The year 2016 will be marked in the annals of the Huron County Community Library as a year of physical change, in both our buildings and in personnel. Our Willard location completed a major renovation to the interior of the library, and a facelift to our Myrtle Street entrance along with the construction of a much needed Annex across the street. We thanked Gail Cummings and Don Gallion for their years of dedicated service, and wished them only the best in their retirement in December of 2015.
We look forward to 2017 being the beginning of a new service model that will be even more patron-centered by intentionally going out to our communities delivering library services to the places where people gather, work and live.
Our Strategic Plan for 2017-2021 was built from the responses we gleaned from our focus group meetings, and nationwide library best practices. Among the things we heard are the library hours need to be adjusted to accommodate people’s schedules; staff need to break away from the library and their comfort zones; that our marketing needs supplemented; there should be an emphasis on current technology.
Our new service model will focus on developing the following areas to better serve our patrons and to attract new people to our collections and services.
- Staff – provide capable and dedicated staff who efficiently delivers patron-centered services
- Resources – provide relevant, current, and popular material and devices to promote lifelong learning
- Marketing – provide personalized information to learn about programs, services, and collections available at the library through traditional and social media
- Maintenance – provide buildings and create environments that are clean, safe and well maintained
- Outreach – provide library collections and services which reach beyond the brick and mortar libraries in the communities we serve
Beginning January 3, 2017 our operational hours will change to:
| Greenwich | N Fairfield | Wakeman | Willard |
Monday | 10-7 | 10-7 | 9-7 | 9-8 |
Tuesday | 10-7 | 12-7 | 9-7 | 9-8 |
Wednesday | 10-7 | 12-7 | 9-7 | 9-8 |
Thursday | 10-5 | 12-7 | 10-5 | 10-9 |
Friday | 10-5 | 9-5 | 10-5 | 10-5 |
Saturday | 10-2 | 10-2 | 10-2 | 10-5 |
While 2016 was a year of physical change, 2017 will be a year of philosophical change – that is rethinking the way we deliver library services to the people in Huron County.
On behalf of the Huron County Community Library staff and the Board of Trustees, I wish you a new year full of positive change and happiness!