Ames Public Library Strategic Plan
Today is 1/7/2009
School-age children, teens and their caregivers will have collections, programs, services, and spaces designed to encourage reading, library use, and creativity. The library will help them acquire skills in finding and using information; nurture a lifelong love of learning; and aid the transition from child to adult.
Activities:
- Provide current and vital print and non-print collections for school-age
children, teens, and their caregivers. [Youth Selectors] - Investigate and implement best practices for serving targeted populations, such as low-income and English Language Learning (ELL)
school-age children and teens [Youth Services Specialist] - Provide educational and entertaining programs both within and outside of the library. [Children and Family Programming Committee]
- Coordinate with other community entities to sponsor and cosponsor
programs. [Children and Family Programming Committee] - Provide opportunities for school-age children and teens to be involved in
the library throughout the year. [Youth Services Specialist and Volunteer
Services Coordinator] - Investigate and implement opportunities for partnering with local schools
including interlibrary loan, programming, service for homeschoolers and
location of bookmobile stops. [Youth Services Specialist] - Provide comprehensive summer library programs targeted at school-age
children and teens. [Children and Family Programming Committee] - Provide passive programming (activity sheets, trivia sheets, do-it-yourself crafts, at-home reading programs, scavenger hunts, etc.) both at the library and online. [Children and Family Programming Committee]
- Investigate and implement an expanded summer library program in cooperation with local schools, which would extend from the end of one school year to the beginning of the next. [Children and Family Programming Committee]
- Investigate and implement online resources, such as readers advisory,
chat, or email reference and provide an online presence typical for this
age (for example social networking sites). [Youth Services Specialist and
Supervisory Team] - Update staff training in the areas of school-age collection development,
readers advisory, program presentation, and online resources. [Youth Services Specialist] - Evaluate library spaces to enhance age-appropriate, distinct spaces for
early elementary, “tweens”, and teens. [Youth Services Specialist] - Implement staffing dedicated to teen service. [Director and Teen Space Committee]
Measures of Success:
- The vitality of discrete parts of the youth fiction and nonfiction print and
nonprint collections, after the initial measurements, will reach the target
ratio of between 1.0 and 1.5 each year. - Each year, the number of school-age children and teens who attend programs designed for their age group will increase in proportion to annual population growth.
- After an initial annual space utilization survey, the number of teens in the
APL Zone – By Teens 4 Teens will be maintained at a level appropriate for the space available.