The Keys to Success for America's Star Libraries
RSS-- Library Journal, 11/23/2009
Being in sync with community needs is the single most important key to their success, identified by 73 percent of America’s star libraries. In a survey conducted by Library Journal, the star libraries, the top 258 libraries given stars by the LJ Index of Public Library Service 2009, Round 2, were asked to select three reasons for their success from a list of ten items. We heard from 116 libraries.
“Great support staff” came in a strong second at 53 percent. The library’s embrace of technology and change came in third at 43 percent.
Other contenders include outside involvement in the community (30 percent), an emphasis on programming (28 percent), community demographics (23 percent), and having many computers available for public use (22 percent).
Surprisingly, location and long hours open hit few of the star libraries’ keys to success, at 17 and 16 percent respectively. And only 18 percent thought a new building or renovation made the difference.
Full coverage of the latest results of the LJ Index of Public Library Service 2009, Round 2 , based on 2007 IMLS data, can be found here.
