KPL Strategic Plan 2018-2020

Hello, KPL Staff
After a full year of community interviews, surveys, and focus groups, we have a strategic plan for the next three years.
We'll focus on
Strengthening Neighborhoods
Inspiring Learning and
Keeping You Curious

Over the next few weeks, our Senior Leadership Team will be presenting the highlights of the full plan to all staff. I hope as you read through this full plan, you see areas where you each can contribute. It will take all of our talents and our collective energy to fully realize all the wonderful outcomes from this plan. I hope you are inspired by what you read here and eagerly contribute your skills to help KPL live up to this ambitious promise to the community.
Barb

KENOSHA PUBLIC LIBRARY STRATEGIC PLAN  2018-2020

SERVICE PLAN

FOCUS AREAS:

Over the next three years, the Library will focus its efforts in three key service areas:

Strengthening Neighborhoods

Inspiring Learning

Keeping You Curious

1. STRENGTHENING NEIGHBORHOODS

According to the latest city data available, Kenosha’s poverty rate is 19.5%, significantly higher than the national poverty rate of 13.5%. College graduates are 23% of the population, compared to 30% nationally. KPL conducted a 2017 strategic plan survey in which the community identified neighborhood improvement as a strong role for the public library. With four neighborhood anchor  locations and an expanding Outreach staff and fleet of Outreach vehicles, KPL is positioned to favorably influence the most pressing challenges of Kenosha’s neighborhoods through community connections and lifelong education.

By focusing on this role of Strengthening Neighborhoods, we hope to

• Contribute to a reduction in poverty.
• Bridge the digital divide.
• Create lifelong connections to the library.
• Foster connections between neighbors to nurture a stronger community.

Strategy:  Connect residents in every neighborhood with library services and build community via new connections.

Tactics:

• Expand participation in Summer Parks Initiatives to support student achievement.
• Facilitate and support “collective impact initiatives” that strengthen neighborhoods, such as weekend tutoring in Lincoln Park, neighborhood association meetings, or neighborhood revitalization through the arts.
• Create Pop Up Libraries and programs, such as story times in laundromats, especially in neighborhoods of low engagement.
• Expand Library’s role in providing enrichment to schools and a variety of out-of-school programs in the community through outreach efforts.
• Expand Outreach Services into neighborhood parks, senior centers, and daycares.
• Tailor neighborhood library collections and programs to the needs of neighborhood residents.
• Build community cultural programming around local interests and concerns.
• Offer participatory community experiences to build relationships.
• Enhance outdoor library spaces to attract community interaction and revitalize neighborhoods.
• Facilitate connections between library customers and other organizations and services (e.g. information and referral, roving nurses, voter registration, visiting social workers, ACA signups, tax preparation).
• Modify library spaces to create more collaborative meeting and co-creation spaces.
• Work with community partners to create neighborhood asset inventories.
• Convene Citizen’s Library Advisory Council
• Serve as neutral conveners for community events that foster civic health.

Strategy: Support workforce development and improve digital inclusion by intensifying our efforts to teach digital literacy skills in low income neighborhoods.

Tactics:

• Build digital literacy training curriculum  in support of local job training initiatives.
• Partner with the Kenosha County Job Center and other organizations to host job-related training.
• Expand hotspot lending.
• Expand digital device lending.
• Invest in Broadband Access in support of  Digital Inclusion.

Strategy: Model Diversity, Equity, Inclusion

Tactics:

• Invite veterans in our community to enjoy the Library by participating in the American Heroes Cafe, community events such as the Stand Down and Veterans Day celebrations, and placing Free Book Bins in veterans services agencies.
• Initiate services in addition to our book discussions for people who are incarcerated, and expand services to more facilities. Support returning citizens by providing library information and learning opportunities.
• Inspire learning through classes and Bookmobile visits at locations in the community serving people experiencing homelessness.
• Provide public programming to foster community conversation on issues of race and gender.
• Develop collections to reflect diverse views and interests.
• Offer Human Library programs where people can interview others with different backgrounds and beliefs.

Strategy: Librarian at Every Table

Tactics:

• Offer competitive grant research and research training  in support of local nonprofits.
• Embed our reference staff into community initiatives to provide research support for data-driven decision making.
• Participate on Mayor’s Executive Team.

II.  INSPIRING LEARNING

According to a September 2017 PEW Internet Research study entitled “How People Approach Facts and Information,”

Roughly 4 in 10 adults (38%) are in groups that have relatively strong interest in information and learning, as well as  trust in information sources. About half (49%) fall into groups that are relatively disengaged and not very enthusiastic about information or about gaining more training, especially when it comes to navigating digital information. Another 13% occupy a middle space: They are not particularly trusting of information sources, but they show higher interest in learning than those in the more information-wary groups.

Of the group identified as “eager and willing” to engage with information, more than half were minorities. Sixty percent of people surveyed expressed interest in learning how to find trustworthy information online. Fifty-four per cent want digital literacy training, especially training in digital privacy and security. The more people trusted their skills to find information, the more they trusted information sources, and the more inspired they became to learn. Across all groups, there was high trust for librarians and libraries as information sources.

In order to maintain a strong democracy, our citizens need to be informed and have the skills to both access and evaluate information. Today’s literacy is more than the ability to read. It’s the ability to read, comprehend, and place information in context, often in a digital environment.  It is the library’s most important role to inspire lifelong learning and teach critical thinking skills.

By focusing on this role of Inspiring Learning, we hope to achieve

• Children prepared for school success.
• Parents engaged as teachers.
• Lifelong interest in learning and discovery.
• A community with the critical thinking skills to successfully engage with information.
• Renewed interest and faith in the democratic process.

