The John G. McCullough Free Library - North Bennington, Vermont

The John G. McCullough Free Library is committed to providing materials and services to persons of all ages in order to meet their educational, professional and recreational needs. Special emphasis is directed toward stimulating children's appreciation of reading and learning. The library also serves as a comfortable gathering place for the community at large.

Goals and Criteria

1. The library will provide patrons with an inviting, comfortable place for reading, research, conversation and community events.

Install an elevator to the second floor
Build a handicapped-accessible bathroom
Have a meeting room
Have a comfortable reading room
Have a comfortable sitting area for parents in the children's library
Have a gallery/concert space
Increase its storage capacity
Install a sign on the front lawn

2. The library will provide patrons with current materials and programs which make their leisure time more enjoyable and productive.

Offer a program in conjunction with another community organization (2003)
Offer a contemporary fiction reading group (2003)*
Expand its adult fiction and non-fiction collections*
Create a CD collection of at least 50 titles (2003-4)
Create a DVD collection of at least 50 titles (2003-4)
Build a digital audio book collection (2003; dropped, lacking patron interest)

3. The library will provide patrons with a wide range of general information relating to their work, schooling and personal lives.

Offer at least two Internet training courses (2003)*
Create a collection of books on job hunting, resume writing and small business ownership (2003)
Create a parenting information section
Create a homeschooling section

4. The library will foster in children a desire to learn and a lifelong love of books.

Offer an intergenerational writing program (2002-3)
Expand its board book collection by 20%, or 20 titles (2003)
Expand its emergent reader collection by 25%, or 100 titles (2003)
Expand its children's non-fiction collection by 5%, or 50 titles (2003)
Expand its children's audio book collection by 30%, or 10 titles (2003)
Expand its children's video collection by 5 titles per year (2003-7)*
Do more school outreach (2003-5)*
Offer an after-school program for K-3 (2004)*
Expand its middle school collection by 100%, or 100 titles

5. The library will give patrons an appreciation for the history of North Bennington.

Have a local history room (2003)
Build a collection of local history materials, including books, documents, maps and photographs (2003-7)
Offer a local history program (2004)

6. The library will grow its endowment.

Send out an annual fundraising letter (2002-7)*
Increase its per capita tax support to the state average (2004-5)*
Establish an organization of library volunteers (2003)*
Undertake a capital campaign

Planning Process

In February 2002, the library's board of trustees formed a planning committee consisting of six community members, three trustees and the librarian. The committee's purpose was to create a blueprint for providing quality services to the community for the next five years.

From February through June, four committee members attended a series of library planning seminars sponsored by the Vermont Department of Libraries and using The New Planning for Results (American Library Association, 2001) as a textbook. From February through July, the committee held eleven meetings, including three with community focus groups and one with the library staff. At its first meeting, the committee reviewed community and library statistics and prepared a survey which was distributed at the North Bennington firehouse on Town Meeting Day and at a Shaftsbury town meeting in June. The survey was also made available at the North Bennington post office, at the library and through the North Bennington Graded School.

A total of 177 completed surveys were returned, representing 10% of the library's estimated service population. When respondents were asked to identify the three resources they would most like to see improved, the top three choices were 1) "video tapes/CDs/audio books," 2) "current fiction" and 3) "current non-fiction," in that order. 34% of those responding made no recommendations for improvement, some indicating that they weren't library users, others that they were satisfied with the services already provided.

The focus group meetings were advertised in the Bennington Banner, on WBTN and with fliers. Specific individuals were invited by telephone. A total of 28 community members, including former trustees and a former librarian, attended these meetings. Although harder to quantify, the focus-group data reinforced the survey results.

Having analyzed the data from these two sources, the planning committee rewrote the library's mission statement and, with the library staff, chose five "service responses" from a list of thirteen provided in Planning for Results. The five chosen were Commons, Current Topics and Titles, General Information, Lifelong Learning, and Local History and Genealogy; they represent the services the library will emphasize over the life of the plan in order to meet the needs of the community. The committee then proceeded to write a goal for each of the five service responses and a sixth goal pertaining to fundraising.

The committee submitted a draft plan to the board in mid-July, at which time the board and staff decided on a series of specific steps or "criteria" for measuring progress toward achieving each goal. The final plan was unanimously adopted by the board on August 20, 2002.

Planning Committee

Tina Calabro, Audrey Jones, Kitsey Canaan, Matthew Patterson, Julie Chamay, Doris Pratt, Kim Cushman, Forrest Snyder, Tom Fels, and Martina Tietje.

The Long-Range Plan

Mission Statement

Goals and Criteria

Planning Process

Planning Committee