In a column I wrote four years ago I talked about the results of a community survey we had done. The survey told us that you appreciated the diversity of our collections; that our equipment and Internet connections were top-notch; you wanted more in our audio and video collections and your community groups made good use of our meeting rooms. I think those expectations still hold true four years later, but the number of items we circulate has declined recently, and I’m wondering why?
As revenue has declined we’ve had to reduce the amount of money we spend on new materials as well as other areas of library operation. We have fewer copies of best sellers and DVDs on the shelf. Does that account for this decline or is there something else contributing to it? If you have some thoughts on the subject, I’d like to hear them. My contact information is at the end of this column.
However, if you haven’t made a visit to your library in a while, this is an opportunity for me to remind you of some of our services such as:
Downloadable audiobooks and music
Freegal: a new service that gives you three free weekly music downloads from the Sony music collection
Bibliocommons: Clevnet's new, interactive catalog where you can maintain your own page similar to a social network site
Sparkle Spot: a room for parents and children to work together on activities that develop skills children will need as they enter kindergarten
On another subject….the school year is just underway, and that means students are returning to the library after school. If you visit the library around 2:30 on a school day, you’ve likely noticed staff around the entrance having conversations with teens as they enter the library. We are reminding them (if you have or have had teenage children, you know they need reminding sometimes) that time after school at the library is time to work on homework. Since we have so many students who want to use the library after school, homework is the one activity that doesn’t interfere with other residents’ use of the library and is a service the library can support with its resources.
A library is a community-supported resource that every resident has the right to use at any given time without interference from disruptive behavior. We want young residents to use the library and welcome them, but at the same time we expect them to behave in a public building in such a way that their behavior is not a disruption to others in the building. I don’t think that expectation is too high. I encourage parents who want their children to come to the library after school to understand our expectations and have a discussion about them.