1.
Introduction
Founded in 1917 by a family of Jewish immigrants who wanted
to share the blessings of democracy with their neighbors through
the free exchange of information, Finkelstein Memorial Library
has a long and proud history of supporting unfettered intellectual
freedom and a continued commitment to lifelong learning and
educational support. Now, nearly a century later, Finkelstein
Memorial Library – its trustees, its staff, its Friends
and supporters – understand that today’s information
needs cannot merely be satisfied through a collection of books
alone. All manner of informational formats – including
electronic databases, audio-visual materials, and educational
and cultural programming designed to inspire and inform –
must be taken into consideration as we develop a realistic
plan for the next five years.
The
2006 – 2010 Plan of Service presented here serves as a
map for the future of Finkelstein Memorial Library. The purpose
of this plan is to provide direction and establish priorities
to meet the diverse needs of our community, the 100,000 people
of the East Ramapo Central School District.
Recognizing
that demand for services and materials will always exceed the
availability of funding, this plan serves as a guide to future
development of Finkelstein Memorial Library and helps establish
priorities for the allocation of resources, development of new
and/or retention/elimination of existing services, and expansion
or reduction of individual collections. The plan will be reviewed
and evaluated continually, and updated every five years to incorporate
newly emerging issues and reflect ongoing change in the community
we serve.
This
plan focuses on library services centered in our existing 50,000
square foot facility. However, as we envision an increasingly
different service community than the one from even five years
ago, we understand that we must keep one eye on the future even
as we strive to provide cutting edge library service for today.
Therefore, while this plan features an array of service objectives
that address the technological needs of users of our current
building, we must also consider options that reach beyond the
walls of 24 Chestnut Street. Twenty-four hour book pick-up,
off-site service kiosks, mobile library services and bookmobiles,
and perhaps even new branch libraries all merit consideration
and discussion in this plan. Outreach efforts of all sorts must
be considered if we are to remain a vital resource in a community
as unique as ours.
The
plan will guide the development of both short-term and long-term
actions for the continued delivery of quality library service.
Library staff will participate in the implementation of the
strategies and actions contained herein. Measurable objectives
from the plan will be key components of ongoing staff evaluation,
assessing their success in supporting the goals and objectives
of this plan. Components of this plan will also form a critical
portion of the development and administration of the library’s
budget over the life of this process.
2. Long
Range Planning at Finkelstein Memorial Library
.
The Library Advisory Council was established in 1988 to conduct
long-range planning according to the following mission:
• To engage in strategic long-range planning to meet the
Library’s changing need in staffing, technology and resources
for the purpose of maintaining the highest quality library service
to the residents of the East Ramapo Central School District;
• To formulate and recommend to the Board of Trustees
a plan of action through specific goals and objectives; and
• To constantly re-evaluate current methods, goals, policies,
practices, and long-range plans so that change may be managed
proactively.
The Council is comprised of thirteen members – the Director,
Department Heads, and representatives of the librarian, clerical,
and page staffs.
The approach to planning generally follows that recommended
in the Public Library Association’s planning model, the
latest of which is entitled The New Planning for Results: a
Streamlined Approach (ALA, 2001). The book’s intent is
to simplify and streamline the processes recommended in Planning
for Results (ALA 1998) and is built on the following assumptions:
• Excellence must be defined locally – it results
when library services match community needs, interests, and
priorities. The extraordinary diversity in a community must
be considered and not simply addressed as a “one-size
fits all” approach.
• Excellence is possible for both small and large libraries
– it rests more on commitment than on unlimited resources.
The commitment has to be based on clearly defined goals that
address community needs.
• Excellence is a moving target – even when achieved,
excellence must be continually maintained. An environment has
to be established and maintained that will continually monitor
results and accept change as an integral part of the Library’s
culture.
Following PLA’s recommendation, five library service responses
were selected:
1. Basic Literacy and Life Skills - addresses the need to read,
write and perform other essential life skills.
