Greenwood library seeks public input
What visitors want more or less of, local demographics and growth will all help determine how the Greenwood Public Library should change in future years.
The Greenwood Public Library is beginning the process to create a plan for how it will grow and expand its services in upcoming years, as part of a requirement by the state to have a strategic plan in place.
The five-year plan the library is working on will replace the current one for 2016 through 2018, library director Cheryl Dobbs said.
One key element of the planning process is feedback from the community, Dobbs said.
In a survey sent out earlier this month, library patrons were asked about how often they visit the library, the types of materials they commonly check out, what library services they consider to be most important and what changes they’d like to see at the library.
“We want to hear from the community on needs we might not be aware of,” she said.
Dobbs wants to know how people currently use the library, what they like and what they would want to see improved or changed.
The last time the library created a strategic plan, patrons said they wanted more time to visit on the weekends, she said. The result was that the library adjusted its times to open two hours early on Friday and Saturday, with patrons allowed in at 11 a.m. rather than 1 p.m.
Another item that stood out in past surveys was the need to have more services available for tweens, the group of kids between elementary and middle school, Dobbs said.
The process to create a new plan will take the rest of the year to complete as library staff work to gather additional information and narrow their priorities for the next five years, she said.
Besides gathering ideas and suggestions from library patrons, the study will also look at demographic data to see what groups of people are using the library and how those trends have been changing, Dobbs said. Library staff will also take trips to other libraries and organizations, using that as a chance to see what innovations others are using and look for ideas that can be brought back to Greenwood, Dobbs said.
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Want to provide feedback on how you use the Greenwood Public Library? Here’s a link to the online survey:
Link: goo.gl/vRxJR2
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