By: Monica Casey | WCTV Eyewitness News

February 17, 2020

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) -- A new plan in Leon County, called the Essential Libraries Initiative, has a goal of keeping local libraries relevant, community-focused, and up-to-date.

The Leon County Commission discussed and adopted the plan at its annual retreat; it's goal is long-term sustainability of the library.

A focus group from Leon County toured award-winning libraries in the region in Gwinnett County Georgia, Orange County Florida, Broward County Florida, Mecklenburg County North Carolina, and Richland County South Carolina, bringing home new ideas.

About 45% of Leon County residents have a library card; over the last five years, that number has declined by 20%.

Debra Sears has been a librarian for 42 years, working in Leon County for 15. She's currently the library director.

She's cataloged many changes over the years, and she believes the library is always ready to adapt.

"When I first started, we had card catalogs; people find a lot of comfort in those catalogs, just flipping through," said Sears. "At one point in time, audio cassettes was a really exciting new format, and that has come and gone."

The way people use the library is constantly changing.

Check-outs of print materials have dropped by 45%, while checkouts and downloads of e-books have more than doubled, at 104%. Computer usage is up by 38%.

People ages 51 and older make up 39% of library users.

The Essential Libraries Initiative involves four main focuses: (1) literacy and lifelong learning, (2) workforce and career development, (3) arts and humanities, and (4) civic and community engagement.

Although the county is not building a brand new library building, the insides of the branches may see structural changes.

"Books will always be essential to a library, I mean that's what a library is. What we are doing with our infrastructure however, is trying to make sure that space is more flexible," said Assistant Leon County Administrator Wanda Hunter Donaldson.

Donaldson says flexible space could involve movable furnishings to allow for more meeting space.

Library goers are using meeting rooms far more than they used to; reservations are up by 125% since 2015.

"It seems like every time we create new meeting space, we need even more," said Sears.

Leon County is also looking at food options.

"The various libraries we saw, they all had designated eating spaces where they had cafes and vending machines," said Donaldson.

The Leon County Library is offering more programs, an increase of 67%, and attendance at those programs is up 2%.

"While our foundation will always be print material, we are recognizing that people learn and engage in different ways and we want to make sure that we are positioned to meet those demands and needs among our community," said Donaldson.

The library is hoping to be more outward facing.

"We're ready and waiting for you, but what we want to do is become more integrated with all of the different places and people of Leon County and go out and be in those places so that we can serve people better," said Sears.

Leon County will place a renewed focus on youth literacy and adult skills training.

"We also want literacy to be a vital part of everybody's life. And it's not just reading, it's not just being a good reader, it's having math literacy, health literacy, financial," said Sears.

Leon County will host public meetings at each library branch, including the main branch downtown, and put out an online survey.

Donaldson says the County hopes to have gathered all public input about the library by the end of April, to create action items to be brought before the Commission during budget discussions in the summer of 2020.

The study of the past five years also found that volunteer numbers at Leon County libraries are down 7%.

Sears says it's a great place to work, learn, and meet new people.

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Do you use your local library? Posted by WCTV.tv on Monday, February 17, 2020