Great Falls library board begins community-centered strategic planning, emphasizes targeted outreach

Chair Anne Bulger convened the Great Falls Public Library Board of Trustees on May 4 to begin drafting a new strategic plan, with help from consulting librarian Corey Sloan of the Montana State Library and library staff. The board emphasized reaching beyond regular patrons to gather input from nonusers, underserved populations and community organizations.

Board members and staff said they prefer targeted, one-on-one interviews with local leaders and frontline workers complemented by broader public surveys. Suggested interviewees included local government officials, school leaders, nonprofit directors, Chamber of Commerce representatives, faith leaders, military personnel, social-service providers, colleges, homeschool networks and youth organizations. "We need to ask open-ended questions about community needs before asking about the library," said Corey Sloan, consulting librarian, recommending interviews over surveys alone.

Participants discussed program ideas and the library’s potential role as a neutral community hub, naming computer skills classes, writing groups, cultural programs, public forums on difficult issues such as fentanyl, and nontraditional lending items such as sewing machines as examples of services the library might support. Several trustees cautioned the board to avoid duplicating services already available elsewhere and recommended the strategic plan explicitly identify services the library should stop offering so staff can focus on core priorities.

The board discussed logistics for gathering input: draft open-ended questions (What are the community's biggest needs? Where do people get information about local events? What should the library look like in five to ten years?), partnering with community organizations to reach harder-to-reach populations, and documenting internal workflows and accountability measures to track progress on future goals. Staff present included Amy Dissmeyer and Aaron Kueffler; Brianne Laurin, GFPL Foundation director, participated in planning discussion.

No formal votes were taken on plan content during the meeting. The board approved the posted meeting agenda at the start of the session and later adjourned; trustees leaned toward a mix of targeted stakeholder interviews and supplemented surveys, but did not set a publication date or formal timeline for the strategic plan during the session. The meeting adjourned at 3:46 p.m.