The Johnson County Public Library is inviting the public to give input on the system’s next strategic plan.
DAILY JOURNAL FILE PHOTO
Johnson County Public Library patrons will be able to provide their feedback on what the future of the library should look like starting Wednesday.
The library system will hold what officials are calling visioning sessions 7 p.m. Wednesday at the White River library branch and 7 p.m. May 18 at the Franklin branch. Library leaders will use feedback collected during the sessions to help shape JCPL’s next strategic plan, which will cover goals and objectives from 2024 to 2028, Director Lisa Lintner said in an email.
“We will use some of the data collected in a community survey we conducted in 2021 to add community input, as well as a few community visioning sessions. This summer we’ll have another community survey to give the public an opportunity to participate,” she said. “This plan gives a compass to develop priorities that will guide and improve library services and resources.”
With the visioning sessions yet to begin and the survey not released until a later date, most of the goals for the next plan have not been established. Although future plans to expand the White River and Franklin library branches are several years down the road, initial planning may be included in the next five-year window covered by the strategic plan, library spokesperson Jody Veldkamp said.
“We won’t be working on the White River project for five or six years, but the planning process would be part of this, same with Franklin,” he said. “There will be more community meetings, so it’s early, but we know we need to do it.”
The 2021 survey revealed a desire for updated facilities, comfortable and quiet reading areas, additional private and group meeting spaces, expanded children’s play and learn areas, and outdoor spaces. Patrons also said they wanted extended weekend hours, which lead library officials to add Sunday hours to the new Clark Pleasant library branch when it opened last spring, JCPL Assistant Director Sarah Taylor said in an email.
The Clark Pleasant library was part of the current comprehensive plan, which began in 2019 and expires this year. The branch includes the Adult Learning Center, which used to be housed in Franklin, a youth program room for kids and teenagers, and a STEAM robotics learning lab.
Other goals accomplished in the current strategic plan include strengthening the materials collection by adding more children’s books. Library officials also expanded JCPL’s presence in Bargersville, which doesn’t have a library branch. They introduced storytime at Bargersville Town Hall and will serve the community with a bookmobile beginning this summer.
Library leaders also met the goal of expanding digital access with more than 20,000 student and staff accounts at Clark-Pleasant, Center Grove and Saints Francis & Clare of Assisi schools, along with Franklin College, Lintner said.
JCPL officials consider the plan a living document and continue to make changes to it even after it’s been published. The current comprehensive plan was last updated in May 2022, she said.
“As some goals and objectives are achieved, others are created throughout the time of the plan. We also made adjustments due to the pandemic,” Lintner said.
Library leaders also met a goal to deliver services to senior centers, homebound patrons and agencies supporting people with disabilities, and surpassed a goal for patrons to pay down library fines by eliminating late fees, according to the strategic plan.
