The Warminster Township Free Library will present its new five-year Strategic Plan at a reception on Tuesday evening, and you’re invited to attend.
Well over a year in the making, Director Peter Lehu detailed the careful planning that went into the plan’s development, including input from the community.
“In January 2023 we began with a community survey that was completed by over 500 respondents ranging from weekly users to non-users,” Lehu said. “They let us know what types of programs they would like to see more of, services to improve, what improvements they would like to see and what impediments they encountered that limited their library use.”
Lehu said that staff members were consulted to determine where they believed improvements might be made and conversations were held with local community leaders including school principals, religious leaders and managers at service organizations. The plan received approval from the library’s board of directors, as well as from township supervisors.
The end result of this project has created an exciting list of new ways to access the library and its offerings, along with building renovations that provide two new private study rooms and an ADA accessible bathroom
Value Statements, including: “We provide a safe and inclusive public space with easy and equal access to resources; We defend intellectual freedom, unrestricted personal expression; We believe that free access to information is essential to the maintenance of a healthy democracy,” are also incorporated as part of the Strategic Plan.
The library also obtained a $25,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development for mobile computers and tablets, with assistance from State Rep. Brian Munroe (D-144).
“We’re going to house them in a mobile cart that we can move from room to room and basically set up a classroom on short notice,” Lehu said.
The library’s digital collection will be expanding with the addition of Libby, a new app for ebooks and audiobooks; Mango, an app that provides instruction in 70 different foreign languages; and Kanopy, a video streaming app, all of which may be accessed with a library card.
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The Warminster Library’s new digital menu will allow library card holders the ability to cancel paid subscriptions to companies such as Audible, Netflix, and Babbel.
“It’s a big landscape of digital offerings, and we want to be able to just instruct folks on how to get started on all of that,” Lehu said. “You download the app, and then you pick your library, and you plug in your library card, and you can save a lot of money.”
Tuesday’s 7 p.m. reception will include light refreshments and piano jazz. The library is located at 1076 Emma Lane in Warminster.
The Warminster Township Free Library is an independent Community Public Library and part of the Bucks County Public Library district.
