Franklin County Library System

1. Encourage personal discovery for all through the atmosphere of library facilities.
2. Recruit and train staff to be technology-literate and customer-focused.
3. Support technology initiatives that are accessible and high-quality services to help patrons and staff be technologically educated.
4. Improve communications with communities, individuals, and between libraries to be more relevant and provide a higher quality of service.
5. Have library leadership and staff be more consistently involved in a more sustainable organization for the future.

We worked both internally and externally to encourage the appreciation of diversity and differences. We provided staff with a word of the month exercise to both educate and encourage discussion regarding topics like Xenophobia, Transphobia, and Cultural Appropriation. In addition to working on our collection to increase the number of materials we have created by and featuring POC, we worked with local groups and non-profits to promote these more diverse materials in our collection.

In 2020 our focus was on health. This was perhaps more fortuitous than we could have imagined. While our branches were closed much of the year, we took this opportunity to push out valid health information through our website and social media platforms. In addition, we gave staff 20 hours of Paid Time Off to use for either exercising, learning about health, or for improving their own mental health.

In 2021 our focus is on encouraging folks to give back and be more involved in their community. This year, we are giving our staff members each 20 hours of Paid Time Off to volunteer in the community. This can be used to do anything service-oriented from serving on a board or committee to picking up trash in the neighborhood. During our in-service this year we will talk about ways to become more involved in our community and how to plug into opportunities.

FCLS is well positioned with strong human capital, diverse income streams, and a focus on relevancy. Our staff has proven that they are interested in learning and giving back.

As mentioned above, we have accomplished much already. We have played an integral role in providing accurate, timely information to the public and it is more important now than perhaps any other time in our recent past.
While the pandemic has hampered some of our efforts, it has allowed us the opportunity to reexamine our role as a library system in our community and to focus on how to more adequately serve those who need our services.