Peters Township Library looks towards future with new strategic plan
Peters Township council adopted a new five-year strategic plan for the local library as its staff rethinks how it serves the community.
Peters Township Public Library Director Lacey Love, alongside representatives of Pittsburgh-based Procopia Nonprofit Consulting, presented the plan to council at its meeting Monday night.
Procopia was contracted to help develop the strategic plan, which was paid for by the Peters Township Library Foundation.
Through an all encompassing analysis of the library’s current offerings and its needs, the plan lays out a new mission statement for the library, as well as four goals.
“Peters Township Public Library empowers individuals to learn, explore, and connect by providing enriching programs, services, and access to information,” reads the new mission statement.
The goals are to inspire the library board and management to lead the library with a shared vision, being a gateway of knowledge and information through modern programming and services, rekindling relationships with the community, and adapting the library’s physical space to meet its evolving needs.
“You have a great leadership team in place,” said Heather Maneval, central region director at Procopia. “How do we make sure that everyone has the support that they need to help this library better serve the community, or to serve the community as well in perpetuity.”
When it comes to programming, Love pointed to a need to reassess their teen programs. She said they plan to create a survey to determine how to best meet their needs, particularly in light of the newly constructed high school.
“Those students aren’t able to walk to the library anymore after school, so we’ve really seen a difference in our teen programming that we’d like to address,” Love said.
Love said they also plan to design activities and programs geared specifically toward those with developmental disabilities.
According to Love, they are also trying to secure funds to contract a third party to conduct an assessment of the space at the library to determine how it could be better used.