Mission & Long Range Plan

The Patterson Library provides materials, information services and programs to promote informed citizenship and life-long learning.  The library is committed to meeting the personal and professional needs of the community residents.

Patterson Library

Long Range Plan 2022-2024

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The new library goals and objectives for 2022-2024 create a roadmap for the future, describing the results that the library is striving to achieve. As the plan is a living document, design of specific activities and tasks, and measurement of progress are developed annually and modified as needed.

Library Mission Statement

The Patterson Library provides materials, information services and programs to promote informed citizenship and life-long learning.  The library is committed to meeting the personal and professional needs of the community residents.

Library Vision

The Patterson Library provides valuable and equitable services that fulfill essential roles in the community within the limits of financial resources and facility space:

Community Activities & Information Center:

  • Offers social, cultural and recreational programs
  • Provides meeting room and program space for the community and the library
  • Establishes an effective communication network with other local organizations, agencies and local government
  • Offers referrals to community services
  • Provides information and cooperative reference services for a wide range of personal and professional needs and interests
  • Provides inviting and comfortable facilities with a variety of individual and group seating and work spaces

Education & Independent Learning Support Center:

  • Assists people of all ages in meeting their educational objectives, supporting courses of school study and curriculum, training and vocational programs, citizen education, digital and language literacy, life skills, personal enrichment programs, hobbies and cultural interests
  • Supports continuing education through reference and research assistance, materials location and/or acquisition, exam proctoring, and informational programming
  • Encourages young children to develop an interest in reading and education
  • Supports child development, parenting, and social skills learning through the teenage years and beyond

Popular Materials & Technology Center:

  • Offers current, high-demand, high-interest materials in a variety of traditional and non-traditional mediums for people of all ages
  • Actively markets and encourages use of the collections to meet evolving societal changes
  • Provides hardware and software resources to ensure people in the community have access to current technologies for effective computing, learning and communication for their personal interests and job needs
  • Offers technology training and assistance to meet personal learning requirements

FINANCIAL STRENGTH

GOAL: Patterson Library’s Board of Trustees will ensure sufficient funding to properly maintain and ensure protection of the community’s investment.

OBJECTIVES:

  1. Pursue funding resources to meet the growing community needs for library services.
  • Action Step: The Finance Committee will plan for future 414 initiatives to cover operating expense increases.
  • Action Step: The Board and Director will work with Putnam County legislative representatives to ensure continued Putnam County funding and support.
  • Action Step: The Fundraising Committee of the Board will work with the Director to identify potential donors to provide funds to enhance the library’s facility, programs and services.
  • Action Step: The Director will work with administrative staff members to identify and pursue grants that can fund additional programs and projects that meet the library’s goals and objectives.
  • Action Step: The Fundraising Committee of the Board, Director and Public Relations Coordinator will work together to identify individuals who would be interested reestablishing a Friends Group for the library.
  1. Strengthen financial policies and practices.
  • Action Step: The Board and Director will work together to draft and adopt all policies suggested by the Mid-Hudson Library System to ensure that all monies are being handled appropriately with the necessary checks and balances.

LITERACY & LIFE-LONG LEARNING

GOAL I: Patterson Library will maintain a collection of books and materials, in a variety of formats.

OBJECTIVE:

  1. Continually evaluate print, audiovisual, and digital collections to determine usefulness, timeliness, and other criteria for keeping, adding to or withdrawing from the collection.
  • Action Step: The Director & Circulation and Database Manager will oversee the purchase of vibrant, timely, relevant collections in multiple formats.
  • Action Step: The Director & Circulation and Database Manager will continue to monitor patron trends/circulation statistics to direct purchasing and weeding decisions.
  • Action Step: The Director will explore cooperative contracts with vendors for new products, such as downloadable media.
  • Action Step: Staff will continue to purchase museum passes for patron use, and monitor the usage of the passes by gathering monthly statistics on the circulation of these passes.

GOAL II: Patterson Library patrons will have access to programming that promotes life-long learning and emphasizes a feeling of connectedness.

OBJECTIVE:

  1. Programs will be offered to meet the community’s personal, educational and creative needs.
  • Action Step: The Public Relations Coordinator and staff will work to provide programming that focuses on areas of interest to Patterson residents, which includes topics related to history (especially local), cooking, music and movies, science and nature, fine arts, travel and culture.
  • Action Step: The Public Relations Coordinator and staff will plan programs that utilize our outdoor spaces.
  • Action Step: The Director and the Public Relations Coordinator will work with other libraries to provide programming that reaches all Putnam County residents.
  • Action Step: The Director and the Public Relations Coordinator will work to bring programs into the community in addition to in-house programming.

