Sunday 2 December 2007

December 2, 2007 Your Library Wants to Hear from YOU!

The Public Library is a unique institution. It’s a place where people can go to share ideas, to learn new things and to enrich their lives by borrowing books and magazines to read, movies to watch and music to listen to. We provide a wide variety of services to people of all ages, diverse ethnic backgrounds and from all walks of life.

We offer puppet shows and story times for young children in addition to learn-to-read programs and craft programs. The Youth Advisory Council provides recreation for teens, as well as a forum for their input. For adults we offer book clubs, informative programs, film nights and more. Seniors’ needs are addressed with large print books, audio books and home service options. People of all ages enjoy our public internet access, local history, genealogy, special collections, our virtual collection of online databases and ebooks, meeting rooms, photocopiers and quiet spaces to study and relax. And we can’t forget that we also lend out books, movies, music, magazines, cd-roms, leap-pad books, Braille books, and books a variety of languages too!

Our Vision sums up what we stand for:

A Citizen Enlightened
Providing people of all ages, abilities and cultural heritages with the knowledge they need to pursue their goals and dreams.

A Community Engaged
Creating an accessible destination for learning and play that is dedicated to growth, partnerships, innovative programming, and connecting people to information and the world.

A City Enriched
Maintaining and developing services and programs that are relevant to the challenges and needs of our City and our Region.

The Public Library welcomes your feedback about our programs, services and collections. We have Customer Comment forms available at all locations, and online, and respond promptly to all concerns. If there is a certain book, movie or recording you think we should consider adding to our collection you can fill out a Purchase Suggestion Form – again, either at any location, or online. If there’s something we have in our collection that you think shouldn’t be there, we have a “Request for Reconsideration Form.”

Another way we collect your feedback is through surveys. There’s a link to the “Customer Satisfaction Survey” on the homepage of our Website. Information collected from this survey is used extensively by Librarians in planning new services, and refining existing ones. Further, many other public libraries across Canada are using the same survey, and information is shared, compared and studied.

Currently we are also conducting a very short online survey about our Website. This survey will be featured on our homepage, in the centre column, until the end of December. All opinions, comments and suggestions are welcome. The results of this survey will be used to make the Website easier to use.

Speaking of feedback, over the past year the Library has branched out on to the social web to give you more opportunities to share your ideas and opinions with us. This column has a home online, at libdetective.blogspot.com, where you are welcome to add your comments.

We also have a Facebook group, and a new Facebook page, where lively discussions about books have taken place. We have a video tour, hosted by two members of our Youth Advisory Council, on YouTube – another site that welcomes your comments. Photos from Library events can be seen on Flickr, and you can send us notes there too.

The Public Library is YOURS to use and enjoy. Please help us make it the best it can be for YOU, by giving us your feedback.

Joanna Aegard, Head of Virtual Library Services

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