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Library director reports volunteer and youth-program gains, pitches partnerships
Summary
Library Services Director Adam Chang told the governing board the library system has just over 300 active volunteers, growing early-literacy participation and strong summer circulation, and described programs and possible partnerships to support students and seniors.
Adam Chang, the library system’s director, told the Citrus County Special Library District the system is seeing measurable growth in volunteer support and youth programming and invited partnerships to expand services.
Chang said the system has "just over 300 active volunteers" who contributed more than 17,000 hours in the past year. He described early-literacy programs such as storytime, bilingual storytime and the "1,000 Books Before Kindergarten" initiative and said attendance to those programs has doubled since 2019, now registering just over 10,000 participants per year.
Chang highlighted a pilot program called "Happy Tales," in which children read to licensed therapy dogs to build confidence, and reported recent summer metrics: roughly 30,000 youth items checked out, nearly 700 kids participating in the summer reading program, and a collective summer-reading total that exceeded the system goal of 500,000 minutes (the reported total was about 541,000 minutes).
Chang also said the library completed a community needs assessment with about 1,800 responses and that the system offers GED support, citizenship classes and a homebound delivery service. Commissioners asked whether the libraries could partner with the technical school (WTC) to provide additional space or programming and whether Meals on Wheels could help deliver reading materials to seniors; Chang said the homebound program could expand and that partnerships would be considered.
Chang’s presentation framed the library as a resource across ages and recommended further outreach and collaboration; commissioners thanked him for the update.
