The Camp Verde Community Library conducted a community assessment to determine what the town’s priorities and concerns are to better serve the area.
Using funds from a $10,000 grant received from the Library Services & Technology Act, the library hired James LaRue, a consultant from LaRue and Associates, to help guide them through a three-phase community assessment project.
“We have so much opportunity that sometimes we’re a victim of our own success, and we get pulled in too many directions. And so I was hoping to get somebody to come and help us work through some of that and figure out what to focus on,” Library Director Kathy Hellman said.
Representatives from the library shared the results of the study with the Camp Verde Town Council at a work session Aug. 11.
Hellman said meeting with the consultant and creating a plan for the assessment was the first phase of the project. During their meeting, they looked at several national library trends currently going on and asked for staff input to determine where CVCL lands on the spectrum between traditional library services and current trends.
The spectrum was broken up into four categories: Physical versus virtual materials, individual to community services, collection of resources versus opportunities for creation, and portal to archive, or being a place where people go for access to resources versus sharing local history.
Overall, library staff felt that CVCL has done a good job of balancing individual services with community services, would like to see more virtual resources available, want to offer the community more resources to create and would like to do a better job of telling their story.
The second phase of the assessment involve library staff interviewing around 40 community leaders to get an idea of what issues matter most to the public.
Jay Baez, a travel librarian, interviewed members of the Yavapai-Apache Nation Tribal Council to find out what needs that the library isn’t offering. One of the main things he took away from the experience was that tribal leaders would like to see a variety of resources available for every generation.
“There’s so much that was brought to my attention, and being able to have interviewed these people … it was very enlightening,” he said.“I think it was able to give me an insight of what it is that my focus should be on for the library, how I can benefit not just the younger generation, my generation, the older generation, on both spectrums. … It was really rewarding for me.”
After they finished interviewing community leaders, they compiled the results and determined which issues were most frequent, to determine the primary needs. The responses included concerns about community culture; community health; environmental issues, specifically related to water; the economy and business development; diversity; family issues such as formal education, senior care and affordable food; and social issues such as discrimination, violence and homelessness.
The third phase is planning. They came up with five initiatives that they hope to address through events, communication or resources: Community culture, family support, information access, community health and social issues.
Hellman said the idea is for the library to take the lead on some projects, but they’d like to partner with the city and other organizations in town to make them happen. They also want to be sure to support the Town of Camp Verde in reaching their vision.
“The library can pretty much support any value or anything that the town wants to do,” she said. Councilwoman Cris McPhail said she’s grateful to the library because while the town council has to focus its efforts on following its general plan, budgeting and making sure town staff has the tools they need for projects, the library is able to offer support to the community and offer resources for food insecurity, mental and physical health, family issues and many others.
“The only place we have the opportunity to show that kind of care for our people is through the library,” McPhail said. “It’s truly through you that we can save and improve lives.”
