Provincial Library Grants Report 2014
Port Moody Public Library
Introduction
The Port Moody Public Library serves a rapidly growing population of 34,500 through a single branch facility that is prominently located in the Civic Centre Complex. Over the past 19 years since the library moved to this location, the surrounding neighbourhood has changed dramatically and library use has grown accordingly. Three high density residential/commercial developments (Newport Village, Suter Brook and Klahanie) are within a short distance of the library. In a year’s time (2016), there will be a new Evergreen Skytrain station just three blocks from the library. According to the 2011 Census, Port Moody is the fastest growing city in Metro Vancouver, with an increase of 19% in population since the 2007 Census.
A Community Needs Assessment completed by the Library in 2012 provides a more in-depth demographic profile of our community, as well as a profile of library use. It also provides the results of a Community Survey conducted by the library in 2012. Community input gathered through the community needs assessment process was a critical driving force in shaping the library’s Strategic Plan 2013-2017 which was released in 2013. The priorities outlined in the strategic plan are implemented through an annual Strategic Initiatives Plan; a Year-End Report on Achievements and Outcomes shows where we are in the process of achieving objectives. All information is available to the public via our website.
The City of Port Moody has just released an Economic Profile 2015 that provides an updated economic snapshot of the area including a business profile and demographics. The three largest employers are in the public sector: Eagle Ridge Hospital, the City of Port Moody and School District 43. The largest private sector employer is Mill & Timber followed by BC Hydro-Burrard Thermal, Pacific Coast Terminals, Suncor and Imperial Oil.
One of the key challenges that the library, and community, face is the development and replacement of infrastructure. For the library, the concern is our building (1,161 sq. m.) which is too small for our community’s needs and growing population. By the end of 2014, the library had neared completion of a Space Needs Analysis Report which looks at options for expansion contiguous with our existing space.
Government Priorities, Goals, Programs and Services, Partnerships
1. Community engagement and planning
1.1 Library goal that supports the priority:
Library Strategic Priority / Library Strategic Goal / 2014 Activities (related to Goal) / Achieved / Outcomes /Ignite the imagination of the community:
* offer innovative and exciting programs and services that foster 21st century literacies.
* increase the library’s visibility in the community. / Strengthen community engagement by actively supporting community priorities and initiatives and building collaborative community partnerships. / Participate in key community events. / Yes. The library participated in the Port Moody Parade and the Port Moody ArtsFest. / · Library was visible to a broad community audience.
· Library was identified with popular trends and literary themes through parade theme (Pop literary figures.)
· Library highlighted literary arts in the context of a community arts festival.
· New audiences accessed library programs because of cross-promotion with the Port Moody ArtsFest.
Build programming partnerships with local businesses. / Yes. Programs were presented in partnership with the following local businesses:
· Village Toy Shop
· Hourglass Comics
· Opal Spa
· Healing Cedar Wellness
· Coquitlam Centre Mall (Family Play and Learn events)
· Port Moody Integrated Health / · Businesses received publicity and increased traffic because of program publicity and attendance.
· Library programs connected with new audiences through cross-promotion.
· Library customers accessed community knowledge and expertise of local business partners through programs.
· Program attendees had opportunity to follow up on program topics in more depth with presenting businesses.
Initiate collaborative partnerships with post-secondary institutions. / Yes: Two partnerships were formed with Simon Fraser University. These will continue in 2015.
· Share Your Story: An 8-week digital storytelling workshop for seniors
· Philosopher’s Cafe: Two sessions were held in 2014. SFU provided the moderator. / Share Your Story program
· Increased opportunities for seniors (especially the more isolated) to socialize with peers and engage in community.
· Participants transformed from consumers of information to creators.
· Seniors gained more digital literacy skills
· Library promoted the value of storytelling and contributed to the preservation of the memories of the community.
Philosopher's Cafe
· Library became a safe place to share different points of views and opinions in the community, and held important discussion.
