Royal Oak library shares how it will implement its new strategic plan

ROYAL OAK — The Royal Oak Public Library has shared how it plans to implement the first year of its 2026-2028 strategic plan. 

On March 23, the Royal Oak City Commission approved the library’s strategic plan, and commissioners responded to it with positive notes. 

Now, the library’s staff members have worked together to outline a more streamlined plan of action in the year one implementation of the 2026-2028 strategic plan document. 

The strategic plan was put together by consulting the public through interviews, surveys, and focus groups, according to library Director Sandy Irwin. 

“We worked with all of that information and developed our strategic plan, which the library board adopted in February,” she said. “So, from there we developed what we are going to be working on in year one, which is what we just shared with them (the library board) on Tuesday (April 28).”

Irwin said that the library staff has identified the need to focus on more foundational aspects of the library’s success. 

“We need a better marketing plan, we need to develop our outreach plan, we want to ensure all staff understand our core competencies,” Irwin said. “So, all of these things are some basic, foundational things that we want to lay the groundwork for that will help us build upon this plan in future years.”

The purpose statement of the strategic plan is “To empower our community to learn, connect, create, and grow through welcoming and inclusive spaces, diverse resources, and meaningful experiences.”

“One of the areas that we are focusing on is developing our outreach plan. Right now, we are just accommodating what we can accommodate,” said Leah Kenney, youth services supervisor. “I think it’s important for us to develop that and find a way for us to be able to serve the community a little bit more, because we get a lot of requests and we want to make sure that we are serving the community.”

Part of the plan for outreach is to implement more visits to local businesses, the farmers market, the senior center and schools. 

In terms of the marketing side of things, the library is planning to create a marketing and communications plan, along with a branding guide, that will be in line with industry standards and establish consistent procedures and expectations across library departments. 

“This strategic plan pushes us forward because we have to really think about everything we are doing. We need to figure out how to better serve the community and take what our community wants and implement it,” Irwin said. “This is going to push us to reexamine all of the things that we do.”

Kenney said that the plan comes down to the idea of growth. 

“Some of that is growth as an institution, some of that is personal development, and then the next stage and evolution of our library,” she said. 

“Professional development is a really big part of our strategic plan. It’s always been in our previous plan and now, but we’re really focusing on it now and giving the staff an opportunity for more learning to happen with webinars and conferences,” she said. “We are making sure the staff take advantage of those opportunities so that they can learn and grow, bring that information back to the community, and then that helps us as a library to push ourselves to do new and interesting things.”

While creating this strategic plan and the implementation, the library team included all staff members in the decision-making. 

“One of the best things about the strategic planning process has been that we involved all of the staff members throughout the process, and everybody will continue to participate throughout the duration of the plan, which is something that I think is unique,” Kenney said. “I’ve done other strategic plans before, and that’s not always been the case, so I am really glad we included everyone.”

“It is unique, because it’s a top-down type of initiative,” Irwin said. “It is all of us together and working as a collaborative group, regardless of your position. That’s really important to us.”

For more information and the strategic plan, visit ropl.org.