Mission Statement & Strategic Plan
Columbus Junction Public Library Strategic Plan
2023-2027
The Columbus Junction Public Library’s previous strategic plan ran from 2018-2022, and throughout the years, additional surveys to receive feedback from the community were completed in order to drive services and vision. These goals and objectives are derived from responses to those services, as well as conversations with library patrons, community members, and library staff.
This plan builds on those first strategic planning sessions in terms of ongoing strengths and needs of the community. Additionally, the City of Columbus Junction will be celebrating its sesquicentennial in 2024, and these celebrations, as well as ongoing needs that stem from conversations around the sesquicentennial celebrations, will help to drive ways the library can be of service to the community.
During the previous planning for results process, the vision identified from stakeholders included ideas such as community unity, education being valued by all, plenty of recreational opportunities, meeting student needs, adults being life-long learners, newcomers feeling welcomed, engagement from all community members, healthy life styles supported, awareness of community events, thriving school, dynamic/inter-connected communication channels, and residents who commute being active and engaged in the community as well as those working in the community. These visions remain important considerations beyond the scope of the previous strategic plan and have been included here as well.
Strengths included varying businesses, diverse restaurants, parks, fairgrounds, river/outdoor opportunities, partnerships with post-secondary schools/businesses with the school district, variety of churches, involved community members, diverse population, amenities such as a pool, health care, and emergency services, a stable city government, traditions, and a relaxed, friendly, and safe community. These strengths remain, and additionally, philanthropically minded individuals have provided ongoing funding for special projects through local community government, for the library, and for our school. The United Fund, Columbus’ own granting process, as well as the Community Foundation of Louisa County are consistent funders of special projects to make the community stronger.
Challenges to the community include not enough quality rental properties, high cost of living, lack of volunteers, inability to keep/retain or entice younger generation to come back and live in the community, lack of job opportunities, educational challenges, minimal entertainment/recreational opportunities, education is not valued , particularly throughout life, economic impact from outside forces, and access to better broadband. Through conversations and surveys, these challenges remain and thus have been included here again as well.
Mission: The Columbus Junction Public Library will provide access to resources in order to promote life long learning.
Life-Long Learning
Life-long learning has been a hallmark of library service, and library staff felt it remained an important role within the community and in support of our school district to be included again in this strategic plan.
Goal 1: The Columbus Junction Public Library will support families with life-long learning.
Objective 1: By July 2023, CJPL will have provided a summer reading program focused on families engaging and experimenting together, and collected feedback regarding its success.
Objective 2: By July 2025, CJPL will have created a more robust “Parent Resources” portion of the website to provide literacy ideas and activities for parents to access at their convenience.
Objective 3: By July 2027, CJPL will investigate and implement literacy reminders and ideas via the patron Insignia app.
Goal 2: The Columbus Junction Public Library will support new community members on their path to citizenship.
Objective 1: By July 2023, CJPL will have updated all current citizenship materials to reflect changes in elected officials.
Objective 2: By July 2024, CJPL will have added additional videos to the citizenship video library to assist with common needs for citizenship interviews in order for community members to practice at home.
Objective 3: By July 2025, CJPL will have completed training with all library staff as well as interested community volunteers to assist in tutoring for citizenship interviews and selected a weekly time to offer tutoring.
Objective 4: By July 2026, CJPL will have created informational handouts, and had them translated into community languages, on how to access specific resources/apply/contact, such as Medicaid, food stamps, Social Security, USCIS, etc.
Objective 5: By July 2027, CJPL will have updated their website to reflect these informational handouts, links, etc in multiple languages for ease and use by patrons.
Local History/Sesquicentennial
The Columbus Junction Public Library will celebrate its 75th anniversary in 2023, and the town of Columbus Junction its sesquicentennial in 2024. Both of these anniversaries are important opportunities to celebrate but also remind the importance of preserving local history.
Goal 1: The Columbus Junction Public Library will create digitized collections of local history.
Objective 1: By July 2023, CJPL will have digitized all Louisa History magazines and make them available online to patrons and other Louisa public libraries. The copyright release has already been secured.
Objective 2: By July 2024, CJPL will have secured copyright release and digitized family histories that have been donated to the library.
Objective 3: By July 2026, CJPL will have secured copyright release and digitized other materials that have been donated or loaned to the library (photos, ephemera, etc).
Goal 2: The Columbus Junction Public Library will support the celebration/events of the sesquicentennial.
Objective 1: During the years 2023 and 2024, CJPL will provide historical programming to support anniversary celebrations that are of interest to various age groups.
Objective 2: By July 2025, CJPL will have provided programming and training related to community and/or individual involvement in history preservation, such as “how to start your own family tree” or “how to scan and save your photos,” building on the interest of local history over the past two years.
Objective 3: By July 2026, CJPL and local stakeholders will have, through some project, documented the last 50 years of history of the town in order to supplement other historical resources/books available.
Disaster Planning and Recovery
Disaster planning has become a conversation that many libraries have internally in order to preserve operations in the event of catastrophic events. However, at this time, much of the work needed to ensure continuity of operations has been placed at the bottom of the list for “when there’s time.”
Goal 1: The Columbus Junction Public Library will digitize all operational/organizational paperwork.
Objective 1: By July 2023, all library staff will have taken the State Library of Iowa’s webinar about record keeping.
Objective 2: By July 2024, all organizational documents will be digitized in a non-editable format and stored in two locations (one cloud-based, and one physical/in a fireproof vessel).
Objective 3: By July 2025, all board minutes will be digitized in a non-editable format and stored in both locations.
Objective 4: By July 2026, all remaining documents will be digitized in a non-editable format and stored in both locations.
Objective 5: By July 2027, all procedures of the director’s position and library assistant’s position will be recorded and stored in both locations with an annual review for change of procedure.
Goal 2: The Columbus Junction Public Library will create a disaster plan utilizing the State Library of Iowa’s template and resources.
Objective 1: By July 2023, CJPL will have completed an inventory, complete with pictures, of all items not currently cataloged in the ILS system and stored in both cloud and physical forms.
Objective 2: By July 2024, CJPL will have completed the plan related to weather disasters and continuity of operations.
Objective 3: By July 2025, CJPL will have completed the plan related to fire/building catastrophes and continuity of operations.
Objective 4: By July 2026, CJPL will have completed the plan related to biological disasters and continuity of operations.
Objective 5: By July 2027, CJPL will have completed all parts to the State Library of Iowa’s disaster recovery template, provided training to all staff, and continue to review on an annual basis for additional changes and training.