Your library is listening

Posted on April 22, 2014 by Sunny South News

Every year the Coaldale Library spends between $15,000 and $20,000 on new books, movies, magazines and more. It may seem like a lot, but when you are shopping for kids and adults of all ages and interests, it’s never enough. 

Choosing materials is both my favourite and arguably, the most challenging part of my job as head librarian. I have lots of tools on hand to help me select, but my most valued input comes from you.

I listen to the comments of patrons in the library and I constantly examine statistics to see what people are borrowing.

In the last few weeks I’ve been looking over some comments from a survey we sent out to all library patrons.

We had over 200 responses. One of the most frequent comments made was people would like us to have more and newer DVDs.  Thanks in large part to patron donations, our DVD collection has more than tripled in size in the last three years.

Approximately one in five items borrowed from the library is a movie. Recently, this trend has made me reconsider how I allocate our funds and you will start to see more new movies in our collection. This does not mean they’ll be on the shelf when you come in, but movies come and go quickly and, if you put the latest releases on hold, you should find wait times getting shorter.

At the front desk of the library we also have a stack of what we call “p-slips” — “p” stands for purchase.

At any time, you are welcome to fill one out if there is something you would like us to consider buying.

Alternatively, you can send me an e-mail at hnicholson@coaldalelibrary.ca.

Unless it’s exceedingly expensive or something I really don’t feel would have broad appeal, I almost always try to buy these items.

So the next time you are browsing our shelves and wondering why there aren’t more of this or that in the library — ask. We’ll do our best to connect you with the material you desire.