Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

The Next 5 Years And The Carnegie Library Of Pittsburgh

After nine months of collaboration by board, staff, and community members, the final draft of Carnegie Library’s next five-year strategic plan is ready to be shown to the public.

On Saturday, September 15 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh in East Liberty, the Library will hold an interactive workshop on the plan.

Library spokesperson Suzanne Thinnes said the workshop will be interactive and will utilize ideas presented by the public in further sessions.

“What each interactive workshop that we’ve held has is a facilitator. And there is a brief presentation just to get the participants up to speed on the plan and what’s been engaged so far, but then [the facilitator] breaks people down into small groups,” Thinnes said.

Over the past nine months, more than 300 community leaders and residents contributed feedback, shaping the current version of this plan.

Overall, the plan consists of five goals:

  1. The Library will improve its facilities so they are more accessible, comfortable, flexible and intuitive. They plan to do this through user-friendly materials as well as providing innovative and high-quality programming that supports education and entertainment.
  2. The Library will improve accessibility to its features. This includes being able to access features over the web, as well as increasing the Library’s presence in places where children and teens gather.
  3. The Library plans to stay relevant in the 21st century via social media while also remaining as a trustworthy source of information. The Library aims to accomplish this through greater staff interaction with the public both in person, over the phone, and on-line.
  4. The Library will stay fiscally solvent by implementing previous recommendations of the Public Private Task Force on Sustainable Living.
  5. The Library wants to know how it has impacted the public, and in turn tell success stories to the Pittsburgh area.

Thinnes said the fifth goal is particularly important.
“We hear on a daily basis from people who say, ‘this is my library, and the library has changed my life, or has changed my life and the lives of my family,” Thinnes said.

The final draft of the plan is also available online, where viewers can make suggestions on possible changes until the end of September.