Item C04
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
AGENDA ITEM SUMMARY
MEETING DATE:
12/19/01
DIVISION: COMMUNITY SERVICES
BULK ITEM:
YES
DEPARTMENT:
LIBRARY
AGENDA ITEM WORDING:
Approval of the Library Annual Plan of Service for the Year 2002
ITEM BACKGROUND:
The Library Annual Plan of Service is required as a part of the application process to receive
the State Aid to Libraries grant.
PREVIOUS RELEVANT BOCC ACTION:
The Library Annual Plan has been approved annually by the BOCC, most recently at the
meeting of December 13, 2000.
CONTRACT/AGREEMENT CHANGES:
N/A
STAFF RECOMMENDATION:
Approval
TOTAL COST: N/A
BUDGETED: N/A
COST TO COUNTY: N/A
REVENUE PRODUCING: Yes
AMOUNT PER YEAR: Approx. 10% of Library budget
APPROVED BY: County Attorney N/A
OMB/Purchasing N/A Risk Management N/A
DIVISION DIRECTOR APPROVAL
To Follow
Not Required
DOCUMENTATION: Included X
AGENDA ITEM #
/- eLl
DISPOSITION:
MONROE COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
ANNUAL PLAN OF SERVICE
FOR THE YEAR 2002
Submitted by Norma Kula
Director of Libraries
November 30,2001
MONROE COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
YEAR 2002 PLAN OF SERVICE
INTRODUCTION
As in the past two years, this plan is drawn from the five-year plan of service for
the Monroe County Public Library originally submitted in 1998. Since that time
many changes have taken place within the library communities as well as within
the Library system itself. Still, our mission and goals remain basically the same,
although the challenges that face us and the ways in which we now look to meet
those goals have changed as well.
Since the five-year plan was first formulated, two new incorporated areas have
been created within the County. Library automation, in its earliest planning
stages at that time, has been fully implemented and we have undergone two
major upgrades since then. The Internet, previously a vast mystery to many of
our patrons, is now accessed by 1500-2000 users weekly at our five branches.
The nature and demographic make-up of our communities is changing as well,
and so the audience for library services is taking on a broader base in terms of
age, culture and language.
All of these areas of development have immediate impact on what the Library
needs to make available to our users-our collections and programs, all of our
services must be analyzed and re-directed in a pro-active manner to meet these
new community requirements.
MISSION AND GOALS
Our mission remains constant: the Monroe County Public Library serves as a
vital link between our various communities and their access to sources of
information, education, and entertainment, in a variety of formats, to meet their
professional, instructional, and cultural needs. Similarly we are steadfast in the
intent of our goals:
· We provide collections that encompass a broad range of materials, in a
diversity of appropriate formats:
1
Although books are being published in greater numbers than ever
before, library collections now include a growing diversity of audio
and visual media (e.g., tapes, cassettes, CD's and DVD's) as
well as a rapidly increasing variety of electronic media, such as e-
books and subscription databases. Each format must be evaluated
for its appropriate use and merit, to determine its potential impact
and desirability for inclusion in the collection. The State Library of
Florida is initiating a program of database evaluation and purchase,
for potential use by County systems. The Monroe County Public
Library also has enacted a "Memorandum of Understanding" with
the Florida Keys Community College Library for sharing access to
collections, thus enlarging the scope of immediately accessible
materials for both groups of patrons.
. We provide free, open, and equal access for all Monroe County
community users to our collections, services, and facilities:
Our buildings, as well as our information tools, must be user-
friendly and well-maintained. Patron comfort and an attractive
environment contribute much to the overall satisfaction with the
service received. The needs for collection and technology space
increase steadily-the funding for these needs does not
automatically grow in similar proportion. Functional access to our
resources depends on their being readily available and easy to use,
as well as being up-to-date in their content.
· We serve our communities through the efforts of friendly, helpful,
knowledgeable staff:
Our library staff must be kept informed and educated in all areas of
library service and in library concerns, both locally and world-wide.
Staff development and training is an intrinsic part of good library
service. Our staff and our communities deserve that those who
work in this service profession be encouraged to develop their
skills, talents, and interests as fully as possible. Helpfulness and
accuracy in responding to patron requests are equally valuable.
Technological advances demand that our staff be trained and
educated in the broadening uses of these tools; our response to
human needs make this essential for the benefit of staff and
patrons alike.
· We apply the tenets of fiscal responsibility in planning and
implementing the use of all available resources to meet these service
objectives:
2
The costs of meeting the needs of expanding communities are not
small, nor are they optional. Still, it is just as much incumbent on
the Library to be fiscally responsible in incurring these costs as it is
to provide the services from which the costs result. Our budget is
an intrinsic part of our plan, and we must look beyond the County
for outside sources of funding as well. Community partnerships
have been, and will continue to be, an important area of
development, as they provide mutual opportunities for growth and
support of services.
