In the second episode in the Transformational Impact series, the directors and assistant directors of six new libraries across the Commonwealth share stories of community members discovering or rediscovering their new library. Learn what has brought them into the library and how this has impacted visitor, circulation, and room reservation statistics.
In the second episode in the Transformational Impact series, the directors and assistant directors of six new libraries across the Commonwealth share stories of community members discovering or rediscovering their new library. Learn what has brought them into the library and how this has impacted visitor, circulation, and room reservation statistics.
Welcome to Building Literacy: Public Library Construction, a podcast brought to you by the library building specialists at the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. I'm Andrea Bono-Bunker, and I am joined by my colleague, Lauren Stara. A befitting end to Lauren's decade long legacy before her retirement, we are bringing you the second of seven bite-sized episodes that capture the transformational impact six new libraries have had in their communities via the words of their directors and assistant directors. This episode focuses on those who are new to the library or new to the community and who are seeking library services. We welcome our panel of dedicated library administrators from across the Commonwealth who represent urban, suburban, and rural libraries. Thank you all for being willing participants in this series! Let's re-acquaint our listeners with some introductions.
Lauren Stara:Hi, I'm Lauren. I am the library building consultant for the MBLC.
Celeste Bruno:I'm Celeste Bruno, communications director at the MBLC.
Mark Makuc:Hi, I'm Mark Makuc. I'm the director of the Monterey Library.
Patrick Borezo:Patrick Borezo, director of the Hadley Public Library.
Rachel Breen:I'm Rachel Breen, and I'm the director of the Norwell Public Library.
Barbara Kerr:I'm Barbara Kerr. I'm the director of the Medford Public Library.
Jean Canosa Albano:I'm Jean Canosa Albano, the assistant director at the Springfield City Library.
Hermayne Gordon:My name is Hermayne Gordon, and I'm the director at the Woburn Public Library.
Andrea Bono-Bunker:So are you seeing new members of the community at your library that you may not have seen before? And what types of services are they accessing at your libraries? And we'll start off again with Monterey and Mark.
Mark Makuc:So our building project had to solve one major problem, and that was the bathroom. We had a completely inaccessible bathroom underneath the stairs in the basement. And it obviously totally limited us from so many types of programming. Now that we have an accessible bathroom. Very simple thing. But you know, now we have babies, we have toilet-training-toddlers, seniors and disabled people can come. I was truly amazed at how quickly the word spread, because we're really the only public restroom in about a radius of eight miles. We had construction workers winding up coming to the library. Not typical, I'm sure, but we're welcoming them. But in general, what it has done is opened up the programming, because now we have playgroups. And it's a lot easier to have programming of any sort. We don't have statistics at how long people spend in the library, of course, but it's not unusual for a patron to be here right now at this point from opening to closing, which is another amazing thing. And of course, throw the staff in as well, it's nice that we can have longer shifts, because just a basic thing, but that's made the big difference in Monterey.
Andrea Bono-Bunker:And we always talk about space as a service, and bathrooms are a service. And they help you provide other services. That's a great perspective, a great lens on how these can be impactful in the community. Patrick?
