The Northern Onondaga Public Library knows the importance of surveying the community to find out if the library is meeting their expectations. This past year we found it imperative to ask questions about the new needs of our community, as much has changed due to COVID.
This survey was launched online and available as a printed form, beginning early May and ending May 31st. We had 780 responses. Below are the results of that 2021 survey.
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Question one’s results are not surprising as the responses to the survey match previously found demographic data of our community. The area that NOPL serves has a large percentage of seniors; more than half are 55 or older. An age group that is growing in our area is adults age 35-44.
Question 2 results are shown in the form of a word cloud; it’s a simple visualization showing the most prominent answers in the largest text size. Here you’ll see Cicero area zone 13039 is the area we received the most responses; next 13212 North Syracuse, Clay at 13041, and 13029 for Brewerton.
Question 3 is where we talked about the local branch. Here we asked what library you visit the most, or at the time considered your home branch. If you answered that you did not use the library you would be directed to the end of the survey skipping the following library usage questions; this was to not skew the data from patrons who use one or more of the NOPL Branches. Here you will see that North Syracuse is home to around 45% of respondents. NOPL’s North Syracuse Branch is one of the highest circulating branches in the county. As it sits in a walkable location in a densely populated area so this data did not come as a surprise. Yet, Cicero was not far off at about 16% less meaning that even if the Cicero Branch had lower circulation its patrons are passionate about the library and its offerings. NOPL’s Brewerton Branch is unique as it sits on the border of Onondaga County and many of its residents are seasonal. Although the responses from this branch seem small, they are excellent. Brewerton’s tight community truly shines at this location and data will be looked at equally and independently for this branch.
In past surveys, we’ve always heard how our patrons can never get enough books. In this chart, we can see the growth in usage of our digital resources. Online access has had a huge increase in the past year, mostly due to COVID, and we are seeing more and more people downloading ebooks and streaming audiobooks, music, and movies. But digital has not removed the need for physical items and this chart is telling us that people still need and desire to check out items from our shelves. As media and technology change NOPL will have to acclimate, but we now see that the community may need new options.
Question 5 asked how you value the library and how you see the most influence from the library in your life and community. The traditional view is the most prudent here, that we supply books for borrowing, but we also have a stronghold on being viewed as a place for education through programming and resources. The other options come up almost equal in value and although lower in score fall as niche services or hidden gems which the library now sees needs more communication to our patrons.
There has been a lot of data out there that tells us that library users come in mostly in the range of every 2-3 months. This would make since most items are due within that span of time. But our front desk Clerks have always said otherwise and this proves it! If you’re a heavy user of the library you visit us often, more than once or twice a week! With this knowledge, we can now see that we should be changing our promotional schedule and display items more often to keep our library fresh for our more active patrons.
This question was to see what communication channels you use or would like the library to use to contact you. The answer was clear, that email is the best way to provide you information about the library. If you notice texting services is not a service we currently offer but we thought to ask about it. We wanted to see if texting was a desirable channel of communication, and around 10% of responders thought it was.
We are happy to see that the library is meeting the needs in an excellent or very good way for more than half of the responders. But for everyone else, we want to know your reasons and review your feedback. After this question, we had a comments section that we’ll review more in detail in the coming months. There were a few people that left comments but did not leave their contact information or specific details on why something wasn’t working for them. If you are one of those people please use our Contact Form to get in touch with us about your concerns, we’d like to learn more.
We are excited to hear that our customer service is excellent for the majority of our patrons and we’ll continue to provide quality service as this is one of the highest priorities of our organization.
We are very appreciative of the time you have taken to assist in our analysis. We are extremely grateful for contributing your valuable time, honest information, and thoughtful suggestions. Thank you!
