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SIERRA VISTA — A Sierra Vista library card might get many residents much more than they know.
Card holders can start their own book club with the books included learn a new language online, search for their family history while eating a panini and all at no cost — except for the panini.
This summer about 350 library users took an online survey and gave the Sierra Vista Public Library some ideas to improve their services. Send e-mails when books are due, add more DVD’s and ditch the Dewey decimal system were some ideas.
Other survey takers just wanted to know library hours are and others were surprised to know the library offered free Wi-Fi.
 David Gunckel, Sierra Vista Public Library’s director, says the library has much to offer patrons. (Mark Levy-Herald/Review) |
They’re all being looked at, said Library Director David Gunckel.
Some of the comments have been incorporated into the libraries goals and others told them where they need to give the community information.
“We just need to get the word out more,” he said.
How does your collection grow
The library collections continue to grow with a balance of book choices, DVDs, other media and maybe downloadable books too in a few years. They serve a diverse community of about 27,000 patrons that is growing by about 700 users each year, and the users all have different expectations, Gunckel said.
One survey-taker said the library’s book collection was too liberal, while another thought it was too conservative. It can be challenge to make sure a variety of new materials to add to shelves. “That is what, to me, makes the job fun,” Gunckel said.
A collection development policy guides the library in adding new materials. Suggestions for materials to add from library patrons are taken seriously, he said. “If one person has the initiative, there are probably 10 or more other people that just haven’t asked,” Gunckel said.
They also look to publishing journals, reviews, popular authors and topics to find possible new additions to the collection. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists attacks they found they had a lack of information about terrorism and related topics. “So, we started doing a lot of collecting in those areas,” Gunckel said.
Sometimes the wait for new materials is too long, said some survey takers. The library gets in about 600 to 800 new materials each month and cataloguing it all can take significant time and work, Gunckel said. “It’s frustrating for us, too. … It’s something we’ll continue to work on.”
Library users are frustrated when the library doesn’t have something they want, but they may not know they also have access to library materials outside of Sierra Vista and the county.
The InterLibrary Loan Program allows them to check out books, audio-video, films and sound recordings not available from the county’s libraries at other libraries from across the country.
DVD’s to digital
The availability of DVDs for check out was unknown to some survey-takers, but the library began adding DVDs to its collection about two years ago, Gunckel said.
Library staff members focused on collecting documentaries, instructional DVD’s and theatrical works, leaving other films to the domain of movie rental businesses. But there is a growing demand for more, Gunckel said.
The library recently purchased more than $5,000 worth of new DVDs, including “E.T.,” “Grapes of Wrath,” “Goldfinger,” “King Kong,” “Jezebel,” “Silence of the Lambs” and many other popular and classic movie titles.
The small-but-growing DVD collection will likely replace the VHS collection, just as books-on-CD also have been replacing books-on-tape. And technology hasn’t stopped there. Some libraries are now offering downloadable books for iPods and other digital audio devices, and it’s something the Sierra Vista library is considering, Gunckel said.
Cafe cravings
Cafe Sierra, operated by the Brews Brothers, debuted this year with largely positive ratings in the library survey.
About 81 percent gave the service a good or excellent rating, and 89 percent said the food and drinks were good or excellent. But the cafe hasn’t been welcomed by everyone. Some survey-takers thought a cafe and coffee had no place in a library.
It isn’t the first time patrons have been upset to see libraries change from their basic model. Adding fiction to library shelves was once a scandal, too, Gunckel said.
But more than not, people seem to like the new cafe, which was opened based on public input. People wanted the library to be more comfortable and inviting and many book stores had accomplished that by having cafes, he said.
Cafe Sierra was built from an existing room in the library’s hallway with donations, not tax dollars, Gunckel said.
And allowing cafe purchases into the library hasn’t been a problem. Customers are careful with their food and drinks and use the trash cans in the library to clean up.
Customer input has also been helpful at the new cafe. When customers requested some healthier items to be included on the menu, they obliged with salads and other items, Gunckel said.
Wi-Fi, e-mail
One of the frequent requests the library has is for e-mail alerts and news from the library.
Because the effort will affect the entire county library system, it will take some time, but library staff members hope to offer e-mail services to notify people when their reserved items are available, when books are due and more, Gunckel said.
These days it’s often more common to see library visitors coming for computer access than searching the book shelves.
Free Wi-Fi also keep many library users with laptops connected to the Web. Wi-Fi Internet access is available 24 hours a day and seven days a week throughout the library and from the patios outside.
Through the library Web site, card holders also can access dozens of free online resources. Their databases include:
• Rosetta Stone Online Language Learning Center.
• Academic/career practice tests, including cosmetology, emergency medical services, firefighter, GED, law enforcement, postal, real estate, U.S. citizenship and others.
• Genealogy resources, including Ancestry Library and Heritage QuestOnline.
• Auto repair, small engine repair and home improvement ideas and instructions.
• More than a dozen homework resources, including encyclopedias to atlases.
The library continues to look for new ways to improve with the input of their patrons, Gunckel said, but one patron’s suggestion of doing away with the Dewey Decimal System probably won’t be one, Gunckel said.
One Maricopa County library has tried a new system of organizing materials by subject, as book stores do.
It’s an interesting idea, but one that could take years to organize, Gunckel said.
Visit the library at 2600 E. Tacoma St., the library’s Web site at www.SierraVistaAZ.gov/svlibrary, or call 458-4225.
Reporter Laura Ory can be reached at 515-4683 or laura.ory@svherald.com.
Highly Refined Person wrote on Oct 22, 2008 11:46 AM: