(Atlantic) The Atlantic Public Library updated its mission statement this past year and set a new strategic plan.
Library Director Michelle Andersen appearing at the Atlantic City Council meeting on Wednesday evening, says the new mission statement is used as the framework of services the Library offered this past year. “The first part of that mission statement is we connect the community with information,” said Andersen. “We have public WIFI, computers, tablets, and informational databases.”
Andersen says the other part of the new mission statement is connecting people to resources, including books, audio, videos, magazines, newspapers, or any other type of circulation, with over 45,000 kinds of circulation from the Atlantic facility and 22,000 from digital resources. “This is good, but we are still not to pre-covid levels, but we are definitely on the upward trajectory back to what pre-covid looked like,” said Andersen.
Andersen also pointed out that this past year the Cass County Libraries started as an affiliate with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, a program in which every registered child gets a book in the mail each month until their fifth birthday. She says donations and sponsorships fund the program. In November, 290 books were mailed to children across the county. “We like partnering on this program because we can see when the child reaches their fifth birthday book,” said Andersen. “We tell them, instead of books coming to you, now come to the library to get a card, and we can continue sharing stories.”
Andersen says another item of importance is the grant the Library received from the Network of National Library of Medicine for mental health resources. The grant funded tablets for people to use privately; the other part was buying resources shared across Cass County and programming. The budget totaled $18,000, bringing reputable mental health resources to Cass County.
During the fiscal year 2022, there were over 38,000 visits to the library, which offered 300 programs attended by 3,595 people.
