Mercer County Library, Lawrenceville, NJ: Be the Cornerstone of Your Community

-- Library Journal, 03/10/2009

Successful public libraries respond to their communities by creating services specifically tailored to meet their needs. As a county library system, we have always placed importance on being a reflection of our county; we value diversity, serve a multicultural population, and foster an active exercise of intellectual freedom. The challenge to all public libraries is to become the cornerstones of their communities. We accomplish this by realizing that the nine branches of the Mercer County Library System all benefit from the diversity of the seven different communities we serve, and although we are one system, each branch personalizes services to satisfy the specific needs of their communities. All of our patrons benefit from this broad-spectrum service philosophy.

There are two attributes that have truly defined our success: an uncompromisingly dedicated team and a public that exhibits a high level of volunteerism and support for education and literacy. The staff is receptive to new technologies, curious, and eager to improve services; they believe that the community should look toward the library as a leading partner and they act accordingly. They are committed to service, innovation, and forging ahead—be it with a new technology, online reference resources, or the breadth of services and programs offered. Our volunteers tirelessly advocate for our branches and last year raised almost $100,000 for the purpose of enhancing and supporting youth and adult programming.  

Key attributes:

•         Live your mission statement. Create an ideal that stands for your organization and what you hope to achieve. 
•         Insinuate the library into the fabric of your community. Outreach in the community is tantamount to us encouraging non-users to avail themselves of our services and to facilitate cooperation between the library branches and local groups and educators. Impose the library into every nook and cranny so that you can ensure high visibility. Attend community fairs, national night out programs, back to school events, local read aloud days, visit classrooms to promote the summer reading program, visit preschools, invite school groups in for dedicated programs, offer library tours, encourage the use of display spaces by teachers and students, hold art receptions, facilitate tutoring, work with local MOMs clubs and home schooling groups, form youth groups and adult reading groups. Find out what passions motivate the staff and incorporate those into their work—encourage staff to join committees and partner with organizations in which the library can fulfill its mission—memberships in the regional library cooperative, the municipal alliance for drug and alcohol, ESL tutoring, or volunteering for their local historical associations name a few.
•         Make your library indispensible. From printing copies of the NYT crossword puzzle, to providing tax forms and assistance, notary services, exam proctoring, movie nights, free computer classes, and health information. While, we’ve offered free computer classes to the public for quite a number of years, only recently did we accept the responsibility of teaching county employees the Microsoft Office Suite. The little ways are what make people view the library as the venue.
•         Become the most single unifying force in your community. Embrace diversity, celebrate the differences of your communities, and provide a wide-range of free activities and services that reflect the multiplicity of patrons. Examples might include world language collections, bilingual story times, foreign films, bilingual computer classes, English conversation classes, poetry clubs, art displays, cultural music, and dance performances. Specific programs are the history of English teas, author presentations, a presentation of the underground railroad quilt symbols, genealogy workshops, African-American music and history, Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations, citizenship classes, ESL classes, performances by the NJ Symphony Orchestra’s String Quartet and the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra, Native-American storytelling, and a Chinese New Year Celebration. We have a large Hispanic community in our eastern branches. The staff has made it a point to attend Spanish language classes and invite bilingual speakers and performers to the branch to make certain that the library is current with the community it serves. We’ve partnered with various arts councils, the human relations council and are happy to extend invitations to local medical centers that may offer public education classes to our patrons.
• ·        Seek to serve the underserved. Through a grant we’ve offered a book club at the County Youth Detention Facility. In the past three years we’ve been able to offer approximately 180 youth the opportunity to participate in book discussions, which have allowed the residents to delve deep into themes in a non-judgmental forum in which they can express their ideas and relate the works to their own experiences. We’ve also instituted a Homebound Delivery Service, which delivers library materials to those patrons who are temporarily or permanently unable to visit the library. We’ve partnered with a local emergency squad to deliver books to residents when they check their smoke detectors.
•         Get them while their young. Offering diverse, entertaining and educational programming to young children is by far an investment that repays the library tenfold. The library offers appealing baby classes that foster reading readiness and stimulate infants with rhyming activities, music, movement, board books, and a chance to socialize with other children. Patrons who are non-native English speakers have always gravitated towards these programs to ensure that their children hear English being spoken. Story times, character greetings, music, performances, puppetry, and crafts are the mainstay to morning offerings. Varied programming for the school-aged continues to be a magnet for children and ‘tweens on evenings and weekends year-round. These run the gamut from book clubs, chess, science, drama, Wii gaming, fashion design, films, art, sculpture, origami, handicrafts, contests, animals, and creative writing.
•         Take the library on the road. While all branches perform outreach, two branches come to mind. In our Hightstown community staff makes regular visits to the retirement village nearby; in our Ewing community, the youth librarian volunteers afterhours to host a story time / craft program for the clients of the Family Preservation Center, an offshoot of HomeFront, a local organization that assists homeless families in Mercer County.
•         Pilot projects and prepare for change. Don’t underestimate the fact that even welcome change is still change for your staff and patrons. Pilot a new service at one branch, rather than throughout the entire system all at once. Accept feedback and monitor progress and satisfaction. Train one or two staff members from each branch to be in-house trainers so that there is always someone out in the field to resolve issues.
•         Give your patrons what they want! Five years ago, we put up on our homepage a Suggestion for Purchase link. Patrons were encouraged to suggest items for the library to purchase through an electronic form, by phone, or in-person. Since that time, the service has grown exponentially. In 2008, in direct response to suggestions, we ordered 1500 items worth $26,000. These orders are given priority and electronic holds are placed for the patron.
•         How to pay for Suggestions for Purchase? Reference materials used to account for a significant portion of the library budget. Now, with many traditional reference sources available free electronically, resources can be shifted to the circulating collection. In the past five years we cut the reference budget by 62% and diverted those funds to our burgeoning AV collection, which includes DVDs, music CDs, books on CD, electronic book downloads, and Playaways.
•         More and more (and more) free services. In the past few years we’ve initiated wireless Internet access, Instant Messaging reference service, and free public notary. Our IT Team began a very successful Meet the Geeks program a year or so ago, which allows them to go out to our branches and meet with patrons who may have technology related questions. We’ve initiated book clubs, Wii programming, tax assistance, proctoring, resume workshops, film festivals, and both general and specialized computer classes.
•         Value respect, team work, and good old-fashioned customer service. Be available and supportive to the needs of your staff and your patrons. Be receptive to their ideas. Meet with the management team monthly to review programming and community issues. Encourage staff to participate in their own professional destiny, not only by allowing them to attend educational workshops, but by exploring and finding their niche within the organization. Make certain that every employee, no matter what their position or title, understands that they are integral to the success of the library. Make positive customer interaction and perception a culture, rather than just an expectation.
•         Convey your message loud and clear. Be dynamic in employing different types of media to get your message across. Podcasting, RSS newsfeeds, print, email, and of course, make an investment in your web site. Concierge monitors in our lobbies have increased attendance at our programming considerably.
•         Be present. While forward-thinking is vital to every organization, it’s important to pause and make certain that you are addressing the needs of your patrons as they are today. For example, the very real economic pressures of today can present your library with an opportunity to partner with a WIB office, present a financial planning or mortgage program, offer a resume review class, or help to train older employees on the nuances of online employment application.

—Ellen Brown, Director