OBJECTIVES
From the areas of concern expressed in the above goals, concomitant objectives
take shape. In substantiation of these goals, our primary objectives for the year
2002 are as follows:
COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT:
1. The Library will investigate and evaluate growing trends in electronic
collections, such as e-books, and work with the State in making free
collections of these materials available to local patrons.
2. The Library will look at the variety of electronic databases becoming
available through subscription, and determine which will best and most
economically serve our community's needs.
3. The Library will continue to develop and enhance our special
collections, especially in the area of local history, as well as age and
culture-specific collections, to reach out to our changing patronage.
ACCESS TO COLLECTIONS, SERVICES AND FACILITIES:
1. We will continue to look at every feasible option for expansion of those
branches that are becoming hindered in their service endeavors by the
space limitations under which they are currently operating. The Big
Pine Key Branch Library is becoming severely hampered in this
regard, and the Marathon Branch Library is next. We plan to work with
both the local communities and government representatives in seeking
solutions to this growing concern.
2. A pro-active maintenance plan will be initiated, in hopes of avoiding
any further such extensive and expensive repair program as was
necessary this past year.
3. A Monroe County website will be developed and published on the web,
providing our patrons with 24/7 access to the Library catalog, database
3
subscriptions, system-wide book requests, and individual account
information (by a patron authentication process), with links to other
appropriate sites, so that patrons both on and off-site will be able to
avail themselves of Monroe County Library services.
4. We will expand our program offerings throughout the system, providing
a broader range of subject matter to reach the interests of more of our
community.
5. For those patrons who cannot often come to the libraries, we will
increase our outreach programs, especially those for the young and
the senior citizens, whose only access to library service is through
such activities.
6. By utilizing the mobile computer training lab obtained through a
Federal LSTA grant this past year, we will expand our training
programs to reach more of the public, especially youth and seniors,
with both in-house and outreach training groups.
7. We will continue to work with literacy and youth care groups,
encouraging parents, youth workers and educators, to foster literacy
and reading development, especially among children and young
adults, as well as family literacy as fostered by State projects.
8. The Library will initiate a study of digitization formats and
methodologies, to begin a long-term project of improving access to
some of the specialized materials in our local history collections.
STAFF DEVELOPMENT
1. Staff will be kept informed, updated, and regularly trained on the new
technologies, so that patrons may benefit from these advances as well.
2. Technology training will be an on-going project, using the mobile
computer lab, so that no gap will develop between technological
expansion and the services thus provided.
3. Staff will be encouraged to take part in professional workshops and
conferences, to network with others in their field, and to develop their
own special skills and abilities.
4. Cross-training and a program of staff location exchange will be
implemented, to further the development of system-wide teamwork.
5. Staff will be invited and encouraged to participate in system-wide
activities and projects.
6. Professional development will be encouraged, and distance learning
will be explored as a possible means of promoting this education.
4
FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY
1. The Library will institute a cyclical plan of equipment replacement,
working with other County departments, to ensure that items such as
computers and printers are replaced appropriately, and budgeted
accordingly.
2. Library staff will work with State Library staff in programs for evaluation
and potential purchase of resources on a State-wide scale.
3. Library staff will explore outside sources, such as Federal and State
grants, as well as private funding sources, for special needs and
projects.
4. The Library will continue to form Community partnerships, to their
mutual advantages-financial support from the communities and
expansion of library services to those in special situations will create a
two-way avenue of progress.
5. The Library will expand its program of PR, to educate the public as to
services and programs available, and to bring more of the County's
community into the "Library community."
6. Library staff will continue to work with their Friends and other support
groups, especially volunteers, acknowledging and appreciating the
great contributions these groups make toward enhancing library
services.
7. Library management will practice fiscal responsibility in planning and
budgeting, and use the statistical data collected regularly as a tool for
performance-based budgeting.
CONCLUSION
This plan of Library service for the year 2002 encompasses many facets of the
total Library mission. Its coverage is broad and widely-inclusive rather than
targeted on details. This is because the Library's service mission is broad and
widely-inclusive. To focus on one or two aspects would be to neglect or negate
the importance of others, and such an omission could be compared to focusing
on just a few of our patrons and ignoring the rest. True, some of these objectives
will be more time and attention-consuming than others, but all are vital to our
overall function. We must be equally aware of our surroundings, our collections,
our staff, and our funds, just as we are attentive to our juvenile patrons, our
Internet users, our program audiences, and our circulation-builders. We are the
sum of all these parts and more-and so is our pledge to service. Recent events
in the library world, in our local communities, and beyond, have given rise to
many new challenges that we will face in the coming year. It is hoped that this
5
plan, with its multi-faceted objectives, will help us to reach our goals. This will be
our blueprint for the year-an outline, not an anchor. Our progress will be
evaluated throughout the year, and our achievements and lack of achievements
measured and analyzed so that we can learn from both. This plan, like much of
what we do, must remain open to change, adaptable to new situations that arise.
It is our hope that it will keep us moving forward, improving and growing in our
constant mission of providing the best possible library service for all the Monroe
County Library communities.
6