Our Foundations
Our mission is to provide free access to resources for reading, connecting, and life-long learning.
Our vision is to be a welcoming destination where the community connects, learns, and has fun.
About our Library
Starting with just 80 books in the 1880s, our library today has over 120,000 print books, audio and video materials, digital books and magazines, a Library of Things, and access to materials and resources from across the state and beyond. Once housed in a back room of a drugstore, the library now has over 62,000 square feet, with spaces that appeal to all ages and interests, not to mention our shared green space, Patrons Park. This park offers a butterfly garden, Musical Menagerie Garden, chess tables, and the Musical Frog Trio of sculptures by Charles and Beau Smith of Atlanta. Beyond our walls, we continue to find creative ways to serve West Bend and encourage exploration, such as the Adventure Pass program, which allows cardholders to unlock free access to local attractions for their next outing.
Innovation is at the heart of our library, as we blend traditional services with modern technology to meet West Bend’s changing needs. Patrons can manage their accounts on the go using the Monarch2Go app or dive into a vast collection of digital magazines and audiobooks through the Libby app. For those looking to expand their professional or personal skills, the library offers free online learning via Universal Class, and the physical collection is continually updated, featuring the latest video games alongside a diverse array of new books and sound recordings.
Our West Bend Community Library is a welcoming space meant for our whole community, offering programs and resources designed to support neighbors of all ages and interests. By providing dedicated services for parents, caregivers, kids, teens, adults, and educators, the library ensures that every stage of life is enriched with opportunities to learn and discover. Whether Benders are connecting with others through Conversations with Coffee, participating in a gardening or cooking program, or finding an entertaining or enlightening read, we are committed to evolving alongside our patrons and strengthening a sense of belonging for everyone.
About the Planning Process
The strategic planning process, started earlier this year, has been extremely thorough and focused on reaching as many people as possible. The West Bend community is at the heart of our library, so it was critical that we asked them about their needs and how the library could make a difference, whether they used the library or not. We also wanted to make sure that our plan for the next five years was data-informed and clear-eyed. To that end, our planning process included the following:
- A Community and Library Landscape Questionnaire, completed by 7 members of the planning team, to understand library and community aspirations, issues, and needs.
- A review of community demographics, captured from different federal and state data sources.
- A Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, and Results (SOAR) session, attended by members of the staff.
- A facilitated conversation with the full library board.
- A community survey, completed by 782 community members.
- Access to a dashboard that uses DPI Annual Report data to visualize the library’s data and view the library compared to a cohort average of similar libraries, identified through statistical modeling.
- Individual interviews with community representatives.
- Two community conversations attended by 26 community members.
- Question and Answer Boards.
Key Insights from Our Strategic Planning Data
The West Bend Community Library is widely recognized as a “civic thread” that connects this “Goldilocks” community, one that is not too big or too small, through a culture of empathy and inclusion. Data gathered from staff, board members, and residents consistently highlight the library’s team as its greatest asset, praising their expertise, friendliness, and deep dedication to the community.
As a trusted educational resource for all life stages, the library serves as a vital partner for public schools and a welcoming “home away from home” where both long-standing residents and newcomers feel valued. This trust positions the library to lead community efforts to bridge silos among local service providers and better address critical needs such as food insecurity, housing, and mental health.
In the community survey, users of the WBL prioritized participation in more services or programs related to community needs, such as healthcare, food security, and transportation, as their top potential change to the library’s services.
Looking forward, there is a clear community appetite for reimagined physical spaces and expanded, interactive learning opportunities. Staff, board, and community members expressed a desire for the library to evolve into a vibrant hub featuring a “WOW” factor, with specific interest in makerspaces, dedicated teen hangouts, and comfortable indoor gathering areas for the winter months.
In the community survey, library users ranked providing outdoor gathering or work spaces as their top selected priority for potential changes to the library’s physical spaces.
While youth literacy and homeschool support remain core priorities, there is an emerging demand for practical adult skills, digital navigation, including technology and financial literacy, and diverse media formats like audiobooks. To sustain this high level of service amidst funding constraints and a growing population, the library must continue to demonstrate its clear public value while investing in internal staff capacity, training, and documentation to remain an adaptive, cornerstone institution.