2. Current Titles and Topics – to fulfill the community’s
need for information about popular cultural, social and political
trends as well as recreational experiences.
3. A Commons Environment - to address the need of people to
meet and interact in a safe and welcoming venue with others
in their community and to participate in public discussion about
community issues.
4. General Information – to meet the need for information
and answers to questions on a broad array of topics related
to work, school, and personal life.
5. Information Literacy – addresses the need for skills
related to finding, evaluating, and using information effectively.
Because there can be much change over a five-year span, particularly
in technology and community demographics, a review of the long
range plan will be conducted midway in 2008.
3.
Community Vision Statements
The Community Vision statements listed below are based on surveys
conducted by the Library and the East Ramapo Central School
District.
The statements indicate the needs of the community:
The
children of our community will be provided with a safe, enriching
environment that will insure equitable and diverse cultural,
educational, and recreational opportunities enabling them to
achieve to their maximum potential, and become productive, prosperous
citizens.
The parents of our community will have available to them a variety
of support systems that will provide family-oriented activities,
quality education, and advocacy for children as students, and
a caring and secure environment in which to live.
English-as-a-Second-Language programs will be expanded to assist
children and adults in their educational pursuit.
The diverse people of our community will have opportunities
that will encourage them to participate in the social, cultural,
and educational life of the broader community, encouraged and
assisted by support services and appropriate housing, so that
they may prosper and succeed.
Partnerships will be created and/or expanded among schools,
civic and social organizations, community groups, churches and
synagogues, social service agencies, and businesses.
The seniors of our community will have available to them social,
cultural and recreational services and programs to enable them
to continue to live healthy, happy and useful lives.
4.
Library Vision Statements
The Library strives to achieve the results that meet the needs
of the
community through the following vision statements:
The
children of the community will have the opportunity to develop
the skills they need to help close any “achievement gap”
by the library’s offering of supplemental educational
programs.
The parents of the community will continue to discover that
the library shares Its commitment with the home, school, and
community in a combined effort to educate each child fully -
mentally, socially, and emotionally by providing a safe, welcoming
environment, conducive to learning, relaxing, and enhancing
intellectual growth.
The diverse people of the community will be provided access
to a variety of support systems / services, partnerships and
activities. The library will provide educational, informational,
cultural, and recreational activities that reflect the community’s
diversity and uniqueness, as well as, its changing needs and
interests.
The people of the community will also have equal access to technology
and training to help close any “digital-divide”
and provide the necessary tools for self-improvement, empowerment
and participation in the global economy.
5. Mission
Statement
The mission of the Finkelstein Memorial Library is to provide
the highest quality service to people of all racial/ethnic groups,
ages, circumstances and interests by selecting, organizing,
preserving and making widely accessible the records of human
experience, knowledge, ideas, culture and entertainment.
In order to accomplish its mission, the Library will provide
the following
service responses as a guide that will set a well-designed and
deliberate
course of action in achieving specific goals and objectives
for the next five
years.
6. Service
Responses, Goals and Objectives
1. Basic
Literacy and Life Skills addresses the need to read, write and
perform other essential daily tasks.
Goal: Basic literacy and life skills will be promoted through
access to
appropriate materials, environment and services.
Objectives:
1.
A Life Skills Learning Center will be created on the third floor
which will include the world language book and audio instructional
collections, ESOL and new reader materials, and job information
and test-taking support.
2.
The world language book collection will be expanded by 25% over
the next five years.
3.
Provide preschoolers and parents with an opportunity to foster
a lifelong
love of learning and reading.
4.
Increased access to trained volunteer tutors and instructional
technologies to augment tutoring effectiveness will be provided.
5.
Options to provide additional tutoring space and a wide range
of materials will be explored.
6.
