Download and share the March Compass Roundtable flyer (PDF).

“Compass” is the name of the Boston Public Library’s strategic plan. The User-centered principle in the Compass states: The BPL is a user-centered institution with services that anticipate and respond to neighborhood interests and the changing demographics of the City and Commonwealth.

User-centered Institution is the eighth of eight principles that staff from the BPL have discussed with the public following the unanimous approval of the strategic plan by the BPL Board of Trustees in November 2011. Boston Public Library engaged its stakeholders in a two-year, three-phase planning process prior to that Board approval.

If you are not able to join the User-centered Institution roundtable, you are welcome to leave a comment on this blog or send an email to compass@bpl.org with your ideas.

• as a catalog
• as a database
• as library staff’s main tool for checking books and materials in and out
• for acquiring, processing and storing items.

The ILS is also the brains of our technology system that allow patrons access to many other online services, too. When you sign up for a public session at one of the BPL’s computers or utilize the public printing systems, the print system has to check with our ILS to make sure you are in our system and are approved to use that computer or printer at that location. For example, only a children’s card can be used to access resources in a children’s space. The same goes for access to the WIFI system. Both our web-based public catalog, with its special search algorithm and relevancy rankings as well as its access to social network systems and our Museum Pass Reservation System need to do the same, as does use of OverDrive for downloadable books, just to name a few.

In all, Boston Public Library integrated and tested twenty-five separate systems and applications during the migration, a mixture of local and hosted systems. And, of course, we had to plan the migration so that we could stay open and offer as many services as possible for as long as possible. Some libraries close down for a migration of this size. If you were unfortunate enough to be one of the people who experienced a problem with access to systems or your record, or had a problem with your hold requests, we apologize. If you have let us know, we have probably either fixed or will fix the problem. For the vast majority of systems and users, the migration was largely invisible and successful. We are planning to continue making system improvements and adding other enhancements through at least June of 2013 as part of this overall systems migration project.

The new system will fully go live on the morning of Thursday, December 13. While staff have undergone training, we will be asking the public for patience as we become accustomed to the new system. Once we are used to new ways of doing things, we expect that our new ILS will be more stable, faster, and easier to use and thus help us do our jobs in servicing the public more efficiently. Polaris will also offer additional features and functions in the next release, planned for 6 months out, that will further enhance some BPL services. One new feature available on day one is the ability for library users to receive notification via phone, email, and text message, as well as faster circulation processing and more detailed data available in our catalog.

“The Boston Public Library is an important place for the people of Boston to make a connection – to learning, to history, and to each other,” says Mayor Menino. “Libraries are not only a place where families can find books to read, they are also the place where people can learn how to use a computer, search for jobs, and research their family trees. Libraries are opportunity.”

While Mayor Menino has been in office, Boston’s population has grown. According to 2010 Census numbers, the City of Boston population is 617,594, a 4.8% increase over the 2000 census or 28,453 more residents. The latest numbers mark the first time since the 1970s that Boston’s population exceeded 600,000.

“Now, more than ever, building connections in our communities is an important part of a great, growing city,” says Mayor Menino. “The public library was born in Boston. We can be proud of our history and prouder still of all that libraries do for the people of Boston today.”

When Josephine Bruzzese’s parents moved from Italy to the United States, they faced a challenge that is common to immigrants to this country: ensuring that their children become fluent in a language they themselves could neither speak nor understand. They realized that the best way to go about it was to have their children mingle with native English speakers. So, when Josephine was just four years old, they began sending her to the library.

That decision instilled in Josephine a lifelong love of libraries—in particular, her neighborhood library. “The neighborhood branch is the center of the community,” she explains. And as her neighborhood has diversified over the years with the arrival of Latino, Chinese, and North African Muslim immigrants, she has seen how the library helps others for whom English is a second language, just as it once did for her.

Because she believes so strongly in the importance of the library to her neighborhood, Josephine today is active in her local friends of the library group. “The requirements of one branch location are different from another, because the demographics are so different in different parts of the city,” she says. “There’s a lot going on with the library, all over the city.”

For many years, long before I arrived in Boston, it has been clear that the way people read, think, learn, and teach is being redefined. Libraries everywhere must place themselves at the forefront of such change all while minding the gap, so to speak, between those with access to technology and information and those without. This strategic planning process has afforded my colleagues and me the privilege of personally communicating with thousands of Bostonians. Whether we serve people in buildings, online, or out in the community, we have listened to them talk about the library they have loved since childhood and their hopes for the library of the future.

Libraries have never been more important or useful than they are today. In this era of ever-expanding information, libraries help people make sense of the world. In buildings, the Boston Public Library’s core services will thrive with more books, open hours, story times, programs, and access to and assistance with technology. Online, the Boston Public Library will truly open the gate to the information highway in our buildings, at work, and on-the-go. In the community, the Boston Public Library will extend itself beyond bricks and mortar to meet our users – and our potential users – where they are.

Fulfilling the Boston Public Library’s 21st century potential may take some time, but I believe we can deliver on the vision contained within these pages. With Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s support and leadership, the Boston Public Library is committed to investing in the future of Boston. With this document, we have our compass.