"Write a mission statement" report of Burr Oak Community Library

The decision was make at the November 2008 Burr Oak Community Library board meeting to pursue the "Write a Mission Statement" topic as a continuing education project for 2009. Soon after the meeting, president Becky McNichols rounded up the suggested reading materials and distributed them to board members and the librarian. Materials read by board members Becky McNichols, Rita Roberson, Lila Smith, Deb Tresner, Kim Gillett, Alyce Gillett, Dorothy Cosand and librarian Tammy Finnell were:

• "Develop a Mission Statement" from Trustees and Librarians Working Together by Jim Swan.
• "How to write a mission statement" fron http://tinyurl.com/2rndgh, and
  
• "Make you mission statement stand out by following these simple guidelines" from http://tinyurl.com/2rnh81.
• Becky also read chapters 2 & 3 from Linda Wallace's book, Libraries, mission, & marketing.

We did have an "unofficial" mission statement - something hurriedly thrown together to meet a grant requirement from the past. It read:

"The mission of the Burr Oak Community Library is to collect and provide information of many media types to patrons of all ages and interests; to promote life-long learning and enrichment without age or socio-economic boundaries as a hindrance."

Each member was asked to read, think about, and formulate ideas based on the reading material, and decide whether to modify this old statement or start over.

Progress was checked at the December board meeting, and it was decided to discuss ideas at the January meeting.

In January, participants made a list of ideas or "feelings" they woudl like to convey with the mission statement. These included:

• Something that would embrace all patrons: welcoming all ages, accepting all walks of life.
• Something to convey our commitment to education through all types of printed, visual, or audio material.
• Something to generate excitement
• Something "short and sweet" - possibly an acronym from the Burr Oak Community Library (BOCL) in its message.
  

While the old statement met the first two criteria, it certainly didn't meet the last two criteria. Kim researched and reviewed mission statements from other libraries. Many of these were read and all started to sound the same to us. Rather blah, and certainly not memorable (kind of like ours!) The one we liked the best was from the Daly City Public Library in our reading material: "Preserving yesterday, Informing today, Inspiring tomorrow." Even though we wanted to plagiarize, we though we'd better come up with our own!

Becky threw out an inspiration she had utilizing the BOCL acronym plus a vision statement.

The
Burr Oak Comunity Library
a
Beacon of Creative Learning

existing to stimulate, inspire and enrich the lives of all who enter.

The idea was discussed, dissected, scrutinized, and compared with our objectives. In the end, it was unanimously accepted as our new "official" mission statement.

The new statement will be added to our library's letterhead, policies, and official documents. We inend to make it into some type of sign to display at our entrance. It could also be added to our business cards and any future brochures.

We hope that our vision to "stimulate, inspire, and enrich the lives of all who enter" will be apparent to anyone who enters the library for as long as we exist.