Communities

This week in class we discussed communities, and the way librarians should adjust their services to best serve their own communities.  This topic is really interesting to me because I used to work at a public library that acts as a good example of responding to the community's wants and needs.  When I started working, the library was pretty small, and space was becoming an issue.  There wasn't enough shelf space for the expanding collection, and there wasn't enough community space for the amount of programs desired and the number of people who wanted to attend those programs.  Because of this, the librarians started working on plans for a renovation.  In order to get the renovation approved, the library had to get enough signatures to put an addendum to the county budget up for a vote, which then had to be voted on by the majority of the voters in the county during the county election.  While collecting signatures, we gave out a lot of surveys to find out what people wanted from the library- whether that be more books, more spaces for reading and studying, more community spaces, or even a cafe.  Eventually the budget did get approved (our timing was lucky, as the vote happened before the recession really hit).  The library is now twice as big as it used to be with expanded services.

I think that the surveys helped get the renovation plans approved.  By finding out what the community wanted, the librarians made people feel more invested in the library's development.  Library members were more likely to vote in favor of the budget increase because they knew that what they wanted was being taken into account.  The results of the survey are definitely reflected in the changes to the library.  During renovation, larger community spaces were added and programming has increased a lot.  The children's space is more interactive, and more quiet areas and computers have been added.