Patrick Borezo:Well, I'll second that emotion about the restrooms. That is such a huge thing, and we've seen that as a big improvement as well. I would highlight a couple of different groups that we've been seeing. I mean, first of all, you know, the construction of our library pretty much coincided with the pandemic, and so there was a gap where we were hardly seeing anyone. But in that time period, there was sort of like a transition where there's a whole new cohort of young families having children that were new to us. And as soon as people And when you think about it, too, when you're talking about started to emerge from the pandemic, and they started coming in, they discovered that in the new library, there was a beautiful new children's space that was welcoming to them. We have a smaller space within the children's room that's sort of used for, it's used for programming, but it's also used for families to just sort of drop in and socialize with young children. So that has really been a big driver of our success to just have that available as a space in the community. Because there really aren't that many places like that, where you can just sort of go in and let toddlers run wild in a safe environment. The other thing that's interesting is that where we're situated between much bigger communities like Amherst and Northampton, as well as some smaller communities that had previously upgraded their libraries, we were kind of an outlier, we were kind of falling behind. So there were a lot of people, you know, Hadley residents that had chosen over the course of years that they were better served by going to the libraries in Amherst or Northampton, because they were better resourced. And so in opening, the new library, people are starting to come back, our own residents are starting to the toddlers where they can kind of roam free, but also that come back and start to utilize this building. And conversely, we're also finding that some of the folks in the surrounding towns are finding out about us because, you know, we have lots of parking, and we're really convenient, right along route nine. So people are finding this to be a great, convenient location, you know, convenient to other things in their lives that they're already doing and passing by. So we're really seeing a big surge in terms of patron visits as well as circulation, but it's, you know, people returning and also people discovering us from the surrounding communities, and connection for the caregivers that, you know, gives them a that's really been great. little bit of sanity in their day where they can talk to another adult. So... Absolutely.
Andrea Bono-Bunker:Which is fantastic.
Lauren Stara:And I just want to comment on what you said, Patrick, about the parking, because we have so many communities who say "we don't need parking, everybody walks to the library." And this is actual evidence that if you have good parking, people will come from surrounding areas because you have that parking. It's really an important thing that I think the MBLC has gotten a bad rap over the years for insisting on parking. But it's really, really critical.
Andrea Bono-Bunker:Because our communities aren't really set up for walking, unless you're in a Boston or Cambridge right? But absolutely, the parking is a huge issue, and it's a huge benefit when you do have it. Rachel, did you want to share anything about Norwell?
Rachel Breen:Absolutely. Just jumping on to the parking spaces at the old facility in Norwell, we had very limited parking. When we would have like children's concerts or things, it would be packed. We'd have like 100 families, and people would have to park out on the access road with strollers and everything. We are so lucky to have enough space now where it's safe for everybody to enter the library. But in general, you know, we're definitely seeing new members of the Norwell community as well as, you know, residents from surrounding towns at the library. We've seen an increase in non resident transactions, circulation, and walking visits. In our old facility, we would average around, you know, 5000 walk-in visits a month. But in this new building, we're averaging around 7500 to 8000 visits a month. We've also seen a large uptick in our team visits. In our old building, we didn't really have a designated team space. It was mostly a little alcove that housed our team collection, and we had, you know, a table or two for them to study. But with our new building, we have a teen room and makerspace, and now we're seeing a huge influx of tweens and teens after school, which has been great. You know, they're just really utilizing the space making the space their own, and it's just been wonderful. Overall, we've found that, you know, our patrons in general really love to utilize the library space itself, whether it be our study rooms, our study nooks the porches, or just our comfortable seating. You know, we see many people come in and set up shop for the day, you know, whether they're working remotely studying or you know, just finding a comfortable spot to read. So it's been great.
Andrea Bono-Bunker:And it's so much easier to be welcoming, when you have all of the spaces to accommodate all of those different functions, right? Nothing's competing against each other.
Rachel Breen:Exactly.
Andrea Bono-Bunker:And so then the interactions that staff have with community members and patrons coming into the library are so positive, that also keeps people coming back, too. It's a really nice synergy there. Barbara?
Barbara Kerr:We have better chairs now, so that people come in, and they want to stay. Because we did a strategic plan in 2014, and we did a community survey, and the only thing I remember from it is that almost everyone hated our chairs. And they were 1960 wood chairs. You know, they're very durable, but not so comfortable. So when we were building the building, we were looking for chairs. It was very Three Bearsish. So we have like, there's comfortable ones, and there's solid ones, and there's plastic ones. And what I'm delighted to see is that we have a lot of people who work from home at the library now, because it's comfortable, you can find your own space to sit in. The study rooms are there if you need to do a meeting or an interview or something. And there's a place that has sandwiches upstairs. So people do settle in for the day, and it's really nice. And also the adult section for the first time in the 39 years I've worked here, the adult section is actually quiet because we put the children somewhere else. So you can actually sit there and be productive all day long. One of my trustees does his remote work there couple days a week, and he's delighted with it. And he also gets to see what's happening. But we were able to give people the experience that they want to have rather than the experience that the building let you have, which was not very comfortable. So it's great to see everybody working. It's so quiet, too. It's really weird.
