Library Progress Report – 2024 – Text
- Strongly and proactively engage the community through outreach activities.
- Effectively share information about Library services and resources.
- Explore partnerships and develop programs and services to address pressing community issues.
- Lean in to our excellent customer service – a known asset of the Library – and become exemplary in this regard.
- Explore process efficiencies to make the most of our time and resources.
- Work toward an inclusive and representative collection.
Strategic Goals
1.Strongly and proactively engage the community through outreach activities.The Library created a new part-time position devoted to outreach and hired Jocelyn Lopez-Duran to fill it. Jocelyn took over many outreach activities, allowing staff to take on other programs.
Total attendance at Library outreach events = 3,120
Total item circulation via outreach = 2,047
2. Effectively share information about Library services and resources.Thanks to a new series of animated storytime videos by Judith Boyd, the Library’s YouTube channel has received over 5,000 views this year.
Library staff translated signs and form letters into Spanish and explored partnerships to help spread the word about Library resources to Spanish speakers.
A marketing plan for 2025 was composed, focusing of efforts to better reach Spanish speakers.
3. Explore partnerships and develop programs and services to address pressing community issues.Library staff and La Puente organized a Day of Service, where Library patrons came together to pack hygiene kits. Patrons made over 200 kits at this event.
At the end of the year, the Library received 500 Grow with Google scholarships, which will allow students to take online career certificate courses free of charge. Staff will be working with community partners to distribute these scholarships in 2025.
Organizational Competencies
1.Lean in to our excellent customer service.This year, the Library sought new ways to serve our community:
- Telehealth Hub – a designated computer and accessories, used for medical appointments as well as legal meetings, job interviews, classes and more. Used 34 times in 2024.
- Library to Your Door – patron requests can be delivered directly to them by mail. 28 items delivered in 2024.
- VITA Tax Help – Tax filing assistance provided by trained volunteers. 43 people were helped in 2024, receiving over $70,000 in refunds.
- Circulating Blu-Ray and DVD Players – Now available for checkout, enabling patrons to watch films in more formats. Checked out 14 times in 2024.
We also continued our 1-on-1 Technology Help service, partnering with the Workforce Center to host a part-time Digital Navigator twice a week in addition to our own staff. Altogether, we helped 72 people with technology questions.
2. Explore process efficiencies.Cathy Zverev, our Interlibrary Loan Technician, composed new procedures and reports to help process our increased volume of Interlibrary Loans. Some of her procedures were taken up by our partner libraries because they were so useful and well-designed.
This year we experienced our highest Inter-Library Loan volume ever recorded – 2,485 items. Altogether, Inter-Library Loan has accounted for 11,201 checkouts this year.
3. Work toward an inclusive and representative collection.Melissa Martinson finished an analysis of our DVD collection – over 4,000 items – examining the ethnicity and gender of the film directors represented.
Shockingly, only 90 of our films were directed by women, a large discrepancy in representation.
Additionally, only 1.8% of our DVD’s were directed by Hispanic directors, a major gap between our community and our collection.
The Library By The Numbers
- The Library checked out 114,611 items – almost back to pre-COVID levels.
- 58,634 people visited the Library.
- 30,500 people used our public computers.
- 8,891 people attended Library programs – an all-time high!