What does YOUR community need?

The Community Needs Assessment workshop is coming soon!  Mark your calendar for April 11, and make sure to register by the deadline, April 1.    

If you have done a community needs analysis project in the past, you already know…it’s a lot of work!  But it’s a great way to understand library users (and non-users.)  We need to know all we can about our communities.  Up-to-date statistics – and the “people” stories that back up the numbers –  are our best advocacy tools. 

Here’s some good information on community assessment for small rural libraries, from the Arizona State Library: (http://www.lib.az.us/cdt/commneeds.htm)

        

Steven M. Cohen, on the Libraries Build Communities blog, suggests that we…       

          “Get out from behind that desk! How can one effectively ascertain what the community needs and what types of populations to serve if the librarian stays in the library all day. Get out into the community and take part in meetings, serve on civic boards, and be a community citizen and leader. Waiting for patrons to come into the library and ascertaining their needs is only half the picture. There may be an entire piece of the population that never uses the library. It’s easier to reach patrons that walk in the door, but they already know about the library, right? There’s probably a reason why non-library users are non-library users. Figure out why.”