Library Strategic Plan

As we look ahead to the next three years, community members are invited to share feedback and ideas to guide strategic direction for 2027-2029.

As we move through the final year of our strategic plan in 2026, Library staff continue to advance key initiatives that reflect the community's vision to improve access for all and City Council's goal to develop a strategy for an expanded, modern library.  The plan is organized around four priority areas:  

1. Serve People Beyond the Building
2. Create Space to Expand Services
3. Increase Awareness of the Library’s Value
4. Support Staff Wellbeing and Growth

Notable accomplishments in 2025, the second year of our plan, include: 

• Expanding outreach services and procuring a dedicated bookmobile.  In 2025, outreach efforts engaged 6,577 community members across 60 events.  The launch of the Library's new bookmobile, Rover, allows library staff to bring services and collections for all ages out into the community through an accessible and welcoming vehicle.  
• Increasing home delivery service enrollment by 25%.
• Selecting a vendor for future hold lockers, which will enable 24/7 access to pickup reserved materials in strategic locations throughout the City.  
• Surveying teens to help shape youth-focused programs and understand their needs for the library of the future. 355 teens responded.
• Engaging hundreds of school children at nearly 30 classroom visits.
• Collaborating with community partners to hold library events at other venues, demonstrating the need for event space at the library.  
• Serving 2,644 participants in multingual, cultural and accessibilty focused events and classes.
• Sharing information about the safety, structural and accessibility issues facing the current library, including water intrusion, seismic deficiencies, elevator failures, spalling gycrete under the carpet, grit falling from the ceiling in the Children's library, and more.
• Hiring a dedicated Communications Coordinator for the library to strengthen our capacity to engage with the community.
• Interacting with 174,149 library visitors and issuing 3,653 new library cards.
• Presenting over 600 classes, events, and programs that engaged over 22,500 participants.
• Growing the Library of Things collection, which circulated 7,163 items, and the Seed Library which increased distribution by 15%.
• Providing meaningful volunteer opportunities to support library operations and staff. Our incredible volunteers contributed over 10,814 service hours in 2025.
• Providing regularly scheduled trainings and professional development opportunities for staff, ranging from safety and technology training to participation in library conferences and local programs such as Leadership Lake Oswego.
• Strengthening internal communications and offering wellbeing programs and team-building activities to further support staff engagement and morale.

Library staff presented at the January 20, 2026 City Council Meeting, which provides additional context on these accomplishments and the evolving needs of a modern library.

Spring 2025 update:

The Library’s 2024-2026 Strategic Plan is focused on improving access to library services for all residents, with four main priorities:  Serve People Beyond the Building, Create Space to Expand Services, Increase Awareness of the Library's Value, and Support Staff Wellbeing and Growth.

For each priority, strategic initiatives were developed to move the Library forward toward achieving these goals.  In the first year, 2024, staff made significant progress on our strategic initiatives.  To inform the community about the status of our work, we have put together a Strategic Plan Progress Report for 2024. 

Highlights include: reallocating resources to create a new position focused on delivering library services beyond the building; ordering a bookmobile expected to arrive by Fall 2025; expanding the number of residents served by home delivery by 125%; expanding our World Languages collection and Seed Library; conducting a seismic study and general facility condition assessment of the library facility; expanding access to our cultural events and other special events by partnering with other community venues; sharing more stories to increase awareness of library services, brand and impact as well as constraints facing the library facility; supporting staff with relevant trainings and professional development opportunities; and increasing volunteer capacity to support staff.

Library staff are proud to report on our progress in the first year of our plan, and look forward to the work still to come in 2025-2026 and beyond! 

July 2024 update:

Library staff are making steady progress on our 2024-2026 Library Strategic Plan goals, guided by the community’s vision to improve Library access for all. 

