Guthrie library to update strategic plan; director proposes community advisory group

Cameron, the Guthrie Public Library director, told the advisory board that the library's strategic plan on file with the Oklahoma Department of Libraries was mostly prepared in 2017 and is out of date. He said ODL requires a policy review as a condition of state aid and recommended completing a new strategic plan first and using it to guide the policy review.

Cameron shared sample plans from similarly sized libraries and noted common priorities such as customer service, collections and promotion. He recommended a community advisory group of roughly a dozen people that would include board members, Friends of the Library representatives and community residents (for example, a homeschool representative and a teacher from the school district) to gather input and perform a SWOT analysis.

He outlined an initial task list of 10 items, reported completing the first task, and estimated the full planning process would take about six to eight months with the board receiving periodic updates. The director proposed quarterly circulation and program statistics during the planning period to reduce monthly reporting burden.

Board members agreed the update was timely and asked the director to return with proposed names for the advisory group at the next meeting; the board deferred finalizing advisory-group membership and the community engagement approach until the next session.

Next steps: Cameron will convene staff, draft a communication plan and present candidate advisory-group members for board review at the next meeting.