Fifteen community members comprised the committee that met for daylong in September and October, each bringing a unique background and perspective to the discussions. The group included representatives from the library, town and village boards, Cal-Mum’s School superintendent and principal, an aide from the Learning Tree and universal pre-kindergarten programs, a boy scout leader and parent, a home schooling parent and other interested community members.

   "The fact that 15 people were interested enough to give up two Saturdays of their time shows us that the Caledonia Library is very important to this community, and we want to be sure we continue to meet their expectations now and in the future," commented Caledonia Library Board President Kathleen Brown.

   The committee worked with a consultant and developed a mission statement to help guide them in planning for the future. Simply put, Caledonia Library identified three areas where they will focus their response in the next five years:

• Satisfy the community’s curiosity for information
• Create young readers
• Know the community (be a source of information regarding available community resources)

   The library will respond to these objectives in many ways. They will continue to provide current vital information and recreational materials for residents of all ages and backgrounds. Their goal will be to maintain its warm and welcoming manner and to develop lifelong learners. In addition, the library will expand on becoming a disseminator of information regarding Caledonia’s resources available to the community.

   The committee outlined specific objectives to help accomplish their long-range goals. These objectives include increasing non-fiction circulation, increasing the budget to purchase DVDs, increasing public use of the computer and Internet and expanding the library staff’s technology training.

   Cultivating young readers was identified as a goal. Library staff will implement a variety of creative strategies to accomplish this including finding creative ways to involve preschoolers, increasing the budget to purchase children’s materials, expanding story hour for preschoolers, purchase of an early literacy computer for the children’s room, increasing awareness of the parenting collection and reaching out to home schooling parents.

   The Caledonia Library recognizes that it is a significant source of information about the community and plans to expand their role in that regard in a variety of ways. This may include increasing the collection of local information about the community, creating a packet outlining all of the resources available to residents, developing a list of community leaders and bringing better visibility to the resources provided by Caledonia Library to residents of the community.

   The next big project facing Caledonia Library is the process of replacing retiring Librarian, Kathy Hartness, who has been the cornerstone of the library for 28 years.

   Brown presented an overview of the long-range study findings as well as an overview of library activity for 2008 to the village board. Approximately 1,900 patrons visited the Caledonia Library last year to browse and borrow from the more than 18,000 books, video and audio selections available for loan.

   "The findings of the five-year plan will guide us as to how we can best move forward from this point on," Brown said.