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8 | May 9, 2019 | the new lenox patriot news
newlenoxpatriot.com
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Library card sign up project a success
SEAN HASTINGS, Editor
National library week
was April 22-26, but due
to some poor weather, employees
of the New Lenox
Public Library took to the
streets the following week
trying to get people to sign
up for library cards.
The employees went
door-to-door throughout
different neighborhoods in
hopes to get people to sign
up for library cards.
The library staff members
split up into six different
shifts throughout the
week where two are three
members of the library
went door to door.
The village and the police
department were both
made aware that there were
going to be small groups
of people going around
neighborhoods knocking
on doors and that residents
should not be alarmed.
They visited 171 homes,
had 14 people sign up for
new cards, 45 already had
cards, 12 were not interested
and 107 had no answer.
For the homes that had
no answer, a hanger was
left that described how
they can sign up for a digital
card online for 30 days
and come in and replace it
with a real card.
Michelle Krooswyk,
library director and planner
for the library card
event, said they have seen
a decline in cards. And last
year they went around doing
a survey asking residents
what they thought
the library was doing right
and what it was doing
wrong.
“People are so busy
nowadays and we’re competing
for attention,” she
said. “This is one way to
do that.”
And the input they get
from each type of person:
card holder, non-card
holder, but wanting one,
and the non-card holders
who don’t want them, is
valuable information.
“The nice thing is that if
we do talk to people that
are card holders, it’s nice
to talk to them and ask how
they are doing,” Krooswyk
said. “There’s some people
who say ‘I just don’t like
the library, which is fine.
But the non-users are the
perfect people to talk to
and get feedback.”
She said it was good
that they were able to add
a personal touch into getting
people to sign up for
the library.
Broker - Management Team
“10”
It made it easier for people
to do so that wanted to,
rather than possibly having
them drag their feet in going
into the library themselves.
“The families who did
sign said they were thinking
about coming in to do
it,” Krooswyk said. “It was
a pleasant surprise that we
could come to them rather
than force them into the library.”
Adults and children
each made up half of the
sign-ups from that week.
Krooswyk did not use
her library much growing
up, but on a fluke applied
for a job at the library and
got “bit by the bug and the
rest is history,” she said.
“It melts my heart [to
have people sign up],” she
said.
Krooswyk also mentioned
how she hears people
say that the internet is
replacing libraries. But she
is not buying into that.
There is a tool on the library’s
website that calculates
and estimate of how
much money residents can
personally save just by using
the library.
If people are homebound,
they are still able
to access the resources online.
She just wants the residents
of New Lenox to use
the library for the books
and everything else that it
has to offer.
“A little card can do so
much,” she said.
Other news
The New Lenox Public
Library will be paid off
in December, Krooswyk
said.
The library opened in
December of 2001 and today
houses over 130,000
books, over 180 magazines,
nearly 5,000 DVDs
and more.