Published in ENCORE Magazine
October 2013
The days of card catalogs may be long gone, but libraries are still critical components of the community. Zinta Aistars tells you how they are adapting to meet changing times, while remaining 'the front porch of the world.'
When Marsha Meyer first entered a library as a child, she
saw "the yellow pools of light on the tables between the book shelves, and
I knew I had dropped into heaven."
Meyer, program and events coordinator and reference
librarian at Portage District Library on 300 Library Lane in Portage, fell in
love with the idea of living in a library. Decades later, she's still hanging
around libraries, even when she's not working. And Meyer has been working at
Portage District Library (PDL) since 1980.
That kind of love for one's work seems to be the common
thread among librarians throughout southwest Michigan. Drop in on any library,
big or small or in-between, in the greater Kalamazoo area and beyond, and
you'll find a librarian ready to gush about working in the libraries of today.
The library of today, however, has changed a great deal from
the library of years ago. With the wave of constantly advancing technology,
digitalization of books and other materials, and a library patron used to
instant and easy access to information, the modern library has changed its role
in the community.
"We're the front porch the world is now missing,"
says Meyer. "The entire concept of a public library is brilliant … is
vital. If you had free libraries everywhere, you would give everyone access to
the world!"
It's how that access happens, Lawrence Kapture, head of
adult services at Portage District Library, that is changing. "The trend
now is that the library is no longer providing information as much as we are
facilitating information."
Laura Wright, head of youth services at PDL, adds: "We
are a conduit, a community presence that is no longer defined by the building
we are in."
World access begins on the front porch, librarians agree,
and that means libraries now are increasingly becoming community centers. Check
on the needs of the community, and the library in its center responds.
At PDL, Christy Klien is a newly minted director, taking her
new position in January 2013, although she has worked at the library since
1996. One of her first tasks was to gather her staff of librarians and take the
pulse of the Portage community.
"We finalized our three-year strategic plan for the
library this spring," Klien says. "We looked at where our focus
should be, at the services we offer, our age population, and we determined our
priorities. We took an especially hard look at our younger population."
Many patrons come in to use computers, Klien found, and the
demand for e-books was on a fast climb. But that wasn't all she found. Patrons
were coming to the library for a wide range of services, and they were also
coming in for the variety of events the library was offering. Literacy was a
growing concern in schools as test scores dropped. These were all needs to
which PDL wanted to respond.
"PDL is the first library in the state to have a
dedicated room for preschoolers," Klien says. "We want to help
children to read at their grade level, and we can help them understand the
concept of reading early. Working with Portage schools is an important part of our
strategic plan."
Wright, head of youth services, adds: "We build around
the needs of the community. We want to establish meaningful services that reach
people. School readiness is a large part of that."
"Everything in the library has a reason for being
here," Klien finishes.
The same approach is being applied to adult services. Head
of adult services Kapture says, "We also found that we needed to make
changes as the local economy changed. When the economy suffered or area
organizations downsized, people came to the library looking for employment
resources, get resume critiques, or to learn about starting small businesses.
New retirees came in wanting to learn about retirement investments."
Once the front door opens, the library staff reports, all eighteen
of the computers on the main floor of the library are quickly in use, while
other patrons come in with their own laptops to access free wireless
connections. Laptops are circulated internally, and a dozen computers are
dedicated to teens.
With the advent of the Internet, it might seem that the
circulation of books might drop in popularity. Not so, said the PDL
librarians—and their report of climbing circulation numbers for both print and
non-print materials is mirrored in nearly all libraries in the area.
"Non-traditional materials are on the rise," says
Klien. "Adults are very interested in ..."
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