The Peoria Public Library, before going to the voters and asking for money for expansion, is holding several meetings soliciting public input. Some other public bodies in Peoria could learn from their example. The meeting dates are:
- Thursday, October 19 – 4:30 p.m.
McClure Branch Library, 315 W. McClure - Saturday, October 21 – 2:00 p.m.
Lakeview Branch Library, 1137 W. Lake - Wednesday, November 1 – 7:00 p.m.
Dunlap Middle School, 5200 Cedar Hills Drive - Tuesday, November 14- 7:00 p.m.
Common Place, 514 S. Shelley - Tuesday, December 12 – 7:00 p.m.
Main Street Branch -107 N. E. Monroe Street
I already have some questions I’d like to ask at one of these meetings. After reading the executive summary of their proposed plan (available on their website), I’m still a bit dubious that they can offer the same or better level of service at the main branch if they take some of the employees there and move them to a new North Peoria branch.
I understand the concept of having an open floor plan, thus fewer people can staff multiple departments. But won’t we lose expertise? If you have a specialist in Business and a specialist in Art & Music, and you take the Art & Music person and put them up north, then ask the Business person to oversee Business and Art & Music… aren’t you losing something? Or at least putting more strain on the existing staff?
I know they’re trying to keep costs down, and that’s commendable. But if they’re going to add a 35,000-square-foot branch, I think it’s only realistic to expect they’ll need more staff.
Would a new library be drawing in additional users or simply redistributing the load between another branch? I have to use the downtown library from time to time but wouldn’t bother to go there again if the stuff was available in the Pioneer Park area. How many others are in the same boat?
The consultants believe a new library would result in some redistribution of users, but mostly would draw in new users. Less than 50% of Peoria residents have a library card, and the consultants feel that it is because the place where most of the population is — where the growth area of the city is — has no conveniently-located library. There’s certainly a lot of room to grow.
Downtown would still be the flagship location.
I think the big possiblity of small or zero staff groth is in created efficiences beyond that of one librarian serving two areas. The current libraries were setup decades ago. New technology, advances in line theory, ergonomics, and traffic flow should reduce average service time. For example if the librarian is able to look something up in 30 seconds that used to take 1-2 minutes you will see significant time savings over a period of time. Also, If the design is improved (made more intuitive) perhaps the librarian will spend less time directing patrons to areas.
I agree that if the numbers of patrons drastically increases then you may have trouble holding the line on staff, but with technology more and more things become self-serve. In my mind libraries are primarily self-serve to being with, that is why we learned how to use a card catalog at school. Librarians are there for added help, but the largest volume of library traffic should be self-serve.