Services

We're on your team. How can we help?

We believe a dynamic library is at the heart of every community—and we can help you get there. Every service we provide is uniquely designed to fit your needs no matter the scope of your project.

We'll work with you to you engage the community so that you can better prioritize services and activities, build innovation in your system, and use your resources wisely in response to rapidly changing needs and budget challenges.

Browse our services and case studies below.

Planning & Assessments

Strategic Planning

Community-driven process. Community-focused results.

Over two decades, Library Strategies has partnered with hundreds of libraries to create strategic plans that each have a clear vision—and a practical path to achieve it. 

Our expert consultants guide you every step of the way to understand your organizational challenges, set your long-term goals, and allocate the resources you need for success. We even support your team after a plan is in place.

The approach we’ve honed puts your community at the center of the process so that every voice is heard, and the resulting plan reflects the people you serve.  

Facilities Assessments

People evolve. Spaces should, too.

Library buildings are not just houses for materials, they are spaces that can spark imagination, promote learning, and connect neighbors. As community needs evolve, library spaces must also evolve to continue to welcome, inspire, and serve their users.

Together, we’ll evaluate your current infrastructure, collections spaces, and traffic and work flows, and identify opportunities to improve the capabilities of your space—before, during, and after a building project. Together we can maximize your space, so that you can maximize your library’s potential.

Community Assessments

To serve your community, you need to understand your community.

Library Strategies can partner with you to listen to your community right now—to their perspectives, their needs, and to the issues that matter most. Together, we’ll learn what community members think about your library, how they use it (or don’t), and what they’d like to see in the future.

Through focus groups, surveys, interviews, and community data analysis, we’ll identify insights and create recommendations for achievable short- and long-term actions that respond to your community’s unique needs—and support your library’s goals.

Staffing Studies and Organizational Assessments

To move forward, first look inward.

To achieve your mission, it’s essential to have the right team and the right structure in place. With the pressure for libraries to do ever more to meet community needs, it can be challenging to know how to make the best use of your limited resources.

Whether you want to evaluate your current staff or look more broadly at how well your library’s structure and culture supports your mission, Library Strategies will work with you to evaluate your current framework, identify opportunities for efficiency, growth, or realignment, and create a plan to maximize your potential—and the impact you can have on your community.

Read Case Studies

Fundraising Support

Feasibility Studies

Understand and unlock your potential.

Before you commit to a major capital project, it’s essential to understand the potential for private funding. Library Strategies will work with your team to identify and connect with potential donors in your community to understand their interest and capacity for support.

We draw on our deep knowledge of libraries and the role they play in their communities to anticipate and address even the toughest questions, so you’re prepared to make the strongest case for your library’s project.

The results of our feasibility study will include recommendations for a campaign goal, timeline and team, and a clear path to achieve success.

Capital Campaign Counsel

Transform your library. Secure your future.

Launching a capital campaign can be transformative for your library. Whether you’re raising money for a new building, an endowment, or other substantial project, a successful campaign requires careful planning, strong leadership, and consistent follow-through.

Library Strategies can guide you through the process and scale our support to fit your capacity and budget.

The outcome of a well-run campaign will not only be the achievement of your campaign goals, but a base of engaged donors who are now invested in the future of your library.

Development Planning

Redefine support for your library.

Development planning is a strategic planning process specifically designed for support organizations like Friends groups and foundations that raise money on behalf of their libraries. As the only consulting firm in the country embedded inside a library support nonprofit, we are uniquely qualified to understand and guide this important work.

Together, we’ll review your organizational structure and activities and create a shared vision for how you can align with your library’s goals. As a result, you’ll have a comprehensive plan that takes you beyond a well-intentioned library support group to a strategic and effective fundraising partner.

Read Case Studies

Training & Coaching

Advocacy Support

Harness the power of your voice.

Advocacy can be a powerful and effective endeavor for any library, Friends group, or foundation. It can protect critical funding when challenges arise. It can also inspire additional funding, bring new people into your work, and grow your base of support.

Library Strategies can work with you to identify and support an advocacy strategy that addresses your unique situation. That includes conducting trainings for your boards and staff, crafting presentations and written messaging, and creating an advocacy platform to increase or defend public funding.

Train-the-Planner

Lead your own process with confidence.

This unique program will equip you with the tools you need to conduct a comprehensive strategic planning process for libraries and library organizations of all types. This group training is a cost-conscious alternative to hiring a consultant to facilitate planning for you.

In this concise process, geared toward large organizations like state libraries and regional consortia, you’ll learn the components of all the planning phases, from pre-planning and team recruitment, research and community engagement, through plan creation and implementation. You’ll leave assured that you can lead a successful planning project.

Friends & Foundation Counsel

Relationships take work.

When you have multiple organizations whose activities and missions overlap—whether you’re a library foundation working with a Friends group, or a support organization working with your library—it can be challenging to navigate boundaries.

Library Strategies has counseled numerous organizations to articulate how their roles do and should intersect, provide clarity in individual responsibilities, and create a clear model for complementary work and a successful ongoing relationship.

Board Development

Help board members become ambassadors.

Board members are essential to your success in the community. The more clarity you can provide them up front about your organization, your goals, and the role you want them to play, the more proactive and effective they can be as supporters.

We will partner with you to coach your board members on best practices, roles and responsibilities, and action steps to enhance their effectiveness—all tailored to the needs of your organization. By investing in this customizable training, you’ll develop knowledgeable library champions that can help further your mission.

Workshops/Webinars

Expertise on demand.

We’ve packaged some of our most popular guidance, from fundraising to strategic planning, into on-demand webinars so you can browse advice at your convenience—for free. View our library here.

If you’d like to go more in-depth, we can create a webinar or workshop tailored specifically to your organization’s needs. Contact us to schedule a quick call.

"I would recommend Library Strategies to any library considering starting a Foundation or to any library wanting to take their existing Foundation to a level of more community impact."

Tena Wilson

Stark County District Library

"Library Strategies was wonderful! Area librarians who participated in developing some of our past plans tell me this year’s planning process was better by far. I know this is due to Library Strategies’ guidance throughout the process."

Shelly Grace

SAMMIE Library System

Webinars

Do you want to learn more about our services before you plan your project? These webinars offer advice on everything from fundraising basics, to planning, to Friends and Foundations. Browse our free webinar videos and then give us a call for a consultation.

Browse our webinars