The North Bay Public Library had a steady stream of people mingling to four corners in the auditorium Thursday night. They were all curious about the results of over 800 surveys.
Tim Horton's coffee was in the air as people read posters set up behind a spokesperson in each corner. One poster read, “Communications-we chose communications because you want more outreach and advertising.”
Graph charts showed the gender of those who filled out the survey. 282 were men, 528 were women, and six identified as other.
Another graph showed that 82% of patrons come for books with 57% of them rent out AV materials. About 39% come to use the computers.
One question asked what would encourage people to come more often. Answers included increased parking and an increased variety in materials.
CEO and Chief Librarian Ravil Veli said that Thursday night's open house was the public's last chance to give input on the libraries direction. He estimated it will be two or three months before a plan is known. Veli says the library, with a budget of about 2.5 million dollars, has no plans before the Library Board at this time either for major operational changes or strategic planning changes.
Sylvie Faulkner and her daughter Sarah were at the open house as frequent users of the library services. Sylvie enjoys trips to the library for books and DVDs. “I enjoy non-fiction and historical fiction.”
Sarah is a student at Algonquin Secondary School. She would like to see more variety in the French language section. “I come here to see where my interests are in different series before I start getting them. I also really like the non-fiction section.”
One restructuring plan might have the 13 year old searching for books in the basement in an unsupervised non-fiction section.
Librarian Annette Hansman, the VP Chief Steward of Canadian Union of Public Employees of Local 122 says safety is a big concern. “The initial plan would've called for shutting down the audiovisual counter and bringing all of the audiovisual materials upstairs. The nonfiction books would be brought downstairs. That area would have been unsupervised.”
Hansman says the shift could be physically hard for some people to bring books up and down the stairs.
She adds that the library is thinking of ways to increase space for the books. "A couple of weeks ago, staff were invited to input ideas which we are hoping will be put into play here. We want to keep optimum customer service.
"When you come to the library, whether you need assistance with two minutes or it's going to take 20 minutes, you are going to have somebody to help you readily. We are afraid that under any kind of re-organization, that the staff will not be as accessible as they were.
"Re-organizing the library without changes to the stairs and having an elevator will cause a problem for our users."
During the open house Hansman heard from library patrons expressing their disapproval of the format saying they were hoping for a meeting to ask questions.
Hansman suggests the library promote its place in the community as well as its charitable status. "We've been looking at libraries around us and they do a lot of programming in the community. We think there is room for improvement. We know our patrons are invested in what we are doing here."
In the past, the library was set for a renovation to include an elevator – a regulation for the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. Funding was in place for the build but the plan fell through when council wouldn’t approve of extra operational costs to stay open at a temporary location during the construction.
Large easels were set up for people to write down suggestions. Some people questioned the prior expense of drawing up three sets of plans to get more space for books.
The North Bay Public Library has 14 full-time, 14 part-time, and six casual union employees. There are also six non-union employees and many volunteers at the community hub offering books, audiovisual materials and a valued community service.
