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West Vancouver Memorial Library · Winter 2004 · Issue 4 The Inquiring Mind Ask a Librarian... seems simple enough. Visit your local library and put your question to the helpful person at the Information Desk; or give us a phone call. The foregoing are tried and true methods that have served (and continue to serve) us for many years. But, times change as does the way we do things. Since 2002, 'Ask a Librarian' has also meant going to our Web site and filling out an online form, which is sent to a Reference email account. You will then receive an email response from a Reference librarian. Give us a try the next time you do a Google search and end up with 23,000 hits. This leads to another aspect of our service today. Sure, you can go on the Web and do lots of things on your own, but you often find way too much or you can't find the right information. First, you may need to use one of the pay databases that we make available to our patrons (see e-Resources on the Library home page). Second, you may need our expertise to sift through those 23,000 hits, just like we have always guided you to that one right book in the collection. All in all, we are here to help whether through traditional print sources or the newer electronic ones-that's what Reference librarians are all about. From the Chief Librarian Ann Goodhart Approximately every three years, the Library conducts a survey of its users. We conducted one in November of 1999 and one just recently in February of 2004. For one week we ask every visitor to fill out a survey. We use them to evaluate how we are doing in meeting your needs for library service. In 1999 the survey indicated that you thought DVDs would be a good addition. We now have a collection of 800+ DVD titles and 180 on order. When we do a survey, we look for trends and changes from the last survey as well as for new ideas for services. In our most recent survey we asked participants to give us their priorities for the future. This year, in addition to the survey done in the Library, there will be a random phone survey. This is the first such survey we have conducted. We anticipate that this will give us information about residents who do not currently use the Library as well as those who do. We want to ensure that we are offering the library services you want and need. We will produce a report on the results that will be available in the Library and on our web site. The report from the 1999 survey is on our web site under About Us. Thank you to everyone who took the time to answer one or both of these surveys. www.westvanlib.org tel. 604.925.7400 1950 Marine Drive, West Vancouver BC V7V 1J8