Community Assessment
Kitsap Regional Library, 2016-7
A significant goal identified in our strategic plan was to conduct a community assessment. To be a truly responsive organization, we saw that we needed a deeper understanding of our entire community - not just those who come through our doors and tell us their ideas. I led this year-long project, pulling together a cross-functional, system-wide team of 25 to revolutionize how the library listens and responds to our community.
In the past, we asked people what they wanted from the library. While that information is useful, it's rarely surprising. People say they want more books and more open hours. Even when we can accommodate their desires, we are not radically opening their minds - or ours - to challenge and expand the role of the library in the community. That's why I was so taken with the Libraries Transforming Communities model designed by ALA and the Harwood Institute.
Going through this process taught us to turn outwards: to start not with library services, but with people's hopes and dreams. Once we know what our community truly wants to be, we can imagine entirely new ways of inspiring and empowering our people to achieve their greatest aspirations and overcome their greatest challenges. In this model, the Library becomes an essential platform for our community to forge their own better future. I'm powerfully moved by this vision of what a library can be, and inspired to maintain and use this understanding as a lens for all our programs and services going forward.
We've always seen the library as the heart of its community. Now, the community is also the heart of the library.
Read the full report below.
In the past, we asked people what they wanted from the library. While that information is useful, it's rarely surprising. People say they want more books and more open hours. Even when we can accommodate their desires, we are not radically opening their minds - or ours - to challenge and expand the role of the library in the community. That's why I was so taken with the Libraries Transforming Communities model designed by ALA and the Harwood Institute.
Going through this process taught us to turn outwards: to start not with library services, but with people's hopes and dreams. Once we know what our community truly wants to be, we can imagine entirely new ways of inspiring and empowering our people to achieve their greatest aspirations and overcome their greatest challenges. In this model, the Library becomes an essential platform for our community to forge their own better future. I'm powerfully moved by this vision of what a library can be, and inspired to maintain and use this understanding as a lens for all our programs and services going forward.
We've always seen the library as the heart of its community. Now, the community is also the heart of the library.
Read the full report below.