Andrea Bono-Bunker:And having sat in every single one of your chairs, I concur, they're very comfortable.
Barbara Kerr:They're very good. And they don't tip over because people jumped on them to see.
Andrea Bono-Bunker:Right. It's funny to think about how as libraries- I don't know if you remember these conversations, but especially at the computer stations- thinking about inhospitable furnishings, so that people didn't want to stay as long.
Barbara Kerr:The stools, yes!
Andrea Bono-Bunker:Do you remember those conversations? Right. now when I think about that, why would we have never want to be inhospitable?
Barbara Kerr:Well, I think we only had five computers.
Lauren Stara:I remember in my last director job, when I opened the building, we had conversations about not putting power outlets in the patrons seats because they were going to steal our electricity. And I was like, wow! Now it's something we've really tried to focus on.
Andrea Bono-Bunker:It's amazing how libraries are still evolving. So anyone listening to this, we are evolving, and I think we're much more welcoming now than we ever have. So no more shushing, but it's quiet in spaces that you create to be quiet, right?
Barbara Kerr:Exactly.
Andrea Bono-Bunker:And then we have spaces that are meant to be loud, so that they are full of life, so. Jean?
Jean Canosa Albano:So, again, our East Forest Park branch, which opened in 2019, was the result of decades of neighborhood folks asking for their own real branch that was granted to them 20 years ago or so with a temporary storefront branch. So that could only accommodate so many people, so many circulated materials, so many tables, workstations, computers. The way that the new branch has transformed into so much bigger and different types of services that people can access has been amazing, since we opened the real, real library for them. So we are definitely seeing new people from the community using the branch, simply because more people can come inside. It was super tiny before, and now that we have a dedicated teen space, for example, instead of a couple of shelves of books and a table, no technology crammed into the old branch, which was in a former video rental spot, teens are just flocking in. It's not just from a nearby high school but from other parts of the neighborhood as well. So we are able to offer so many more programs such as gaming night, or creative writing prompts, all kinds of different programming. So that's been such a boon. Our children's room, we had a little more elbow room at the old site, but not too much, really. So now the new children's room is so expansive. And we're able to host more programs right in the children's room. But importantly, it's a place where more partners are looking to offer collaborative programs with us or are simply booking the different spaces we have available, so that they can offer their own program. And that's bringing in more people. So that when they see this library, because they've come in for a baby massage class, let's say, that someone else is offering, they say "Oh, I'm going to go check out the children's room. And let me see what else the library's offering." So that type of cross-pollination has been possible with the new building and has really had an impact on who we're seeing in the library.
Andrea Bono-Bunker:And Hermayne, how about in Woburn?
Hermayne Gordon:So we are seeing new members. One thing I found was really fun. In the beginning, when the building was opened, we had a lot of people who came to the library when they were children, and they hadn't come to the library, and several of them said to me, "And I didn't even want this new building!" And now here they are loving it, getting new library cards, and just really excited to talk about their connection to the library, which is really neat, because they want us to know, "Yeah, I've had a history with this library." So that's been neat. So they're newly coming back. And then we also have, again, growing immigrant population. We have a lot of people interested in genealogy, and the fact that we have Archives has brought people in, in addition to the fact that we get a lot of emails with requests from people.
