Grand Island Library Puts New Plan Into Action

By: Rowena Li - Email

Updated: Fri 9:39 PM, Oct 05, 2012

The Grand Island Library put its new strategic plan into action this week.

The GI Library 2020 Plan is the city library's new blueprint for the next eight years. The plan aims to get the community more involved in the library and the library more involved in the community.

"Every community has to have the spirit of cohesiveness and the public library is the most centrally available resource in the community," Fosselman says.

The plan sets 18 goals to better serve the community. Service goals include more civic involvement and additional cultural programs for the city's increasingly diverse population. Another initiative aims to help library users better themselves in what Fosselman calls learning centers. They'll provide aggregated information on important topics such as health, investments, and career choices.

"Different activities that promote people being more informed citizens, having more diversity in the community, having people make informed decisions about their lives," explains Fosselman.

And of course, the library will continue offering its wide selection of books and other materials. It's a service held dear to the hearts of those like Antonia Arnold, who has been going to the Grand Island Library since 1958.

"The library is very important to us, we would be lost without it. I don't have a kindle or a nook, I like the book in my hand. It's really very educational and I've learned so much from the library," says Arnold.

"We'll never stop being a place where people can learn, and where literacy is being promoted in our community," adds Fosselman.

Indeed, one of the first programs the public will see is a new book club. Fosselman says the start date for that book club is still to be determined, but that it will be sometime this fall.