Seminole Community Library @ SPC Seminole Campus

Mission of the Seminole Community Library

Executive Summary

This Long Range Plan for the Seminole Community Library at St. Petersburg College, Seminole Campus, covers fiscal years 2004-05 through 2007-08. It is intended to supplement the Intergovernmental Agreement between St. Petersburg College and the City of Seminole, and to give direction to the library’s future according to the terms of that partnership document. The plan has been developed under the joint guidance of the Library Advisory Board, the City Library Director, and the College Professional-In-Charge. The following is a summary of the mission and goals, based on the recommended service responses identified by the Long Range Planning Committee (see Introduction):

Mission Statement

The Seminole Community Library at St. Petersburg College, Seminole Campus, delivers excellent service in dynamic, innovative, and technologically advanced ways that:

provide a community commons where all people can meet, learn, and exchange ideas,
promote lifelong and formal learning,
enhance library patrons’ ability to effectively use information and digital media,
enable library patrons to explore and engage current topics and popular titles.

Goals

Goal 1: Community Commons and Diversity
The library will be a meeting place for diverse community interchange through the use of its facility, technology, collection, services, and programs for patrons of all ages and backgrounds.

Goal 2: Lifelong and Formal Learning Support
Library patrons will use the facilities to meet their formal educational goals, continuing education interests, or to engage in self-directed learning.

Goal 3: Access to Electronic Information and Literacy Skills
The library will provide patrons with high-speed access to print, audio-visual, and online resources to support information and communication needs and information literacy skills.

Goal 4: Current Topics and Titles
The library will have resources on up-to-date topics and titles to inform patrons about current and popular cultural, social, and recreational trends.

Purpose

The procedural starting point for the development and implementation of a long range plan for the library is found in three documents: (1) the Intergovernmental Agreement between St. Petersburg College and the City of Seminole for the construction, administration, and management of the joint use library; (2) Resolution No. 2003-7 of Seminole City Council on the establishment of a Library Advisory Board (jointly appointed by the College and the City); and (3) the Interlocal Agreement of the Pinellas Public Library Cooperative. The first outlines the responsibilities of the College and the City as partners in the administration and management of the joint use library. The second concerns the duties of the Library Advisory Board in advising and making recommendations concerning library management policies. The third indicates the rights, duties, and privileges of the City of Seminole as a member municipality of the Cooperative. Regarding the last, it is important to note that the City’s membership in the Cooperative qualifies the library to receive funds from the State Aid to Libraries program, which in turn requires that the Cooperative as well as its member libraries have a long range plan. A Long Range Plan brings together all three organizational aspects of the library and seeks to coordinate them for optimum benefit to the City, the College, and all whom the library serves.

Historical Timeline of the Library

July 12, 1960	Library established by the Seminole Ridge Business and Professional Women’s Club in small cottage on Lake Drive
June 1964	Operation of library turned over to Friends of the Library group, and later to state-chartered Seminole Ridge Library Association
November 10, 1965	Library moved to motor court facility on Lake Drive
February 15, 1971	Library moved to new facility on Johnson Boulevard designed as a Library with a later addition in 1974 and extensive remodeling in 1984
1989	Seminole Library Association dissolved and turned over all assets and liabilities of library to City of Seminole
August 3, 1992	Library opened in new 17,000 square foot facility on 113th Street
1992	Friends of the Seminole Library established
February 13, 1996	Library Advisory Board established
October 2000	City of Seminole and St. Petersburg College signed Intergovernmental Agreement for the design, construction, and operation of joint use library
March 11, 2003	Library Advisory Board reconstituted with members appointed by City of Seminole and St. Petersburg College
August 10, 2003	Library opened in joint use facility

For a more detailed narrative history of the library, please see the library's history.

Governance and Funding of the Library

The governance of the library is defined by the same three documents mentioned in the Purpose section above: the Intergovernmental Agreement between the City and College, City Council Resolution 2003-07 establishing the Library Advisory Board, and the Interlocal Agreement of the Pinellas Public Library Cooperative.

The Intergovernmental Agreement defines the partnership between the City and the College in two broad areas in regard to governance. The College is responsible for library administration and facility services, including building maintenance, computer networks, telephones, custodial and building security services, printing/photocopying services, and capital maintenance. The City is responsible for library management and operation in regard to daily activities and services, including staffing. Although the partners have primary responsibility in their given areas, each confers with the other concerning those areas.

The Library Advisory Board is composed of five members – two appointed by the City, two by the College, and the fifth jointly appointed by both the City and the College. It is intended to be a board for citizen input from both community and campus in the policies and management of the library.

Participating cities and taxing districts, along with Pinellas County Government, constitute the Pinellas Public Library Cooperative. A nine-member Board of Directors sets policy for the Cooperative Administrator and staff at the PPLC offices in Clearwater, and is advised by a representative from the Library Directors Advisory Council. The Interlocal Agreement defines the cooperative functioning of the member libraries, which provides for free library service to all eligible residents of Pinellas County, development of a multi-library network to maximize sharing of resources, continuing development and support for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, and promotion and coordination of continuing development of library facilities and services. While remaining independent libraries, the member institutions function cooperatively in many ways to improve overall service throughout the County.

Funding of the library is through several sources:

• City of Seminole, which appropriates funding for most staffing costs and for certain operational costs, excluding operational costs funded by the College.