Andrea Bono-Bunker:And I have to say, from all of your responses, collections weren't mentioned once. And that's not a bad thing, though. It means that we're providing services that enhance people's pursuits, whether it be recreational, educational, professional, in various ways. And so often you hear people talking about the collections and the books, but what people are accessing are the spaces, the programs, and then tangentially those collections, right? It's still a big part of what we do. And I'm actually wondering if we can take a moment, if any of you have compiled your statistics- I know Rachel shared some for Norwell- but does anybody else want to share any statistics in terms of what they're seeing in the numbers, the impact by the numbers?
Barbara Kerr:We're averaging 19,000 people a month, which is good, and we were probably 17 or 16, I don't think we were 16,000 before. We didn't have a traffic thing that was very dependable before that. But, a lot of people. And the circulation went up- books went from 150,000, to 200-something. So even though the collection is not the focus anymore, the collection is being used much, much more than it was before.
Andrea Bono-Bunker:That's great.
Patrick Borezo:Obviously, we're a much smaller community, but as a proportional thing, I report to the trustees every month on sort of like giving them a monthly snapshot of what we're seeing in that month relative to the year before. And last year was pretty busy for us, even though, you know, we were coming out of the pandemic, but the numbers were still, for us, they were still higher. We were so breaking records, and this year that is continuing. So for instance, in September, I believe we were seeing something like a 45% increase in patron visits, which for us was just a huge increase. I mean, it's really, you know, because our staffing hasn't really changed all that much. And so that's really making it challenging to just keep up. And there's just a lot of multitasking going on and a lot of interrupted thoughts and conversations like, "What was I just doing before, you know, before that person walked in?" It's been a big surge in use.
Andrea Bono-Bunker:That's amazing! Mark, did you have anything to share on this?
Mark Makuc:Well, I mean, little Monterey has passed 10,000 last year, which considering the population is under 1000, I think we're doing pretty well. It's definitely an increase. I can't say huge percentages and things like that, and huge numbers, but no question, all the numbers are up.
Andrea Bono-Bunker:Awesome! And Rachel, did you have any other stats you wanted to share at this moment? Or was that the main one?
Rachel Breen:That was the main one, but I can say certainly that our circ numbers have definitely gone up as well as our walk-in visits. It's been great.
Andrea Bono-Bunker:So the collection may not be why someone comes in, per se, but then the circulation is up, so people are utilizing those collections really well across the board.
Rachel Breen:Definitely.
Andrea Bono-Bunker:Yes. So we're not getting rid of any of our traditional services. We're just enhancing through these new libraries. And Hermayne, what have you seen in Woburn?
Hermayne Gordon:We're now comparing service trends last year and this year, and so we're seeing, I mean, between January and September last year, compared to this year, we have like a 31% increase in library visits, for example. And on every level. We've new cardholders are up 12%. And as I look at the categories here, because we do this thing called by the numbers every month, and we collect in every category and you know program room reservations way up, because this is something that people are really enjoying having use of. I wish we had more of those. So all of our reservations. Public computers, we have a lot of people who come in who need the internet and the free Wi Fi. We have hotspots that are never in the library, because we have people who can't afford to have internet at home. As I look here, every category seems to be up. One notable one too, is our notary services, where we have one of our staff members who is able to do that. And we have many people, many of them immigrants, who the library's their safe space to come and get that done. And so, you know, huge increase in that from last year- over 47% that's gone up. And it's been very busy. Because once the word is out that you can go and get it done here and it's save place and, of course, that staff member does an amazing job. They keep coming.
Andrea Bono-Bunker:I love that and they keep coming, which is exactly why we build these libraries. All of the pre planning through the library building program process and the community engagement that's such an integral part of that process identifies the needs of the communities within the community. It is wonderful to hear how each of your libraries is a catalyst to attaining the service goals you set during that process. Thank you for sharing your statistics and your success stories. And thank you to our listeners for tuning in. We hope you'll join us for our third episode in this transformational impact series focusing on how the new library has changed library services and the community the library serves. Until next time!