Notable updates include:

• Through strategic re-allocation of existing resources, the Library has created a full-time Outreach Services Lead position! Our new staff member brings passion and experience to help lead the further expansion and improvement of library outreach services, in collaboration with our staff team and community partners.
• The Library has developed new site partnerships to expand mobile Rover services, notably with a new affordable housing community. 
• The City hired CIDA to conduct a seismic evaluation and general facility condition assessment for the library.  The results were presented to Council during their May 21, 2024 meeting. High level findings included:
  • The Library facility would require significant renovations for the structure to meet seismic performance expectations.
  • The building and site have significant ADA deficiencies.
  • The building shows many signs of degradation to the roof and building envelope (elevated wood structures, siding, windows).
  • The cost estimate for this work, roughly $10 million, would only address the seismic, water intrusion, ADA and other building maintenance and upgrades identified in CIDA’s 2024 report, allowing the city to maintain the existing library at its current size and service capacity.
  • The scope for this cost estimate would not renovate the overall square footage of the library or add any new spaces or amenities.
• Library staff presented during the City Council Joint Meeting with the Lake Oswego School Board on May 7, 2024 regarding the breadth of library events and classes offered to residents, their value to the community, and the need for event and meeting room space to accommodate high attendance from all age groups.
• The Library published an insert in the May HelloLO to promote our Summer Library Challenge offerings for all ages, and to share what we learned and heard from residents regarding local needs for services, events, and public spaces that are designed to facilitate community gathering, learning and collaboration.
• Library staff participated in a wide range of professional learning and development opportunities at the Oregon Library Association conference this spring, with a focus on improving library policies and removing access barriers.
• In support of the 2024 City Council goal to “Develop a strategy for an all-ages and all-activities community center on the west side of town that would include event and meeting spaces, public services, and may include library services,” the City is exploring the possible option of a Community Center & Library project as a potential long-term solution to identified community needs.  

January 2024 update:

A community visioning process to determine the long-term needs of our Lake Oswego Public Library was completed in 2023.  The findings from the wide range of community input received through the visioning process, including a framework developed by the Council-appointed task force, deeply informed the development of a strategic plan for the Library for 2024-2026.  

The City Council reviewed and adopted the Library’s 2024-2026 Strategic Plan during the November 7, 2023 City Council meeting.   

Guided by the community’s vision to improve Library access for all, our top strategic priorities and goals for the Library are to:  

• Serve People Beyond the Building:  for example, by expanding mobile Rover services, home delivery, digital access, and remote access options such as hold lockers or library vending machines
• Create Space to Expand Services:  for example, planning to meet community needs for study and meeting rooms, improved spaces for youth in the library, and modern library services
• Increase Awareness of the Library's Value: for example, by increasing promotion of the breadth and depth of library services and events, sharing impact stories and testimonials with the community, and enhancing library advocacy 
• Support Staff Wellbeing and Growth:  for example, by providing learning and development opportunities, fostering an inclusive and innovative culture, and increasing diversity of staff and skills to improve customer service and access 

We look forward to sharing progress updates the community on our work toward these strategic plan goals.

August 2023 update:

To support the Lake Oswego City Council’s goal to determine the long-term needs of the Lake Oswego Public Library, the City launched a Library Visioning Process.

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Through the data collected, community feedback, and work of the Library Visioning Task Force, a framework was created. This framework defines the community values related to the Library, the desired roles and preferred future of the Library, and outlines desired attributes of a physical space to support that vision.

The framework will help the City with decisions related to expanding and investing in Library services, programs, and amenities in alignment with the community’s vision. The City Council reviewed the findings and recommendations during the July 18, 2023 City Council meeting.

As a part of this work, the City is exploring service models for enhancing access, program offerings, and service delivery. This work includes developing a strategic plan for the Library informed by the community visioning process. We look forward to sharing progress updates during winter 2023-24. 

May 2023 update:

Thank you Lake Oswego for your fantastic support to shape the future of your library!

Through the visioning process from January to May we had interviews with over 100 key informants, 4 Task Force sessions, 4 focus groups, 5 community forums, 2,790 survey responses, and 184 additional comments. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Now through summer, we will be analyzing these results and presenting recommendations to City Council based on what we heard from you. Stay tuned!

The survey and idea wall are closed, but we are always open to hearing from you. Feel free to email libraryvisioning@lakeoswego.city with any ideas or questions!

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