Now that Election Day has passed, the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton is refocusing on preparing for the future and considering how to best continue to serve the community. Key to this is developing a new strategic plan as soon as possible to ensure efficiency and build on previous success.
Though the passage in November of the much needed 1 mil levy will help keep branches open and enable the Library to provide a diversity of services to children, seniors, and families, the funds generated by the levy only replace the funding lost as a result of declining State revenues. The Library will not be able to build or expand branch libraries, increase its hours of operation, or take on additional operating expenses. “Our funding from the State of Ohio continues to drop and is projected to drop even further in 2010 so we must be prudent with our expenditures if we are to continue to avoid future service reductions,” said Kim Fender, Executive Director for the Library.
“The Library has proven itself to be a good steward of public funding for more than 150 years, and we will be good stewards of local tax dollars as well,” promised Ms.Fender. "But being a good steward cannot be accomplished without good planning.” The Library is planning to update its current five-year Strategic Plan in 2010. The 2004-2009 Strategic Plan identified four priorities: Relevant Services, Financial Strength, Community Awareness and Dynamic Organization.
Despite ongoing financial challenges during the past five years, the Library made many of the recommended service changes to meet the goals and objectives stated in the Strategic Plan. “Our last plan was very useful in deciding what needed to be done to best serve our community and we made many improvements as a result of the feedback we received during the planning process,” said Ms. Fender. “We truly did use the plan to set priorities for the Library. We expect to have at least as much, if not more, community involvement in developing this new plan.”
As with its previous plan, the Library will solicit input from community leaders and Library users across the county using one-on-one interviews, surveys, and focus groups. Moreover, throughout the levy campaign various community members expressed opinions on policy, facility and collection changes to be considered. These opinions, along with additional input from all communities served by the Library, will help guide how its services, collections and facilities can be changed to better meet the needs of the community.
To help with the completion of this task the Library Board has approved the formation of an Ad Hoc Planning Committee consisting of three members of the Board, the chairs of the Finance & Audit, Library Services & Administration and Facilities committees. The duties of this committee will be to oversee the development of a Strategic Plan for the Library. In addition, an advisory committee of community leaders and library users will be created to provide additional guidance through the planning process.
The committee will serve until the plan is completed. “This same process was used in the development of our current plan and resulted in widespread community input and the achievement of many of the goals outlined in the plan,” explained Ms. Fender. “Developing a good Strategic Plan is a time consuming process and we estimate that it will be six to nine months before a new plan is presented to the full Library Board for approval. We look forward to spending the next few months planning for the Library’s future and are excited about the changes we will be making to better meet the ever-changing needs of our community.”
















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