This year, the Lexington Public Library has an all-new Library Board of Trustees, many new Advisory Board members, and a new Executive Director. With all this change, we felt it was necessary for us to take the time to go through a strategic planning process to learn what our community most needs from us and how we can best design our services.

It has been a long and comprehensive process. Our 17-member Planning Committee was comprised of Board members, Library staff, and community members. We conducted 16 focus groups for civic and business leaders, non-profit community organizations, Library Board members, Library managers, Library staff, and current Library customers. We had a LOT of valuable feedback, with some common themes around demographic changes and social diversity, a slow economy, and technological inequalities.

In response to this information, we have developed a 5-year organizational vision with a 2-year strategic direction. The full plan is included below and outlines the 3 strategic goals under which we will operate for the next 2 years. Library staff is currently developing the action plan and measurable objectives by which we will gauge our progress toward these goals. When completed, the action plan will be added to the strategic plan document online.

We thank the many people who contributed to this process, and welcome questions and comments!