MEETING OF COUNCIL - Town of Cambridge

COUNCIL MINUTES
TUESDAY 27 NOVEMBER 2012
that the library webpage has increased functionality. The expansion of the computer training
courses has already been identified for further attention. Languages Other Than English has
been a focus area for the last few years as the local demographics change. Marketing will
be addressed further although additional strategies may be required to communicate to non-
English speaking/reading community members.
The survey was intended to identify library service strengths as well as areas where the
service can be improved. It was decided that where responses that the service "Needs
attention" resulted in a rating of 5% or more coupled with an Excellent" or "Good" rating of
70% or lower, then improvement or the future direction of this service should be considered.
As with previous surveys, all the services which met these criteria related to the collection –
magazines, music CDs and DVDs. The provision of newspapers and magazines has
changed over recent years with a significant expansion of subscriptions available online and
a reduction of hard copy subscriptions where only 1 or 2 readers were insufficient to support
the level of expenditure.
Service expansion priorities
A focus on collection development was further supported by the responses to the question
on which library services users would like to see expanded. Survey responses ranked most
to least important services. The book loan collection ranked as the highest priority (83%)
followed by DVDs, downloadable e-books and e-audio books and music. This supports
progressing planned service reviews, related to the feasibility of offering access to
downloadable movies, e- books, e -audio books and music. Considerations include are
licensing, file size and the need to balance expenditure of all collections
Focus Question
A focus question was introduced with each biennial survey to enable feedback to be
gathered on a specific topic under development. The first focus question related to the
Reading Room and resulted in improvements, which in turn has led to increased usage.
This year the focus was on people's current and emerging usage of electronic books, music
and movies.
The 2010 focus question sought feedback on the rapidly developing Electronic Book
formats. 69 people responded that they currently read electronic books. The following table
identifies the type of eReader devices currently owned or purchase is planned in the next 6
months. This information was sought in both the 2010 and 2012 surveys to assist in
evaluating the range of emerging eReader devices.
Indicate which of the following
eReader devices you currently
own or are planning to purchase in
the next 6 months
2010 2012
Number % Number %
Personal Computer 26 42 191 34
Mobile phone 16 26 99 17
iPhone 9 15 67 12
iPad 4 6 116 21
Amazon's Kindle 3 5 69 12
Other eBook reader 4 6 22 4
Totals 62 100 564 100
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