2012 Provincial Library Grants Report for Fort St. James Public Library
Introduction
2012 was marked by much change at Fort St. James Public Library. Hiring a new Head Librarian was itself a major undertaking requiring many hours of input from the outgoing librarian, the board and staff. Once the hiring process was finished and a new librarian hired, the process of installing the newly hired Head Librarian started. The incoming librarian shadowed the outgoing librarian for the month of June and then officially took over duties on July 1, 2013 and, then, successfully completed his three month probation on September 1, 2012, becoming permanent at that time. In capacity as a consultant the outgoing librarian worked with the board chair and another consultant to produce new policy and procedure documents for the board’s consideration. Both consultants worked with the board, staff, the new librarian and the public to prepare a strategic plan for 2012- 2015. Any one of the library’s three goals for 2012 would under general conditions be a major undertaking, but successfully completing all three goals in a single year is a major achievement. So it can be seen that 2012 was anything but a typical year. With a new librarian, a strategic plan and revised polices in place Fort St. James Public Library is in a position to have a very productive 2013 and to continue the evaluation processes instigated in 2012.
Goals for 2012
As noted in the introduction, the library had three major goals in 2012:
- Hire and install a new Head Librarian
- Revise a large block of policies and procedures
- Prepare a strategic plan for 2012-2015
Each goal has been successfully completed. It should also be noted that towards the end of the year a new staff member had to be hired and trained to replace a longtime staff member who left.
Revenue for 2012
There was slight reduction in the library’s grant revenues in 2012 over 2011. Revenues in 2011 were $31,000.00, so the 2012 revenues represent a modest decline of $392.00.
Grant / Breakdown / Amounts / %Provincial Grants
BC One Card / $7,400.00 / 24
Resource Sharing / Interlibrary Loan / $1061.00 / 3
Literacy Grant / $6,573.00 / 22
Operating Grant / $15,574.00 / 51
TOTAL / $30,608.00 / 100
Community Engagement
As it turned out community engagement was a major theme arising from the library’s strategic planning process. The library has always welcomed and received feedback from the community. The library has always been popular in the community and assessment tools such as general feedback, participant response forms, suggestion forms and community surveys have always reflected that popularity. The strategic planning process allowed for input from a wide range of community sources and helped to identify in greater detail constituencies in the community that the library serves. The library is now committed to assessing the needs of, and developing programs tailored to:
· Seniors
· Youth
· Families
· Aboriginal community
Indeed even before the planning process was complete, information received from the planning process allowed for improvements in service to commence almost immediately. Major weeding of old materials and purchase of newer items started in 2012 and continues in 2013 based upon 2012’s input from the public.
Collections included:
· Junior nonfiction
· Junior and teen fiction
· Aboriginal history and culture
· Paperbacks
· Magazines
Improvements to these will continue in 2013 and beyond, but it is important to know that the groundwork for this process was established in 2012, primarily through the strategic planning process.
We are also establishing two new collections due to public demand. The new collections being set up are:
· Graphic novels (juvenile and adult)
· DVDs
Operating Grant
Amount: $15,574.00
Plan: Fort St. James Public Library fully expends its operating grant each year and did so in 2012. New materials, as well as ongoing program and service offerings, are evaluated on an ongoing basis and monies spend in the most efficient manner consistent with our mandate.
Use: Most of the operating grant goes towards materials, programs and services. Routine purchasing helps keep the collection current and serviceable. These funds also allow the library to develop new collections through the acquisition of graphic novels and DVDs for instance. In 2012 we purchased a wide range of recently published juvenile nonfiction to replace weeded materials. We also updated our adult nonfiction collection and our aboriginal collection. These commitments are ongoing. We also put into place plans to purchase the new formats mentioned previously. We are developing programs to help our users utilize eBooks and other eMedia.
Outcomes: Our collection and our services are more current and diverse, serving ever more of the community and generating greater attention for the library and its services. Increased activity in the library and increasing circulation statistics indicate that improvements afforded by these funds have a positive value to the community. The operating grant is essential to the continued development of our collection, programs and services.
As an example of community response I include the following excerpt from an email we recently received:
We are a family that lives, works and homeschools in the John Prince Research Forest, northwest of Fort St. James. Due to our remote location and limited services, we make weekly trips into town for fuel and groceries. The Fort St. James Bicentennial Library is one of our key stops, and the favourite of our children. It is a familiar place for us; when we walk in the door, we are greeted by name. The kids shed their coats, kick off their boots and feel right at home. My daughter scours the shelves for new books or old favourites. My son dives into the stuffed animals, and flirts with the librarians and patrons. The library has always been a big part of our lives, and this one in particular is dear to my heart - it is where my daughter got her first library card at four years of age. She made me hide behind the stacks, so she could check out her books all by her big self. It is a small, rural library, and over the years, we have probably checked out 75% of their children's collection! I know I have checked out most of the parenting, recipe, and health books. In addition to their collection, we use the interlibrary loan service to bring in items related to our homeschool topics. We would love to see the collection at our library updated and expanded. In particular, we would enjoy current science and nature books that are specific to our area, french and dakelh language books, and graphic novels. Programming for older kids, such as reading-level book clubs, movie vs. book nights, and lego clubs would be fantastic. Finally, Thank You for all that you do - we look forward to every visit.
