%
|
|
Help people find facts fast
|
|
39
|
18%
|
|
Help people make informed decisions about managing their heath, finances, and making other life choices
|
|
33
|
15%
|
|
Help people find jobs and develop their careers
|
|
24
|
11%
|
|
Provide local history and genealogy resources
|
|
11
|
5%
|
|
Help new immigrants succeed
|
|
12
|
5%
|
|
Support the development of businesses and nonprofits
|
|
7
|
3%
|
|
Provide programs and resources that promote appreciation and understanding of differences
|
|
6
|
3%
|
|
Help people express their creativity and share content in both a physical and virtual environment
|
|
6
|
3%
|
There was a great deal of consistency in responses overall, whether the respondents categorized themselves as library staff members, administrative staff members or library board members. The only difference was that Teach people of all ages how to find, evaluate, and use information did not appear in the top five choices of library administrative staff members. (It was number six for that group of respondents.) Instead, the topic Build community by providing physical and virtual spaces for social interaction appeared as one of their top five choices.
Question Two: If the Library could provide only ONE of these services, which do you think would be MOST important to the community?
|
Provide resources for readers, viewers, and listeners to stimulate their imaginations and enjoy
|
|
60
|
27%
|
|
Teach people of all ages how to find, evaluate, and use information
|
|
51
|
23%
|
|
Help learners satisfy their curiosity about whatever they want to know
|
|
26
|
12%
|
|
Create young readers by supporting early literacy
|
|
22
|
10%
|
|
Build community by providing physical and virtual spaces for social interaction
|
|
10
|
5%
|
|
Provide a virtual branch library (website) with 24/7 access to library services
|
|
10
|
5%
|
|
Help adults, teens, and families learn to read and write
|
|
8
|
4%
|
|
Provide public internet access
|
|
8
|
4%
|
|
Help people make informed decisions about managing their heath, finances, and making other life choices
|
|
7
|
3%
|
|
Other, please specify
|
|
4
|
2%
|
|
Help people find jobs and develop their careers
|
|
2
|
1%
|
|
Help students achieve academic success by providing support throughout the year
|
|
3
|
1%
|
|
Help people find facts fast
|
|
3
|
1%
|
|
Provide programs that inform and entertain
|
|
3
|
1%
|
|
Provide information about local community resources
|
|
2
|
1%
|
|
Support the development of businesses and nonprofits
|
|
0
|
0%
|
|
Provide programs and resources that promote appreciation and understanding of differences
|
|
0
|
0%
|
|
Provide local history and genealogy resources
|
|
0
|
0%
|
|
Help new immigrants succeed
|
|
1
|
0%
|
|
Help people express their creativity and share content in both a physical and virtual environment
|
|
1
|
0%
|
|
Total
|
221
|
100%
|
Not surprisingly, responses to this question were spread much more thinly among the choices. Several respondents expressed frustration with having to make a choice, mirroring the difficulty that libraries often face in focusing their resources.
Still, responses were very consistent among the three groups of respondents. The fifth most popular response overall, Build community by providing physical and virtual spaces for social interaction, tied for fourth place for library administrative staff.
Cross-tabulation reports for these two questions by respondent category can be found here:
Survey1_Crosstab_byposition.xlsx
Although we asked respondents to identify their library, there are so few respondents from some libraries that a cross-tabulation report using this variable did not seem worthwhile. If you'd like a look, here is the report:
Survey1_Crosstabs_bylibrary.xlsx
Question Three: What else would you like the Steering Committee to know about the services you think the community needs in the next 3-5 years?
