Addressing the Needs of the Community: Whitefish Bay Public Library’s Story
Planning is one of the most important steps when executing a project. However, once COVID-19 hit, planning seemed almost impossible, resulting in many libraries pausing their strategic planning efforts.
This was exactly the challenge that the Whitefish Bay Public Library faced as they started creating their new three-year strategic plan.
Without completely forgetting their previous proposals, Whitefish Bay had to adjust the new plan to their current situation and incorporate a focus on equity, diversity, inclusion, and social justice. One example of this is by updating their 2016 mission of “connecting people of all ages” to “connecting all people” to reflect on their objective of inclusivity.
Because the library does not want to assume what the community needs, they are utilizing the grant funds from their 2020 OrangeBoy Opie Award to hold focus groups and one-to-one interviews. Coupled with raw circulation data, grouping functions, newsletters, and surveys provided by Savannah, OrangeBoy’s community engagement platform, the library will be able to develop a comprehensive three-year strategic plan that meets the needs of the entire community and better serves its library customers.