1.2 Key Programs and/or Services that align with the priority:
Key Program: International Tabletop Day
This all-ages event connected the community to the world of tabletop gaming. Members of the public were invited to drop in during the 6 hour program to explore games for all ages and abilities. Attendees could participate as individuals, groups or families, and were encouraged to make new social connections by joining games with fellow customers. This event was co-sponsored by local businesses (Hourglass Comics and The Village Toy Shop). It highlighted local businesses while addressing social isolation by encouraging community members to connect with each other around a shared interest. The program also engaged a hard-to-reach segment of the population (new and middle age adults) by linking to a social trend. Many attendees made new community connections, discovered games that engaged them, and indicated that they planned to play more games in a face-to-face setting in the future.
Key Program: Share Your Story: Digital Storytelling for Seniors
The library partnered with Simon Fraser University (SFU) to host an eight-week series of workshops to teach seniors how to digitize their life stories. Workshops were facilitated by members of the SFU Education Department. Participants were guided through the process of storyboarding and script writing; a free online web application was then used to add narration, music and photos and make videos of these digital stories. Seniors in our community were able to learn more about new technology and build their digital literacy skills in a friendly environment, and had the opportunity to connect with one another. Having worked through the process with the facilitators, the participants were eager to apply those skills to digitize more of their stories to share with their children, grandchildren, and the rest of the community. The library will be working with SFU in 2015 to make the stories from the workshop available online to the general public.
1.3 Partnerships that support the priority:
Simon Fraser University - Department of Education: Digital storytelling workshops were offered at the library to seniors interested in digitizing their life stories.
Simon Fraser University - Continuing Studies: The library began offering Philosopher’s Cafe sessions moderated by SFU faculty to encourage public discussion and debate of ideas.
School District 43- Elementary Schools: Reading Link Challenge programs were conducted in 2 schools. The library participated in Welcome to Kindergarten and Ready Set Learn events in most elementary schools, and partnered with 5 schools to promote reading for pleasure through book talks to grades 3, 4 and 5 students.
School District 43: Secondary Schools: School staff promoted volunteer and leadership opportunities for teens available via the library’s Tech Cafe and Book Buddies programs.
School District 43 – Continuing Education: Three sessions (each 3 months long) of Foundations English Classes were offered at the Port Moody Public Library. These classes primarily serve newcomers who are upgrading their English with the assistance of government funding.
Port Moody Arts Centre: The library partnered with the Port Moody Arts Centre to present a storytelling session with local author Dan Bar-El during the PoMo ArtsFest event.
Coquitlam Centre Mall: The library presents storytimes, and provides library information, at a monthly children’s Play & Learn event held at the Mall.
Port Moody Police Department: The library hosted an online safety program on social media, aimed at parents and kids, in partnership with the Port Moody Police Department.
SHARE Family and Community Services: English Practice Groups: Weekly English Practice Groups are facilitated by SHARE volunteers in the library.
Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada: The CPA Association of Canada presented financial literacy programming at the library as part of their Community Connect initiative.
1.4 Outcomes that were identified:
Please refer to 1.1 (above).
2. Focus on equitable access
2.1 Library goals that support the priority:
Library Strategic Priority / Library Strategic Goal / 2014 Activities (related to Goal) / Achieved / Outcomes /Ignite the imagination of the community:
* offer innovative and exciting programs and services that foster 21st century literacies
* increase the library’s visibility in the community / Ensure equitable access to library service / Extend digital library service to print-disabled members of our community:
· Upgrade lending collection of talking book readers to equipment that has USB capability to facilitate use of downloadable formats.
· Establish access to online eAudiobook services
· Teach customers and staff how to use this digital equipment and resources. / Yes:
· New lending reader collection was launched.
· Staff learned how to use this equipment and download available resources to USB for customer use.
· Customers and/or caregivers were taught how to use the new equipment and, if appropriate, shown how to download resources.
In progress: Establish access to National Network for Equitable Library Service (NNELS). For completion early 2015. / · Print-disabled customers have access to a much larger collection due to the range of available downloadable resources.
· Reduced waiting time for users of the Audiobook Service to access requested titles.
· Expanded staff capacity to work with new formats available to the Library.
