librarians = annoyance

I am annoyed. More specifically, I am annoyed by my profession.

In the past month there have been two articles in the local papers about how people turn to public libraries during times of economic downturn and usage goes way up. This, in and of itself, is not a bad thing. Public libraries are supposed to be vital to communities - that is the point of a public library! I am annoyed by the concept on two levels: that people only turn to libraries when times are tough and that libraries don't know how to market themselves to remain vital to the community during more prosperous times too.

People truly don't know what a public library is anymore and have no idea what it has to offer. At my last job in a public library every other customer said "wow, I didn't know the library had x". x could be research, free databases, computer classes, obtain books from outside our library system, teen programs, sponsor a city-wide book club, etc etc. It seemed that many of our customers used the library as a kid and when they returned 30 years later they assumed it was exactly the same. Of course public libraries have children's programs, promote literacy and check out books but they are so much more! My library spent an extraordinary amount of time thinking about what the community wanted and creating services that would meet the community's needs. I think sometimes we tried to meet our customer's needs before the customer even knew what they needed themselves! We were always vital to the community!

There was a quote in the article published today from a mother who said that she previously took her kids to Barnes & Noble for them to select a book to buy but now they are checking out books from the library because it's free. Duh. Why would anyone buy kids books week after week from a bookstore when they can get a much wider breadth of reading material from the library and be exposed to everything else a library has to offer at the same time??

The librarians quoted in the article all knew about the "circulation goes up in tough times" phenomenon and didn't seem all that surprised. Frankly I think librarians are terrible at marketing themselves and what a library does. If we all did our jobs correctly library usage levels would remain high at all times. We would be experts in community outreach, creating partnerships and knowing exactly what our customers and our community needs so we were vital in both tough and flush times. Instead we sit back and let our customers come to us, relying on the same tried and true marketing methods that have (barely) worked for us in the past. We allow customers to remember the library on their own rather than push our way into our customer's psyche and be there where they need us and before they need us.

The public library in my town is faltering. By faltering, I mean it is in danger of closing. When I moved to my town the library was open Tues, Wed and Thurs from 12-7. Now they're open Tues 12-5 and Wed and Thurs 12-7. They used to be open 6 days a week, including Saturdays. The library can't afford to buy books, instead they rely on a large network of inter-system borrowing. The library's budget was cut so severely (my town is in dire financial straights - they've even discussed turning off every 5th streetlight to save money) that as of January 1st, library card holders of my town will no longer be able to borrow items directly from neighboring town libraries. Neighboring town libraries can choose weather they want to lend to customers at my library through the reserve system. There is a circulation desk at my library and two other public service desks. The Library Director sits at one of the public service desks and occasionally I see a reference librarian at the other. Most of the staff (including the library director) works at the circulation desk. Most of their newspaper and magazine subscriptions have been dropped. They have 9 public computers; there is never a wait for any of them. There are no programs or additional services. The website is not up-to-date. The library does have quite a few databases but they are not paid for by the library. The Library Board of my state makes them available to all public libraries in the state.

When I visit the library there aren't usually many other people there. I live in a town of about 40,000 residents. This is an extremely diverse community with a high poverty rate. It's an old mill community that never quite recovered from the mills closing and General Electric leaving town. The whole city kind of depresses me, but that's a blog entry for another day. The city's public library is in a prime position to play a vital role in the community. I realize they don't have a lot of money but there is so much they could do! This community needs jobs and the residents need help finding them. The library could offer classes and spend what little collection development money they have on resume and career books. The public schools do not have libraries or if they do they are closet size. The library could easily partner with the schools to take on this role. The library could do more outreach with all of the daycares and nursery schools in town. The library could have representation at every community event (there are a surprising number of them) and talk up services at every opportunity. This community is so depressed it probably doesn't even know it has a library, much less that it needs one!

While library use is increasing at public libraries in other parts of the state, usage is decreasing at my public library because of funding. When the mayor is faced with laying off police force (we have a lot of crime here) and keeping the library open, I understand why she would choose to fund the police. On the other hand I have to wonder if it would be such an easy decision if the library was more vital to the community. Or is the library using the excuse of no funding to not provide the services the community needs?