GEORGETOWN, Del., Nov. 2, 2005 – More than 100 staffers from the 15 libraries throughout Sussex County came together recently for a daylong training session aimed at improving customer service and meeting the needs of a growing, more diverse county population.

The staff development day, held Oct. 27 at the Delaware Technical & Community College Jack F. Owens Campus in Georgetown, gave libraries and their staffs a chance to come together for a day of networking, swapping notes and hearing presentations from noted experts on how to make rural libraries more relevant and invaluable to the communities they serve.

Keynote speaker Dr. Bernard F. Vavrek, who directs the Center for the Study of Rural Librarianship at Clarion University of Pennsylvania, discussed the numerous challenges facing public libraries today, especially those in smaller, rural pockets of the United States. Those challenges include a lack of technology, changing demographics and the often-evolving consumer needs in the 21st century, digital age.

Staffers also took part in 16 workshops that focused on ideas such as using environmental children’s picture books in programming, as well as reaching out to the growing Hispanic community with focus groups to ascertain what services those new residents want or need in local libraries.

Carol Fitzgerald, director of the Sussex County Department of Libraries, said the annual staff development day – this year’s theme was WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME @ the LIBRARY – is always an opportunity for staffers to learn and grow in their profession.

That, in turn, improves the free, local libraries that tens of thousands of Sussex County residents and visitors use each year. There are 15 libraries – that includes the county’s roaming Bookmobile – serving residents of Sussex. Sussex County manages the Bookmobile, as well as the South Coastal, Milton and Greenwood public libraries.

Eleven other libraries are independently managed, but work with Sussex to form the county system. The recent staff development day was made available to all staff.

“These challenges that Dr. Vavrek and others spoke of are things we really are facing, and have to work on to solve,” Fitzgerald said. “I think we are doing fairly well when it comes to meeting the public’s technological needs, thanks in large part to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which supplied all of the PCs the public uses in the libraries throughout the county.

“But one of the areas in which we need to make some more strides, I believe, is in addressing the needs of our growing, increasingly diverse population,” she added. “After all, Sussex County’s newest residents are our future customers. And we have to make sure we’re meeting their needs every time they walk through our doors.”