Yuba County Library to Host Strategic Planning Meeting

Albert Einstein once said, “The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library.”

Next Thursday, the Yuba County Library wants residents to not only know where it’s located, but share ideas for how to improve it.

The library will host a strategic planning meeting Aug. 29 so that the public can share ideas and thoughts for the future of the library with library staff.

According to a Yuba County press release, attendees can share their observations about the library, as well as develop steps to move the library into the future.

Yuba County Library Administrative Service Officer Sandeep Sidhu said she and her staff are excited to hear input from the community on where the library should go in the future.

“We want to have a vision – where do you see your library in the next five years, next 10 years,” Sidhu said.

To help bring the vision to life, LibraryIQ, a division of Library Systems and Services has been contracted by the county and Library Consultant Debbie Joy will attend the meeting and advise on future plans. Sidhu said that Joy has worked with a lot of libraries and can bring a fresh set of eyes to help facilitate the library’s future.

The question of what libraries will look like in the future remains up to the public, Sidhu said. The meeting will serve as a launching point for a broader strategic plan that will be shared with the public at the start of 2020 she said.

Kevin Mallen, director of the Community Development Services Agency for Yuba County, said the library will take a “holistic approach” to future plans– from looking at the physical building, the types of programs offered, the collection of media and books and availability to the public.

“Libraries need to evolve and that’s something that the county recognizes,” Mallen said. “If you keep doing the same thing you’ve always done, I don’t know where you end up.”

Read the article on Appeal-Democrat.