This month, the Omaha Public Library Board will review a draft of a new strategic plan. The library’s previous strategic plan is over a decade old and a lot has changed in our community since then. The past two years alone have upended everyone’s sense of normalcy, making it a good time to re-evaluate how OPL meets the expectations and needs of our community in its libraries.

Strategic planning aligns community needs and library services to help create a roadmap for library services over the next five years. And, if there’s one thing we’ve learned living and working through a pandemic, the path we create must be flexible enough to meet other challenges that will inevitably arise along the way.

At the request of the OPL Board, the strategic planning process began in February 2021. The library hired a consultant to facilitate internal and community conversations. In June 2021, teams of library staff conducted internal Library Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analyses. Five public forums were held in October 2021, including a special forum to seek input from the Library Board, OPL Foundation and Friends of OPL. Surveys were available online and in library branches to help library leaders find out what community members value most about their libraries and what services they would like to see offered in the future.

Respondents indicated that the service at OPL is fine as it is and that OPL needs significant change. Although this communication seems contradictory, it motivates OPL staff to find solutions to meet the need for traditional library services that people expect and deserve, as well as technological functionality and flexibility to enable the future success.

A recurring comment in every survey the OPL has conducted over the past 20 years is the demand for more hardware. In the most recent survey, 94% of respondents said they liked the materials the most of all the library’s offerings.

“We like to be surrounded by books…Don’t lose the physical books!”

“Please add to your e-book collection. Sometimes the wait for books is very long!

People also shared their thoughts on other resources and services they’d like to see in their library, including creative spaces and gear for creating podcasts, recording music, or hosting Zoom meetings. There have been requests for library meeting and study rooms to enable collaborative workspaces; and an expansion of collections to include non-traditional items to check out such as gardening tools, cake pans, musical instruments and video games.

My team and I hear and consider all of this feedback and use it to help develop goals and objectives for the new strategic plan. Once approved by the library board, the plan will be shared with omahalibrary.org must see for our community.

As we work on the plan, there will be quarterly reviews so we can make adjustments along the way.

I am beyond grateful to everyone who took the time to share their feedback and encourage continued feedback on what patrons want and need from their library. It’s clear that we live in a community that is passionate about libraries and we look forward to implementing a plan designed with our community in mind.