Community Library Network Future Needs Market Evaluation

1 - December 14, 2018

Prepared by: Joanne Vega, MBA

Strategic Research Associates, 25 W Cataldo, Suite D, Spokane WA 99201

509-324-6960 x203, joannev@strategicresearch.net

Project Summary

The Community Library Network has partnered with Strategic Research Associates of Spokane to conduct

a two-phase online survey among business leaders and library members; supplemented by secondary

research to provide insights into future needs for library services in the communities it serves.

The Library Network serves both suburban and rural communities within North Idaho in Kootenai and

Shoshone Counties. All Kootenai County residents are included in the District with the exception of those

living in Coeur d’Alene who are served by the Coeur d’Alene Public Library. The District also serves the

residents in a portion of western Shoshone County. Libraries are located in Athol, Harrison, Hayden,

Pinehurst, Post Falls, Rathdrum, and Spirit Lake. Other communities are served through Outreach and

Bookmobile services.

Research for this project was conducted in three phases: first, a 10-minute online survey was developed

to collect responses from business owners and leaders within the community. This survey was distributed

to potential respondents through partnerships with local chambers of commerce, as well as via the

Strategic Research Associates online respondent panel. Fielding of the business survey was open from

August 15th through September 30th, 2018.

Second, a 10-minute online survey was developed to collect responses from library members and the

general public. Members were invited to participate in this survey via the Library Network's email

newsletter and also solicited through word of mouth and social media campaigns to ensure as many

responses as possible were collected.

Third, continually throughout the research period, the Strategic Research team was collecting secondary

information through scholarly resources to help inform about future trends that may not be within the

understanding of our survey respondents.

All survey instruments were designed to answer the following questions:

• What is the current demographic profile of the area served by the Community Library Network?

What is the future demographic profile?

• What is the predicted growth in the area?

• What are the potential future needs of the communities served?

• What programs will be of benefit to communities now, and in the future?

Background Research and Grounding

Kootenai and Shoshone Counties - Now and in the Future

"The city of Coeur d'Alene, currently with a population of about 51,000, is projected to reach 81,000

people by 2035, Hilary Anderson Community Planning Director for the City of Coeur d Alene says. Post

Falls, nearer to the Washington border, is growing even faster and at this rate would surpass Coeur

d'Alene's population sometime between 2025 and 2027." ("In North Idaho, leaders brace for rapid

population growth." Inlander, January 11, 2018, https://www.inlander.com/spokane/in-north-idaho-leaders-brace-for-rapid-population-growth/Content?oid=7619376)

It is no surprise that North Idaho cities and community services are bracing for future strains on their

already at-capacity services, and preparing to serve even larger populations. Populations within Idaho

are projected to continue to increase, regardless of outside pressures to leave the area for higher pay or

other job opportunities. The Idaho Department of Labor projects that the state population will grow at an annual rate of 1.1% through 2026, and at a rate of 1.8% in

Much of the statewide growth is driven by a high rate of growth in those aged 65 and older. Individuals

are living longer and people are moving to Idaho to retire and live in an area with lower day -to-day costs

and lower tax rates. Including the predicted population increase of those 65 and older, Idaho’s total

population is projected to increase 1.1% or 199,900 individuals. Of that, 88,000 individuals will be

added to today’s workforce.

A tool of measurement that directly relates to the impact that libraries have on the communities they

serve is the Human Development Index. This index determines the success of a population based on its

capabilities. Published as the Measure of America by the Social Science Council, it uses key indicators,

health, education, and income of a community, to develop a success rating. (Source: http://www.measureofamerica.org/human-development/)

2 - (Source: http://www.measureofamerica.org/maps - click "start exploring".)

Kootenai County scores in the 65th percentile on the Education Index and 50th percentile for the Income indexes when compared to the country as a whole.

3 - (Source: http://www.measureofamerica.org/maps - click "start exploring".)

Shoshone County scores in the 30th percentile for Education and Income indexes when compared to the country as a whole.

4 - (Source: http://www.measureofamerica.org/maps - click "start exploring".)

