Library Analysis - Public Library

Seffner-Mango Branch: Hillsborough County Public Library
410 N. Kingsway Rd. Seffner, FL 33584
(813)273-3652
Website:  hcplc.org/hcplc/locations/smb/
Hours of operation: Monday 10am-8pm, Tuesday 12pm-8pm, Wed-Sat 10am-6pm, Sun-closed


The Seffner-Mango branch of the Hillsborough County Public Library is a 15,000 sq. foot building, housing 84,524 volumes, located in between the communities of Seffner and Mango, Florida. It offers free wifi, and Internet access through 16 PCs.  There is a public meeting room, study rooms, Friends of the Library bookstore, separate children's department, photocopiers and public FAX.

The librarian I chose to interview was Cindy Nichols. She is the senior librarian and site coordinator for the Seffner-Mango branch and has been a librarian for eight years.  Her MLS is from Queens College in New York.  She discovered her love for the library working at her campus library while pursuing her undergraduate degree in social work at Hunter College.  During pursuit of her master's degree, she worked in circulation at the campus library of Barnard College in New York City.  Upon graduation, she worked as a media specialist for about a year, and then she moved to Florida.  Her decision to change from working in a school library as a media specialist to working in the public sector was financially based.  Mrs. Nichols has been a member of professional organizations in the past, but does not currently participate.  Every year, she takes a few different courses through the Tampa Bay Library Consortium or the county continuing education classes.  One interesting one was "Better Storytelling for Librarians."

This location of the Seffner-Mango library is relatively new.  It has been opened for a little over two years.  When walking through the door, one sees the lobby of the library.  There is a table with informational materials against one wall and vending machines on the opposite wall. The Friends of the Library bookstore is also located in the lobby.  This store operates on the honor system, just like most of the FOL departments of the library.  Opposite of the bookstore are the restrooms.  Walking through the library, you reach another set of double doors.  To the right is the desk, where one can talk to staff and librarians, drop books off and check more out.  The children's department is located in it's own room, opposite from the desk.  Once past the desk, there are stacks to the left for young adult and adult books.  In the center are tables for working or couches and chairs for reading.  Over to the far right are shelves housing DVD's, CD's and materials on hold.  Not so far over to the right are the computers for internet access.  On the day of my visit, the library was pretty busy.  It was a Thursday morning, about 45 minutes after they opened.  There were quite a few people on the computers already.  Many people were also wandering around the stacks.  Volunteers were walking around, pushing carts and shelving books.  I observed staff members assisting patrons with the copy machine/printer, and also showing them how to access the computers.

Mrs. Nichols stated that this library stays pretty busy.  While she didn't have an exact figure, she estimates that they see approximately 5,000 patrons a  week.  In June 2011, there were a total of 28,029 volumes checked out.  49% of those were juvenile materials.  From January to June 2011, the total was 221,931.  This number does not include books going out to other branches for patrons putting things on hold.   This library serves the Seffner and Mango communities and other surrounding areas.  Anyone with a Hillsborough County Public Library card can use this library.  Any resident of the county can obtain a card, for free.  If you are a non-resident of the county, you can still get a library card, but there is a $100 fee.

This library employees two full time librarians and a library technician.  These three individuals compose the reference staff.  Other employees include the three members of the circulation staff.  Volunteer service is greatly appreciated at this branch, and they probably need more, even though they already have 10-15 volunteers.  All of the staff seemed to be very friendly.  I observed them welcoming patrons coming through the door, listening to a patron vent his frustrations, and answer several different questions.  They took a personal interest in their patrons, often knowing their names and holding short conversations with some.

This library carries a very special collection.  It is the realia exhibit.  It includes a microscope, telescope, slides, globes, charts, skeletons, etc.  Patrons are welcome to check out these materials (and much more), but are only allowed to have them for one week.  There is no grace period and $1 fines will start to accrue on the first day late.  There used to be another collection just like this at the MOSI branch of the library, but it is no longer open, so currently, Seffner-Mango is the only one.

The Seffner-Mango library does not have a presence on Twitter or Facebook.  Some of the online features for the entire library system are Ask-a-Librarian, email service and updates, or text alerts to stay updated.

What did I leave with?  Well, for one thing, I was really impressed with the realia collection.  For just the price of my library card (free!), I could walk out of there with a telescope, microscope and whole other host of things for science study.  How awesome!  This is great for people who can't afford these things but have these kinds of interests.  What a great resource for homeschoolers!  I wish stuff like this had been at my library growing up.  I also learned that the library had free wifi, and study rooms, which is great because it is closer to my house and sometimes, I don't feel like driving all the way to the USF library.  One thing that concerned me was the lack of staff.  I saw alot of work being done by a few people, and from what I understood, they could use more help, either with staff or volunteers.  Might be a good place for an internship or fieldwork.

I think visiting this library further convinced me that I am on the right path.  Just being in the library, with all the excitement and hustle and bustle of the patrons, made me realize that I wouldn't want to be any where else.  I always thought I would want to be a librarian in the public sector, and as of right now, that remains true.  I feel like in the public library, you would get a real sense of community, and helping out those in the community.  Of course, it might not be as exciting as an academic or research library, where you may get interesting reference questions, but you would still feel satisfied at the end of the day.