Villa Park Public Library. LONG RANGE PLAN Villa Park Public Library Board of Trustees Adopted 10/27/2010

Transcription

1 Villa Park Public Library LONG RANGE PLAN Villa Park Public Library Board of Trustees Adopted 10/27/

2 LONG RANGE PLAN Mission Statement The Villa Park Public Library provides equal access to materials and resources to meet the cultural, educational, informational and recreational needs of the community. The Library actively focuses on serving as a community information and activities center and supports the lifelong learning and leisure needs of residents of all ages. Service Responses Residents and staff chose to focus on six Service Responses for the next three years. These service responses are Create Young Readers: Early literacy; Satisfy Curiosity: Lifelong learning; Succeed in School: Homework help; Understand How to Find, Evaluate, and Use Information: Information fluency; Know Your Community: Community resources and services; and, Visit a Comfortable Place: Physical and virtual spaces. I. Create Young Readers: Early literacy. Children from birth to age six will have programs and services designed to ensure that they will enter school ready to learn to read, write, and listen. Goal: To maintain and enhance the high quality service to children from birth to age six. Consider developing an early literacy outreach initiative to possibly include the following: o Determine if staff needs to attend early literacy training. Training opportunities include ALA s Every Child Ready to Read and/or self-paced courses from Web Junction. YS Staff will ascertain whether early literacy training materials need to be purchased. Ensure that training dollars for one or two staff members and materials are encumbered for this effort each fiscal year. o Have staff presence at local Early Childhood community events such as parent/teacher events, Child Seat Safety Inspection Event, Big Rigs, Kiwanis concerts, Octoberfest. o Continue and expand partnerships with schools and school districts o Generate (or customize) an early literacy brochure. Ensure brochure promotes Library s programming. o Ask Friends of the Library for funds to print brochures o Ask medical offices and daycare centers in Villa Park and Oakbrook Terrace to distribute brochures for parents and caregivers. o Devote one to two hours of staff time per week to ensure the brochures are stocked off-site. Ask Friends for assistance in this instance as well. o Develop a Parents or Educators section/portal to the Library s Web site. (Similar to Multnomah County Oregon s site). Add information on the importance of early literacy, booklists, resources, etc. Continue to offer the Teacher Open House each February. Continue to promote the event with public relations coordinators at the school districts.

3 Evaluate the Preschool space: consider changing layout of preschool area and collections in order to develop an enhanced Early Literacy Play Area o Contact furniture vendors who could assist in developing this area o If vendor option is not viable, explore using staff time and Visio software to relocate collections in the space o Explore funding options with the Friends of the VPL and/or with local clubs and businesses. o If funds allow, purchase new furniture and/or shelving for preschool area. Evaluate and enhance the computer offerings for preschoolers. o Evaluate and consider for purchase the Advanced Workstations in Education s (A.W.E.) Early Literacy Station(s). o Evaluate software currently installed on the two preschool multimedia stations. Determine what new software can be added to these locations and request funds for purchase. Purchase new titles and install. o Evaluate furniture and equipment currently used at the two current preschool multimedia stations. Consider purchasing equipment and furniture which would facilitate the use of stations by this age group. Consider expanding the resources for early childhood educators in Youth and Adult Services. o Conduct an informal survey for preschool teachers in order to determine what additional support the Library could offer. Invite local preschool teachers to the Library and offer a Preschool Fair based on survey. o Investigate circulating the YS big books collection. o Consider additional promotion of the Adventures To Go theme bags. Ensure parents and caregivers of babies, toddlers, and preschoolers have information on these theme bags. Evaluate whether smaller collections/bags should be offered. Explore surprise bags for teachers. o Consider offering a service for parents and caregivers in which the caregiver can call the library; staff would collect and package materials for a sick child ; bundle these materials for pick up; and the items are marked for disinfecting upon return (River Forest Sneezle Packs) Continue to develop targeted programming related to a variety of subjects. o Programming efforts will concentrate on literature, arts, music, science, and math. o Enhance program evaluation form and ensure evaluation form is provided to parents/caregivers. Attendance and user feedback will be used to aid in assessment of program success. Consider placing the evaluation form online to solicit additional comments and/or suggestions. Enhance opportunities for bi-lingual/multi-lingual story times. Continue to translate written program information and brochures into Spanish. Explore translation into other languages. Work with Automation staff to develop and provide an online program registration form. This form should facilitate program registration. Work with Administration in developing publicity for this new service. Staff will explore developing additional services for children with special needs