The American Human Development Index is a composite measure made up of three other indices that measure health, education, and income. The Human Development Index score for the country as a whole is 5.06.

The populations of Kootenai and Shoshone Counties include a high percentage of people currently

engaged in the construction, maintenance and repair fields (13% and 19.2%; the state average is 9.3%),

and a lower rate of individuals in management, professional and related occupations (31.6% and 25.2%;

the state average is 33.6%), indicating a higher employment rate of those in labor VS white -collar fields

as a share of the population. One can assume that even with the continuing increase in the population, this balance will remain the same. (Source: US Census Bureau American Community Survey 2006-2010).

Evidence suggests that;

• Future needs placed upon the Community Library Network will be driven by a sample population

of those of working age and an increase of those aged 65 and older. Growth of the 65 and older

segment will be between 1-2% in the next 10 years, which can account for more than 5,000

additional individuals to serve in just this segment in Kootenai County alone.

• Community development programs and programs for seniors will see an increase in demand

above that of year-to-year population growth. Other segments will see a stable increase as they

have seen in years prior.

• Education and white-collar employment within the region fall below national averages. This

creates a significant need for training and support for individuals in labor and service categories

to make up for the lack of demand for traditional professional employment and to fill open

positions.

Feedback from Business Leaders

While our response rate for our business survey is low, with only 11 respondents, we find the responses

to be of high quality, and very insightful.

Industries represented in these responses include Hospitality, Manufacturing, Software Development,

Religious, Wireless Internet and Technology, Education, Graphic Arts, and Insurance. A very wide range!

The survey series for business respondents included two phases: what are your needs today, and what do you think your needs will be 10 years from now.

Needs today:

• Our respondents feel community members are only moderately prepared for the workforce,

with an average score of 5.8 out of 10.

• Jobs they have difficulty filling today are Technical in nature; Administrative, Labor, and Service jobs are also mentioned among our responses.

• Potential employees can use more job preparation in Technical skill sets, Social skill sets, and

Computer skill sets (half of our respondents indicated each of these to be an issue). Reading and

Math were only suggested by roughly a third of respondents.

Potential needs in 10 years:

• In the future, respondents feel they will have difficulty filling Technical jobs at about the same rate as today, but an increased difficulty in filling Service and Labor jobs.

• Business respondents indicated that the needs for Computer skills and Technical Skills will

increase in 10 years from what they are today. The need for Social skills training is foreseen to

increase just slightly, and the demand for Math and Reading skills remained the same with about 1/3 of our respondents indicating it is an area of future need.

One important question that we included in this research was an open-ended response asking each to

let us know if there was anything they felt the library should be doing to support their future needs

for a skilled and educated workforce. The responses are enlightening and can be found below.

"Support a focus on creation, ideation, and invention. Think, try, evaluate, learn, reset, repeat."

"It would be nice to have access to software that is becoming more commonplace. Pretty much all you

have is the Office Suite available for us to use. With the rise of social media that just isn't enough. I need

people who are fluent in more than Office. If people don't have access to something, they are not going to learn it."

"You should subscribe to Lynda.com. It features tons of online training for skills that are in high demand

today. They offer a library subscription (that the library pays for) where patrons can obtain free training

in this like CAD, audio & music, business, design, education, IT, marketing, photography, video, and web

skills. There are literally thousands of courses and patrons can learn via a computer, tablet, or other

mobile devices via videos taught by experts. I've taken lots of training from there and it was very

beneficial for me in starting my own at-home business (which is now fairly successful). I think it would be a bit of help to local library patrons."

"Social skills development; how to have a business conversation, how to call a customer, do's and don'ts

of customer service, how to network to other business at a social function, office manners and relationships, and teamwork models (how to interact with and work with others)."

"Administrative skills; Excel Basics through Excel mastery, data diving and drawing conclusions from the data, project planning, execution, and management."

"Holding classes for the ever-changing tech side of the workplace and how it can affect one's job."

"Early reading programs and help for those who are entering the education system."

"It would be nice if the libraries offered more skill based classes. I see a lot of crafts and play programs.

