A fundamental part of needs assessment is building a collaborative vision, which means you must talk to a lot of different people who you serve. For libraries, this means both County/City government leaders as well as the community that they serve. There is no "one way" of running a successful library and the ability to customize services is a fundamental tenet of the "21st Century, high tech Library." The more people you involve the better as this builds buy-in and a collaborative, community-driven focus - libraries serve everyone in a community and they genuinely want to know how best they can serve their community as efficiently and effectively as possible. What libraries should be is organic and needs to be customized to the communities they serve.
There is also a two-way educational process - libraries to patrons and patrons to libraries. Libraries have rapidly changed over the past five to ten years. Books are still number one but now there are so many more services and resources then there used to be - technology, digital access (e-books, audio books, magazines, databases, virtual reference, etc.), DVDs, programming for all ages, meeting and social spaces, and of course children and youth resources and programming.
For patrons, as most things, there are demographic differences in terms of preferences and so libraries want to know who they are serving and what patrons most want and need so these services and resources are there for them when needed over their entire lifespan. Libraries serve everyone over their entire life and needs differ based on where you are in your life.
There is also a two-way educational process - libraries to patrons and patrons to libraries. Libraries have rapidly changed over the past five to ten years. Books are still number one but now there are so many more services and resources then there used to be - technology, digital access (e-books, audio books, magazines, databases, virtual reference, etc.), DVDs, programming for all ages, meeting and social spaces, and of course children and youth resources and programming.
For patrons, as most things, there are demographic differences in terms of preferences and so libraries want to know who they are serving and what patrons most want and need so these services and resources are there for them when needed over their entire lifespan. Libraries serve everyone over their entire life and needs differ based on where you are in your life.