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‘Turning Outward’ Report to the Community
A little less than a year ago, Hyde Park Library began participating in a program organized by the MidHudson Library System called “Turning Outward.” Member libraries that take part each year are tasked with having an extensive series of conversations with a broad variety of community members and stakeholders. The idea is to gather community input to help the library craft a long range plan of service that integrates community desires and addresses community needs. With this in mind, we held many community conversations and heard many thoughts, fears and aspirations for the future of Hyde Park.
The common themes we were able to identify are that people want a more walkable town with easily accessible common areas where they can interact and enjoy events within a diverse community. They also want to be better informed about events in the town, the town government and community organizations. They fear however that the existing infrastructure is not sufficient to meet the town’s needs and that more support is required for existing and future businesses. We listened to people express a desire for a sewer system, for a town center for community events, for more streetlights and sidewalks, and many other things. They say that Hyde Park needs to focus on developing a community where people can live, work, shop, and recreate that is all in the same town. They also stress the need for youth programs that make the town more appealing to young families.
It would be a wonderful, wonderful world if your public library could just solve all of the problems and issues that we heard about, but alas we cannot. There is a lot we can do to help though. As an information organization and traditional social hub, we are well suited to acting as a community center and central repository of local information. In response to some of the things we heard we are gathering local transportation information such as bus schedules and route maps to make available to patrons. We will be hosting public safety talks from local police and firemen among many educational programs and we are expanding our teen programming exponentially. As a staunchly non-partisan organization, we are a trusted source for information of all sorts. We are increasing our efforts to collect local pamphlets and event information to make available to the public both physically and on our website. It is not within our power to solve the infrastructure issues that Hyde Park faces going forward, but Hyde Park Library, with the help of the community, can become a center for diverse and multiple facets of the town to converge where learning and experiential needs and curiosity are fed. It is our pleasure to serve this great community. We welcome any and all suggestions.
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