The Schenectady County Library is hoping to begin a new chapter as it begins developing a strategic plan. The library’s efforts come after a controversial decision last year left some patrons reading between the lines.
David Gosda has been paying more attention to the library’s operations since the Board of Trustees voted to leave the Joint Automation Program last year.
Gosda and his wife Patricia are dissatisfied with that change.
“We would have access to about two and a half million books and it was very easy you just decide ok I want this book and its up in Lake George Library or Glens Falls, whatever and it would get shipped within two or three days and it was very easy we don’t have that access, that access has disappeared,” Gosda said.
Known as JA, the program enabled borrowers to check out books in counties served by the Mohawk Valley Library System and the Southern Adirondack Library System. The SCPL is one of the Mohawk Valley Library System’s 14 member libraries and operates branches in Glenville, Niskayuna, Rotterdam and other communities.
Now, the library has hired a Minnesota-based consulting firm to help develop a strategic plan for the county library’s future.
As part of the process, the library has formed a steering committee made up of community leaders, trustees, lead staff and government representatives.
“We are in the first quarter of the project."
Cathi Alloway is a consultant from the non-profit organization Library Strategies. She says the steering committee helps Library Strategies understand if the plan is on track to meet community needs.
“The other thing is that they provide context for us that can help drive people to fill out the survey, drive people to come to the focus groups and to become more generally aware of the library,” Alloway said.
Developing the strategic plan also involves focus groups and surveys to identify what the community wants to see in the future.
“We are looking for input, first of all on customer satisfaction. How do they feel right now about the library’s offerings? And then we want to know more about their preferences and habits in using the library. We want to know if there are any obstacles to use,” Alloway said.
Alloway says that based on her experience she is seeing a lot of positives within SCPL.
“What I think needs to be upgraded is community use of the library and community input,” Alloway said.
While David Gosda, who worked for the New York State Library for 30 years, is worried that the library’s strategic planning process will not be as transparent as he would like.
“I’m very highly suspicious of the motivation of the library I find them to be very secretive, they don’t want to put out information,” Gosda said.
The SCPL Board of Trustees held a public meeting last week where Alloway and another consultant outlined the strategic plan development process.
Library board President Madelyn Thorne said the goal of the strategic plan is to understand what the community needs and create a blueprint to meet those needs.
“And I can’t speak to what those goals are because I haven’t heard from the community yet. It hasn’t been gathered,” Thorne said.
Thorne says if the results show that a large enough group of people are dissatisfied with the library’s decision to withdraw from JA it will have to be addressed.
“If we find out that most people, the vast majority are actually finding their information and they’re getting their books and they’re getting their computer services and they found out that this is actually working better for them than that’s the road we are going to stay on and continue to fine tune it,” Thorne said.
According to Library Strategies' April 1st proposal, its base consulting services would cost more than $22,000. That number does not include any optional costs.
Thorne says the project will cost more.
“And how much is this costing? Thirty. $30,000? Yes. Ok. I’m going to get shot. It’s ok I’ve been shot before."
She says it is being funded by money from the trustees.
“Not coming out of county money or money from the friends its money that has been donated to us throughout the years,” Thorne said.
Alloway says a community survey will be launched in late August or early September.
“We need everybody to fill out this survey. Whether or not they use the library,” Alloway said.
