by Stan Cutler
The Friends of the Chestnut Hill Library are expanding community use of the building at 8711 Germantown Ave. We launched the effort by conducting a series of speaker events beginning in January, and the results were gratifying. We have 70 chairs, but sometimes people had to stand.
We suspected that there was a population that would come to hear fascinating topics explained by local experts. Based on the response so far, it appears that we’ve just scratched the surface. Apparently, there’s a real hunger for adult programming.
The 12 events staged since the inception of the series addressed a diversity of topics, ranging from politics to baseball, from novelists to marijuana, from chimpanzees to journalism. To get a better idea of who was attending and what their interests are, we distributed questionnaires.
Respondents claimed a wide range of interests. Reading through the list of proposed topics is like looking at a college catalog’s table of contents. Our 10-member program committee will use the results to guide our selection of future events.
Among the start-up problems facing the Friends were questions of promotion. At first, we placed paper fliers in stores along the length of Germantown Avenue in Chestnut Hill. We put up posters in the library, churches and other heavily trafficked locations. We wrote articles about the library and placed ads in the Chestnut Hill Local. We built a great website and sent out email blasts.
According to the questionnaire responses, the overwhelming majority of people who came to the events learned about them in this newspaper. It appears that distributing fliers was a waste of time.
The great majority of people said they’d like to be informed of upcoming events by email. If you’d like to be informed in this way, please go to our website and leave us your email address. We typically schedule the events for Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. As it happens, that’s convenient for lots of folks.
The librarians, of course, have been deeply involved and fully supported the program. Prather O’Donnell, senior librarian, was rewarded by the appearance of many people she had never seen in the building before. Miralee Schulte, teen and adult librarian, has worked hard on promotions and authored the questionnaire. Thanks to their advocacy, the Free Library of Philadelphia is buying a whole new suite of audio-visual equipment to support the events. We’ve had to use rented equipment to this point and are very much looking forward to permanent, state-of-the-art facilities. If all goes according to plan, the new system will be in place by September.
We are currently searching for speakers for the fall series (see ad). There are many local experts who want the opportunity to share their knowledge and experience. If you are one of them, please go to the Contact page of the website. There, you can tell us about your topic and your experience. Don’t feel constrained by the challenge of distilling your thoughts into one presentation. We’re also considering offering seminars, panel discussions, courses and workshops. We will be developing winter and spring programs as well. Let’s hear from you.
Stan Cutler is a member of the board of the Friends of Chestnut Hill Library.
