Title
Discussion of issues relating to upcoming changes in Library policies/Library refresh.
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Summary:
In anticipation of the 50th Anniversary of the Deer Park Library in 2019, Library Director Rebecca Pool will give an overview of upcoming changes in Library policies/Library refresh:
1. Make changes to collection to update the library’s appearance and improve circulation
A. Change from Dewey Decimal System to BISAC/word categories
-Easier to find things/make shelves more friendly to casual browsing
-Refresh the library with little extra cost
-Future collection development is much simpler. Easier to see gaps in the collection.
-Forces you to keep the collection fresh!
-Dewey has many downsides
-never meant for the public/invented when libraries had closed stacks
-harder to shelve and to find items that are improperly shelved
-doesn’t keep things together when done perfectly
-changes over time and moves items around, so have to keep reclassifying the same items
-numbers mean less to people than words
-categories themselves are outdated (Ex: Computers are artificially fitted into a very narrow set of numbers in a miscellaneous section of Dewey.)
B. Fiction-shelving by genre
-Shifted to unified shelving scheme in 2011 prior to expansion
-Pros to having just fiction:
-saves spaces
-keeps author’s works together when they write in multiple genres
-Reasons to shift back to genre shelving:
-Easier to browse collection and discover new authors
-Libraries with genre breakouts have retained better circulation rates.
-Patrons with a preference will be HAPPY. Some never really adapted to the unified shelving.
C. Reducing Reference (Keep Small local/job training non-circulating section)
-Sadly, the days of coming to the library to spend a Saturday doing extensive research in the Reference section has gone the way of the BETA tape.
-Reference gets little use and it is too expensive to maintain a massive, current Reference section.
-Many reference materials are now available in online databases that can be accessed with a library card (e.g. Literary Criticism, medical information) 24/7. Electronic resources are kept up to date by the publisher, saving us time and space.
2. Make changes to improve access for Children/Teens
A. Lowering the age to get a card.
-We require a child to be 4 before they can get their own card. This is an old standard.
-Since we now program for babies, it makes sense to allow a parent to get the child a card regardless of their age. We have been purchasing materials for infants over the last few years and have seen an excellent growth rate in circulation. Allowing parents to get a card for an infant will support our mission of early childhood literacy.
B. Allow DVDs to check out on children's cards /Allow parents to restrict graphic novels rated MA or up.
-When we got the challenge to the graphic novel, our research showed most libraries do not discriminate in checking out materials based on age range.
-ALA has an anti-age discrimination.
-This would allow families to take advantage of children’s materials fully, especially where they have multiple children in varying age ranges.
-Improve our circulation
-In hoopla, we are blocking children’s cards from certain materials.
-We could still block R rated and NR materials from checking out on a child’s card. Also, this addition would be welcome by our special needs families, who want help restricting their adult child’s access to R rated movies.
-Provide a new card type for children that would restrict graphic novels with an MA or EX rating
3. Additional thoughts:
A. Run a Food Drive/Fine Forgiveness week during February 2019, include the option to provide items for the Animal Shelter as part of the campaign.
4. It is planned that the Library will be closed January 2-5, 2019 and would reopen January 7, 2019.
Fiscal/Budgetary Impact:
Cost would include utilizing existing budgeted operating expenses, offsetting grants revenues and contributions from the Friends of the Library.
Recommended action
Discussion only.