The Friends of the North End Library would like to thank all of our neighbors who participated in the library Survey to improve our local library. We are very pleased with the number of responses we received as well as the quality and thoughtfulness of the responses. The number of responses exceeded our expectations. We now have good information on how to improve our programs and the library in general. The results of the survey demonstrate that the library has a loyal group of users. The responses indicate that obviously most people use the library for the books. Other highly enjoyed uses of the library include the author talks, book club, movie club and road trips.
Some responses suggested that they would like more computers and additional types of programs like exercise, music and educational, e.g. how to use resources.
One consistent response mentioned the energy and devotion of our new librarian, Jennifer Hawes and the helpfulness of her staff.
On the negative side, some people commented on the darkness of the rooms and lack of cleanliness but others mentioned that they enjoyed the clean, well lit spaces. The difference of opinion may be because some people have not seen the recent painting and cleaning of the interior of the library. Please come back to see how much our space has been upgraded. As you may know, the City is in the process of renovating all of the branch libraries. The North End renovation is a few years away.
One issue the Friends cannot easily resolve is that many people want the library to be open more hours, especially another night and on Sunday.
The Friends intend to use the information in the survey to focus our attention on improving the library experience for the North End community, including increasing the number of author talks and adding more trips and other programs suggested in the survey.
If you want to volunteer to assist the Friends in our programs, our main volunteer activities include gardening around the library, book sorting of all books for our daily book sale, preparation of flyers for our programs, developing a program or just assisting with a program.
Every member can volunteer for whatever the member likes to do and not be obligated to be responsible for any amount of pre-determined time commitment.
If you would like to volunteer, please send an email to info@friendsnelibrary.org, or attend our monthly board meetings which are held at the North End Library on the second Wednesday of the month from 6:30 to 7:30 PM.
If you have paid your annual dues, you will receive our monthly newsletter which lists our activities. To pay your dues or for more information, please go to our website. www.friendsnelibrary.org.
Again, thank you for assisting us in improving our library.
FRIENDS OF THE NORTH END LIBRARY
