Nancy Studebaker is the executive director at the Niles District Library. She can be reached by email at director@nileslibrary.net.

The Niles District Library Board approved its 2019 to 2029 Vision Plan at its June meeting. Our vision is to create a community of lifelong learners who want to make Niles their lifelong home. The Vision Plan is divided into six focus areas: building, learning, community, marketing, traditional and leadership. 

There is always a lot happening at the library.  These are some of the highlights from just the last few weeks:  weaving on a loom, meeting a local NASA retiree, meeting your state representative, checking out a Fernwood pass, strolling through the gardens at the depot and snapping some photos, lLearning how to research your family’s history, checking out locally harvested seeds, learning chess from a master, taking a special tour of the Fort St. Joseph Archaeology site, having documents notarized, checking out home repair tools, playing mahjong, eating a free lunch, reading free books.

It is all free. 

So, you may be surprised that we need to “focus on marketing,” but we do. 

Word of mouth is the best marketing tool. We aim to create a culture of excellent customer service that makes people not only want to come again but also to tell their friends. 

The Niles Daily Star and WNIL radio are invaluable partners in our quest to get the word out. They generously publish and promote our activities on a regular basis.

We also offer an email newsletter and a printed program guide that comes out quarterly.

We strive to understand our “market” by surveying our patrons in February of even-numbered years.  One of our goals in the coming years will be to better understand why some people don’t use the library. 

With so much going on in the library every day, it is difficult just to keep all our staff up-to-date.  One way we do this is through a daily email that goes out to all employees early each morning. 

We also have an all-staff meeting every morning at 8:50 a.m. to go over the day’s agenda. Obviously, we fully understand the challenge of keeping up-to-date on everything that is happening at the library.

Perhaps the best way to stay on top of everything that is happening is our Facebook page. We would encourage all our patrons to “like” this page and make plans to visit the library soon.