Small is beautiful

I spent Tuesday, May 15 at the Geasa-Marana Branch Library. Situated in “Old Marana” (west of I-10, north of Tangerine Road, east of Sanders Road, south of Trico-Marana Road), it is next to Ora Mae Harn Park, the Senior Center, and a post office; a couple of blocks from the Civic Center and new Marana Health Center; and within walking distance of Estes Elementary and Marana Middle Schools. The location is ideal but, despite that, circulation and facility use is not as high as it could be.

According to Kendra Davey, the branch manager, there are several reasons for this:

1)    because there isn’t a grocery store along with other shopping options or a large employer in Old Marana, residents have to travel outside the immediate area. Before or after work and/or as they do their errands, there is a tendency to stop at the library located close to where these other activities are taking place.

2)    Gladden Farms, the largest development in the area, is situated at the south end of Old Marana with easy access to I-10. There is a tendency to look south rather than travel a mile north to recreate.

3)    a small library is perceived as not having the resources that bigger facilities have. Given the Internet and the fact that the Pima County Library system consists of the main library in downtown Tucson, 25 branches and a bookmobile, no library is small – or isolated.

4)    the marketing of the library has not been consistent over the years, and staff has not implemented strategic outreach efforts to engage the community’s newest residents.

So, in addition to spending Tuesdays learning the procedures that ensure the Geasa-Marana Branch Library runs as smoothly as the Wheeler Taft Abbett, Sr. Branch Library and is as responsive to its patrons as all of the others in the system, I will be introducing people I know in the local area to Kendra and developing new relationships that will help to spread the word about this small gem. I will draft suggestions for outreach efforts designed to compliment the organization’s strategic plan and possibly get the chance to try a few of them out before my internship is over.

While working with the good folks at the Geasa-Marana Branch Library, I will use as my mantra a quote from Mark Twain: Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.