PLA Aims To Revise Public Library Service Descriptions
-- Library Journal, 10/20/2006
What exactly are public libraries about? Librarians are grappling with the answers to that question now on the PLA Blog. In 1998, generations ago in Internet terms, the Public Library Association (PLA) introduced 13 service responses, aimed to help library managers and their boards describe "what a library does for, or offers to, the public in an effort to meet a set of well-defined community needs." Four of the 13 items emphasized "information" (e.g, consumer information), and two others were information based.
Open meetings at the American Library Association Annual Conference in New Orleans last June have led to blog discussions through October 20. Drafts of the proposed new service responses will be made available on December, with final drafts posted by January 4, 2007, a prelude to discussion at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Seattle. "The premise of the planning process is that we better be sure that money and resources we're spending are focused on the priorities we think important," Sandra Nelson, the consultant who's leading the process, told LJ. "Libraries that want lots of new money are doomed to disappointment. Some of the changes will be by reallocating existing resources. There's no way to choose unless you have external criteria with which to balance them." And, she added, "Those communities that are most successful [at communicating their priorities] are most likely to get bonds passed."
