Greenburgh Public Library Blog

Shaping the Future of the Library - With Your Help

It wasn't that long ago that many people believed libraries would become artifacts of a bygone age when information was bound in books and found exclusively in staid, quiet, unchanging buildings. The internet and digitization of just about everything in the past twenty years was an existential threat and wake up call to libraries because its role as curator and primary holder of so much information was upended.  What was the point of a library if the world of information was readily available and instantly deliverable to any location in the world? 

That is the question librarians grappled with when the impact of the internet was becoming evident. For answers we looked to our communities to let us know what they expected from their library, how the library fit into their lives, and how they valued what libraries represented.  As a result of the conversations prompted by those questions, libraries shifted their focus from primarily maintaining collections and the space to use them, to creating services that actively promoted literacy, learning and proactive community engagement.  The result is that libraries transformed into robust hubs of their communities.  As can be seen just about any day by the volume of cars in our parking lot, Greenburgh Public Library is a bustling place.

Libraries now periodically adjust their plans of service based upon the continually changing environments of information and entertainment and the concept of what a community wants from its library.  Greenburgh Public Library’s current strategic plan was composed in 2015 and we are now beginning the process for a plan that will guide us into 2023. 

We are asking for your help in shaping the future of the Greenburgh Public Library.  If you can take a few minutes to respond to the dozen questions in our online survey or fill out a paper copy you can find in the library, it will provide us with inspiration and guidance that will help us continue to make your library a remarkable community asset.  Click HERE to launch the online survey.