If you’re a frequent visitor at the Woodridge Public Library, library officials want to know what it is that keeps drawing you back.

And if you can’t remember the last time you set foot inside the library, library officials want to know what changes might lure you there.

As the library draws up its next set of long-range plans, library leaders are using a survey to solicit public opinion on its services and programs.

Residents can take the survey online, at www.woodridgelibrary.org. Those who prefer pencil and paper can take a hard copy survey that can either be picked up at the library or will be mailed to them on request.

Online survey takers should know, said Susan McNeil-Marshall, library administrator, that they may skip questions that don’t apply or that they don’t want to answer.

Results will help shape the library’s future direction.

“The state kind of requires that we do long-range plans,” said McNeil-Marshall.

She said the most recent long-range plan served as a guideline for the library’s evolution from about 2005 through 2009.

“We did not do a major survey that time,” she said. “This time, we’re using a consultant.”

The consultant, Jamie Bukovac, is the director of Indian Prairie Library in Darien.

McNeil-Marshall said Woodridge Public Library staff designed the survey. Bukovac, she said, will study the survey results and look for broad trends.

She also will lead three focus groups: one, consisting of library patrons, a second made up of library department heads and staff committees and a third that will include the library’s board and McNeil-Marshall.

The survey asks respondents to rate the staff, hours of operation, the reserve process, public computers and programs offered for children, young adults and adults. It also asks for reviews of the library’s Web site, its newsletters and online reference resources.

And it probes library users’ experience, asking about how easy it is to find materials, whether computer classes are worthwhile and which methods patrons use to get information about what’s going on at the library.

“You always want to know why people who don’t use the library don’t come in,” McNeil-Marshall said.

The survey also aims to uncover what services aren’t well publicized and are thereforenot highly visible. For example, the library provides delivery services for homebound patrons.

McNeil-Marshall said the survey, posted on the Web site since May 20, will be available through July 20.

She said library officials hope to gather completed surveys from several thousand people.

“We have 23,000 cardholders. There are 36,000 residents,” she said.

Survey results will be posted on the Web after they are tabulated.

She said the new long-range plans, which will identify the library’s goals for the next three to five years, will start taking shape in the fall.

For more information, call Jack Norton, library business manager, at (630) 964-7899, Ext. 231.