Pierce County Library System
Information & Imagination

About Us

Vision Workshop Report

Pierce County Library System is developing a 20-plus-year facilities master plan: Pierce County Library 2030. This is an exciting and significant planning project to learn what communities will want in the future and how future library services and buildings can help meet individuals’ needs and serve communities.

Public involvement and engagement is essential to develop a facilities master plan that reflects community ideas and directions and is supported by individuals. A key component to develop Pierce County Library 2030 is considerable involvement and input from people living in the Library’s service area, staff, Friends of the Libraries, the Foundation, and the Board of Trustees.

To gather information and ideas from the public the Library has been conducting multiple activities:

• Survey of 4,000 residents
• Open Houses in 17 locations with 150 participants, in-branch comment cards, online blog
• Community Leader Meetings in five regional areas with 100 community leaders
• Strategic Vision Workshop with 55 community leaders
• Community groups, such as attending civic organizations’ and homeowner associations’ meetings

The Building Value in Our Communities was a critical point to gather input from community leaders about their vision for Pierce County’s future and how Pierce County Library System could best help meet the needs of communities in the future. The workshop was a dynamic strategic visioning session to shape approaches to how Pierce County Library should adapt its services and facilities to meet the needs of growing and changing communities today and in the future.

At the workshops the Library also explored opportunities to see how potential partnerships could be leveraged to provide services into the future. The workshop examined community and library service trends and defined current and future roles for Pierce County Library.

People focused discussions of serving communities in the future, based upon three themes: services, places, and value.

The workshop design included a variety of hands-on interactive activities. Joan Frye Williams, an Information Technology Consultant, and George Needham, a Library Strategist, and Group 4, an architecture, research and planning firm designed the workshop to harness the collective knowledge, experience, and energy of all participants. The group dynamics of the various sessions changed throughout the day as activities directed various individuals to change work groups, thus bringing a constant and fresh discussion and perspective to each activity. The three key questions that evolved throughout the day included:

• What will Pierce County Library System be in the future?
• What could the Library be in the future?
• What should the Library be in the future?