Dear Resident:
I invite you to share in the library’s future. In order to continue to make a positive difference in people’s lives, we must provide social, economic, and educational capital to Farmington’s residents. Changes in technology, society, and economics all impact the library’s ability to develop a structural fabric connecting individuals together into a vital, vibrant community.
Although the Internet is a major information source for everyone, our Reference and Information Service continues to increase at a record-breaking rate of 53%, or about one question per minute. This rapid growth is a direct result of our outstanding customer service team coupled with an exciting, high powered learning environment.
I have charted the library’s principal course over the next year toward a learning-centered organization devoted to appreciative inquiry and quality service. These concepts conform to our strategic plan and are well grounded in our mission. The library will emerge as the people’s university, where citizen customers of all ages can learn how to utilize various technologies, programs and applications embedded within a humanities model designed to inspire and satisfy intellectual curiosity.
We are developing plans for homework and business centers, for events such as museum field trips, concerts, and theater, and we continue to develop an excellent book and materials collection focused on the joy of reading, learning, business, and technology. We held the first Taste of Farmington on the main library campus in August, and we are developing new and provocative library lecture series for adults and youth.
The library is committed to providing a welcoming place for teens after school. I have met with teens, administrators, and faculty in order to build new programs and relationships with this most important demographic group, and, after a nationwide search, we will have an accomplished new teen librarian on board this fall. We will continue to provide exceptional pre-K programming to positively affect every child who is about to enter our school system, and we continue to partner with the schools in the summer reading initiatives that are so important to developmental learning.
I look forward to an exciting, productive, and meaningful year of carrying on the traditions of excellence which I’ve inherited, and to developing new programs to meet the changing needs for library service in the 21st century. This includes an exciting new initiative to renovate and improve the Barney Branch Library in order to comply with the American’s with Disability Act, and to provide an outstanding service point in Farmington. I look forward to hearing from you at any time you want to discuss the library. Please feel free to call me at 673.6791 x123
Jay Johnston, M.S., M.A. Executive Director