Progress flies with library goals

A year after approving a three-year strategic plan, the Gibson Memorial Library board of trustees is checking in on what progress has been made and they are thrilled with the results.

The strategic plan lasts through 2027 and includes three goals: create young readers, know your community and services and visit a comfortable space. These goals stemmed from interviews conducted in late 2024 with 20 community members. Interview responses were overall positive, with some suggestions having already been in the works.

“One of the things that struck me was the excitement that everybody did have about what the library is doing so far,” then-board member Alyssa Love said in December 2024. “That was really cool to see.”

In the first goal, creating young readers, the library has flown through various goals.

“I feel like number one is my personal passion project and it’s where we’ve made a lot of progress. We are currently at 183 for [Dolly Parton] Imagination Library enrollment. We are hoping for at least 85 more kiddos at least by next summer, and we’ve made a lot of good progress on that,” Director Danielle Dickinson Thaden said. The Imagination Library provides a free book a month to local children under the age of five. The total goal of 268 children enrolled is equivalent to 40% of 0-5 year olds in Union County.

The library has also established solid connections with area preschools and public daycares. To support literacy during storytimes, Dickinson Thaden also recently completed Supercharged Storytime training.

A future aim under childhood literacy is to create literacy benches for kids in adult spaces (like courtrooms, dentist waiting rooms, Mature/WIC offices), similar to ones established by the Des Moines Public Library.

The second goal, community resources and services, has been on a standstill recently according to Dickinson Thaden.

“We’ve been kind of sitting on goal two because we knew that other organizations were doing a lot of similar work and we were waiting for them to share. We got, just this past week, one of those from Summer Murdoch, who was with Iowa Works and shared that with us," Dickinson Thaden said.

The director plans to go through this resource guide over the next month in order to make it accessible to patrons both online and in person. Resources include, but are not limited to, health, mental health, aging care, assistance with housing, grief and more.

Along with the resource guide, the library has been working to implement monthly family nights with a focus on early literacy. The library is also working to market more of their services, both through the creation of brochures and in attending the weekly Area Business Coffee hosted by Union County Development Association.

The final goal, creating a comfortable space for patrons, has been the most visible change. The library has replaced carpet in much of the building, with another installation in the adult stacks scheduled for mid-February. The upstairs space has been rearranged to allow more space for traffic flow and shelf browsing. The Genealogy Room is under active renovations, while a nursing space was added a few months ago to the children’s area.

“We do know that some of those goals that have particular dates probably won’t happen on those particular dates. I’m looking at lighting specifically, we didn’t budget that in for this next fiscal year, so it’s probably going to be what it’s going to be for the next year,” Dickinson Thaden said. “Overall, I think we’re making really good progress. It always feels slow in the moment, but then looking back, it’s good to see how far we’ve progressed on those.”

In other library news...

The board updated and approved the form to request the reconsideration of library materials to include programs and displays. Requests for reconsideration will only be entertained from those living or owning property in Creston, rural Union County or other contracting communities. Once received, the board can vote to keep the material or take it off the library shelves.

After discussions in the January meeting, the board has placed $400,000 from the library’s 411 funds into a one-year Certificate of Deposit.

The library has about $700,000 in the 411 account. However, this money comes from donations and grants and can only be used for purposes designated by the donor. Any interest earned from a CD can be put toward anything the library board so choses.

The board does not expect to get more than a 3.75% yield from the CD, equating to $15,000 earned.