The Watertown Free Public Library approved a new Strategic Plan in the summer of 2025, and the public is invited to look at the finalized plan. See the announcement from the library, below.
Read more about the Watertown Free Public Library FY 2026–2030 Strategic Plan, with an update from Library Director Kim Long (Hewitt):
Hello and happy fall! In June, the Library Trustees voted to approve WFPL’s new Strategic Plan for FY26-2030. As we enter one of our busiest seasons, I want to offer a closer look at this document, which will guide how library services are delivered to our community over the next five years.
The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners recommends that libraries in Massachusetts keep a current strategic plan on file. These plans are an important tool by which we articulate priorities for the coming years, recommit to core values, and flag areas for improvement. Our Strategic Plan incorporates input from the community, library staff, and library trustees.
Development for the new plan began at this time last year. In the winter of 2024 – 2025, Library and City staff asked our community for feedback, and we’re thankful for the enthusiasm and constructive criticism offered in community chats and focus groups. We issued a community survey and received 996 responses, as well as 550 flash vote responses through the City’s text-to-vote app.
Library staff, City staff, and Trustees have worked hard to distill trends and opportunities from survey results, patron feedback, community data, library use data, and observations from the past four years. The result of that distillation is the FY 2026 – 2030 Strategic Plan, which we have summarized into a Framework with four interconnected priorities:
1. Welcoming
- Ensure a welcoming, inclusive, and safe environment for all
- Prioritize user experience
- Improve library atmosphere with particular attention to sound
- Assess and enhance accessibility and wayfinding in physical and digital spaces
- Initiate lobby redesign
2. Engaging
- Create inclusive programs that encourage connection to the community and each other
- Evaluate and enhance our outreach and promotion strategy
- Strengthen programs, collections, and resources by collaborating with community and city partners
- Deepen collaboration with city partners to strengthen the Library’s value to the community
- Further empower City Leadership to advocate and promote the Library’s meaningful standing in the community.
- Advocate for the expansion of library and Hatch Makerspace services and offerings to meet the needs of the community.
3. Representing
- Ensure collections reflect the diversity of cultures, languages, experiences, and interests of the community
- Reflect inclusivity and equity in all services and offerings
- Develop strategy for program evaluation to meet and satisfy community expectations and needs over time
- Publicize library job openings strategically to reach a broad cross section of our community
4. Empowering
- Foster leadership by providing clear goals and growth opportunities for staff at all levels
- Support the development of life skills and creative pursuits at all ages
- Increase transparency around core Library philosophy, functions, and process
- Share the community’s history by preserving and giving voice to lived experiences
- Aid community members in developing and leading programs that reflect their interest
In many ways, our incredible staff are already putting these four priorities into practice. In July, we hosted a Make a Videogame workshop taught by Watertown High School students. In September, WFPL offered our first author talk in Spanish, with local author María Eugenia Mayobre. We also hosted NYT-bestseller Sara Nović with co-host Deaf, Inc, and were able to provide ASL interpretation and CART.
And every day, the Library helps community members save money and live sustainably by borrowing (rather than buying) books, media, technology, and tools.
We do these things and more because they advance the core of our library mission: connecting people. Public Libraries are always evolving to meet the needs of the moment, and we will continue to adapt. I believe our FY 2026 – 2030 Strategic Framework points us toward some exciting next steps.
I invite you to take a look at the Plan on our website, and consider the ways our library mission and resources might intersect with your work in Watertown, or, your hopes for Watertown’s future.