Buda City Council approves new library strategic plan

During the Sept. 20 Buda City Council meeting, Library Director Melinda Hodges presented the new five-year strategic library plan, which the council passed unanimously.

An updated long-range plan is required for continued state accreditation, and the Texas Administrative Code requires that it be approved by a governing body and must include elements relating to technology and collection development.

To implement a new strategic library plan, the library staff studied different trends both in terms of the community and how it has been using the library as well as library trends across the nation.

According to Hodges, the American Library Association's 2020 State of America's Libraries showed that public libraries focus on enabling learning, supporting parents, supporting their communities, health and wellness, and offering nontraditional collections.

The highest requested and used items at the Buda Public Library are physical books with a steep increase in digital books and audio books.

Hodges said library staff hopes to work on the library collection as part of the library strategic plan.

“The one area we could improve is our collection. We spend less on average on our collection than other libraries and have fewer physical items,” Hodges said.

Hodges also said the library plans to work on having stronger Wi-Fi signals at the library as well as better quiet spaces.