THE Swan Hill Regional Library will participate in a survey to help find out how people are using libraries in the wake of two years of pandemic lockdowns.
Swan Hill Regional Library manager Camille Cullinan says the data collected from the state-wide public library survey can used for advocacy for libraries when approaching local or state governments, among other things.
“It’s also to find out what people are using the libraries for now, how they are being used, and we’re going to collect the data so that we can actually do some assessment of our current library uses and what our current patrons want so that we can then develop library services to suit their needs.”
Ms Cullinan believes that many people are unaware of the wide range of services local libraries have to offer.
“It’s amazing, even people who come into the library regularly I will often have conversations with them and they will go, ‘oh, I didn’t know the library did that’,” Ms Cullinan said.
“There are a lot of services that we have that we provide through our website like online resources that people have got no idea that we have there to use.”
While the survey is on the more general side and not tailored to specific libraries, Ms Cullinan says the data it provides will be useful further down the track.
“We are going to use this as the start of our information towards our community engagement because we are also wanting to do a little bit more research into that sort of thing from the libraries’ perspective to determine what services we need to provide here locally,” Ms Cullinan said.
“We would really love people to participate in the survey, because for us it’s very important to hear from the community about what they really want.”
The survey will run from March 15-28, and can be completed at any library branch in Victoria, including Swan Hill, or completed online at www.research.net/r/publiclibrarysurvey2022, or via the library’s website or Facebook pages.
