Friday, February 8, 2008

Cedar Hill library’s future = vision+marketing

By Steve Snyder of TODAY Newspapers

The Zula B. Wylie Library may need a little bit of marketing work.

In an update on the library's strategic plan to the Cedar Hill City Council Jan. 22, Sam McBane Mulford said that, in a survey of residents, 20 percent said that they either never used the library or didn't even know the city had a library. Mulford, principal strategist with Ideation Collaborative, said the survey was non-scientific, in part because it concentrated on people who might not know about the library.

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In a follow-up study, 20% of Cedar Hill residents said they didn't even know the city had books in it.

“You're got an underutilized concept and there's a lack of buzz,” she said. “With growth, you have the opportunity to change this.”

She said the rise of the Internet changed how many people related to their local libraries.

“They don't see the library as an information source any more. They feel savvy enough to make their own information decisions,” she said.

But, she had a word of caution.

“Bad clicks can lead to bad decisions, and that's where I think the library can (still) help.”

As for the library's services, it meets either basic or advanced standards in all areas of service, per state library standards.

However, the library doesn't have top-notch ratings compared to ratings of peer and near-peer cities in the area, Mulford said.

Councilman Daniel Haydin said the positive side was that the city knew where it was at as part of starting the process to where it wanted to go.

That all said, what should the future of the Wylie library be?

Mulford mentioned that survey respondents said the library is a “safe” and “neutral” place for discussion. They also said that, building on that, the library should be a place for “interactivity.”

“Distribution of content is huge,” she said. “I think we're starting to see limitations as far as distribution and ownership of content.”

From here, she said the library's future would probably have some version of a three-fold service module of overlapping domains. These three areas are life literacies, learning proficiencies and cultural and community connections.

Mulford said that, in addition to the things discussed above, the city might want to discuss reconfiguring the library and reallocating staff and organization. She said this included thinking in customer-centric and not library-centric terms.

In response to a question from Councilman Wade Emmert, Mulford said Ideation Collaborative had specific plans for working with the council on how to best achieve these goals. She said she couldn't provide an absolute road map, because that ultimately needed to stem from the ideas of residents. But, she said following the general outlines of the long-range plan, as specifically tweaked by residents' input, would produce results.

“I can tell you that you will be (the) leading library (in this area) if you go down this path,” she said.

Library Director Pat Bonds spoke further about the long-range plan.

“It will be a change for us, doing more outreach and being a meeting place as well as a (place) for information and research,” she said. “It will probably mean additional staffing and possibly changing some jobs.”

She also tied the long-range plan to future library expansion, which is under discussion but has no definite date at this time.

“The long-range plan will help us when we are ready for the expansion on how we configure the space,” Bonds said. She said this could include a computer lab open after regular library hours and even a coffee shop.

“I appreciate your honesty in telling us this,” Mayor Rob Franke told Mulford.

He said he wanted to make sure the council “did it right” in taking action.

“A measure to improve the library got more votes than any other action in 2003,” he said.

Councilman Greg Patton put the library into a larger light. He said it was an important part of keeping Cedar Hill a premier city.

Acting on the long-range plan was on the council's agenda, but Franke recommended it postpone action until the council's Feb. 12 meeting to give councilmembers more time to digest the report.

Mulford and Ideation Collaborative compiled an in-depth long-term plan report for the library; copies are available for review at the library, including survey results like those summarized in the graphics at left.

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