Maybe work with local organizations to develop useful work related classes. You do a lot for children and

retired people, not much for potential job applicants. Also personally I would like more ways to connect with others facing the same hiring challenges."

"Remove the screens for gaming purposes in your facilities and increase opportunities for young people to interact with people."

Feedback from Community Library Network Patrons

We collected responses from 62 library members during our surveying efforts. These respondents were

among members representing all branches of the Community Library Network.

Our average age of respondents was 46 years old; with respondents as young as 17 and as old as 75.

Most respondents were from Kootenai County, but we also had 5 from Shoshone and/or Bonner Counties

in our group of respondents.

On average, those responding had also lived in their county in Idaho for 18.5 years.

This effort included an examination of what library services are important to community members:

We find services creating community, reading, and education to be most attractive.

• "Comfortable, welcoming spaces for people to come read, learn and research" was the best performing service statement; with an average score of 6.53 out of 7.

• "Social and/or education programs for kids and families to learn, meet and create community" also scored very well at 6.23 out of 7.

• "Non-traditional materials to borrow like tools, camping gear, sewing machines, etc." rated

poorly among our respondents with a score of 3.97 out of 7.

When thinking about what libraries may need to provide in 10 years, our community respondents strongly supported programs focusing on youth and teens above programs for seniors and adults.

• "Programs for youth" and "Programs for teens" was indicated as important by over 80% of our survey respondents (83.9% and 80.6% respectively).

• "Programs to develop job skills" performed least favorably at 72.6%, but with nearly 3/4 of

respondents feeling it is also important, we should not discount developing job skills as an unwanted service or program category.

How to get the word out about library programs and discovering what methods members use today to stay informed was another element of our survey questioning.

Members use social channels more than all other methods to find information about community events and issues.

• 64.5% of our respondents indicated they use Facebook for information about events and

community issues.

• Another 62.9% indicated they rely on friends and family who may also get much of their information from Facebook and social sources.

• Traditional media sources like newspapers, TV stations, radio, and community websites all

trailed after personal social networks with about 1/3 of our survey respondents leveraging these sources for information.

• Physical information boards also performed interestingly well, with 27.4% of respondents indicating these public-posting sites to be a source of information for them.

When we ask specifically which networks and sites members use, they often report using library

information sites.

• Many cite the library branches’ Facebook Sites, website, and e-newsletter as an information source.

• Other notable sources include City-run events websites and bulletin boards, Nextdoor, VisitCDA, CDA Press, Spokesman-Review, local TV news, KPBX, and the local grocery store.

In this research we included an open-ended question asking for a response to the following statement:

The library has an opportunity to provide education and inspiration to members of the community of all

ages to better prepare them life, retirement, and/or the workforce. Is there specific program type you

feel the library should be providing to help impact the North Idaho communities it serves? (Answers are summarized below)

"More programs for kids ages 8-12."

"Programs for people with disabilities such as sign language classes."

"All educational efforts are important but providing computer literacy training for seniors w ill become

even more critical."

"Lynda.com - I think this would be an excellent job training and education resource for all ages (at least teens and up)!!"

"Homeschool reading activities during the daytime would be nice at the elementary level (kind of li ke preschool storytime, but for older kids). Homeschool book club, something like that."

"I would like to see training and resources for small businesses and entrepreneurs."

"I think the access the library provides for 3d printers is kind of cool and would be interested in seeing

how that plays out in the community. Technology that the community doesn't easily have access to seems good."

"Teach people to be self-sufficient; cook from scratch, write a check, etc."

"Learn a love for reading."

"Out of all of the communities I have lived in, your library system has been by far the best. On multiple levels."

"I cannot tell you how much I adore the effort you have put into programs for teens! My 12 and 14-year-

old sons have such a blast at the nerf nights and game times. I love that it makes the library a fun and safe place for an age group that can be hard to reach."

"Please continue doing what you are doing with the existing programs. Perhaps look into added more

work skills classes? I haven't paid regular attention to your offerings with those, that's based off me

checking that calendar maybe 4-5 times since we moved here."

