Learning How to Better Serve You

By Bill Nelson, Library Director

May 4 , 2005

Last month we conducted a survey to learn how library services might be improved in Natrona County . In addition to assessing the importance of current and potential services, we hoped to learn the community’s perception of parking and meeting room adequacy. Looking down the road several years, the Library Board wished to assess the community’s support in positioning a new branch library. While some feedback was predictable, other input gave us a number of innovative ideas for the future. Let me provide a little background and an overview of what we learned.

A couple of notes for the statisticians in the audience -- 412 responding households gave this random survey a statistical precision of least 5%. Participants were evenly distributed by both age (25 to 65+) and sex. Respondents reflected the geographic distribution of people throughout the County.

So what did we learn? A very high percentage of residents use the library. Nearly three-fourths (70%) of surveyed residents indicated that one or more members of their household had used a NCPL library during the past year. Among these library users, more than half (53%) indicated they visited at least once per month. These numbers confirm the strong increase in patron visits (265,000 annually) and the huge increase in check-outs the past few years (up 38% to roughly 475,000).

People say they would like more weekday evening hours. More than half (55%) indicated that they would be “very” or “somewhat” likely to use the Main Library after 7 PM on weekdays, 41% would be likely to use the library after 5 PM on Fridays and 40% indicated they would be likely to visit before 10 AM on Saturdays. Our budget request for the coming year includes funding to provide this additional service for our citizens.

Delivering library materials to homebound individuals was a new service that respondents strongly endorsed. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of respondents said the delivery of materials to the homebound is either “extremely important” (32%), “very important” (19%) or “important” (13%). Next year, we hope to start looking at ways to make this a reality. We welcome your ideas.

The Library Board has observed growing library service needs throughout Natrona County . To meet these needs, we learned the Paradise Valley/Robertson Road area was the preferred location to develop a branch. More than half (52%) of those surveyed indicated they were either “very” or “somewhat” supportive of this idea. Interestingly, support for new library branches on the east side or near the North Casper soccer fields was significantly lower.

This survey has given us a wealth of information, much of which will need to wait until another column. Thank you to all who participated in this professionally conducted survey. Your input is already helping us better serve both you and your neighbors. By the way, most folks think there is adequate parking at the library. Now, that was a surprise!

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