Our Strategic Priorities
Spaces that Inspire and Ignite
Our library is a vibrant, welcoming space designed for learning, creativity, and connection. By cultivating an environment that sparks curiosity and encourages exploration, we serve as a dynamic anchor for our community.
- Reconfigure and improve the library’s layout to create flexible, accessible community zones.
- Explore new amenities to enhance the library experience, increase meaningful time spent in the library, and drive excitement.
- Improve physical and digital accessibility to the library and its resources.
Learning and Growing Together
We nurture curiosity, foster literacy, and support personal growth at every stage of life, for our community and our staff. We ensure our patrons have access to the tools, opportunities, and resources they need to thrive in an ever-changing world.
- Develop the library’s collection to meet community interests, increase access, and support ongoing personal growth for all patrons.
- Align programming with community needs and interests.
- Continue to invest in staff training, cross-training, and role clarity to elevate library services and support the evolving learning needs of our community.
Fostering Connection
We bring our growing city together to foster shared understanding, ensuring lifelong residents and newcomers alike feel completely at home. By partnering with local organizations and leaders, we extend the reach of essential services for everyone.
- Develop and care for high-impact partnerships with area schools, technical colleges, and community organizations, especially to engage teens and younger families.
- Act as a welcoming hub for newcomers, connecting them to the city’s events, resources, and their fellow community members.
- Foster strategic partnerships with local nonprofits and city services by leveraging the library’s role as a community connector, increasing awareness of social supports, mental health resources, and other essential services.
- Cultivate deeper relationships with underreached community segments to increase awareness, use, and sense of connection with the library.
Ensuring Our Excellence
Our commitment to investing in our team, streamlining operations, communicating our role, and securing sustainable funding ensures the library remains a trusted resource that consistently delivers exceptional service to our community.
Develop internal workflows, clear roles and expectations, process documentation, and “point staff” expertise to improve consistency, confidence, and efficiency across service areas.
- Enhance targeted communication strategies to ensure community members receive timely, relevant updates that clearly demonstrate the library’s critical importance.
- Monitor and respond to changing local needs by using data to spot community patterns and shifts early.
- Ensure financial sustainability and the capacity for strategic initiatives by aligning resources with strategic priorities, demonstrating our public value, and pursuing diversified funding opportunities that support our long-term success.
- Facilitate a deeper relationship between the library, our staff, and our board.
Implementation, Assessment, and Communication
As soon as the planning framework was finished, we began putting this plan into action, and we’ll keep working on it together over the next five years.
Library staff met at the end of the planning process to activate the plan by prioritizing activities and determining how to assess their work. Assessment will include input from staff and community members, reflection on what’s working, and thoughtful adjustments along the way. This ongoing cycle keeps the plan responsive, relevant, and grounded in our community’s needs.
Clear, open communication is key to keeping everyone informed and involved as the plan moves forward. We will share regular updates, celebrate successes, and invite you to share your thoughts along the way. By working together and keeping the conversation open, we make sure everyone, community members, staff, library leaders, and partners, can see what’s happening and have real chances to shape the future of the library.
Thank You
Close to 800 people helped our library create this strategic plan! A sincere thank you to everyone who took time to complete a survey, answer a Q & A board, or attend a conversation. As always, the library could not have done our work without you.
Special thanks to the planning team, who dedicated their time, energy, and care to guiding the process and creating this plan.
Steve Thiry, Library Director
Tim Harder, Director of Facilities and Technology at West Bend Joint School District
Laura Lauderback, Library Services Coordinator at Moraine Park Technical College
Jesse Thyes, City Administrator of West Bend
Terika Koch, Youth Services Librarian
Dawn Peters, Library Associate
Amber DeRuyter, Library Associate and Communications Coordinator
Jay Wright, Library Board Member
Brian Henkel, Friends of the Library
We would also like to thank Melissa McLimans, Laura Damon-Moore, and Kim Kiesewetter from WiLS for helping us with the strategic planning process.