School Connections

 

5-3-2024

Today’s lead is a library program next week. The FFA will be helping us with the One Seed, One Wisconsin program again this year. The program is running for the second year. Last year it kicked off with the Wisconsin 55 tomato. This year the seed is for Pride of Wisconsin melons. On Wednesday, May 8^th, right around the corner, at 5:30 the FFA will begin helping people plant seeds. All materials will be supplied.

Timing for the program was determined by two factors. I’m told that melons should be started later than tomatoes as they don’t do as well indoors. This way we’ll start them later so that outside gardening will be an option sooner. The other factor was the FFA flower sale which runs this weekend. I’ll be over there before this article arrives in the library mailbox. Miss Nancy used to plant nearly 100 geraniums along her front porch every year. I’ll be picking up some for outside the library to plant in her memory.

Any seeds remaining after the program will be handed out at the circulation desk in the days following the program.

One of the big surprises revealed by the Community Survey was in the priority for changes to library services question which listed increase coordination with local schools as the #1. This was surprising given that for the past two years, librarians from the East Troy Lions Public Library have been the librarians for the East Troy Community Schools. Anna and I are in and out of school buildings on a regular basis providing services in the form of storytime, library instruction, Battle of the Books, and class field trips to the public library. Last year ETLPL formed a partnership with the FFA to provide an outlet for them to deliver programs to the community, hosted a room during CoOperation Learn at Little Prairie Primary, and participated in the PTO’s End of Year Bash.

This is the one area in which the timing of the survey and our plans don’t align as Anna and I just resigned our position with the school district. We were simply spread too thin. In our letter we did vow to continue providing/supporting all but the daily classes and material purchases. Once they have a new school librarian in place, we will reach out and discuss how the two institutions can continue to partner. In the meanwhile, this week we were at this year’s CoOperation Learn and next weekend we will be at the End of Year Bash.

As always, we are open to suggestions on what else to add.

Reading Now: The Book Of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate (Book Club)

Listening to Now: Beseiged by Kevin Hearne (Book 9 of the Iron Druid Chronicles)

Community Survey Results - Part 2 Social Media

 

4-26-2024

Last week I focused on the community survey responses of respondents who infrequently or never use the library. This week I’ll shift to a little comparison. The question that allows that the easiest is regarding how users find out about community events and activities. The responses are essentially in exact opposition.

Over 50% of regular users of the library learn about our activities through signage at the library (61%) itself and the library’s website (56%). Also ranked highly are word of mouth (43%) and the local newspaper (41%). The last three sources, library social media, East Troy Park and Rec guide and community signage all received 32% or less responses. This makes absolute sense. Fliers for each program we run are located in multiple spots throughout the library: community board in the entryway, bulletin board on the ladies’ bathroom, book display immediately inside the library, circulation desk. We also make an effort to mention programs to patrons they seem to fit. Although we are not as good about doing so as Nancy was.

We were really happy to see the number of people that use the website as Lisa in particular has put in a great deal of work on the redesign. The new site has less clutter, which I always prefer, and is updated weekly providing the most current information immediately. One problem we discovered right after it launched was the reliance on graphics. At a director’s meeting, a service was brought up that increases a websites accessibility by allowing the user to change fonts and colors and also reads the script aloud. Script, not pictures. There will be more verbiage added in future.

Responders who don’t frequent the library list social media as their primary channel for learning about community events to the tune of 70% - higher than any means for either group. That is followed by the local newspaper at 52%, word of mouth at 43%, and community signage at 30%.

Comparing the two it was pleasing to see both indicate the newspaper as a source of information. Perhaps, this column needs to include weekly schedules/program reminders. It is also transferred to a blog which my mother reads from our website. Since creating the blog and seeing the survey results, I’ve been sharing the blog with Facebook. The other day I created an Instagram for the library in order to further broaden our reach.

Third on each list was word of mouth so please talk about us.

Reading Now: Dona Barbara by Romulo Gallegos (PBS's 100 Great American Reads), The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate (May book club)

Listening to Now: Crime on the Fens by Joy Ellis (Nikki Galena series book 1 - this series was actually written before the Jackman & Evan series I discovered last July. Time to catch up.)

