You inspire the work we do every day here at the Library and the work that is yet to come. Our new strategic plan will serve as our guiding beacon for the next five years, charting a path toward a brighter and more inclusive future.

We created this together. Thoughtfully developed with you, this plan is a result of a year-long process that tapped the hopes, dreams and ideas of thousands of our neighbors. Our Board of Trustees contributed their expertise and support, and library staff brought their knowledge of the realities of our work and our experiences.  

Your response on how to best allocate our resources and steer our course forward was nothing short of incredible. You told us that you love your library and want more of it. We heard the need and desire for the Library to be responsive with additional hours, especially being open in the evenings. We heard the need for the Library to be more connected with programming that represents the entire community. And, we heard the need for the Library to create more opportunities for working with other mission-aligned community organizations to support each other’s work.  

And, we listened.

Inspired by you, our neighbors, CLP’s new 2024-2028 strategic plan focuses on community connections, responsive services, regional cooperation and organizational excellence. We articulated IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility) as our foundational practices—those principles on which all of the Library’s work must be based, built, informed and influenced. This plan has something that our last plan didn’t have, the articulation of our core services—what our library does and can do for our neighbors.  I’m really proud these are included in a prominent way, because I believe in the vital work we do through our collections, programs, spaces and people. 

I want to express my sincere gratitude to each and every one of you who participated in determining the future of our beloved Library. Your input has been instrumental in shaping our vision for the future, and I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved together. We’re committed to keeping this conversation going so CLP continues to be a place that fosters literacy, enables exploration and creates connections.  

Thanks again, and I’ll see you at the Library! 

 

Andrew Medlar
President & Director
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh