Director's Page
FARMINGTON LIBRARIES
SINCE 1902
Jay Johnston M.S., M.A.
Executive Director
August 18, 2011
RE: Annual Report Fiscal Year 2010-2011(July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011)
To: The Library Trustees:
Outstanding public library service is critical to our democratic way of life, providing memories of the past and visions to the future. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." -- George Santayana, Life of Reason (1905)
The 2010-11 year presented many challenges and opportunities for the Libraries to excel in performance and value. I am therefore, excited to take this opportunity to present the approaches we have taken to identify, modify, and resolve those obstacles into wonderful opportunities for increasing library service value for our citizen-customers. It is therefore, with the greatest of excitement that we all look forward to this Fiscal New Year as another great opportunity to practice methods of continuous improvement and analysis to continue increasing our community value.
In that regard, the library as an institution continues to face tremendous pressures from online services to perform more as a virtual institution than as a brick and mortar monolith. Therefore, it is important for us to focus on the development of outstanding brick and mortar services to disseminate the unique benefits of these programs through a multi-stepped word of mouth process. Specifically, pre-kindergarten children's programming, aggressive young adult and adult program are each providing a future basis for library service to be presented within an innovative multidimensional space. The Barney Branch Library renovation and re-opening also provides exciting opportunities to set the stage for new personalized and innovative programming to engage children, parents, young adults and the community at large. It is in this spirit that I submit my 2010 - 2011 annual report.
The staff and I are each committed to the most effective practices and procedures available to deliver outstanding library services and solutions for our citizens. In addition, I look forward to feedback regarding our programs. Please call me at 860.673.6791 with your thoughts.
Sincerely,
Jay Johnston
OVERVIEW
It is exciting to anticipate the results of our new long-range plan to continue providing service beyond expectations utilizing intense customer-focus. Given the challenges facing our libraries today, 'business as usual' is not enough. I believe our 2011-2014 long-range plan will promote excellence and help build a stronger platform to serve our citizens’ needs.
In reporting the accomplishments in this FY2010 - 2011 report, it is essential to acknowledge the outstanding effort exerted by our entire library team. All of whom worked tirelessly with passion and professionalism to deliver the most amazing year ever in the history of the Farmington Libraries. It is because of these extraordinary times that we have planned and executed several major initiatives to provide the connection with the past and the promise for the future. The following accomplishments are linked to our long-range plan and are the result of tactical decisions to sustain these outstanding services.
- Migration from a proprietary integrated library system to a new open source platform.
- Installation of new green technology in the main and Barney libraries to reduce energy consumption.
- Completion of the renovations and additions to the Barney Library.
- Increased quality of use due to successfully anticipating and responding to the library service needs of our community.
In that regard, we are privileged to help actualize so many diverse customer needs while continuing to innovate our public service. This innovation is revealed through the many new users who, with greater frequency, need and demand: high speed-internet connectivity, Wi-Fi, vetted business resources like Morningstar and Moody’s, job search help, including resume assistance, and “apps” for those on the go with smart phones. Our goal is to provide new and long-time customers the best possible library experience. The library is really a team of public service consultants individually assisting citizens on-demand. Naturally, Farmington Libraries would not be as revered as they are without our accomplished professional staff with whom people enjoy a library experience far beyond their expectations. We remain “the best deal in town”. Although, we are experiencing increases in the non-traditional services named above, traditional service continues to grow. Therefore, it is especially important to anticipate new technologies while continuing to provide a customer-focused 360 degree comprehensive program.
POSITION
Our position as a premier community asset continues to change in magnitude and scope requiring extreme customer service to continue to give our customers what they want when they want it. We will continue this customer-focused practice to further advantage our resources by redirecting acquisitions based upon changes and shifts in the Farmington community’s needs and interests.
TECHNOLOGY
The decision to withdraw from the Library Connection consortium in the summer of 2010 and enlist an open source integrated library system solution has reduced costs and improved customer service and access to our collections. Therefore, our innovation has proven to be an outstanding decision on both a cost and customer service basis. Furthermore, we are curently creating “apps” for Smart Phones such as Android, iPhone and other personal digital devices to increase the accessibility of library resources for those residents who are increasingly requiring such applications to conduct their everyday library business.
PHILOSOPHY
Now that the Barney Library renovations and additions are completed, overall library use approaches one million. Lending is about one-half million; Total-Service-Units delivered approaches one million. It is because we have now saturated our service population that we have refocused our energies and adjusted our speed and direction toward the delivery of high-level qualitative customer focused service units. This emphasizes user experience and customer service outcomes being weighed more heavily than visitation/lending metrics. Our approach is based in the total experience model, where a great deal more time and resources are required to assist customers than in the past, due to the complexity of questions and assistance. We have magnified our customer focus and inserted specific segmented broad-spectrum goals into our strategic plan to measure, promote and manage customer satisfaction directly across all segments of library service. In that spirit, we are working directly with the community development director to amplify our Chamber of Commerce Business center resources through a cooperative effort to publicize and further develop these services and resources to enhance Farmington’s economic vitality.
ORGANIZATION
FY2010-2011 presented considerable challenges and opportunities to manage and roll out the new open source integrated library system curently in place. We continue to reallocate resources to create a seamless customer experience. We have re-engineered several departments to continue to improve service delivery by establishing new programming enhancements to the Children’s, Adult, Teen, Community, Technology and Adult Learning programs. We continue to focus on specific developmental and structural elements in our Children’s programming to positively affect learning and social skill development.
GENERAL READING AND LIBRARY SERVICES
Users’ Demographics: 10,335 adults; 3,190 children; 821 65+; 1,565 teens.
Virtual Services: 58,894 renewals from home; 61,925 self-checkouts; 4,213 items borrowed from other libraries for Farmington residents; 1,958 items lent to other libraries for their residents; 21 homebound residents receiving personally delivered services; 613,571 on-line subscription searches; and 35,914 Internet views.
Reading is still on the Rise:
Type |
FY-11 |
FY-10 |
Board book |
9,653 |
7,603 |
Picture books |
72,081 |
65,127 |
Fiction |
62,463 |
66,877 |
Non Fiction |
62,468 |
54,281 |
Magazines |
9,175 |
10,081 |
New Adult Fiction |
28,643 |
26,472 |
New Adult Non Fiction |
13,495 |
11,925 |
Books on CD |
16,048 |
13,769 |
Playaways |
631 |
718 |
Teen Reading: Teen reading is critical to teen success and is on the rise through a tremendous effort by our Teen Librarian--1,565, up 8.5% from 1,442 last year.
Reading Trends: Books on CD lending has increased 16% this year. Internet viewing occupies a good deal of the space previously occupied by newspaper reading. With the new technologies, people are moving toward listening to content rather that reading it. Downloadable audiobooks continue to creep into the paper space; the new e-book nook space continues to develop in all demographics.
Reading between Grandparents and their Grandchildren: Intergenerational contact and reading together is emerging as a powerful positive activity and is increasing with dual income families and grandparents with the time and energy to devote to their grandchildren.
How Reading Changes: Reading opportunities and measurement have shifted greatly over the last few years due to technology changes in content delivery and electronic device integration software. The aspects of downloadable e-books with hi-definition clarity for outside viewing has increased the interest in utilizing e-books, although downloadable-recorded books remain viable and will continue as a major alternative reading activity.
Virtual Services: As we continue along the concept of the virtual library, Skype and other transmission technologies will provide opportunities to increase our virtual services in many ways. However, the Library as a monolithic entity where people gather to discuss and learn will remain a physical force in a society which needs to be socially and intellectually connected.
Promotion Objective: We are determined to study those materials and contents that will stimulate thought, entertain, and increase reading as a major service delivery goal while addressing customer-focused needs and expectations to deliver the ultimate service beyond expectations with smiles, competent exchange, and intelligence.
New Frontiers: LED light data transmission, faster bandwidth, smaller devices and new technologies delivering content: Music, Film, Books, Media, Information services, vetted databases and improved interactive devices with apps beyond comprehension will each have significant effects on the capabilities and future of the Farmington Libraries. I believe these adaptations and innovations will not change the basic cultural need the Library fulfills and therein will only give more power to the edifice by virtue of its unique position in Farmington’s cultural and educational matrix.
Cloud Computing: We have strategically altered our course to cloud computing as a tactical and long range solution to data storage and information retrieval as the most cost effective and reliable operational method.
I am committed to the most effective practices and procedures available to deliver outstanding services and solutions to our citizens. I look forward to feedback regarding our program. Please call me at 860.673.6791 with your thoughts.
Sincerely,
Jay Johnston M.S. M.A.
Director
johnston@farmingtonlibraries.org
