Huntsville Public Library (HPL) wants to make sure that your library is truly your library. After all, a library that doesn’t meet your needs isn’t a very useful one.
The library regularly does surveys to ask patrons what they want the library to offer in specific areas, but this month they’re taking that process a step further. As part of its strategic planning, HPL has hired Bloom Consulting to collect information that will be used to guide the library over the next four years.
“We want to be a community-led library,” said HPL Board Chair Sue Dixon. “The community helps to support the library financially and we want to deliver what the community wants. And then we can ink that into our strategic plan and develop objectives and goals to meet what the community wants.”
One of the most recent ways the library has incorporated community feedback is with the purchase of The Annex. “The community told us they wanted things and we realized we needed more space to deliver them,” said Dixon. “There’s a method that tells us, based on our population, how much square footage our library should be. And we learned a while ago that we are undersized. So by purchasing this building it brings us closer to the square footage we need.” The library purchased The Annex with donated funds rather than using taxpayer dollars. (Read about The Annex on Huntsville Doppler here.)
The library has also been expanding its technology offerings at the request of the community.
“We have a help desk that’s free to everyone every Thursday from 5-7 p.m. People can come in with their tablets, their iPhones, their e-reader and we can answer their questions. It’s run by a couple of teens – it’s a great way to engage our youth.” The library will also be offering technology classes – like an intro to Photoshop, or Word and Excel basics. And it has invested in technology like a 3D printer.
More than just offering these tools, though, the library wants to be a space where people come together to connect, collaborate and create through initiatives like makerspaces.
“A makerspace is a collaborative workspace where people gather to learn and tinker and explore,” said Dixon. “It can be simple or it can be advanced. You could have recycled materials like cardboard or old electronics and people build and create new objects from them. And we’ve had the robotics team come into the library and do some of their work there.”
But what about books?
Libraries still have books, of course, and people do still want to read them. “It’s wonderful to see people reading because when people read, good things happen in communities.”
During this year’s TD Summer Reading Program, more people than ever participated at the library – 487 of them read a total of 3592 books.
“We do have stats that tell us people still want to read books and we want people to tell us what kinds of books they want to read.”
Not just what. Where and how matters, too.
HPL recognizes that people can’t always get to the library, so they’ve begun bringing the library to the people. “We find ourselves more and more out in the community,” said Dixon. The library’s outreach programs deliver books to long-term care facilities, for example, and they go to local organizations to talk about what the library does.
They have programming for all ages and they use innovative ways to improve literacy, like letting children read to a certified dog if they struggle with oral reading.
“We’ll go to where the community wants us. If people want us to get to them electronically, through cyberspace, we’ll offer things online, too. (This process) is really an opportunity for us to say, hey, what do you want your library to be? We want to serve the needs of everybody.”
Feedback tells them that the library is hitting the mark most of the time, and Dixon said they have the library’s staff to thank for that. “They are a wonderful group of people and we are very fortunate to have them. We also appreciate our Friends group – they support us very well with fundraising and we are grateful to them.”
Share your opinions on what the future should look like at Huntsville Public Library: take the online survey or attend one of the community sessions at The Annex on September 21 at 6:30 p.m. and September 28 at 4:00 p.m. RSVP to Bloom Consultants at [email protected] or 705-783-5932.
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Isobel Potts says
The Thursday help desk seems like a brilliant idea!
Emmersun Austin says
& 3D printer + maker zone is also brilliant. Library can become a truly integrative hub in Huntsville.