St. Charles Public Library working on new strategic plan

The St. Charles Public Library District is seeking a new strategic plan for the library.

The library’s strategic plan expires this year. The district is seeking proposals from qualified firms to help the library put together a new three- to five-year strategic plan.

The firm would gather community profile information and facilitate forecasting and visioning sessions with the board and staff to develop the plan. Digital submissions should be sent to St. Charles Public Library Director Kate Buckson at kbuckson@scpld.org for consideration by 5 p.m. Jan. 23.

Proposals must be in PDF format. The library board plans to award a contract by Feb. 8.

The complete request for proposal is on the library’s website at scpld.org/request-for-proposal-rfp-strategic-planning-services.

Along with serving St. Charles, the district serves parts of South Elgin, Wayne and West Chicago. An $18.6 million project to renovate and expand the library was completed last year.

Buckson started in November as the library’s new director. She replaced Edith Craig, who in April submitted her resignation letter announcing she was stepping down after more than five years in the position.

Buckson previously had been executive director of the La Grange Park Public Library District for the past seven years.

In helping put together a new strategic plan, Buckson will be seeking feedback from the community.

“It can be a challenge sometimes to really grasp what the needs of the community are and what people want from their library,” she said after starting in her new position. “Part of that can be because they’re not aware of what we already offer or because the things that they value can be so different. And we have to decide what to prioritize among all the different ideas we get. So I think a challenge for me personally and also for our library will be to find a way to really engage with our residents during the strategic planning process and to find ways to prioritize the feedback that we get so that we can continue to have the library be a place that really belongs to the community, that really serves the needs that they’ve identified.”