University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Refining Relationship: Milwaukee Public Library and Community Reflection

Latham, Joyce M.; Wang, Shengang

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/110207

Description

Title
Refining Relationship: Milwaukee Public Library and Community Reflection
Author(s)
  • Latham, Joyce M.
  • Wang, Shengang
Issue Date
2021
Keyword(s)
  • library services
  • collections
  • community engagement
Abstract
The goal of the administrative team of the Milwaukee Public Library (MPL) is to create policies that ensure successful use of the library services and collections on an uninterrupted basis by all the members of their community. The team has pursued strategies over a period of years to address potential barriers to use caused specifically by overdue materials and subsequent fines. The latest of these strategies produced a data set, available to MPL through the shared Milwaukee County Federated Library System, that allowed authorized MPL staff, in partnership with the School of Information Studies of the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (SOIS), to engage fine-constricted patrons in a review of library policies. Utilizing a telephone survey and focus groups, MPL/SOIS identified a constellation of issues that affect patrons’ use of the library beyond the single question of fines to engage the broader question of the impact of policies. Patrons indicated a desire for more communication strategies initiated by the library and an elimination of the collection agency and the associated fee, as well as a concern about who benefits from the fines that are collected. They also identified an underlying value for the library that supports that use. This dialogue produced a study that extends beyond simply the elimination of “barriers to use” to a more affirmative approach of supporting not just access, but relationship between the library and their patrons.
Publisher
Johns Hopkins University Press and the Illinois School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Series/Report Name or Number
Library Trends 69 (4). Spring 2021
ISSN
0024-2594
Type of Resource
text
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/110207
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2020.0049
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2021 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Owning Collections

Library Trends 69 (4) Spring 2021: Researching Practice / Practicing Research: The Public Library in Partnership with Academia. PRIMARY
Library Trends 69 (4) Spring 2021: Researching Practice / Practicing Research: The Public Library in Partnership with Academia. Edited by Joyce M. Latham and Noah Lenstra.