What are the things "that matter" at your library? Do you even know what they are?
Take a look at your statistics and arrange them in order by volume.
Jamie LaRue, Douglas County Library System Administrator, did this and found that of the things provided by his library system, the things that mattered were the items with the highest volume of "transactions": 1. circulation 2. physical visits 3. virtual visits 4. reference questions 5. databases 6. program attendance 7. PC use. Everything else was 10 times or more LESS. (How many of you are not even counting "virtual visits"?)
His experience has proven that you should "be honest" about how well you are doing; figure out what you are doing the most of and put your resources there. How much time and money do we put into things that "don't matter"? Is there a disproportionate investment to the return-on-investment? Are you planning 2 hours for a 20 minute story time?
His experience has also proven that if you want to reach 50% or more of your community, you must leave the building! Library directors shouldn't be "chained" to an office or a circulation desk. Library directors should be out and about in the community. As should other staff members, outreach builds your customer base.
Jamie LaRue has created a library environment that makes it "easy" for the users. Things like: self check-out; elimination of the "traditional" circulation desk; an all face-out Power Wall; displays that change several times a day; credit card swipes at check-out.
He weeded "extensively": anything that hadn't circulated at least 7 times in a year got weeded! At any given moment 62% of his collection is checked out! 80% of his total adult circulation is from the displays! Look at the past circulation for a few years and identify "themes" at various times of the year. Use that information as a starting point for your library displays.
One thing that he wanted us to "get" was that "Use has nothing to do with support"; it came from OCLC's report: From Awareness to Funding. He discovered it as well after a failed library tax referendum. Market penetration is the key to funding. Not the number of library users. Use GIS and your patron database to find the "pockets" of the community that you aren't reaching. The goal (aside from sustainability) is to move from being an "amenity" to "a valuable community asset".
Libraries tend to be "library-centric"--it's all about us--the community should support us... when in fact WE (the library) should be supporting our community.
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