CONNECTING WITH COMMUNITY PLANNING
Well, this was quite an adventure. First, I had to track something down and discovered that a study was made in 2009: “Rapport final - Analyse des besoins culturels - Cité de Clarence-Rockland” by PGF Consultants Inc. of Ottawa. . It identifies three recommendations: hire a cultural coordinator, form a consulting committee, develop a strategic plan.
The Library is mentioned as
an element in the new sports-cultural complex, not as a community cultural
entity. The study was done after the
complex was built. The Library barely registers and this is also reflected in
the realisation of the physical space allotted to the main branch at Rockland:
tiny meeting room, no clear assembly space, even seating is constrained
(limited, fairly inflexible with few spaces to be alone) and broken up. When
focusing on “cultural” elements, many community reps focused on the new
performing space. No mention is made of the Library as a viable space for
community events or activities.
At my recent budgetary
defence, I spoke about the problem of the current perception of the
Library. I emphasized that the Library
has not served the community well if all they perceive us is as depository for
books. I stated quite boldly that it was
our (the Library’s) duty to change this perception.
And three ways I feel to move towards
achieving this are:
- Educate the citizens by doing: creating programming for all ages, offering venues for arts programs (ex.: recently commissioned a work from the local Anglophone high school).
- Meet with the Cultural Director to find out what plans are currently in place, what goals is the City moving towards
- Contact various organizations and see how the Library can participate in promoting their work or assist them in developing their work
This won’t be easy to
achieve. We are grossly understaffed and
underfunded by Ontario standards but it is doable. We have found funding for some programs, have
gained valuable community support, managed to get some key elements that are
not “Library” related in the majority of the community’s minds, such as the
family museum passes to all the major Ottawa sites.
It seems that as we move
forward, things move towards us and help us move up one more notch in the
community’s perception.
Daniel, your musings on this topic are thoughtful and bode well for the library. You are quite right that it's challenging to take on more when you are understaffed, but if you don't take on the outreach and the work related to redefining public perception, then you'll always be understaffed - and under-resourced in every way. Your three strategies make abundant sense. I always argue that when you're trying to shift public perception you need to act on two fronts - activities aimed at raising awareness about the many ways the library is relevant and community-oriented; AND make sure the library is relevant and community-oriented. In other words, exploring the cultural happenings and partnership possiblities, etc. Good stuff!
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