Strategy: Support family engagement in children’s learning.

Tactics:

• Foster collaborative learning engagement as “Family Room of the Community.”
• Create multigenerational learning spaces.
• Advise parents on best apps to support virtual learning.
• Transition Youth Services department to Youth and Family Services.
• Expand programming to nutritional, health, behavioral, and financial literacy education.
• Offer data privacy, security, and social media safety training to families.
• Test new models of collection organization to increase user engagement.
• Implement a redeveloped, community-focused summer learning program to engage patrons at every age, birth through adulthood.
• Implement PLA’s 5R’s Framework (reach out, raise up, reinforce, relate, reimagine).

Strategy: Continue strong programming and collections for early literacy.

Tactics:

• Develop curriculum for school readiness and play-based learning programs for infants, toddlers, and preschool-aged children & their caregivers.

Strategy: Engage tweens and teens in library programs and services to foster lifelong learning and understand their place in the world.

Tactics:

• Evaluate current youth & teen programming, identifying best practices and indicators of children’s & teens’ development to inform future programs.
• Create opportunities for children & teens to participate in planning library programs, collections, and services, helping them to build valuable leadership and collaboration skills.
• Develop curriculum of self-directed active learning experiences for new school-age space at Southwest Neighborhood Library.
• Expand reader’s advisory services for children & teens, with a focus on promoting diverse and inclusive titles in our collections.
• Increase tween/teen-focused outreach visits.
• Engage youth in dynamic learning labs that support interest-driven learning through use of digital media, mentors, and networks of opportunity.

Strategy: Invest in 21st century literacy skills education

Tactics:

• Develop focused children’s workshop series to allow children the opportunity to explore a variety of topics (STEAM, digital literacy, etc.) in-depth and through hands-on learning.
• Continue Computer Coding Classes for Kids and adults.
• Develop Digital Media Lab training curriculum.
• Seek partnerships with local schools to maximize impact of Digital Media Lab.
• Expand one-on-one technology training appointments to all locations.
• Expand digital literacy training through Outreach Services.
• Offer on-demand device help at all locations.
• Offer tech help in Spanish.
• Establish mobile library visits to sites with Spanish speakers, such as employers or schools.

Strategy: Support Student Achievement

Tactics:

• Continue leadership in summer parks program to mitigate academic summer slide.
• Facilitate partnerships that offer tutoring and homework help in challenged neighborhoods.
• Open at least one library location on Sundays all year.
• Invest in test prep databases.
• Coordinate with local schools to anticipate curriculum support.

Strategy: Sponsor Civic Literacy programming and events to reconnect the community with their government and promote responsible citizenship.

Tactics:

• Participate in voter education through registration assistance and information campaigns.
• Offer classes designed to develop critical thinking skills, including verification of news sources and responsible navigation of social media.
• Offer classes in data security and privacy.
• Host Civic Forums with local leaders.
• Practice deliberative dialogue in community gatherings to foster civility.

Strategy: Invest in Health Literacy

Tactics:

• Partner with area hospitals to host speakers bureau.
• Offer parent training in nutrition and child health.
• Offer to serve as host site for traveling wellness clinics.
• Invest in quality print and digital health information collections.

III.  KEEPING YOU CURIOUS

According to Princeton economist Alan Krueger and Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman, cultivating an inquiring mind can help you lead a happier, healthier life. Clinical psychologist Todd Kashdan, who writes prolifically on the topic, has written a lively blog post called “The Power of Curiosity,” on this topic. “In a 1996 study published in Psychology and Aging,” he writes, “more than 1,000 older adults aged 60 to 86 were carefully observed over a five-year period, and researchers found that those who were rated as being more curious at the beginning of the study were more likely to be alive at its conclusion, even after taking into account age, whether they smoked, the presence of cancer or cardiovascular disease, and so on.”

Libraries have always been hubs of creativity for children. KPL believes people of all ages deserve a place where they can nurture their creativity.

By focusing on this role of Keeping You Curious, we hope to achieve

• A community that loves to play and takes time to do so at all stages of life.
• A community that expresses openness to unfamiliar experiences, people, and things.
• A community that pursues personal interests and explores ideas.
• A community that asks questions and seeks learning opportunities.
• A community of happy people who find meaningful purpose in their lives.

Strategy: Offer cultural programs for a wide variety of audiences: all ages, backgrounds, skill sets, and interests, with a special focus on community wide discussions.

Tactics:

• Plan a year-long focus on the theme of “work” in partnership with Public Theater NYC and the Wisconsin Humanities Council Working Lives Project.
• Host a 2018 Comic Con.
• Focus on program series to attract loyal followers.
• Continue participation in NEA’s Big Read.
• Build a local TEDx community, engaging subject experts in our region to share insights, knowledge or wisdom.

Strategy: Build and maintain a collection for all ages that inspires learning and sparks creativity.

Tactics:

• Analyze current patterns of collection use and formulate a strategy to increase engagement in all subject areas and genres.
• Subscribe to reviews of works from small presses and self-published titles to introduce eclectic selections.
• Develop the “how-to” subject areas of the collection.
• Display topics of current affair interest.
• Offer reading challenges, book clubs, and other related programs that encourage exploration of the collection.

Strategy: Offer drop-in self-directed programming, tech tryouts, and discovery areas for all ages.

Tactics:

• Develop Tween space with STEAM drop-in programming.
• Offer pop-up library experiences across the city that include writing sessions, tech help and instruction, human library programs and community discussions.
• Develop how-to programs led by community members and local businesses.
• Build a children’s reading garden at Southwest location.
• Create larger and more focused, dedicated teen space for collaborative, noisy activities at Southwest location.