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Facilities

Introduction

These standards cover the library building itself.

Standards

I. Standard A
"The board and the director evaluate the library building every three years to determine adequate space needs."

Is the library adequate for the population that is serves? Are you running out of space? Do you need more room for computers? A teen area? Answering these questions can give you an idea of what needs to be done with library facilities. By taking the time to answer these questions and think about how you can implement any solutions, you can help improve library services.

The Montana State Library recognizes that some of the new standards require public libraries to have in place practices which formerly were not required and may take significant time and effort on the part of the library to put in place. Thus, it would unfair to expect your library to complete everything that is required by the end of June 2007. In light of that, we are interpreting this standard's three year cycle to begin July 1, 2007. You may check that your library is in compliance if you plan on meeting the standard and recognize that you must begin the process of meeting it in July 2007.

II. Standard B
"The board and the director address any identified facility shortcomings in a building plan."

A building plan can assist you in identifying problems, as well as hopefully including potential solutions. The Montana State Library is not requiring a formal building plan complete with blueprints. If that is appropriate for your library, please don't hesitate to create a plan that works best for you. For those of you who would like to do something more informal, the State Library believes you are meeting this standard if you simply have something in writing. This can be a short list of facility issues and suggested solutions or something that appears in library board minutes over the course of time. If your library board has been discussing a facility shortcoming and solutions over the course of several meetings than your minutes should reflect that. By doing so, this would indicate to the State Library that you are making an effort to address facility issues. Each library is different, so your building plan should meet your needs. For some of you that may be a very formal document, while for others a one page document may be all you need.