4 II. Satisfy Curiosity: Lifelong Learning Residents will have the resources they need to explore topics of personal interest and continue to learn throughout their lives. Goal: To provide a social and learning environment within the community. Provide programs to bring together residents with shared interests. Revise program guideline document which assists staff in planning programs for adults. Ensure flyers are generated to insert in card renewal notice envelopes. Develop bibliographies, blog posts, and video tutorials to help people find information on topics of interest to them. Actively promote and report on library programs in local newspapers and radio Create and promote trivia question contests during Library Card Sign-Up Month, National Library Week, and to celebrate Trivia Day which is usually held during the first week on January. Explore programming for adults which involves handicrafts such as beading, knitting, ceramics, scrapbooking. Aggressively promote Learning Express Library and Tutor.com. Feature on web site and in newsletters. Explore creating a screen cast or online tutorial for both. Develop a collection of book discussion group support materials which will include informational materials for book discussion leaders. Support adult learning by offering proctoring services. Develop procedures for proctoring exams based on new Proctoring policy. Develop Adult programming to include board games. Create additional electronic gaming opportunities. Explore offering a Genealogy Club Goal: To create a more accessible and available collection Purchase quality resources in a timely manner, so patrons have access within two weeks of publisher release date. Add more titles to standing order plan(s). Explore placing additional titles on Automatically Yours Plan through Baker & Taylor. Provide residents with one on one training of the Library s electronic resources and social networking tools. Highlight Book News Service and consider adding marketing tools such as book trailers to the Library s Web site. Provide more information on financial and investment resources for residents. Make this information available in print and on the Library s Web site. Purchase E-Readers. Develop policy and procedures for these new devices. Provide broad and deep collections with downloadable content. Investigate subscriptions for downloadable music and movie collections. Visit Barnes & Noble and Borders book stores. Examine their displays. Determine which methods can be used in the Library with minimum expense. Investigate mechanisms for creating face-out display in both departments. Develop and increase the DVD collections. Establish a World Language collection in the Adult Services Department. Consider eliminating Display Collection, as this adds one week where items are not available for checkout. Explore creating a virtual display of new books in its stead. Alternatively, re-evaluate topics which should be immediately available and not displayed.

5 III. Succeed in School: Homework help. Students will have the resources they need to succeed in school. Goal: To provide quality resources and services for students in elementary & middle school Promote online Homework Help (tutor.com) and Learning Express services to students, parents, and teachers. Promotion may include featuring on the Web site and/or newsletter. Develop procedures for booking the Reading Room for student study use Explore providing Reference Texting Service for Youth Services. Consider adding an online Assignment Alert Form and/or Special Request Form to the Youth Services Page on the Library Web site. Possibly incorporate this into new Parent and Educator section/portal of Web site [see Early Literacy goal]. Consider developing and adopting an intergovernmental agreement with School District for Teacher Cards. Explore option with School Districts 45 and 48. Continue to maintain textbooks and other materials that support the curricula of public and private schools and homeschoolers. Investigate adding textbooks from other private schools such as the Islamic Foundation or Timothy Christian. Consider developing a School Services and Outreach liaison position or point person. This may entail restructuring of positions in the Youth Services and Adult Services Departments. Partner with High School to utilize volunteers for homework help for students, i.e., create a Homework Clinic. Goal: To provide students in high school with quality resources and services Promote Live Homework Help (Tutor.com) and Learning Express at High Schools. Promotion may include featuring on the Web site and/or newsletter. Develop program ideas for Teens and offer at least one program for teens during Teen Read Week (October) and one program for teens during Teen Tech Week (March). Consider adding an online Assignment Alert Form to the Teen Page of the Library s Web site. Provide students with space for exam studying after hours at the Library, i.e., Glen Ellyn s Late Night Study Hall at the Library. Provide and promote Reference Texting Service for Teen Services. Investigate mechanism for getting the summer reading list from the high school. Ensure the Library has multiple copies of the list and promote this service to students. Consider developing and adopting an intergovernmental agreement with School District 88 for Teacher Cards. Consider offering students and parents a College Planning Workshop or College Fair. Provide representatives from local colleges with the opportunity to provide residents with information on their schools and programs. Devote resources to create a Teen Space and expand High School Collection holdings.

