Lynnfield library trustees outline five-year plan

LYNNFIELD – The Lynnfield Library board of trustees met on Monday night to discuss their long range plan for the library and where they envision it will be five years from now.For the past 18 months the trustees have been meeting and working on this plan with hopes to complete it in the fall. This plan will help the library apply for grants.Currently, the trustees are drafting their goals. The trustees made six goals: Making the library an attractive destination, to improve the technology, to increase funding and resources, to expand on the facility and space, to continue to offer public service and to be a leader in promoting civic involvement in the community.?These are our guidelines for the next five years,” said Director Nancy Ryan as to why carefully wording the new goals was important. “These are our big picture goals.”One of the goals involving technology is to promote awareness in the community on how technologically advanced the library has become. “We stay current,” Vice Chairman Stanley Schantz said. “We are more current than the community knows.”Schantz mentioned that having the high school reading list on eBooks as an example of the library staying current. “So when school starts in two weeks and a student hasn?t read the books yet, they can use the eBooks,” joked Schantz.Also, something the library wants to improve is their outreach to different demographics. They want to reach across generations and economic status. “All age groups come in today,” Schantz said. “Our problem is we don?t service all those groups well.”While the trustees are still working on the goals they have for the library, the goals reflect what they want from the library years from now. “The goals represent a future state, not a current state,” Schantz said.The trustees believe that the library offers incredible resources to the community. “Most bookstores are gone,” member Seavey Bowdoin said. “The library is the only source of literacy in town.”The next trustees meeting is Aug. 2 and all meetings are open to the public.