New Jersey: “Montclair Public Library Aims to Be ‘Center of the Community'”
From NorthJersey.com:
The Montclair Public Library has amped up its mission statement, and is now reaching toward the next four years with a sprawling and multi-pronged Strategic Plan.
At its base is a push to be acknowledged as the center of the Montclair community.
Administrators want the library to be a “clearing house” for local community groups, as Montclair Public Library Director David Hinkley told The Montclair Times. They want more people to come to the library – there is no replacement for physical interaction in the community, even amidst technological innovations, Hinkley asserted. Still, tech-savvy the library does want to be: it plans to acquire 500 more e-readers, to have a stronger presence on social media, and to finish digitizing its image collection.
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There is a subtle but important shift at play. From the Strategic Plan document: “In a sense, the Montclair library is about people, not about books.”
Read the Complete Article (Long), First in a Series
See Also: Background About the Strategic Plan
Montclair Public Library Strategic Plan 2013-2016
Filed under: Libraries, News, Public Libraries

About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.