PLANNING

Mission

The Ayer Library connects the community to diverse educational, cultural, informational, and recreational opportunities that support lifelong learning.

Ayer Library’s 2023-2027 Strategic Plan

In February of 2021, the Ayer Library began working to develop a new Strategic Plan to help guide our operations for a five year period to begin July 1, 2022.  This planning effort represents our first significant attempt to gather information from the community about library services since the 1994 plan that built support for the 1997 expansion we inhabit today.

The Planning Process

Barbara Alevras of Sage Consulting Services facilitated the planning process.  Barbara assisted former director Tim Silva with the planning and hosting of focus groups and planning exercises for library staff members, the Library’s Board of Trustees, the Friends of the Ayer Library, and members of the community at large. In May 2021 we launched a Community Survey and received more that 250 responses from the broader community of library users.

Once the data-gathering exercises concluded and results were analyzed, we drafted a set of Goals and Objectives to form the core of the plan. These Goals & Objectives are intended to address needs and desires identified in the information gathered from the community, from internal assessments of the Library’s physical infrastructure, staffing, and technology, and from goals and objectives identified in the Town of Ayer’s 2017 Master Plan, among other sources.

Putting the Plan into Action

The Action Plan (Appendix G) lists the tasks that will help us achieve the Goals and Objectives that we’ve established. This Action Plan will be adjusted as we complete tasks, re-prioritize others, and add new tasks as necessary.

The final draft of the Strategic Plan was approved by the Library’s Board of Trustees on September 16, 2021 and was accepted by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC).

While not necessary for participation in the MBLC’s State Aid to Public Libraries Program, an approved Strategic Plan is a requirement for libraries that wish to apply for state funding from the Massachusetts Public Library Construction Program (MPLCP) or for federal Library Service and Technology Act (LSTA) grant funding administered by the MBLC. LSTA grants can fund a wide variety of projects and programs, including local history collection preservation assessments, renovations for service improvements, and supporting early childhood education programs.