Fort Madison Library is Asking: How Can We Better Serve the Needs of the Community?

Fort Madison Public Library is asking residents for feedback about what programs and resources the library should keep or implement to better serve the needs of the community.

In the three years since 2012, the Fort Madison Public Library has met most of the goals set out in its strategic plan. The library has increased programs, developed education for library employees to help them better assist the community with library resources and developed a useful and exciting collection of materials. It is time, though to revisit that plan and determine what direction the library needs to go in the next three years to continue serving the community of Fort Madison.

Over the next two months, the Fort Madison Public Library Board of Trustees will be gathering information as they work on developing a strategic plan for 2016-2020. They will be gathering information from three sources: Statistics on library use, survey questionnaires and small focus groups.

The library will be looking at how and when the library is being used by examining foot traffic and use of resources like computers. They will be looking at what collections and materials are being used and where usage patterns are changing to different formats or topics. This will show how the activities currently available are being used, or not, as the case may be.

However, this is only part of the puzzle, they also want to know if there are things the library should be doing. What do the residents of Fort Madison want the library to provide? What is the library doing now that it could be doing better? What should the library stop doing? To answer these questions they will be placing short surveys in various places in the community as well as online through the library’s website and facebook page. Please take the time to fill one of these out, even if you have never used the library.

Finally, three sessions will be held for people to come and share their ideas and thoughts about the library. These sessions will be held on Thursday, October 22nd at 6:00 p.m., October 27th at 10:30 a.m. and Tuesday and November 10th at 5:30 p.m. All three of these sessions will be held in the Sheaffer Meeting Room at the Fort Madison Public Library.

For additional information about the library’s current strategic plan or the planning process, contact Sarah Clendineng at (319) 372-5721 or E-mail her at SaraClen@fortmadison.lib.ia.us.