• St. Petersburg College, which appropriates funding for maintenance/repairs, electricity, water/sewer, custodial, building security, telecommunications, computers networks, photocopying and computer printing, collection security, capital maintenance, and for staffing costs associated with additional operating hours when College classes are in session.

• Pinellas County through the Pinellas Public Library Cooperative, which allocates funds based on the “funding formula” in the Interlocal Agreement.

• State of Florida, which appropriates funds through the State Aid to Libraries program, locally administered by the Pinellas Public Library Cooperative.

In addition, the Friends of the Library, through their fund-raising efforts, regularly contribute supplementary monies for enhancements of the collection, equipment, or staff performance and development.

The Planning Process

In the summer of 2003, the library director initiated the process by communication with the library’s assigned regional consultant at the Division of Library and Information Services (State Library), Florida Department of State. The consultant would serve as facilitator in the planning process. The consultant and the library director arranged a briefing and orientation for the Library Advisory Board about library planning and how it might be pursued in our local situation.

As a guide for the process, The New Planning for Results: A Streamlined Approach, by Sandra Nelson (American Library Association, 2001), was used. This guide is widely used, but is intended especially for public libraries. Given the nature of our joint use facility, the guide was supplemented by material from the academic library perspective so that in the planning both the public library outlook and the academic library outlook would be fully and fairly represented.

The briefing and orientation of the Library Advisory Board was followed by the formation of a Long Range Planning Committee, composed of the Library Advisory Board members and by citizens and local leaders representative of key constituencies in the community as identified by the Board. Once a well-balanced Planning Committee was formed, the first major phase of the planning process was begun. Facilitated by the consultant, the Planning Committee as a whole received a briefing and orientation. This was followed by two all-day workshops in which the Planning Committee worked through statistical and documentary data about the community and the library. This background work laid the foundation for the Planning Committee’s formulation of service responses for the library. The planning guide defines a service response as “what a library does for, or offers to, the public in an effort to meet specific community needs.” After careful deliberation, the Planning Committee recommended the following four service responses:

Community Commons and Diversity: providing an environment that helps address the need of people of all backgrounds to meet and interact with others in their community and to participate in public discourse about community issues.

Lifelong and Formal Learning Support: helping address the desire for self-directed personal growth and development opportunities for independent learners, and for students enrolled in a formal program of education or who are pursuing their education through a program of home schooling to attain their educational goals.

Information Literacy and High Speed Access: helping address the need for electronic information resources and skills related to finding, evaluating, and using information effectively through high-speed access to electronic resources as well as traditional library materials.

Current Topics and Titles: helping fulfill community residents’ appetite for information about popular cultural and social trends and their desire for satisfying recreational experiences.

Using the Planning Committee’s proposed service responses as a foundation, a library staff subcommittee began the second major phase of the process by drafting a new mission statement, from which were formulated goals, objectives, and activities. This second phase was conducted over a period of about three months and involved opportunities for participation by all library staff. The fruit of that labor is the plan here presented, as revised following review by the Planning Committee as a whole and the Library Advisory Board.

The timeline below summarizes the entire planning process from conception and preparation, to information-gathering and analysis, to drafting and revising, to final review and adoption:

30 September 2003	Library Advisory Board Meeting: briefing and orientation. Attending: Board members, State Library consultant, Library Director, SPC Seminole Campus Provost, SPC Professional-In-Charge, SPC Director of Libraries, PPLC Administrator, Deputy City Clerk
7 October 2003	Library Advisory Board Meeting: Identification of possible candidates for a Long Range Planning Committee who would be representative of community constituencies.
19 November 2003	Library Advisory Board Meeting: Initial roster of Long Range Planning Committee members distributed. Other members were added later.
7 January 2004	Library Advisory Board Meeting: Library Director confirmed date of first meeting of Long Range Planning Committee – 29 January.
29 January 2004	Long Range Planning Committee Meeting: First meeting of full Committee. Committee was briefed on planning process by State Library consultant; presentations made about the library, the College, and the Pinellas Public Library Cooperative.
18 February 2004	Library Advisory Board Meeting
21 February 2004	Long Range Planning Committee Meeting: All day workshop. Committee identified a community vision, strengths/weaknesses/opportunities/threats, and community needs. From the above, the Committee identified tentative “Service Responses” for the library.
24 March 2004	Library Advisory Board Meeting
2 April 2004	Library Staff Meeting: Library staff briefed on planning process and their role in it.
17 April 2004	Long Rang Planning Committee Meeting: All day workshop. Committee reviewed previous work and recommendations from LAB and library staff; selected final Service Responses.
21 April 2004	Library Advisory Board Meeting
May – July 2004	Library and College staff meet. Working from the Service Responses developed by the Committee, library and College staff drafted a Long Range Strategic Plan, including a Mission Statement and specific Goals, Objectives, and Activities to accomplish the Plan.
July – August 2004	Long Range Planning Committee and Library Advisory Board review the Draft Plan. The State Library consultant, SPC Director of Libraries, and PPLC Administrator also invited to review the Draft Plan
August – September	Review of Draft Plan by City Administration and City 2004 Council and by SPC Seminole Campus Provost
October 2004	Begin implementation and monitoring of Long Range Plan