The Library’s previous strategic plan provided aspirational guidance for many key library activities and established quantifiable service objectives. However, there was relatively little linkage between the plan and such key administrative activities as staff selection and appraisal, internal/external communication, customer service training, and data-driven decision-making, to name a few. To address this challenge, the library embarked on a six-month strategic planning process to identify what success looks like for the communities of Toledo and Lucas County and how the library can support that success. The resulting plan reflects deep community engagement around the idea that strong libraries build strong communities.

The strategic plan provides three focus areas for the library:

• Support essential literacies (emphasis on plural, including traditional literacy alongside of digital, financial, wellness, etc…);
• Increase community engagement, and
• Foster a culture of innovation and leadership (both within the library and our communities at-large)

The plan is driving many layers of intentional cultural and operational changes within the library. Some of these changes include redesigning our internal structures and employee development processes, aligning our outreach/partnership efforts to the key focus areas of our plan, creating and executing a digital strategy, and enhancing our communications internally and externally.

In just the first six months of the new plan, we are seeing returns on the investment we made in our planning process. Engaging nearly all staff in the process helped us develop and implement systemwide SMART goals and cement library values (welcoming, innovative, objective, accountable, and collaborative) as the foundation of all library work. Circulation staff are working together systemwide on removing barriers to access for our communities and providing a more consistent customer experience. Moving forward we expect to see increased customer focus, more informed customers, and increased morale, productivity, professionalism, and skill development within our staff.