Lithgow Public Library

45 Winthrop St, Augusta, ME 04330

http://www.lithgow.lib.me.us/

Noah Hoffman
ILS 385
12/11/17
 General Introduction

Community Profile Narrative: Identified Assets and Challenges

Augusta, Maine, has numerous activities for people to experience. It has the Maine State

Museum which has many enjoyable, historical exhibits. Connected to the Maine State Museum,

is the Maine State Library. This is a largely non-fiction library with information of a variety of

different topics. Augusta also has a several large playground structures, including one by the

Kennebec River where fishing is also a possibility. There is a large park called Capital Park,

near the state House, where events are sometimes held. Fort Western, one of the oldest forts in

the country, offers tours, programs, and exploration. Augusta has three community pools and a

wide variety of shops and restaurants. Augusta also has an airport, though it is not very big. The

airport is near a national guard base, Camp Keyes. The city has numerous hiking trails. Some of

the nearby towns are Hallowell, Gardiner, and Waterville. The nearest big city would be

Portland.

Library Profile Narrative: Identified Assets and Challenges

Assets: Lithgow is within walking distance to two elementary schools, Lincoln School, and St.

Michael Catholic School. Lithgow might have kids walking to the library after school gets out.

Lithgow also does monthly outreach programs at various daycares and old folks homes in the

area and does a story time at the local farmers market. Lithgow is centrally located, has

proximity to local neighborhoods, and has fast internet speed. The building is mostly brand new

and aesthetically pleasing. It is close to the court house, state offices, downtown, and the airport
Challenges: Lithgow library really does not have too many challenges. There is the Maine State

library which is some competition, but they mainly only have non-fiction books. It is more the

type of library you would go to when you need to do research. That is not to say a person cant

do research at Lithgow, but Lithgow is more of a balanced library. It can be used for both work

and pleasure. A mother likely wont find any singalong groups or story time at the Maine State

Library. The two libraries have some differences in target demographics. Augustas economy is

not particularly depressed, but there is a population of unemployed or disabled patrons. The

population has dropped. Although Augusta provides many opportunities for employment, high

taxes are sending some people to nearby towns with cheaper taxes. The population of Augusta

now is 18,494, and the population in 2014 was 18,763. Technically a drop, but not a very large

amount. Lithgow is not within walking distance to local restaurants.

Existing Programs

Lithgow library has a very wide variety of programs available. They have the Backpacks for

Homeless Youth charity, the Wiggle Worms program for babies and small children, the Teen

Gamers Lounge, the Rockin Readers book group, Drop-in Tech Help, Legos at the Library,

Teen Book Group, a LGBT+ Teen Group, Cookie Cottages, a Teen Writers Group, various story

times and or craft times, and many other programs. Patron can find a lot of options and

opportunities at Lithgow.

Identified Needs

I have not identified any particular needs in the community. Augusta is not a particularly varied

or specialized town. Many of our shops and restaurants are chains, the majority of the population

are the same ethnicity, and there is no one central business, other than the State of Maine. There
has recently been an increase in of people from the middle east. If this population continues to

increase, Lithgow may be limited in resources available to meet the needs of the new residents.

Community Demographics

Lithgow is the public library for the city of Augusta, Maine. The population it serves is the city

of Augusta. The population of Augusta is 18,494. 73% of the population lives in urban areas, and

27% of the population live in rural areas. Males make up 47.8% of the population, females make

up 52.2%. White people make up 93.2% of the population. Hispanic people make up 2.2%.

Mixed race people make up 2.1%, while American Indians make up 1%, Asian make up 0.8%

and African Americans make up 0.7%. 18.7% percent of the population have French ancestry,

while 16.4% have English, 13.7% have Irish, 9.1% are French Canadian, and 5.9% have German

ancestry. 88.5% of the population has at least a high school diploma. 24.9% of the population has

a bachelors degree of higher. 5.1% of the population is under the age of 5. 19.7% is under the

age of 18. 18% of the population is over the age of 65.

Library Profile Narrative: History

Lithgow Library is named after Llewellyn Lithgow, a wealthy book merchant from Augusta who

left the city $20,000 to build a library. This money, plus $9,000 from Andrew Carnegie and area

subscriptions, gave Augusta the funds to build Lithgow. The cornerstone was put into place in

1894, and the library was first opened 1896 in February. Lithgow is a public library. Lithgow

had its first renovation in 1979, and has recently complete a major expansion which cost

$11,000,000 in 2015.

Most Important Library Statistics

Lithgow Library has 11,200 registered borrowers as of this year.

Lithgow has had 83,811 visitors this year.

Lithgow has circulated 148,360 books, periodicals, and audiovisual items this year.

Lithgow has 67,000 titles in its collection as of the 2016 annual report.

Lithgow has 18 people on the library staff. They also have 2 custodians and 5 volunteers.

Vision, Mission, Goals, and Objectives

Vison Statement

Lithgow does not have a Vision Statement. I think the vision statement should be as follows:

Lithgow will continue to aid its patrons in the pursuit of knowledge. We will do our best to

maintain a collection that our patrons will enjoy and keep out collection current.

Mission Statement

Lithgow Public Library provides materials and services to help community residents of all ages

meet their educational, recreational, and professional needs. The library serves as a lifelong

learning center for all members of the community.

Outreach Plan Program Goal

The goals of Lithgow are to help people of all ages discover a love of reading and creativity. To

help further this goal with middle school aged children, Lithgow is developing the Randomized

Writing Challenge. This program will help kids to become more creative and think more about

the various elements that go into creating a story.