Resource Sharing Grant
Amount: $1,061.00
Plan: The library is fully committed to this invaluable service and intends to maintain this commitment unabated. Demand for ILL is increasing and with it the need for sufficient levels of supplies the service requires, e.g. mailing envelopes, tape, postage, etc. The library plans to continue ILL service, even with rising costs and demands.
Use: We lent more than 800 books via ILL, and borrowed more than 1000 items.
Outcome: Our success in filling requests for our patrons makes the service ever more popular here at Fort St. James Public Library. Apparently the same thing is happening elsewhere because we are receiving a greater number of requests from other libraries. The Resource Sharing Grant supports a vital and growing ILL service.
BC One Card Grant
Amount: $7.400.00
Use: Many citizens of Fort St. James must travel to Van der Hoof and Prince George for work, medical care, recreation, transportation connections (bus terminals, airlines, etc.) and family business. Since many utilize libraries in those centres in addition to Fort St. James Public Library, we have a regular flow of books and other materials between the three municipalities. BC One Card is for these patrons a service they use regularly.
Nonresidents also use the library so BC One Card service plays a key role in serving that constituency. Tourists, tree planters, temporary mine and forestry workers and other short term residents often remark just how much they appreciate the One Card system as they travel through the province. Those who know the program ask about it right off. Those hearing about the service for the first time are always interested and become avid users once they experience how easily it can be utilized.
Library staff includes information on BC One Card every time they brief a new card applicant. Patrons are provided with details about the service and are encouraged to utilize the service as they travel around the province. Every staff member is trained in all procedures related to BC One Card transactions. BC One Card, like ILL service, is growing in popularity and continues to be a vital and necessary service.
Outcome: BC One Card services, like online services and digital books, are helping meet the growing demand for library services suited to a mobile and ever more tech-savvy population. Even in small towns like ours this is the case. As we at Fort St James Public Library incorporate further aspects of the instructional model of librarianship into our services, we will continue to include instruction on how to use the Province’s BC One Card service.
An element of our strategic planning process deserves mention at this point. Given the exceptionally large number of issues raised during the planning process, it was inevitable that some items of importance did not make it onto the short list of items requiring action in the next few years, as time and resources would simply be stretched too thin. Some items did not make it on the short list because measures employed indicated they had a lower level of urgency than those that were finally selected for action. Others issues were considered as axiomatic to the whole process of library service and as such were too large and complex to address as single items. Resource sharing, as exemplified by ILL and BC One Card services for example, is so vital to all that we do that it definitely falls into the latter category. BC One Card is a vital service but its immensity and complexity makes it difficult to quantify or measure with any precision. ILL service gives our clients access to an enormous collection; BC One Card allows citizens of the province to utilize any “branch” housing that collection. It also allows them to do so in real time. Among the presuppositions which directed our strategic planning process was the recognition that our population is mobile, technologically more sophisticated, and requires access to a collection that factors these developments into the service equation and meets the corresponding expectations and service demands. For our strategic planning to proceed at all, it must be recognized that the kind of resource sharing reflected in the BC One Card system is foundational to the whole process.
Library Literacy Grant
Amount: $6,573.00
Use: Fort St James Public Library would not be able to provide as many literacy related programs, services or collections without the literacy grant. These funds allow us to provide extra service, such as additional story times and literacy book displays, within the library and out in the community. There would be far fewer such programs without these funds. Without time for planning, design and implementation it is simply not possible to offer a full range of programs that promote literacy. Likewise there would be far less time for developing the associated collections. In order to help grade school students with various reading projects on a range of topics, and to help homeschoolers, we had to assess and weed our juvenile nonfiction collection in order to bring the collection up to date and make it more attractive to students. The planning and assessment was made possible because of literacy funds which allowed staff to put in the additional time needed. As a result the JNF collection is being used by more students and more teachers are sending their students to the library for reading assignments. Similar planning we did in 2012 lead to new programs in 2013. An example of a program carried out in 2013 that was planned in 2012 would be our Friday night All Ages Community Game night which is billed primarily as a fun event for people but also introduces the library to people who do not necessarily familiar with libraries and what they have to offer. One of the outcomes has been increased library membership and book circulation. We have also purchased materials for families of very young readers. A family literacy initiative developed out of the College of New Caledonia provides parents with a literacy packet which includes a list of books for home reading. In support of that initiative the library acquired the books on the list for the library collection. Parents coming in to inquire about those titles not only have the happy experience of successfully finding books on the list but also become familiar with the library and its services. Many become members, often for the first time, and find a whole range of reading possibilities.
Some other literacy initiatives include Time for Tots (a program of songs and stories for people with small children), story times related to special events (e.g. Literacy Week outreach at local venues), and tours with story times and book displays for schools and daycares. David Hoy Elementary School, for example, brought two grade 1 classes to the library for story times and tours in the Fall. Literacy funds also provided time for staff to plan and execute very successful program offerings for Summer Reading Club and Spring Break.