Library gets a read on users

Online survey solicits feedback for GVPL’s five-year strategic plan

Do you love your local library? Or are there aspects you’d gladly throw the book at?

Now’s your chance to speak up, something the Greater Victoria Public Library is encouraging as it puts together a strategic plan for 2016-2020.

The GVPL is seeking feedback from local residents on what it does well and what should be changed in the 10-branch service, which began at the Carnegie building on Yates Street in 1904.

One of the 15 questions asks whether it’s important to users to extend Sunday hours all year at library branches.

Branches are only open on Sundays from 1-5 p.m. from October to April.

The library board will consider all input, alongside factors such as its budget, capacity and priorities of the municipalities that fund the system, said Lynne Jordon, deputy CEO.

The GVPL is “one of the highest-circulating libraries per capita in Canada,” she added.

There are more than 213,000 cardholders among 300,000 plus residents in the area covered by the GVPL, but anyone is welcome to comment.

The GVPL operation is more complex than most, given that it must seek financial support from each of 10 municipalities each year, and the partnership entails making reports to each council.

The questions get right to the point:

“How would you rate your satisfaction with the branch library you use most often,” from very high to very low.

“What are some of the things that you like?”

“What are some of the things that you would like to see changed or added?”

“Are there programs or services that GVPL doesn’t have, but that you would like to see introduced?”

The survey also asks users whether they know about or use the library system’s 17 programs and services, from storytimes for kids to contests and room rentals.

There’s even a fantasy question, No. 12. “How would you describe an ideal branch library?”

The online survey is at gvpl.ca until Oct. 12. Printed versions of the survey must be requested at branches, while the library will also survey other institutions and organizations.

A community workshop is set for Oct. 5 at the Central Branch from 7-9 p.m. Register at gvpl.ca/ communityinput.

Library users browse through the stacks at the Central Branch. The Greater Victoria Public Library system has launched an online survey as it begins planning for the next five years.