Whitman MBA students present research on impact of Onondaga County Public Libraries on community

Second-year MBA students in the Whitman School of Management will present their research, “The Impact of Onondaga Public Libraries on the Lives of Patrons and the Community,” on Wednesday, Dec. 14, as part of the seminar in marketing research course. The presentation will take place from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. in the Milton Room (fourth floor) of the Whitman School building, 721 University Ave.

In a large-scale investigation, the students have addressed different sources of impact that county libraries have on the lives of patrons and the local community from various perspectives, including tangible services the library system provides and influence that patrons perceive. The study covers the entire Onondaga County public library system and a large sample of respondents.

Study adviser Tridib Mazumdar, Howard R. Gendal Professor of Marketing, says of the students’s research, “Public libraries are now asked to provide services that go far beyond lending books, DVDs and travel guides. They offer job training to the unemployed, Internet services to people without the means to connect to the world, language classes to newly arrived immigrants and a safe environment for people to meet. It is undoubtedly difficult to capture and monetize the scope and depth of the services that today’s public libraries provide. Personally, I myself wasn’t aware of the pervasiveness of the library’s influence on the lives of Onondaga County residents. I hope that the study will shed some light on this issue.”

For more information on the study, contact Mazumdar at tmazumda@syr.edu, or Amy McHale, director of experiential learning, at ammchale@syr.edu.