1650 of you answered our recent member survey about WebJunction and your work in libraries. Your data’s been tabulated and your comments all analyzed and you can find it all wrapped up in this neat little package.

Most interesting to me is not how often we visit the site (weekly), how much we like it (93% somewhat or very satisfied), nor what we struggle most with (the organization of the site). Sure, that’s all well and good (and there’s more where that came from.)

But what’s most interesting to me was our answer to the question “What’s the biggest challenge you face in your library job in the coming year?” (page 22 for those of you who want the deets). Here’s what we said our top concerns are in the coming year (in order of no. of respondents, with a few direct quotes under each):

1. Keeping up with technology, what users want, staff/volunteer training, and the pace of change.

• Using existing technology resources to their greatest potential to increase library use and awareness.
• Changes in technology and changes in exactly what a library is expected to be and do.

2. Money

• Money, Money, Money
• Keeping the doors open.

3. Planning and Priorities (with limited time and staff)

• Planning. I need Staffing and Technology Plans before November or else… Time to do it all. Time to delegate as well as time to accomplish. Raising circulation. My circulation is dropping in all areas, and I can’t figure out why, in a way that satisfies the Board that I’m doing everything I can to raise it.
• Prioritizing; finding sufficient time for all of the projects on my plate

4. Motivation and Morale

• There are a large number of retirements at the same time we are going through re-engineering. Keep staff morale up when they see existing staff exiting and they are uncertain of the future is very challenging.
  

5. Technology implementation

• Finding information on automation and figuring out what kind of equipment will be needed and how much money we need to plan for.
• Implementing an integrated library management software…

So, what should we do about it? Based on these comments, we’ve decided on the staff-side that we should focus any new content development in three main areas: the future of libraries, new technologies, and time management. The links to each of these topics takes you to the WJ wiki space. Stories, resources, experiences, thoughts to contribute on any of them? Let’s get started here.