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Director outlines Q1 progress: student card expansion, e-resources push and $9,675 state grant
Summary
Library director Jenna updated the West Fargo Library board on quarter‑one strategic plan progress, reporting plans to expand student ID cards to all grades, a push to grow e-resource usage, strong program attendance, staffing updates, a forthcoming preliminary budget and a $9,675 state library grant for staff training.
Jenna, the library director, told the West Fargo Library board on April 9 that staff are making incremental progress on the library's strategic plan and highlighted several operational updates and grants.
She said the library aims to increase library card signups 15% by 2028 (about 5% per year) and will pursue outreach such as a "library on wheels" this summer and a September library card sign-up month with a design contest. Jenna reported West Fargo Public Schools plans to expand student cards to all grades for the 2026-27 school year so guardians can opt students in to use student ID numbers as library card numbers.
On collections and digital access, the director said staff are focused on databases the library purchases directly (citing Consumer Reports and Udemy as examples) and set a target to raise e-resource usage 15% by 2028. Jenna described improvements to the catalog to allow patrons to search by language, and said communications will pursue multilingual signage with school help to reach non-English speakers.
In the director's report Jenna said finances expended to date were about 18% of budget, broadly in line with expectations. She said a preliminary draft of the library's budget was not available at the meeting because some city figures were still pending; Jenna plans individual meetings with board members and aims to pass the library preliminary draft in May and forward it to the city commission in June.
Staffing updates included an open youth librarian position and summer intern postings that close on the 12th, and a new permanent library assistant, Caitlin, who previously served as a summer intern, has started. Jenna highlighted program successes: 20 second-grade class tours during March, weekly story times that drew more than 60 attendees, an estimated 89 people at a spring-break event and roughly 250 participants in the March Madness reading challenge.
Jenna said meeting room usage has spiked (record hours reserved) and the library received approval to use the Jim and Ledone Center for summer programs to increase capacity. She also reported five West Fargo staff attended the Public Library Association conference and announced the library was awarded a State Library "vision grant" for $9,675 to support staff training and CliftonStrengths assessments.
The board discussed several items, and Jenna said staff will return with a preliminary budget draft before the next meeting. The meeting adjourned after the reports.
