Grants help libraries explore the community’s needs

As North Las Vegas scrambled to balance its books to avoid a state takeover, the city's actual books were imperiled.

Something had to be done about the cash-strapped city's libraries.

The North Las Vegas Library District met with the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, but the two determined merging wasn't feasible.

But running Nevada's fourth most populous city without a public library? That struck everyone as absurd.

So the city cut hours, slashed staff and closed its oldest branch in favor of a smaller one inside City Hall — and started asking for help.

"You can cry in your Wheaties all day long," North Las Vegas Library District Director Forrest Lewis said. "If we're going to sit back and wait for someone to come in on a whim and save us — that's not going to happen."

Lewis said he and Mayor John Lee teamed up to enliven the library's fundraising arm — Friends of the North Las Vegas Library District.

Another big change? The city began going after grants.

'Part of the civic culture'

The district won seven grants this year, which translates into $142,307 the library wouldn't have had otherwise. The district's total yearly operating budget is $2.2 million. Its three branches are staffed with 16 full-time employees and five part-time shelvers.

The biggest of this year's grants is a $97,600 grant administered through the Nevada State Library to help North Las Vegas develop a five-year plan for its libraries. It's an opportunity to reinvent, a challenge libraries everywhere are tackling in response to how technology has altered how humans get, use and share information.

"Libraries were originally invented because people in communities pooled their resources to be able to relate to each other, to be able to work and help each other through information. In those days that was through books. But that social glue will always be a vital part of the American fabric," said Marc Futterman, president and CEO of Civic Technologies, the consultant the district brought in to create a plan.

"This is part of the civic culture of our communities and a vital, vibrant library is a good indicator of a vital, vibrant community."

The grant gave the library the ability to hire Futterman. He has helped libraries across the country, such as Denver, Milwaukee and Dallas. Futterman has also worked with the Las-Vegas Clark County Library District, so his company already has a good sense of the entire Las Vegas Valley, he said.

His company creates a plan by examining data such as census and consumer spending and comparing it with the library's numbers to figure out who the library is reaching and who it isn't.

Then, researchers imagine why that might be. Next, they hit the neighborhoods and ask.

They are also meeting with community groups — the Clark County School District, nonprofit organizations, city departments such as parks and recreation — to see about ways to work together.

"To really help transform communities, one organization cannot do it alone," Futterman said. "None of us has huge budgets that can allow us to do everything and be everything to everybody. The question becomes how can we work together to achieve outcomes that the community wants and needs."

Library about people, not pages

If there's any city in dire need of transformation in Nevada, it's North Las Vegas. It's has been lauded for cutting its long-term deficit by $74 million, but it still has $78 million to deal with and its finance director is quick to remind everyone the city is far from out of the woods.

There's a 7 percent across-the-board cut expected in 2017.

City leadership has placed hope in luring business to the Apex Industrial Park, which will also likely mean convincing companies that the city can meet their workforce needs.

It's something Futterman is keenly aware of.

"North Las Vegas has suffered a lot. It really has and the city leadership now has a vision and they're trying to move forward with economic development," Futterman said. "How can the library help people in the community be prepared for jobs that could come to fruition in the community? How can we help families and children become workforce-ready?"

So gone are the analog aspirations of measuring success by circulation.

Lewis sees the library as an educational hub — filling gaps schools miss and supplementing what they offer while providing the tools and teaching needed to help adults adapt to the job market. Grants are helping with those goals, too. The district was granted $3,000 to do STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) programming and $28,000 for a new computer system.

Although the district's circulation, computer usage and patron traffic numbers are down this year — not unexpected since it moved a branch this year — attendance of the district's programs are up by 44 percent. So far for 2015 the library has hosted 404 programs, with 16,983 people attending.

The district also just finished its third year hosting a state library grant-funded summer reading club. Lewis said that when they first went for the grant, the joke was that North Las Vegas would never apply because the library had been known for its apathy.

That's changed, Lewis said. They're up for anything and the numbers show the reading club grants haven't gone to waste.

Participation from 2013 — the first year the library did the program — to 2014 went up nearly 90 percent, from 2,911 to 5,528 participants.

Contact Bethany Barnes at bbarnes@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861. Find her on Twitter: @betsbarnes.