Program Objective
The objective of the Randomized Writing Challenge is to get middle school aged kids both more

interested in coming to the library, along with getting them interested in writing and testing their

creativity.

Program Focus

The vision for this program is for it to become a yearly occurrence. The program will be open to

all kids of the middle school age range. If the program is successful, then Lithgow might do a

similar contest for high school aged students and elementary aged students. Hopefully, the

participants of the contest will find enjoyment and feel they learned something about themselves

as readers. Participants could learn new strategies and skills in the areas of writing and reading

and participate in the challenge again the following year. Part of the plan will be asking local

middle school level English and Literature teachers to tell their students about the contest and the

prize. Hopefully this will help foster good relationships with local English teachers and they can

inform their students about other library events. Of course, the main focus of the program is to

make it fun for those participating and help them learn creativity and story elements. Getting

them more interested in coming to the library would not hurt either.

Statement of Need

The Randomized Writing Challenge will be a writing contest for children of a middle school age

range. Any who wish to participate can sign up on the library website. When each person signs

up, they will be randomly assigned a genre, such as a mystery, an adventure, a romance, science

fiction, etc. They will also randomly be assigned a main character, a setting, and a plot twist.

Each contestant must write a story using the story elements given to them. Their story must be a

minimum of 10 pages with size 12 font, double spaced. This challenge will begin on September
10th and ends on November 10th. Writing workshops will be offered at the library during this

two-month span. Out of all the submitted stories, the ten will be selected by the judges and the

writers of those stories will be invited to Lithgow for the awarding of the prizes and sharing of

stories. Each of the ten stories will be read, and the winner will be announced. The winner of the

challenge will receive a $50 Amazon gift card and a trophy. It was determined this program was

a need because Lithgow does not have a lot it the way of creative writing based programs. There

are one or two, but they are more workshops and discussion groups. Few things get a person

excited like a competition. This plus, the prize, may help get participants to put a lot more effort

into the competition and will hopefully get more out of it.

Target Group

The target group would be kids of a middle school age, grades 6-8. The plan is to contact the

various middle schools, or schools with middle school grades in the area. It would be beneficial

if this age range of patrons became more interested in the Library. Lithgow has a wide variety of

programs for kids of their age range and a large collection of middle school level books, audio

books, and eBooks.

Estimated Number of Potential Participants

It is difficult to say how many participants the Randomized Writing challenge will have. Since it

has sign up online and submit stories online, this basically means that students dont have to go

to the library unless they are attending a workshop or if they are in the top ten. That will likely

increase the number of participants. Participants do not have to be Augusta residents, so this

could appeal to surrounding towns, as well. They do have roughly two months to write their

stories, so they will have plenty of time. The prize of a $50 Amazon gift certificate and a trophy
might inspire kids who do not normally participate in this type of contest. Plus, the plan is for

various middle school level English teachers in the area to tell their students about it, so kids of

the right age range will find out about it. All in all, maybe a seventy five kids will participate,

though that is largely just a guess.

Potential Partners

Potential Partners will likely be the English teachers and schools we ask to tell their students

about the contest. We will be doing this with multiple schools so there will not just be a

collaboration with one school. St. Michaels private school would likely be a potential partner.

They are quite close to Lithgow. We would reach out to our home school students in the area, as

well.

Available Library Physical Space

Since a large portion of the contest happens elsewhere, the only time that library space will be

needed is for the writing workshops and the reading of the top ten stories and the giving of the

award. We can have this event in the adult section of the library. It is a big airy space with a lot

of room and many chair and tables. More chairs might need to be added, depending on if the

number of family members who show up for the top ten readings. There are meeting rooms

available at the library, as well.

Skills of Staff

Lithgow has a teen librarian named Julie who does collection development and RA for the young

adult crowd. Sarah does collection and development for middle grades in Youth Services.

Marketing and Communications Programs and Initiatives

The first way the Randomized Writing Challenge will be advertised will be putting up flyers for

it in the library. These flyers will explain the details of the challenge and how a person can sign

up for it. The library can inquire about getting permission to put up flyers for the challenge in

some of the local middle schools.

Another way the challenge will be advertised is by asking various middle school English

teachers in the community to telling their students about it. This ensures that a large number of

kids at least hear about it. Those teachers will also be given flyers that they can hand out to their

students.

Details on the contest will also be posted on Lithgows Facebook page. There may not be many

kids who check out Lithgows Facebook page, but parents with kids the right age might check it

out and tell their kids about it. The same thing could also be done for Twitter and Instagram

And finally, information about it will be made available on the library website. This is also

where participants can sign up for the contest and submit their stories.

Reference
Lithgow Public Library. (n.d.). Retrieved December 13, 2017, from

http://www.lithgow.lib.me.us/

Writer, J. L. (2016, August 13). Augustas Lithgow Public Library hosts joyous reunion

after renovation. Retrieved December 13, 2017, from

http://www.centralmaine.com/2016/08/13/augustas-lithgow-public-library-hosts-joyous-reunion-

after-renovation/

QuickFacts. (n.d.). Retrieved December 13, 2017, from

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/augustacitymaine

City of Augusta. (2017). 2016 annual report of the City of Augusta. Retrieved from

http://www.augustamaine.gov/document_center/City%20Manager/2016%20Annual%20Report.p

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