6 IV. Understand How to Find, Evaluate, and Use Information: Information Fluency Residents will know when they need information to resolve an issue or answer a question and will have the skills to search for, locate, evaluate, and effectively use information to meet their needs. Goal: To assist patrons in developing information fluency Provide basic, intermediate, and advanced classes on how to use the Internet and . Sponsor classes on various software applications (Word, Access, etc.). Introduce youth to technology through interactive games and applications with a high educational content. Provide games and host gaming tournaments. Continue to explore new, online social networking opportunities. Develop and maintain a Library presence on these sites. Create online tutorials to help users navigate library resources Provide online library card application. Provide equipment for patrons to use various media in the library. Equipment may include such items as e-readers, laptops, fax machine, scanner(s). Create and develop online videotaped book talks promoting library materials and resources Offer patrons the ability to subscribe to the Library s online newsletter. Develop a Tech-Know night featuring classroom style learning opportunities for residents Develop a Timely Topics portion of the Library s Web site to highlight current trends (e.g., Tax Season, Back to School, Voter Registration, Flu Season, Black Friday, etc.) In order to keep current with technology trends in education, create a video/audio production lab similar to the lab at Blue Island Public Library Determine which portions of the local history collection (photos & clippings) should be converted to digital format. Convert these documents.

7 V. Know Your Community: Community resources and services. Villa Park residents will have a central source for information about the wide variety of programs, services, and activities provided by community agencies and organizations. Goal: To provide residents with up-to-date information about the community Maintain relationships with community agencies and organizations to provide information with a local focus. Partner with area libraries, governmental and community organizations on community-wide events. Establish displays and exhibits that promote community resources Create a Facebook account to assist Lifelong Learning League members in promoting their groups activities. Consider modest cable marketing program, focusing on ads for specific programming. Purchase a new display case for the Library s lobby. Continue to display items created by local residents or items from personal collections. Review and update service and community hyperlinks on the web site Consider hosting a community resource and/or business expo at the Library. Explore creating web casts/public access video profiles of local businesses. VI. Visit a Comfortable Place: Physical and virtual spaces. Residents will have safe and welcoming physical places to meet and interact with others, to sit quietly and read, and will have open and accessible virtual spaces that support networking. Goal: To improve the quality of the patron s experience of the Library Objectives (for physical plant) (see Goal 1 for YS objectives): Maintain the building s infrastructure by allocating appropriate resources for timely repairs and required preventative maintenance practices. Publish an annual wish list. Re-evaluate space use on first floor. If funding allows, work with a space designer. Seek to provide a quiet area, a teen area, more display space, consolidation of current and back issues of periodicals. Internet stations should be redesigned for collaborative learning. Develop the third space idea by exploring the establishment of a coffee/tea area for patrons. Explore new furniture options seeking to provide two person tables, chairs with tablet arms, etc. Emphasis should also be placed on creating collaborative learning space. If funds allows, purchase new furniture. Objectives (philosophy and virtual connections): Maintain all Library technologies to be current and easily accessible for residents. Trouble ticket completion rates will be evaluated and assessed on a quarterly basis. As funding allows, match service hours to the needs of the community, including evening and Sunday hours. Develop a patron bill of rights and incorporate it as board policy. Consider restructuring departments in order to meet patron service needs. Plan program on customer service for Staff In-Service Day. Provide a virtual branch with dedicated staff with a variety of blogs, wikis, and other opportunities for social networking.