The Daviess County Public Library is in the beginning stages of developing its strategic plan for the next couple of years. According to DCPL Director Erin Waller, the library’s strategic plan will include recommendations that come from an upcoming community survey, as well as technological and small business focuses.
DCPL is currently entering the final year of its 2015-2020 strategic plan, and Waller said now is the time to start working on the next one.
“We’re going to spend the first part of this year planning,” she said. “If you start from scratch and have never made a strategic plan before, it could take a couple years to develop. But we’ve done this regularly, so we don’t have to rebuild the wheel.”
Waller hopes to have a plan sketched out by summer, at the same time the library’s budget will be approved.
“So I want to have an idea of what to budget for by summer,” she said. “A [definitive] strategic plan will be completed by the end of 2020.”
The library’s upcoming community survey will be key in forming the plan, Waller said, but DCPL has already outlined some ideas they’d like to see come to fruition over the next few years.
One of those ideas includes a two-part method that’ll bring DCPL and the small business community together.
Small businesses — especially those who have limited space and/or operate from home — often lack physical tools, such as copying machines and fax machines, that DCPL can provide, Waller said. Even more, the library wants to create a space that people can use to have small business meetings with clients.
“For meetings, it would involve reworking our space. Is there a possibility of renovation? I don’t know,” Waller said. “I think we have the space for it, but we’ll take small steps first, then see how that goes.”
DCPL would also like to focus on customer convenience for the future.
“Think grocery store curbside pickup,” Waller said. “Convenience — that’s what people are expecting now. We already have it where you can [order something ahead of time], come in, and pick it up, and that’s the first step. Now, we have to make it even easier.”
Maintaining and expanding the library’s partnerships has always been a focus, and will continue to be in the future, Waller added.
And the community survey will reveal a lot to DCPL, including what the customers would like to see in the future. Waller said the library always listens to suggestions and takes them seriously.
“Someone once mentioned that we needed a family bathroom at the library. We really listened to that suggestion, and then we included one on the second floor,” she said. “This survey is a chance for people to express what they want and need from us.”
This survey will be available to take both digitally and in-person in the near future.
