Strategic Plan

A Message from the Director of the Newark Public Library

The Newark Public Library is emerging out of the pandemic that paralyzed services in our community for more than a year. The pandemic highlighted many of our organizational strengths and weaknesses. Our library’s challenges in finances, staffing, facilities maintenance and lack of visibility head the list of identified weaknesses which were amplified during this time of transition. Conversely, our strengths shined: knowledgeable staff that did not hesitate to go the extra mile, excellent programs, services, and unique collections, the number and location of our facilities, and strong community support pave the way for where and who we hope to be.

As we continue to work toward emerging from the pandemic of 2020, we desire to create future ready spaces, programming, and staff which will educate, elevate, and delight our community. We recognize that to accomplish this requires making internal improvements. The Bridge Plan pursues internal excellence in the following areas of focus:  Spaces, People, Funding.

The Newark Public Library desires to strengthen our organizational infrastructure through examination and improvement of our team, facilities, funding, and other resources so that we can perform at a greater capacity.  To that end, we created the 2021-2023 Library Bridge Plan. This process will prepare us internally to begin to embark on a long-view strategic plan by the end of 2023 so that we can create future-ready, inspirational and aspirational library spaces, programming and staff on the strong foundation of public library best practices.

Bridge Plan 2021 with Smart Goals

Joslyn Bowling Dixon

Director, Newark Public Library.