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Profiling Your Community
Introduction & Instructions for Worksheets 4A, B and C
Working with data about the businesses in your community.
Introduction:
Demographic data gives you a picture of your community from just one perspective. Another perspective of your community can be gained by looking at the variety of businesses which serve your residents. Librarians often ask the business community for money and support. In this section, you will be gathering data about the businesses in your community that will allow you to consider additional questions about how the library can support community businesses during the planning process. First, you have to be familiar with the types of businesses in your community. Worksheet 4A will help you begin to think about the categories and numbers of various businesses in your community. Worksheet 4B will help you conduct a more systematic examination of your business community using a form to record the types and numbers of businesses you discover and the significance of this information to your library plan.
The data collected and analyzed through the activities in this section give you the background to consider two questions important to your planning process:
- What kinds of services, programs and products can your library provide for the businesses in your community?
- What can the businesses in your community do for your library? Can they help with fundraising, political lobbying, advice on collection development, etc.?
You can use this same process to collect information about other orgranizations, groups and agencies in your community. Click here for more information about expanding your data collection.
Worksheet 4A
The first two tasks on this worksheet can be done individually. If your town has a web site, are businesses linked to it? If so, which ones? Begin to create categories for the businesses in your community. Does your city clerk or chamber of commerce have information about numbers and types of businesses serving your community? Record your findings and ideas on Worksheet 4A.
Worksheet 4B
For this activity, you will be using the Yellow Pages and local newspapers. Form teams to divide up the work. Let the headings in the telephone book and newspaper suggest categories. Use Worksheet 4B to record the categories and numbers you find in your investigation of your business community. Use the right hand column of Worksheet 4B to record your ideas about the significance of the patterns (categories) you found and the impact you think they might have on your library plan. An example of what a completed Worksheet 4B might look like is given below.
Example:
| Category |
Number |
Ideas/Significance |
| Nursing homes |
8 |
Deliver services; Literature for adults
who have to make family decisions
about nursing homes. |
| Fast food |
several pages listed |
Possible partners in advertising or prizes |
| Antique stores |
4 |
Impact on collection development |
| Daycare Centers |
6 |
Collection development; story hours; outreach |
Worksheet 4C
Spend about 10 minutes individually reflecting on the data gathering activities for this section. Note the patterns and other significant information that stood out during your analysis. Note your ideas about the impact this information may have on your library planning. Record your reflections on Worksheet 4C.
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Two alternative worksheets can help you locate information about the businesses and other organizations and agencies in your community. The The Telephone Book Study offers questions that will help you analyze and summarize categorical information that can be found in your local telephone book. Printed Materials will help you locate various other sources of information about your community. Use these guides in addition to or instead of Worksheets 4A.
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Once you have completed your analyses come together as a group and discuss your ideas. Some possible questions for consideration are:
What businesses are represented by the various members of your planning group? What businesses are not represented by members of the planning group?
Did you include businesses in your drawings or paragraphs completed in the first section?
How does your role in the data collection process and in your work life influence what you are aware of and see?
What can your library do for the businesses in your community?
What can the businesses in your community do for your library?
Forward to Worksheet 4A    Back to Profiling Index
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