Multiple factors contributed to the Middlebury Public Library’s realization that a planning process to modernize library services was overdue, including increased program attendance, annual circulation increases that exceeded 5%, and a facility fully 7,000 square feet short of recommended size. When it was completed, the long range plan helped the Board and library director address these obstacles and other issues regarding the library and also to incorporate the public comments elicited during key focus groups.
Using the Public Library Association’s New Planning for Results, the library and Board formed an advisory committee that in turn selected and hired a library consultant and held four focus groups comprised of various kinds of stakeholders (senior citizens, mothers and fathers, community ‘Movers and Shakers,’ and one specific to businesspeople, teenagers, and nonusers). The information contributed by these groups, along with staff interviews and a review of data collected by the library from a 2005 community survey, provided Middlebury planners with a cogent snapshot of how the library is perceived by the community.
The library performed a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) to identify existing external and internal conditions, and the advisory committee considered population, economics, community statistics, political climate, library and town budget, staffing, programming levels, administrative issues and technology considerations. The process next developed service responses with appropriate goals, objectives, and action steps, including timetables for completion. The advisory committee refined the goals and objectives developed from reviewing the focus group records and other input and wrote a new mission statement.
Library director Jane Gallagher wrote that the combined director and Board’s presentation to the joint Board of Selectmen and the Board of Finance was, wrote, “enthusiastically received with promises to follow the recommendation of the community as presented in the plan.”
During the long range planning process, the library realized that it would benefit from an updated technology plan; the library took steps toward completing a formal technology plan, including using TechAtlas, a suite of web-based technology planning tools from WebJunction. The library also received donations from several groups for a future building/expansion project during work on the long range plan.
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