2.2 Key programs and/or services that align with the priority:
Key Program: Integrating downloadable audiobooks into Library's service for print-disabled customers
The library has significantly expanded the availability of audiobooks for our print-disabled customers by making use of a range of downloadable services. Being a smaller library, we are not able to house a physical audiobook collection that can adequately meet our customers' diverse reading needs. By upgrading our lending collection of audiobook readers to include USB capability, helping customers to transition to these new devices, and making it a priority to provide training to staff on downloading audiobooks, we were able to give our print-disabled members more choices of titles and reduce waiting time for reading material. We will finish system integration with the accessible library provided by National Network for Equitable Library Service in 2015 , thus further increasing the range of reading materials available to our print-disabled customers.
2.3 Partnerships that support the priority: (VM)
Public Library InterLINK: Coordinate provision of a lending collection of physical audiobooks among InterLINK libraries.
BC Libraries Cooperative: A service partner with the National Network for Equitable Library Service.
National Network for Equitable Library Service (NNELS): Provider of digital and downloadable audiobooks for people with print disability.
2.4 Outcomes that were identified:
Please refer to 21.1 (above).
3. increased connections and supports for educational transformation and the bc jobs plan
3.1 Library goals that support the priority
Library Strategic Priority / Library Strategic Goal / 2014 Activities (related to Goal) / Achieved / Outcomes /Ignite the imagination of the community:
* offer innovative and exciting programs and services that foster 21st century literacies
* increase the library’s visibility in the community / Increase connections / support for education transformation and the BC Jobs Plan. / Collaborate with Training Innovations (a local Work BC contractor) to offer a series of 3 job skills workshops / Yes: Three workshops offered in 2014 / · Participants gained job search and employment skills to help them find and keep a job.
· Participants were made aware of the wider range of employment services available from both the library and Work BC.
· Training Innovations received publicity and exposure to new audiences to increase public access to services.
· Additional partnership programming is planned for 2015.
Plan for an Employment Fair in 2015, also in collaboration with Training Innovations. / In Progress: Employment Fair scheduled for May 2015 / Anticipated outcomes include
· Library makes connections with local businesses that may lead to additional partnerships in the future
· Employment Fair attendees may secure a job
· Library connects with Employment Fair attendees to highlight digital literacy and employment resources
· Training Innovations has opportunity to highlight employment services to Employment Fair attendees
3.2 Programs and/or services that align with the priority:
Program: Job Seekers Series
Expert staff from the local Work BC service provider (Training Innovations) presented three workshops at the Port Moody Library in Fall 2014: Building a Power Resume, Winning Job Interviews, and Online Job Search. Training Innovations accessed the large and diverse library audience through library publicity, and received wider exposure than usual in the community. The library was able to offer high quality, targeted programming on topics of high interest to the community taught by local experts. Additional follow-up connections were made with program attendees to address digital literacy skill gaps, and to introduce job seekers to specialized library job search databases and online resources that were helpful in their job search.
3.3 Partnerships that support the priority:
Training Innovations: Training Innovations holds the Work BC contract for the Port Moody area. The partnership provides them community-wide audiences, and allows non-qualifying individuals access to some otherwise unavailable Work BC resources (e.g. workshops are open to the public, even though follow up services from Training Innovations are limited to qualifying individuals). Training Innovations staff deliver workshops at the library and receive job seeker referrals from library staff. Job seekers are referred to the library for digital literacy skills upgrading, if that is identified by Work BC staff as a barrier to employment.
3.4 Outcomes that were identified:
Please refer to 1.1 (above).
Summary
The completion, in 2013, of the library’s five year Strategic Plan 2013-2017 gave clear direction for the future. 2014 was the first full year of implementing this plan and the opportunities it presents. As is evidenced elsewhere in this report, there was a strong focus in 2014 on leveraging community partnerships and collaboration to provide an innovative range of new and engaging library programs. There was also strong focus on revitalizing our collections to meet the public demand for popular materials and on strengthening our digital presence. We were pleased to see upwardly trending activity statistics for 2014 (circulation, visits, program attendance, reference queries). These statistics, along with outcomes mentioned previously in this report, are indicators that the initiatives being undertaken to implement the library’s strategic plan are engaging our community.