As part of the information industry, the library offers employment to individuals with various educational backgrounds. The Preschool Library encourages young children to develop an interest in reading and learning through Door to Learning services. Basic literacy The library addresses the need to read and perform other essential daily tasks.
Business and Library addresses the need for information related to business, career, work, entrepreneurship, per-. Community The library addresses the need for information related to referrals to services provided by community agencies and. Government The library helps meet the need for information about information of elected officials and government agencies that en-.
Information The library helps address the need for skills associated with finding, evaluating, and using information effectively. Local history and the library cater to the desire of residents of the Genealogy community to get to know and better understand personally or better.
Thoughts for the New Millennium
Target Market: Older Adults
The elderly residents were located through the community survey; Community agencies and institutions have responded with interest to our questions and shown a desire to cooperate. We can begin the product development process by considering the senior group as two target markets – those who may come to the library and those who will need to receive the service. The first group is served to some extent by the traditional library service, but the community study has highlighted additional and unique needs for this client group.
However, only a portion of older adults are served by traditional service patterns, and any information that precedes the community survey typically depicts a common denominator. Some of the identified needs will need to be met through collaboration with other local community agencies; others will be satisfied with services and materials provided at the library. If we determine that our first priority effort with senior citizens will be to improve service for those who can physically come to the library, then we must first pay attention to the characteristics common to this age group: a desire for comfort, convenient hours, sociability, a slower pace of interaction and a friendly atmosphere.
We may plan some group activities specifically for this age group, but all activities need not separate them from other clients as long as we remember the unique needs of older adults. We can place serving non-mobile older adults as a secondary priority and design products that use volunteers to provide materials and collection services to the homebound. If we serve these customers on an ongoing basis, for example through a visit to a nursing home once every two weeks, they become known as individuals, and we can more easily identify their needs and wishes.
The cumulative effect of such services is much greater if the same person can be served regularly by the same library staff (paid or unpaid). Distribution will be as important a component of our overall product as the service itself. Physical capacity and access issues will be important considerations for mobile older adults.
The campaign can be distributed through agencies that are already in contact with members of these target markets, but we must also make an effort to reach those not served by these agencies. Follow-up publicity from the community survey will provide an excellent opportunity for stories in mainstream newspapers or for radio or television interviews. We can print or duplicate promotional material for posting or pick-up at churches, supermarkets, banks and doctor's offices (where older adults regularly visit).
Target Market: Small Businesses
The value and quality of the service will depend on the collection and more specifically on the staff's knowledge of the library's resources. One of the most important political decisions is the one that gives direction to the development of the library's collection. This is where demonstrating mutual benefit is critical to the future of the library in the community.
This staffing policy may be unique to the library or may be related to municipal requirements. In any event, it is the library board's responsibility to ensure that such policies are in effect. In some places, proceeds. the dog tax makes up a large part of the library's budget.
Any additional funding that comes to the library should be treated as exactly that: additional. These stories should be communicated to funders and citizens as examples of the library's impact on human lives. The program began to be used in budget circles before the marketing language (i.e. product) became part of the library vocabulary.
However, all good things must take place in moderation, and the work of the library must take precedence. The prestige of the library in the community contributes greatly to its ability to attract good local staff. Suggest to the Friends of the Library that they consider using some of their funds, or raising funds, for scholarships.
A variety of activities necessary to support the library's products should take place behind the scenes of any library. Selection is made easier and more targeted by the knowledge of the community staff and the goals and objectives of the library. A local dealer's inventory is usually not large enough to meet the needs of the library.
For the supplier, the essential element of the materials order is the precise indication of what the library wants. For the library, it is the record that tells what is on order (information that is checked against materials received and used to avoid unwanted duplication), the supplier to whom each order was shipped, and the date of each order (so that older orders can be checked or canceled). A time registration also provides important data for calculating the costs of the library's various products and services.
Payne, "The Library Environment," in Reinvention of the Public Library for the 21st Century, ed.
