Without a Vision, Your Library Has No Future

Every project I work on has one major thing in common.  Vision.  Somewhere at some point in time, someone sat down and had an idea about how they might create a better space.  Whether for their staff, their customers or even their community, someone experienced that spark of a thought that lead to the opening of doors that would change lives in some way or another.  For better or worse, it all requires you to take steps just beyond that spark that will inevitably become your Vision.

Want to learn how to organize your own thoughts and begin creating a vision for YOUR Library?  Schedule a free call with me today and let's chat about it!

Over the next several blog posts in the coming weeks, I want to break down the importance of Vision and all the components that go with it.  And to kick that off, I want to begin with the PURPOSE OF VISION and why it really is so crucial to the future of your Library.

For starters, you've likely been in your role as Library director, department director, staff member, and so on, for some time now.  And let's be honest, it doesn't take a whole lot of time in the saddle to know what's broken in your Library and what's working.  And in most cases, it's the broken pieces that usually inspire great vision.  

You see your patron struggles and your staff struggles and you think, 'if we could only have . . . in our Library".  THAT'S when the visionaries are born!  And identifying those setbacks and just beginning to brainstorm ideas for how it they could be improved is the key to creating your entire vision.  Baby steps.  Your initial thoughts and ideas might not even make it to the final design, but they're necessary in order to get there.

So why is vision so important?  

Quick answer?  Because it inspires you to achieve your goals.  Without a vision to work toward, even if you can't attain everything in it immediately, you will never meet your goals.  Those goals don't just happen out of thin air.  And while lots of detailed planning must be involved (and we will discuss that in later blog posts) it's your vision that will keep you going.  

We are designed to have passions and to aspire to things greater than ourselves.  And those small sparks of inspiration are the seeds, that when nurtured and explored, often become something bigger than we might have imagined.  It's a natural human instinct.  

So start writing down some of those ideas.  Spend some time thinking of a vision for your Library and your community.  Do some research and learn what it takes to put together a future space that could benefit everyone.  And create a vision board.  It doesn't have to be a physical board.  Create a digital file using PowerPoint and keep all your ideas in one location so you can keep track of them.  

And revisit them often.  Don't just create it and and forget about it.  

And bounce ideas off your staff, family, and friends.  It's vital to have a vision, but don't tuck it away and forget about it.  And as time goes on, it will undoubtedly evolve.  But that's all part of the process.  Embrace it and become a visionary for your Library right now!  

And if you need my help with it, schedule a call with me and we can figure it out together.  

Or if you want to bounce some ideas off your peers, join my Off the Shelf Library Design Group and connect with them today!