Opportunities for ESOL tutoring and citizenship classes resulting
from the merger of the Rockland and Westchester Literacy Volunteers
will be pursued. Application will be made for a grant running
from January-April 2007 that will assist Spanish speakers to
prepare for citizenship tests. ESOL conversation groups will
be encouraged to meet at the Library.
7. The career and test practice collections (in both print and
electronic
formats) will be strengthened in support of the commitment to
life skills.
2. Current
Titles and Topics – To fulfill the community’s need
for information
about popular cultural, social and political trends as well
as satisfying
recreational needs.
Goals:
A current collection will be provided with sufficient copies
of titles in high
demand to ensure patron requests are met quickly.
Materials will be provided in varied formats and in the languages
people
want and will be selected based primarily on local demand.
Objectives:
1. A large collection of print and non-print materials will
be supported to
satisfy interest in current reading, viewing and listening.
2.
E-book/e-audio book collections, computer games, and other new
formats
will be introduced.
3.
The number of CD audio books ordered will be increased by 50%
and
books-on-tape purchasing will be reduced correspondingly by
50%.
4.
The videocassette movie collection will be reduced by 50% by
2007. At
that time, intershelving of DVDs and videocassettes will be
initiated.
5.
More space for patron browsing will be created in the DVD /
CD area. A
section in the alcove near the first floor Meeting Room will
be created
for special interest (nonfiction ) DVDs and videocassettes.
6.
Increased emphasis will be placed on the ethnic and cultural
diversity of the CD music, DVD and other audiovisual collections
in the following areas:
Spanish (Latin, Caribbean, South American), French (Creole),
Jewish (Yiddish, Israeli), and eastern European.
A new World Beat category will be added and music categories
will be reviewed every two years.
7.
More document delivery options will be introduced including:
the faxing of
responses to reference questions, provision of a public fax
service,
color copying, scanning. Central printing stations will be investigated
for
better cost recovery.
8.
The second floor layout will be reconfigured to provide more
comfortable
seating combined with popular bookstore style displays.
9.
More space will be provided in the second floor large print
book area with special attention to the physical needs of older
patrons. Bench seating will be provided where feasible.
10.
The Children’s Department will expand the world language
materials in
the Children’s collection and relocate the special collections
for greater
accessibility.
11.
Provide preschoolers and parents with an opportunity to foster
a
lifelong love of learning and reading.
3. A Commons
Environment will provide a venue for people to meet and
interact, for community organizations to meet, and for an information
commons.
Goals:
Provide public meeting rooms and spaces for gathering that are
recognized as inviting, neutral and safe by all individuals
and groups in the
community.
Provide a more welcoming and secure atmosphere for both children
and
parents.
Increase the Library’s marketing coverage and publicity
and introduce
materials and services to attract new users.
Expand the concept of commons to include new outreach services,
a
community wireless network, and the Library website.
Objectives:
1.
Space will be provided for school activities, parenting workshops
and
specialized groups.
2.
The physical size of the Children’s Department will be
expanded and will
include a separate meeting room for children’s programs;
additional
computers will be provided for public and staff use,
3. A more welcoming atmosphere will be created for children
and parents
by changing the layout of the current Children’s Room,
adding more
tables and chairs and providing more programming.
4. The latest computer/internet technology and information will
be provided
for children and their parents through instructional classes.
Individualized work areas with reference computers will be created
for
tutoring, as well as homework areas, and study rooms.
5. The Library will continue to search out partnerships with
community
groups.
6.
The layout of the second floor will be reconfigured to combine
a
comfortable seating area combined with popular bookstore style
browsing displays.
7. A Service Desk will be established on the third floor to
provide
assistance to patrons in using Life Skills materials, periodicals,
and
other services.
8. A wireless network and wired laptop workstations for individualized
use
will be established on all floors.
9.
The latest audiovisual equipment and technology will be provided
in
support of library and community programs including a digital
projector,
DVD player, large screen TV and an assistive listening system
for the
hearing-impaired.
10.
