Day 4 Core programs #blog12daysxmas

This morning some colleagues and I had a discussion via Twitter on core services in public libraries. The conversation centred around thoughts of what constituted a library's core business and who decided what "core" was-the community, the library service or perhaps the library staff.

Resourcing came up, namely staffing and funding, but I would imagine space could well be another issue faced by many libraries.  I'm fortunate in that I have a large branch and a large team but it is so often assumed that this makes it much simpler to run many programs and events. This isn't the case. A large branch also means that more staff are needed on the library floor at one time and,believe it or not, it can take quite a bit longer to do things because of the volume of work and the size of the floor space. Having said that, I can well imagine the frustrations of a smaller, under resourced library and what the staff must go through to get anything done.

I do believe though, very strongly, that where there's a will there's a way and there is always some way that programs can be developed and implemented. To me, a potentially fast way to facilitate some sort of community program is to put out an EOI in the library for some externally created groups to be actually run in the library. This can be a Book Group, a computer class or a patchwork group, utilising strong interests held by members of the community. Having someone keen to do this usually means they'll be a driver behind attendees participating and continued attendance, ensuring longevity for the group/s.

Volunteers in the library can be another way to implement something, even if it is a one off event, such as, for example, a card making demonstration, strategically held before Mother's Day or Christmas, or running a weekly homework help group.

Having the library available for community groups to hold events is another really good way to bring people to the library. Most of the time these groups will have their own promotional avenues which really helps with building an audience.

Creating a variety of programs is not without its challenges but I really do believe that little things can be done and constantly built upon to create meaningful and interesting programs for the community. There is also potential for these things to be used as leverage for future funding endeavours, for example using statistics gained to add weight to grant applications or to show merit for continued programming to funding bodies.

I would be interested to hear from others on interesting ways they found to run programs in their libraries.