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Listening Session for Future
Planning
March 17, 2007
3 – 5 p.m.
On March 17, a “listening
session” was held at the Iron River library. Invitations were sent to
over 100 area residents and the public was invited through newspaper
articles and ads. The invitation read:
The Evelyn Goldberg Briggs Memorial Library is at
a crossroads. Shelves are full. Staff is stretched thin and meeting
future demands of patrons is questionable. Long-range planning is
needed, but cannot be accomplished in a vacuum.
To successfully move into the future, the
library’s Board of Trustees needs input from all sectors of the
community. To that end, you are invited to a special listening session.
Come with questions, comments, critiques and dreams for the library’s
future.
The discussion was lively and
many useful comments and suggestions resulted. All of the information
gathered will be relayed to the library’s Board of Trustees, the Town
Council and area newspapers as well as being posted on the library
website. A summary of the information gathered at the listening session
follows.
What positive things are happening at the
Library?
- Tourist amenity [Library
and wireless Internet appreciated by area visitors]
- Service to tourists
- Wireless capability
- Computers/Wireless system
- Attract new residents
- Accessibility of books not
available here
- Network to get
wanted/needed items
- Enthusiastic volunteers
- VOLUNTEERS
- [Ability to] reserve books
online
- Get materials for home
schoolers and programs like Head Start
- Enormous support from
community, volunteers and donors
- Library card can be used in
many libraries in the area
- Growth (number of cards
issued)
- Collection development
- Talking books—staying
current
- Director’s willingness to
work with all age groups and needs
- Clean, bright, smells good,
welcoming younger kids, middle schoolers excited
- PR—great for programs
- Technical—reference
- Students use it
What is not working at the
Library?
- Hours of operation [Not
open consistent hours Monday through Friday. Need “after school
hours daily for students]
- Limited open hours
- Understaffed
- Diminished volunteer base
- Staffing
- Not enough space
- Size of library
- No community room
- No classroom/meeting room
- No quiet place for study
- No office place for
employees
- Parking problems
- No permanent building
maintenance
- Lack of interest and
participation and funding from Town, County and NWLS
- Funding/grant writing
- [No] endowment
- Volunteer/staff technical
education
What should be the goals
for the Library in 10 years?
- Larger facility
- Bigger facility
- Shelving
- Auditorium
- Separate office
- Lunchroom
- Meet ADA statutes
[handicapped accessibility]
- Large auditorium [with]
sound/visual systems
- Separate children’s area
with fulltime director
- Coffee corner
- Fulltime Librarian
[Director] plus 2-3 part-time
- Community education
collaborating with Northwestern district, WITC, UWS
- Community room
- Study cubicles
- Private reading nooks
- Book club
- New building—closer to
Community Center or school
- See Town borrow money for
expansion
- [More] programs
What should be the goals
for the Library in 1 to 5 years…
- Increased collaboration
with school system
- Added space
- Continual review and
adjustment [of schedules, programs, etc]
- Increase budget to
accommodate fulltime hours (staff and open hours)
- Training for volunteers and
staff. (Train one or more persons to provide basic training for new
volunteers and staff)
- Building maintenance
[Assign coordination responsibility to one person—either a paid
staff member or volunteer]
- More hours
- Increase staff
- Marketing plan—to make
people more aware of our presence
- Create an outreach program
- Library store, like a
museum shop, that sells really cool stuff
- Update technology as needed
- Open six days per week
- Complete basement [project]
- More staff
- More work stations
- Develop more grants and an
endowment [fund]
- [Develop] skills required
for grant writing
- Create a computer training
lab
- Increase CBT (Computer
Based Training)
- Implement programs for
workforce development
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