Today

The walk home from work seems to be a good time for me to think. The problem is not taking the time to write down, dictate or other wise get these thoughts down so I don't forget them. So today, hours later I'm going to try.

At the board meeting today one of the board members asked if I thought we were doing more outreach programming because we were still in the temp location then we might otherwise do. ( we were going over the year end report at the time) I didn't think much about it at the time because of course we were doing more outreach programming because the temp location is too small for some of the things we do. But the more I think about it the more I think the number of programs we are doing in outreach has more to do with the requests of our patrons have made. The adult movie matinee is one of those. It works better in the cozy room of the seniors lounge. I'm not sure we could duplicate the environment in a meeting room. Open Mic Poetry Night is another program that works because of the location at the Snowdome Coffee Bar. 

There is a trend in libraries to do more outreach programming. It helps us reach people, organizations etc. that we might not reach otherwise. It also changes the public's perception of the library as a walled garden. We ned the public to see us as a partner in the community, a supporter of a healthy and vibrant town.

We're going to need to work hard to bring up our visibility in the community. Programming in the library and outreach will help.