Library launches long-range planning

By Victor Tine
Staff writer

December 03, 2008 03:48 am

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BYFIELD — A local committee is gathering information aimed at devising a long-range plan for the Newbury Town Library.

"A long-range plan is a great opportunity for the library to look forward, to come up with pie-in-the-sky ideas and work toward them," library director Jennifer Brown said. "This is also a way of letting the community know what we do."

Brown said the long-range planning committee will begin circulating a community survey within the month, looking to find out what library services people use and what else they would like to see.

Brown said the committee also wants to hear from local residents who don't use the library to find out what might make them start.

"We don't want to be hearing just from people in the building," she said. "This is a great opportunity to show people what the library can do for them."

She wants to reach populations that don't go to the library regularly.

"If people are using the resources, what would they like to see more of?" she said. "But, for instance, some people are surprised that we have CDs and DVDs here, and that they can take them out for free."

The plan will be filed with the state Board of Library Commissioners and will make the local institution eligible for state grants, Brown said. Brown said she hopes to file the plan next spring.

The community survey will be online at the library's Web site and the town's. It will also be put out at strategic locations around town, such as Town Hall and the Council on Aging, Brown said.

She said the committee will be looking at programs, services and the library's collection.

The library already operates programs for children and for adults, such as the recent talk by local author Bethany Groff on her newly released book, "A Brief History of Old Newbury: From Settlement to Separation."

Brown said she would like the library to be a community and cultural center for the town.

"We want to be serving under-served populations," she said. "We want to think through how we can collaborate with the Council on Aging, how we want to collaborate with the schools."

The committee is composed of David Hall of Low Street; Amy Swiniarski of Greentree Lane; assistant library director Jean Ackerly; children's librarian Laurie Collins; Council on Aging director Martie Joe; Triton High School library media specialist Andrea Sargent; Selectman Jennifer Wright; Library Trustees Chairwoman Catherine Dullea; Library Trustees Mary Leary, Richard Ravin and Lois Smith; and Plum Island resident Andrea Bursaw.