"Nutrition and exercise."

"Book clubs."

"I love that our libraries support the homeschool community and we have such a large and growing one here in North Idaho. I look forward to possibly see that grow."

"I think the libraries do a great job of offering a variety of activities and rotating. We go to a different

library if we miss a certain thing at one. It does sometimes feel like there isn't as much for young school-age kids. Lots for preschool and lots for older. Not as much for 6-9."

"Technology is so important I think anything to help people understand is so important. I also really love

your summer reading program and think it’s great encouragement for kids!"

"A safe place for ALL- which means not allowing youth to have free and unsupervised control of the

entire library. I am angry that the youth from the Boys and Girls Club literally run amok at the Post Falls

branch. Why is the Boys and Girls Club allowed to do that? It is almost as if they have simply expanded

their building into our library."

"Check out passes to local museums and arts and culture."

"I think the library has so many resources and provides wonderful events already! I would love to see

more cultural activities; maybe have multilingual clubs for people who want to learn/practice other languages."

"Coding and general IT courses. Other languages like Spanish, German, and Chinese. Social gatherings

for parents and their kids."

"Basic life skills, cooking, money management, car maintenance, etc. Lots of broken families where @ here skills are no longer learned at home."

"Quality video, photo, and graphic design software. Space that can be reserved for businesses... we are

the largest contributors to your property tax base but can't use space even if we reserve it ahead of

time? Sometimes we need to hold meetings in an area outside our location for various reasons and you should be a resource to help facilitate that as long as we are not soliciting on the premise."

"I’ve seen a couple teen D&D events but no adult ones. It’s hard to find people who enjoy tabletop

roleplaying games as an adult, and the library would be a nice (safe) place to meet more likeminded

people!"

"Places to meet during the winter months to learn new crafts."

"Our system does a great job, but I would like to see more e-books available for checkout."

"I would love to have a writing club or lessons and more teen programs they are fun! And when

programs/events are happening could an email be a sent out because I don't check the website all of the

time and I miss events."

Big Picture - Key Findings

The Community Library Network is doing a good job of serving the community and meeting the needs of

the residents it serves.

Future Position

Business and community members feel that the library's future position will be one of providing

continuing education and inspiration to youth and teens as they grow and learn. Being there for them

through value-added programs, providing new tools and techniques and helping them join the

community will continue to reinforce the libraries value in the community.

The library can position itself as the center of social and community connections. As a source for

community issues and event information, it can provide be a guiding force in keeping its members

engaged and involved in the area.

Additionally, the library's current ability to provide access to technologies like 3D printing, and advanced

technology tools is seen as important and most of the suggestions for expanded services were within this

technology realm including better graphic design programs and software for member use, access to

professional education services like Lynda.com, and instructional classes.

The influx of older populations moving to North Idaho to retire will be supported by an equal influx of

working age individuals moving into the area for jobs and to raise their families within the region. The

library's role in supporting these families who in turn are supporting the senior populations is essential to

its role as an anchor in the communities.

APPENDICES

Crosstabulated and Baseline Results

You will find a full baseline survey and crosstabulated report of our research results by following the links below.

Patron Survey

Baseline - https://strategicresearchassociates-

my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/joannev_strategicresearch_net/EaxPPbfuQtFMn4iDleuw6MABPj9k35aLfrYHhsyILqtwXQ?e=MQChrL

Crosstabulated results - https://strategicresearchassociates-

my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/joannev_strategicresearch_net/EYqTNOfJfYtJmdiSY48zX2IBiIhVnFw

4yM8E76INFyMVVA?e=DrgL5P

Business Survey

Baseline - https://strategicresearchassociates-

my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/joannev_strategicresearch_net/EWqHWk0wHgFPpmFyjY2rKVUB3rNX8AWCqQLs_zanbVhO2g?e=PWUN7R

Crosstabulated results - https://strategicresearchassociates-

my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/joannev_strategicresearch_net/ETABI-

rVDg9FpYj2oq4TMdcBc4tU5IaAmkvB1l0bh67npA?e=qqZKCR