Buffalo and Erie County PL Unveils
Strategic Service Plan
A three-volume, 600-page report analyzing the Buffalo and Erie County (N.Y.) Public Library system outlines a strategic service plan that calls for new model libraries, tiered services hierarchies, innovative children's programming, quality library services not constrained by municipal boundaries, and the establishment of a $40–$50 million "Third Millennium Fund" to rebuild the system.
"B&ECPL is compromised by an overextended and inadequate physical plant, archaic and unwieldy governance, and a tendency toward 'plain vanilla' library service," said Glen Holt, principal investigator of Aaron Cohen Associates and executive director of the St. Louis Public Library.
The report, delivered to library trustees and county officials November 4, recommends unifying the current 24 hiring authorities throughout the countywide system into a single employer. It also acknowledges that B&ECPL supports one branch for every 18,626 residents versus the North American average of one per 43,137. Individual profiles of the 52 community libraries show few of them capable of delivering quality resources and services.
Posted November 30, 1998.
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