The Library is Looking For Answers

The Troy-Miami County Public Library is looking for your input

I remember as a kid, when you had questions, the library was the first place you went to look for answers. This was of course the days before the Internet, let alone the smartphones almost everyone has.

I have very fond memories of the library. I remember always signing up for the Summer Reading Program, and it was the place where I earned my amateur radio license. And of course, who couldn’t forget the Bookmobile? A lazy summer afternoon at home immediately became more exciting once the Bookmobile was parked right down the street. But perhaps, the fondest memory I have of our library was that it had the COLDEST drinking fountain ever. On those hot summer days, when you were out playing or riding bikes, the library’s drinking fountain certainly came in handy.

The coldest water fountain in town

Well, that old water fountain is gone as the library has changed with the times. If you haven’t been to the library in a while, you might be surprised to see some of the changes. Most notably, the children’s area has turned from a place of stacks and stacks of books to an active indoor play land; the days of being quiet as a church mouse in the library seem to be over.

Creating a New Plan for our Library

As the Library looks towards the future, they are embarking on creating a new Strategic Plan to help guide how they will serve the community over the next few years. The Library’s Director, Rachelle Via, reached out and gave this publication some information about the new plan and how busy the Library has been the past year.

According to Via, the last plan, completed in 2010, had five goals that the Library wanted to accomplish:

1. Visit a comfortable Place: Physical and Virtual spaces

2. Know Your Community: Community Resources and Services

3. Create Young Readers: Early Literacy

4. Satisfy Curiosity: Lifelong Learning.

5. Connect to the Online World

Using this as a backdrop, the good people at the Library went through the process of creating three new strategic goals that would be the basis of their work for the next few years. The team collaborated and created these five goals:

1. Be immersed in the community.

2. Foster literacy (of all types), learning, and curiosity.

3. Cultivate a customer-focused culture of learning and engagement.

The Library Director also said, “The leadership team at the Library worked to gather input from their staff on these goals, and we’re analyzing what they’ve said, which mostly focused on programming. We want to make sure our programs and services align with our community's work life and interests.  We want to be open when they’re available, have programs they’re interested in attending, etc.”

The Troy-Miami County Public Library: Inside the Numbers

In order to help meet these goals, especially through the programming that the Library offers, it might be helpful to take a step back and look at some of the data that was collected throughout 2023.

Last year, the Library had 168,688 visits, including 832 stops made by the Bookmobile. Nearly 2,800 visitors were on hand for community events in the Library’s meeting rooms. On average, the reference desk answered nearly 1,250 questions each week! The Library also offered nearly 1,000 programs that served over 25,000 people.

The Library currently holds 110,571 print materials, 11,225 videos and nearly 4,600 audiobooks and Compact Discs. Over 526,000 items were checked out at the library’s multiple locations, including Troy, Pleasant Hill, the Bookmobile and the two new check-out lockers at the Robinson Branch of the YMCA and the Elizabeth Township Community Center.

If you went to the library and couldn’t find the exact book you were looking for, the library participates in an inter-library loan program, through that program, the Library received 65,357 items and sent out 71,850.

The Library also has a strong digital footprint through online apps such as Libby and Kanopy. Together, these two program provide nearly 340,000 e-books, over 250,000 audiobooks and over 5,000 magazines.

Services added by the Library recently include passport processing, notary services, and the Maker Lab. There were 117 notary appointments, 192 passports, and 18,478 people at the Maker Lab.

Here is Where You Can Help

The Library is asking folks to take a few minutes and reflect on the value the Library is providing to you and the community, and help answer some questions on a small online survey. Here’s the link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DFKMXVS

Thanks for reading today’s Civic Capacity Newsletter! Did you know, for less than $1 per week, you can support this effort to bring local news and information directly to you and your neighbors? If you have not considered being a paid subscriber to this effort, please do so. Through your generous paid subscription, you are helping provide this information to our community!

Feel free to share this information! Through informing and educating our community’s stakeholders, we are creating a stronger community. Civic Capacity is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.