 

Community Survey Results Part 1 Hours

 

4-19-2024

This month the Strategic Planning Committee is meeting several times to pour over the results of our community survey from February as has the Library Board of Trustees. For the next few weeks, I will be responding to those results. We are very pleased with the results of the survey for many reasons.

The first being the number of participants. In early meetings, the organization leading the process gave us somewhere around 40 responses as the number we should look to receive. I challenged our community to a minimum of 100. With the help of fliers at our local Do It Best hardware store (Which appears to still be called Martin’s? The new owners are very nice by the way and love libraries.), East Troy Pharmacy, Gus’s, IGET (East Troy Area Intergenerational Community Center), and Hanson’s IGA (which also stuffed fliers in grocery bags) we received 106 responses.

Of those respondents, 24% described themselves as Infrequent and Never Library Users. To have that many people who are not already invested in the library participate felt like the biggest win. About 40% of those respondents were honest in stating they aren’t likely to ever become library users. That is a challenge I leave for another day. In the meanwhile, the most frequently selected motivators for using the library were better hours and more programming of personal interest. I’ll come back to the programming issue in a later article.

Hours are an issue the Library Board is interested in exploring. At this point in the year, we aren’t able to make significant changes to our schedule. Adding hours to our schedule has a financial impact on our budget most notably due to hourly wages. More hours require more staff time. The Library Board passes our Operational Budget in August. It is then passed on to the Village of East Troy to be added to their overall budget process. Ultimately the final budget is passed by the Village Board usually in November.

This summer the Board will look at ways we can to make changes. With the size of our staff, I think it unlikely we will be open on Sundays. Saturdays are difficult enough. Expanded hours on days we are already open may be a possibility. My question for East Troy is, what hours would be most helpful? Monday nights? Saturday afternoon? Before 10:00 am. If you have an opinion, let us know. We have contact information available on our website for phone, email and Facebook accounts.

Thank you to everyone who completed the survey and the local business that helped up promote it.

Reading Now: James by Percival Everett, Dona Barbara by Romulo Gallegos (PBS 100 Great American Reads list)

Listing to Now: Shattered by Kevin Hearne (Book 7 of the Iron Druid Chronicles)

Community Survey

2-2-2024

          This week the Strategic Planning Committee is sending out our community survey. This is arguably the most important step in the planning process. Without community input, we’re just a group of library lovers working in a vacuum.

          That brings me to my ask. We would love to have everyone who reads this article complete the survey and peer pressure a friend who doesn’t read it into completing one too. That may give us a variety of perspectives. Some people will complete it simply because they love the library. Others won’t want to because they hate surveys. I generally fall into the second category. To the second group, know that the survey is only 20 questions: 17 ask for checked boxes, 2 ask for ranking a list in order of priorities, and 1 free response. Just one.

          Fliers are being placed on any community board we could think of and stuffed into Hansen’s grocery bags. They include a QR code that takes smartphone users directly to the online survey. There is a link on the library’s website and on our Facebook page. Printed copies will be available at the East Troy Area Intergenerational Community Center and the East Troy Lions Public Library.

          Hopefully everyone will find access to the survey easy to find. If convenient doesn’t sway people, we have two more incentives. The first is an opportunity to be entered into a drawing for $20 Kwik Trip gift cards. The second is for the competitive members of our community.

          During our preparing the survey meeting, the coordinator was asked about the number of responses we need. I won’t try to remember the exact percent she mentioned, but I do remember for ETLPL that meant less than 50 total surveys. So, for the competitive among us, I challenge the greater East Troy Community and surrounding towns who came up with a name for their community that doesn’t involve Troy, to reach triple digits in our rate of return.

          Let’s show Edgerton, Spring Green and the other libraries in our cohort that East Troy is in a league of its own.

          The survey opened on February 1^st and remains open through February 14^th. For the procrastinators among us, what better way to spend Valentines with your sweety than taking the survey together?

          For the organized and timely, here is the link to the survey.  Fliers contain a QR code to the survey. Anyone wanting a lesson in QR codes, stop in the library any day or visit the 2^nd Saturday of the month, February 10, and let IT with Lori and (Sometimes) Wade lend a hand.

 

Reading:  Monsters: A Fan's Diemma by Claire Dederer, Deep by James Nestor

Listening to: Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, What Now? podcast with Trevor Noah