February 2014: From the Director's Chair

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LIBRARY

The second letter in the acrostic poem about the word library is I. Libraries and librarians work in an environment full of imagination, ideas, information, and innovation and work hard to be inviting to a broad range of people.

To use your imagination to develop your creative side in 2014, start at the library.

If you have a creative idea or product and want information to market that item, the library has materials on patents, trademarks, and marketing. For those with strong left brains (the analytic, linear side) who want to develop their right brains (the creative and imaginative side), the library has materials to help you reach that goal as well.

Do you have an idea about how to improve library services? We welcome your suggestions. Suggestion boxes can be found in each of our libraries and suggestions are reviewed each month. Work begins on the library's annual budget in March. At that time, we will consider shared suggestions. Some suggestions, like more DVDs, updating computers, and adding more fiction and e-books, are already being implemented.

Surveys will be going out to the patrons of the Naylor Memorial Library soon to determine what hours and days of operation, as well as services, they would like to see at the new Hedgesville Library. A separate survey asking your help in determining what magazines we should continue to maintain in physical form will be distributed to patrons at all four libraries.

One of the most discussed issues in the library field today is the future of libraries. Some libraries no longer have physical books at all. They have gone to e-readers and e-books instead. Some libraries no longer use the Dewey Decimal System and have opted to go with the bookstore model of classification which is broad subject areas. Some libraries have become the creative centers in their communities with 3-D printers, recording studios, video editing equipment, discovery walls for children, etc.

In all of the above scenarios, innovation is key to maintaining a library that is inviting, interesting, and an integral part of the community. Let us know how you want us to do that in Berkeley County. Use your imagination and bring your ideas to us to improve your libraries.

Call me at 304-267-8933 (ex. 203) or email me at pam.coyle@martin.lib.wv.us.