Additional security personnel will be provided so that there
is coverage
during all hours the Library is open.
11.
Video surveillance will be greatly increased by installing cameras
inside
and out.
12.
Adjacent property will be acquired for additional parking spaces.
13.
The following means for extending services further into the
community
will be considered/investigated: a) one or more basic service
kiosks for
pickup and return of materials and placing of requests, b) a
full-fledged
bookmobile service will be assessed and a feasibility study
done. Grant
funding will be pursued as necessary. c) establishing a branch
location.
14. The Library will explore a full range of traditional and
nontraditional
security measures, including more and improved lighting for
the parking
lot.
15. The Library will look into providing more natural lighting
for the third floor
through the use of skylights.
16.
The Library will evaluate, update and expand adult programming
to
reflect the needs of a changing community.
4. General information meets the need
for information pertaining to an array
of topics related to work, school and personal life.
Goals:
The Library will assess, and provide for, the community’s
information
needs. Schoolwork support, teen programs, how-to and basic skills
collections will be strengthened. Business and career information
services
will be provided.
Access to, and ease of obtaining and returning, materials will
be improved.
Objectives:
1. The Library will investigate collaborating with other regional
libraries on
developing cooperative print reference collections in order
to reduce
expensive redundancy of little-used material.
2. The print reference collection will be reevaluated and reduced
by 20%.
3. The feasibility of offering live online reference service
during regular
library hours will be explored. Virtual reference systems will
be
considered.
4. In response to the rapid growth of the aging community, the
large
print collection will be increased as necessary.
5. The teen Summer Reading Program enrollment and sessions will
be
increased by 20%.
6. A Teen Advisory Board will be formed and topical clubs will
be
encouraged for young adults based on their current interests.
7. The Local History collection will be moved to the Founder’s
Room. The
collection management policy will be reviewed and updated and
the
collection built and refined accordingly.
8. As the availability of online databases increases, the periodical
back file
and microforms holdings will be reduced accordingly.
9. The materials selection policy will be reviewed every two
years.
10. An after-hours reserve pickup locker will be implemented
for
Finkelstein patrons only.
11. A self-checkout system will be acquired by 2008.
12. The current materials security system will be upgraded by
2006 and,
subsequently, RFID technology will start to be phased in within
three
years.
13. The feasibility of implementing a new integrated library
system will be
studied, given the shortcomings of the Horizon system, and the
public
catalog in particular.
14. A Children’s Advisory Board will be established. Teen
volunteers will
assist with Children’s programming, Summer Reading Club,
the web
page, and story time. The homework help tutoring program will
be
expanded.
15. The Young Adult Collection will be expanded and moved to
the former
Local History Room.
5. Information
Literacy addresses the need for skills related to finding,
evaluating, and using information effectively.
Goals: To provide access to a full range of instructional
technology for
teaching purposes.
To provide training in locating and evaluating online resources.
To provide wide and varied access to computers throughout the
Library.
Objectives:
1. The Library will provide video-conferencing equipment, a
document
reader, and digital projectors for use in distance learning,
meetings,
training for staff and the public, as well as educational partnerships
with schools and the community.
2. A “smart board” touch-screen will be provided
for use in computer
training.
3.
Multimedia computers with headphones and other individualized
educational tools will be provided that can be used for self-paced
individualized instruction.
4.
Computers will be provided in various areas throughout the building,
some of which can be used for training and self-paced instruction.
5. Instruction in the use of Internet search engines, software
applications and interactive CDs will be provided.
6.
Provide instruction in how to perform basic and advanced searches
in
the Library’s online catalog.
7.
Assistance in the use of test practice and world language
instructional online resources, such as learn-a-test and Rosetta
Stone,
will be made available.
8.
Training in critical thinking skills will be provided to both
children and
adults.
9.
General-use computers outside the 3rd floor Technology Center
will be
available.
10. A wireless network will be implemented on each floor of
the Library.
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