Fulton County Library System
The Opportunity: The Fulton County Library System serves a metropolitan county of over 1 million residents across more than 570 square miles. A recent community bond referendum generated $275 million to rebuild or renovate all 34 library locations including 32 branches, the Central Library, and the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History. Capitalizing on this significant infrastructure investment, the Atlanta-Fulton Library Foundation invested in a strategic planning process and selected GSG as the project consultant.
Our Services: The process was coordinated by an inclusive strategic planning committee of Library Board, Foundation, staff, and Friends of the Library representatives.
The process included extensive engagement of internal and external stakeholders; review of past performance; a scan of the community environment; benchmarking with other leading libraries; and learning journeys to public, corporate, and nonprofit organizations with effective approaches to addressing the library’s strategic challenges.
Stakeholder engagement included virtual community conversations affiliated with each library location; focus groups with community members representing K-12 schools, colleges, early learning, and social justice advocates; interviews with leaders in county government, arts, housing, social services, philanthropy, and economic development.
The Results: The plan resulted in a new vision statement, three priority outcomes to focus the plan on community impact, three strategic themes to focus the future work of the library, and a set of aligned strategic initiatives for implementation. The strategic plan was unanimously endorsed by both the Library Board of Trustees and the Library Foundation, and supported by the County Commissioners. A summary of the strategic plan is available here.