In July 2024, Henrietta Public Library surveyed the 182 patrons who signed up for library craft programs in the last two years. We wanted to find out their interests to guide our craft programming choices in the future. The survey was open for three weeks. We received 50 responses with a 27.47% return rate, much higher than we expected.
Here is a brief overview of what we learned:
There were several key takeaways from the survey, including popular crafting categories. The top craft patrons want to see in our programming are fiber arts, which include knitting, crochet, embroidery, cross stitch, punch needle and needle felting. Paper crafting and bookbinding, sketching and painting, and jewelry and metal stamping are all popular choices with 50% of respondents selecting these categories. This data will be used throughout the next year in planning craft programming. We plan to offer more classes that patrons want to see and to offer repeat and expanded classes so that we can accommodate the demand in our community.
Most respondents were not aware that the library has a Silhouette cutting machine available for public use, however most are interested in learning how to use it and have shown interest in either learning or attending programming using the cutting machine. Given this interest, we will be adding two Cricut Makers to our craft room with the goal of making the cutting machine more widely available and user friendly. This includes expanding programming using the cutting machines.
70% of respondents would be interested in attending sewing classes if the library offered them and about 60% noted that they would be interested in borrowing a sewing machine. This information will help inform how craft programming will evolve in the future.
An after-class survey has been developed and will be sent to all crafting class attendees so that we can continue to check in with our crafting community to gauge interest in programming.