Meeting Community Needs by Pamela H. MacKellar

Author:Pamela H. MacKellar [MacKellar, Pamela H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2015-12-10T16:00:00+00:00

Would conducting a contest to determine which child read the most books be the best way to measure the success of a reading program? Would counting the total number of books read over the summer tell you if the program advanced literacy and academic programs, fostered a love of reading, increased successful reading experiences, involved parents and family members, or improved a child’s access to library materials? What will increasing the number of participants indicate? This is only one example, meant to help you think through the process of effective program design. In the end, you want to meet your community’s needs, not create a community upheaval and negative national news coverage for your library. Avoid this trap by creating program objectives that are related to the goals.

Partnering and Collaborating

Including leaders from other organizations in your community, department heads from other village, academic, or corporate departments, and local business leaders and innovators in this process offers a real advantage. Other agencies, departments, or businesses may be providing similar programs or services, others may be thinking about providing them, and people who have expertise could help you meet community needs. How often have you or someone on your staff had a program idea, only to be met with responses such as, “We don’t have the expertise,” “We don’t have the money,” or “That idea is too big for our little library to accomplish”? By partnering and collaborating with others, your library can do much more than it could possibly do on its own. You can make a bigger difference when you work with others because you can share the responsibilities, funding, expertise, and resources. Together you can provide more effective, consistent, and holistic services to the community at large.

Using Needs, Goals, and Program Ideas to Stay On Track

Knowing your community’s needs, the corresponding goals and program ideas, along with the library’s mission, role, and purpose will help keep the library on track. When you have the information about needs that can come only from analyzing an assessment, you will know how to select the programs and services that are “right” for the library and community. All you do will lead the library in the direction of accomplishing meaningful goals that will make a difference for people. When staff are focused in the same direction with a common purpose, you are less likely to get distracted. It will be difficult to establish and implement services and programs that are not relevant to your particular community when everyone is on the same page. You will be amazed at all you can accomplish when you are all working together in the same direction.

Suppose your community needs a playground, and a community member approaches the public library where you work about donating funds to install play equipment outside the library. The goal of this project would be to provide a play area for children. Is this within the scope of the library’s vision, mission, and goals? Does the library’s strategic plan identify building

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