Libraries today are about people.

We work hard every day so that the individuals living in our communities are enabled to harness the power of the library to meet their personal, educational, or professional goals. This means that as needs change, and as populations change, our collections, services, and spaces must also change. Serving these needs effectively requires dedication, persistence, creativity, adaptability, and yes—graceful pivots when and where they are necessary. Our team is our most important asset. Without each member of our team, not one of the resources, services, or items we provide would be available for our community. Over the next five years, we will pursue strategic outcomes that focus on the communities that we serve, as well as our library team members who will carry out these initiatives.

Specific objectives include:

1. Foster and maintain a positive, supportive, team-based culture.

2. Develop and implement a modernized pay scale.

3. Identify development needs and provide professional development opportunities.

4. Prepare and certify several team members to provide notary public services.

5. Develop and established a structured volunteer program.

6. Create and hire an Information Technology Specialist position.

7. Create and staff an Outreach Department to identify, coordinate, and implement outreach strategies that enhance positive visibility for our libraries and enable us to engage new audiences.

In the next chapter, it is not enough to simply provide resources and services for our communities. Moving forward, we will work to actively engage our communities. This means identifying, engaging, and serving a variety of different patron groups, including those who may not recognize the value that libraries can and do bring to enhance their quality of life, as well as those who may join us to explore how the library can be used in new and innovative ways. With this in mind, we will both optimize our existing outreach tools and deploy new strategies for meeting, serving, and collaborating with those who call North Mississippi home.

Specific objectives include:

1. Create and implement a system-wide marketing plan.

2. Develop an outreach calendar.

3. Develop and deploy a standardized outreach kit.

4. Improve the quality and utilization of the library’s existing YouTube channel.

5. Design and create traveling exhibits based on local history collections.

6. Create and launch a library ambassador program.

7. Create and staff an Outreach Department to identify, coordinate, and implement outreach strategies that enhance positive visibility for our libraries and enable us to engage new audiences.

8. Explore new branch locations.

Programming is a recognized priority that we aim to develop, with a range of offerings for a variety of different audiences. Building upon an active foundation of programs for children and teens, our team plans to begin offering classes, workshops, and cultural programs for adults, while maintaining our signature collaborative events such as Tupelo Reads, the Helen Foster Lecture, and the Friends of the Lee County Library’s popular Lunching with Books series.

Specific objectives include:

1. Prioritize arts and culture, career readiness, practical skills, small business and financial skills, and STEM topics as a foundation for programming efforts.

2. Cultivate partnerships for collaborative programming efforts.

3. Create an early literary emphasis within Youth Services.

4. Develop a variety of adult-focused programs to offer on a monthly basis.

5. Develop seasonally-appropriate outdoor skills programming.

6. Develop a local history emphasis, leveraging Mississippi Room and genealogy resources.

7. Develop and implement a “community passes” program connecting library patrons to local and regional attractions.

8. Develop and establish a quarterly Saturday Seminar series.

9. Create and hire programming staff.

Libraries today are about people. Our library spaces should therefore be arranged, renovated, designed, and presented with our patrons in mind. In both our downtown Tupelo and Fulton locations, our teams are feeling the positive pressure of growing collections and record turnout for high-demand programs, combined with aging buildings and constraining footprints. Over the next five years we aim to renovate our existing spaces to more effectively meet the needs of our community and our library team, explore new branch locations, and develop the plans and partnerships that will be necessary to construct a new flagship location in downtown Tupelo.

Specific objectives include:

1. Rearrange and upgrade public service points in Lee County location.

2. Coordinate important cosmetic and safety-related upgrades.

3. Develop and implement consistent signage program for both locations.

4. Explore new branch locations.

5. Develop plans and partnerships necessary for new flagship location in Tupelo, MS.

Our library system is publicly-funded, and this funding structure contains both positive and negative features. Thinking positively, we are blessed to receive regular funding from a relatively small number of funding sources, and are not faced with raising considerable funds on our own through other means. We do have challenges, however, in securing sufficient increases to cover rising costs year over year, and to support important growth. Over the next five years we aim to develop additional strategies for securing increased revenue that will not only support our current operations and library team members, but provide critical funds necessary for library growth.

Specific objectives include:

1. Develop and implement long-range fundraising plan.

2. Develop internal expertise or create and hire a new position to carry out grant-writing and financial development responsibilities.

3. Cultivate and maintain positive relationships with local governing bodies, chambers of commerce, main street associations, development foundations, small businesses, and major industrial partners.

4. Develop sustainable operational funding structure.

5. Design and coordinate plans to support a new flagship location in Tupelo, MS.