I need you badly, badly, madam librarian

[redrikki]

I am a member of our local library board. For the most part, our meetings are pretty dull. We set the budget, pay the bills, plan capital improvements, and establish policy. It is an elected position hardly anyone bothers to vote for and, considering the work that goes into it, it often seems pretty thankless.

Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked! Back in November, our library hosted a program which caused some pearl clutching among the conservative set. Threats were made against our funding in the run-up to the election. Our budget passed, thank goodness, and an amazing thing happened: members of the public started attending our meetings. In the last two months, we've had over 20 people at each meeting. Normally we get none.

What's really struck me is how supportive most of them are. Last night, they spoke out in support of our stance on the freedom of speech and information; the safe and welcoming space we provided to youth of all orientations and backgrounds; and the overall caliber of our children's programing. One man gushed about our Maker Space and how the training and equipment there helped him launch his business.

Libraries are changing. Our circulation is down, way down, but our programing and visitation are on the rise. We have programs for all ages from baby lap sits to senior yoga. We recently opened our new teen space where teens can hang out, do homework, and even play video games. Our Maker Space has a 3d printer, laser engraver, recording studio, sound/video editing equipment, sewing machines, and training in the use of all of it. We recently started a Library of Things, loaning non-traditional material like board games, power tools, baking tins, and ukulele.

What do you love about your local library? What do you wish they did better or had more of? Any suggestions I should take to my board? Excelsior!

Comments

[alexseanchai]

eeeee

[redrikki]

I take it you are a fan of libraries?

[alexseanchai]

3d printer, laser engraver, recording studio, sound/video editing equipment, sewing machines, and training in the use of all of it

*happy squeaks*

[redrikki]

Our MakerSpace is seriously cool. Unfortunately, it's only in our main branch. Fortunately, we're hoping to expand to our largest satellite branch in the coming year.

[sholio]

Oh, the maker space sounds like a great idea! I really love our library, but I've only ever explored its library aspects, not the extras. I think my favorite thing lately was the automated checkouts scanners they put in a few years ago, both for returning and checking out. They're so great! I love being able to get books instantly credited to my account and see at a glance what I have out.

[redrikki]

My friend has those in her library system and loves them too. We've looked at them in the past when it was first coming out and held off due to the price. I wonder if it hasn't come down as the technology has improved.

[beer_good_foamy]

Glad to hear people are backing you up. Libraries shouldn't be neutral when it comes to freedom of speech.

I wish our library could have half that stuff, but the council just cut our budget again... So we have to make do with the stuff that's (more or less, for now) free: time. Homework help, language help for new immigrants, story hour for children and senior citizens, craft tables, outreach programmes for new parents, computer and IT help, etc etc... We're also reorganising the entire library to make it more multilingual, since we're in a suburb where roughly 100 different languages are spoken and pretty much everyone is (at least) bilingual. Screw Dewey, we're going with what our constituents need.

[redrikki]

Man, I wish we could do more with languages. We don't have a particularly large immigrant community, but we do have one and none of the staff speaks a second language. We just updated out strategic plan and included increasing staff/volunteer diversity to more accurately reflect our community.

[pebblerocker]

I love the concept of being able to borrow baking tins and power tools from a library!

Our libraries have reading dogs available on certain afternoons. Children who aren't confident at reading can come in and sit with a dog and read a story aloud, and the dog will listen attentively without knocking the kid's pronunciation. I think it's a lovely idea, even as someone who isn't much of a dog person. I believe all the dogs in the programme are from the pound, and have done training to make sure they're the dogs for the job.

[redrikki]

Our library has something similar they do with a woman who trains service dogs. Even better, our local SPCA has "kitty lit" where kids can read too kittens. I love programs like this and wish we'd had it when I was growing up.