May 6, 2019 – Leonardtown, Md. – The St. Mary’s County Library is conducting strategic planning to focus on the services it should offer our developing County over the next four years. As part of the process, St. Mary’s County Library is surveying our community to gain a more precise understanding of the community’s needs, interests, and priorities. Please share your perceptions about the Library and offer feedback regarding what resources and services you wish to see provided by taking our online survey. The survey is available here until Monday, May 27.
You do not have to have a library card or currently use the library to take the survey. The survey is open to all, regardless of age. Those under 18 will be counted as “17 and under.” The survey software provides respondents with complete anonymity. You will not be asked to identify yourself, nor will your IP address be captured at any time over the course of data collection. Individual responses will not be shared. We welcome feedback from everyone in our community.
“We are very excited to be engaged in strategic planning,” said Michael Blackwell, St. Mary’s County Library Director, “and are thankful to the State of Maryland and the Southern Maryland Regional Library Association for providing a grant, much of it federal money, so that we may engage a planning consultant without cost to County residents. We hope that our nearly 40,000 card holders will respond but also very much hope to hear from those who do not use the Library frequently or at all. The Library is here for everyone. We want to identify what our County residents want so that we can provide the very best materials in the most appropriate formats and the most desirable programs and other services.”
When asked if he thought the survey would provide any surprises or new directions, Blackwell said “There seems to be a trend among young people back to preferring print over digital. I wonder if that is true in our area. We are going into the process with an open mind and without preconceptions, though, and we’re interested in finding out what our County has to say. I hope our community will tell us ways we might make the Library more appealing and heavily used.”
