What do you want from your library?

2008 was an eventful year for the Chippewa River District Library. The millage passing in August means that basic operations have been secured for the next 10 years but many decisions still need to be made on how to best utilize the library’s limited resources. The needs of the community as well as the ability of the library to meet those needs have changed since our last plan in 2002. Throughout 2009 the CRDL will be looking for community input to help the library Board of Directors decide how to best maximize library resources to meet current community needs. To do this, we will be undertaking the Public Library Association’s Strategic Planning for Results to develop a plan for the next three years.

We will rely on a committee that will be a combination of people who can speak for all the constituencies in our community and who can reflect the demographics of the community. The focus of the planning committee will be to defne a vision for the community, identify what needs to happen to reach that vision, and how the library can make a contribution toward achieving that vision.

We are also fortunate to have the Central Michigan University Center for Applied Research and Rural Studies working on a community wide survey about library services and community needs to help collect more statistical information. The results of that study will be used by the Strategic Planning Community Committee to help make their recommendations to the Library Board of Directors.

If you're interested in more information about the library's Strategic Planning, click the Strategic Planning button at crdl.org, and click to read the article from the Morning Sun.