Aurora Public Library offers strategic plan update
Wonder where the Aurora Public Library is with their strategic plan? Didn't really know the library had a vision or simply wondering where its initiatives are stemming from? Here's a quick overview of the 2017-20 strategic goals and update.
Its vision and strategic plan has four pillars as a foundation: "School Success," "Express Creativity," "Feed Your Imagination," and "Welcome to America."
"School Success" is dedicated to help teachers, students and parents succeed from early literacy to high school. "Express Creativity" is designed to provide services and support for residents, businesses and schools in an effort to promote creativity and creation through different types of media including audio, video, photography, and many more. Through the "Feed Your Imagination" pillar, the library is devoted to providing materials, programs and services to customers seeking resources of interest to them, as well as fostering a reading culture in Aurora.
"Welcome to America" provides greater access to information on citizenship, English language learning, employment, public schooling, health and safety, and social services.
Since the completion of the library district's second year of this three-year strategic plan, they have accomplished many things.
Here's a snippet of the 2018 update.
"School Success" improved their monthly newsletter which goes out to every teacher in all the districts served, provided marketing materials for teachers to hang in their classrooms and attended 41 outreach events within the community. Teacher loans, a loan program tailored for teachers and their students, increased by over 20 percent.
"Feed Your Imagination" will be unleashing a United We Read initiative in the fall, and the selected read will be unveiled soon. Stay tuned and read along!
"Welcome to America" increased the amount of citizenship and GED materials, including the library's citizenship corners at all locations.
English classes and citizenships classes taught by the College of DuPage met twice weekly January through May and had 24 attendees.
Seven of those students went on to take a citizenship test, and they all passed!
In addition, this pillar was dedicated to celebrating the diversity within our community by holding story times in different languages, a culture fair, a Diwali celebration and more.
The "Express Creativity" pillar partnered with East Aurora Unit District 131 to provide a 10-week long after school program series, did show-and-tell demos utilizing the Makerspace equipment at outreach events, and expanded their portfolio on ways customers can personalize their items.
For more information about your strategic plan or to watch a video with our updates, visit www.aurorapubliclibrary.org.
Stay tuned for more updates on each pillar.