Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Rocking the Senior Center

      December 15, 2015 Jessica LeMay, Parwana Salih and I (Jillian Parsons) descended on the kind souls at the Worcester Senior Center. Our goal was to ascertain if there is a need for outreach within the senior community beyond those provided by the Center. This visit turned out to be much more successful than our last visit. The folks involved were well aware of our arrival.  During the hour we were there, we answered 32 questions, issued 6 library cards, checked out 3 items and received 2 returns.

The number one question on everybody's lips was, how and when can I return these items. These questions garnered several potential solutions:

  • We could waive late fees for books checked out at our visit.
  • We could extend the loan period.
  • We could have a regular stop at the Senior Center.
Apart from questions of logistics, patrons were concerned about connecting to the WPL. A patron brought up that she wasn't aware of happenings at the library. I realized that if you are not on a computer, and weren't able to come into the library regularly, you would have a hard time knowing about the services and programs we offer. I suggest we could add flyers to talking books deliveries and take flyers to the Senior Center when we visit. 

We now have two visits under our belts and are poised to start something really great! Jess and I will be out and about looking for a future venue. Until next time!




Friday, December 4, 2015

Starting a New Venture

November 24, 2015 Jessica LeMay, Barbara Figurski,  Parwana Salih and I (Jillian Parsons) made our premiere voyage out into the community with our Outreach gear. The goal was to spread the awareness of WPL, to bring new patrons into the library, and to find communities that need more attention from the services we offer.

Our first stop was the lobby on the first floor of the City Hall. Those government workers are sure busy! Even though there was a lack of communication about our visit, we still found people who were curious. And how could they not be? We had a whole library set up on one table! We had with us books (Fiction, Non Fiction and Children's) Audio books on CD, Playaways video and audio, and Kindle Paperwhites. We also had two hotspots and a laptop computer. We could and did hand out library cards and place holds for patrons. We promoted events  at the library and Barbara promoted the Talking Books Library services.

We learned a lot from our trial run. Next up, on December 15, 2015 we visit the Senior Center! Stay tuned.