Public engagement drives library choices

STOCKED: Library manager Sandy Green at Masterton Library. PHOTO/FILE

The Masterton Library has shown a substantial turnover rate of borrowed books with a recorded loan count of over 276,000 since last July.

This is equal to borrowing every single item in the library four times over.

Masterton Library manager Sandy Green says this great turnover rate is due to the engagement the library has with the public on multiple levels.

"We have been working over the past few years to improve our customer services and enhance them with new services," she said. "We look at this as increasing the number and quality of the conversations we have with our customers and doing this through as many mediums as possible.

"Three examples of this are the new similar author lists, our monthly magazine and our Facebook page."

The Masterton Library's Facebook page has a recorded history of higher public engagement than the pages of Christchurch City Libraries, Hutt City Libraries and Hamilton City Libraries.

As a result of the conversations that the Masterton Library has with its patrons, the catalogue is filled with items specifically chosen by the librarians to target Masterton's expressed reading interests.

"We have chosen to continue to select the items we want for customers from lists that we will be provided with as we want our book stock to reflect the reading interests of Masterton Library users as closely as possible," Mrs Green said.