GOAL III: Assist people of all ages with their pursuit of knowledge and improved literacy, both individually and in group settings.

OBJECTIVE

  1. Work to improve literacy in the community.
  • Action Step: Information Specialist and Adult Programming staff will plan programs and offer resources that help users to achieve competency and perform tasks effectively in a digital environment.
  • Action Step: The Director will look for partner organizations and potential funders who can help to reintroduce English as a New Language (ENL) programming in the library.
  1. Continue to encourage children to discover the fun of reading and educational skills through materials, programs, special events and community partnerships.
  • Action Step: The Youth Services Coordinator and staff will reach out to local daycares, preschools, and parent groups to promote early literacy.
  • Action Step: The Director and Youth Services Coordinator will look for opportunities for Youth Services staff to be trained on the latest developments in early literacy programming.

COMMUNITY IMPACT

GOAL I: Patterson Library will cultivate a sense of ownership of the library by all community members.

OBJECTIVES

  1. Staff will offer opportunities for local government, businesses, organizations and individuals to become better connected to and more involved with the library.
  • Action Step: The Director, Public Relations Coordinator and Youth Services Coordinator will work to strengthen our relationship with the local schools and ENL community to reach new library users.
  1. Staff and Board of Trustees will represent the library at meetings and events throughout the Patterson community.
  • Action Step: The Board will select a trustee to regularly attend Town of Patterson board meetings in order to keep the Town of Patterson representative apprised of what is happening at the library, and to also report back to the Board of Trustees any Town of Patterson business of relevance to the library.
  • Action Step: Staff and board members will be encouraged to volunteer at events in the community that can help make connections between non-users and the library and its staff.

GOAL II: Demonstrate that library services are relevant, efficient, cost-saving resources for the community.

OBJECTIVE

  1. Provide residents with information on the library’s use of tax dollars.
  • Action Step: Director and Public Relations staff will look for ways to improve marketing of library services to increase visibility of what the library has to offer the entire community.
  1. Serve as a centralized information center for individuals looking for information on services and resources in Patterson and the surrounding areas.
  • Action Step: Director will work to invite more community organizations to provide and/or promote their services within the library and encourage them to promote our materials and services.
  • Action Step: Staff will stay up-to-date on local and regional social services in order to be able to successfully refer patrons to these services.
  • Action Step: Board of Trustees and Director will work to allocate resources to provide community respite services, computers, comfort and stress relief during emergencies.

TECHNOLOGY

Goal I: Patterson Library staff and patrons will have access to up-to-date technology and training.

OBJECTIVE: Patterson Library staff will have the equipment and training needed to successfully do their jobs.

  • Action Step: Board of Trustees and Director will strive to adequately fund technology for staff.
  • Action Step: Director will offer staff annual technology training so that they have the skills to perform the technological functions of their jobs.

OBJECTIVE: Patterson Library patrons will have the technology needed to successfully navigate the online world.

  • Action Step: Board of Trustees and Director will strive to adequately fund technology replacements for the public.
  • Action Step: Director and Youth Services Coordinator will update the technology in the Youth Services Area to include newer technology that promotes STEAM learning.
  • Action Step: Public Relations Coordinator will offer technology classes to the public, with a focus on workshops that address emerging technology and the use of portable electronic devices.

FACILITIES

Goal: Provide both patrons and staff with the appropriate physical environment necessary to serve their current and future needs.

OBJECTIVE

  1. The facility’s operations will meet the needs of the community.
  • Action Step: The Director & Board will study usage statistics to identify potential improvements to library hours, staffing, and the facility, including possible expansion.
  • Action Step: The Board of Trustees will adopt a facility plan that will allow for budgeting of anticipated capital improvement expenditures and allow the library to pursue NYS Construction Grant aid.
  1. Ensure that the Patterson Library facility is operating efficiently and cost-effectively in order to create a sustainable and resilient organization that can handle changes in the economy and our patrons’ usage patterns.
  • Action Step: The staff and Board of Trustees will complete all of the requirements for the Sustainable Libraries Initiative Certification.

WELCOMING ENVIRONMENT

GOAL: The Patterson Library will provide the community with a friendly and well-trained staff.

OBJECTIVE

  1. Training of staff will be made available both in-library and off-site to ensure that they are prepared to carry out their duties and advance their departments to meet future needs.
  • Action Step: Board will budget for staff to attend available workshops and trainings that are relevant to their positions and enable them to provide better service and/or understand and implement new technologies.
  1. Ensure that staff duties and compensation remain competitive with similar libraries and that we comply with state-mandated minimum wage requirements.
  • Action Step: Personnel Committee will annually review compensation at our library and make necessary adjustments.

 

Adopted by the Patterson Library Board of Trustees on April 19, 2022.