Community Survey Results
We created a community survey using Survey Monkey and also had it available on paper for people who stopped in the library and were willing to fill it out. After about six weeks, we gathered 333 responses, about 1/3 of which were gathered online, while the majority were gathered on paper. We also made the survey available at the Community Center and Senior Center in the hopes of getting more people to fill it out.
The results are in and it’s so interesting what people know and don’t know about our library. We found that:
- Many people are unfamiliar with our online resources,
- many people don’t know our hours or
- that our book drop is available 24/7 (even when the library is open) and
- there are always requests for more – more materials, more programs, more space.
Positive
Overall, I’d say that most of the people who filled out our survey are happy with the services we provide. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that we have things to work on as well. The first being customer service, one interaction is all people need to form an opinion about an organization and sometimes that opinion isn’t always positive. I’m hoping that through our customer service training that we just covered last month, this will begin to improve. I also hope that by working at the desks alongside my staff, I can see for myself what’s happening as well as set an example of what we should be doing.
What to Work On
The question becomes, why don’t people know about (insert resources, programs, materials here)? What can we do to better promote ourselves in the community? We are continuing to work towards a number of goals this year and I’m beginning to line up some ideas for next year as well – projects that take time and funding. I’d like to begin promoting ourselves better, something I’ve known for a long time. And something that we are continuing to work towards as we create our strategic plan and new website design.
Finally, I keep reminding myself that we can’t change everything we do and we can’t make everyone happy. But we can continue to listen to our community and provide resources and programs that our community wants and needs.