116 respondents chose to comment, most elaborating on their responses to the first two questions. Here is a brief summary of the comments.
|
Topic
|
Responses
|
Sample Comment
|
|
Economy, workforce development, literacy
|
Twenty comments about the importance of libraries in a bad economy, the difficulty of obtaining funding for increases, the need to serve job-seekers, and the assistance libraries do and can provide in supporting entrepreneurial and workforce development
|
I think that during tough economic times, libraries become a resource for job searches and preparation. I also think the library can offer assistance to the business community, because information is often the difference between success and failure. As funding for libraries during economic stress shrinks, we have to think about making the library into an essential service, not simply an added benefit. By developing services to the job searcher and the entrepreneur, it would be easier to make our case to funders and to taxpayers.
|
|
Public internet, tech training
|
Nineteen comments about the need for information technology and training to use it effectively. Recognition that there is a digital divide that can involve economic or age factors.
|
More computers, internet access, technology education programs
|
|
Collection
|
Thirteen comments about the collection, including digital content, content for speakers of other languages, and focusing on needs of readers.
|
There should be a variety of print, visual, and audio materials, since we now know in education there are different learning styles…to go heavy into electronic media is a disservice to the community of diverse peoples with varying levels of competence in new technology.
Patrons are more and more technology-oriented. More online services including downloadable books and videos are probably going to be desired. Audiobook and DVD borrowing from the library is growing constantly. Large print materials are becoming more popular. Patrons value sharing resources among all libraries via loans among the various libraries because it gives them access to so many more materials. Best-sellers and new fiction and nonfiction are extremely popular with patrons. Many patrons use the library as a source of school reading material, too.
|
|
Stay current, look forward
|
Twelve comments about the need to keep up with trends, learn from competitors, and be flexible.
|
Community will want more web 2.0 features: register for programs through event keeper, reader reviews on the OPAC, etc
Position ourselves in a changing environment. AV materials will soon be a thing of the past—how do we continue to provide access once they’re all downloadable, or do we relinquish the delivery of AV content to commercial enterprises?
|
|
Awareness, advocacy, PR
|
Eleven comments about the need to communicate with funders and customers about libraries as indispensible community resources
|
To take steps to guarantee its continued existence in the community through building public support
|
|
Build community
|
Nine comments about the community’s desire to have a social meeting place, often around programs of community significance. One comment that the library is not a community center.
|
A library is not a community center, it provides resources
Library should be the community center (the third place, along with home and school or the workplace) that provides 24/7 website access to resources
|
|
Children
|
Nine comments about the importance of serving children from birth to teen years. One comment disagreeing about the value of programs for babies.
|
The Playtime for babies under the pretext that it ‘might’ bring in future readers is a waste of taxpayer money; stick to storytimes
More programs for very young children, and more staff trained to do this
|
|
Staff, customer service
|
Seven comments about the importance excellent customer service and the training and support needed to provide it.
|
We need to be seen as ‘the’ place for materials and information. With a smile. We can’t compete with the 24/7 availability of the internet to provide those two things, but we CAN and SHOULD offer the superior services that only a librarian is able to give. QUALITY should be foremost in our service to patrons. If we don’t add value, they’ll bypass us for the easier access of electronic reading, electronic information.
|
|
Facilities and hours
|
Seven comments about the need for improved or expanded facilities and hours.
|
Expansion of physical library to make it possible to offer any type of services, provide resources, etc
|
|
Funding
|
Four comments about the need for help with funding
|
Provide resources for grant and local funding to keep libraries current on any and all services
|
|
Information literacy
|
Four comments about the need to help people become informed consumers of information
|
Because the amount of information available is increasing so fast, libraries will be a key to helping people sort through the information to find the relevant pieces they need
|
|
Seniors, Baby Boomers
|
Three comments about serving the growing population of seniors
|
Create a new focus on serving seniors
|
|
Teens
|
Two comments about expanding services to teens
|
Need more teen programs
|
|
Other
|
Five comments
|
Focus on core services that only the library can provide. Imperative to continue to develop both print and online resources, as well as library programming, and provide users with the support they need (i.e. librarians) to find and use these resources
|
Here is the full text of the comments:
Survey1_Open_ended_Comments.docx
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.