Our beloved library has changed greatly in its 123-year-life: from a two-room private library serving a hundred subscribers to today’s public library district serving just under 11,000 patrons with an annual circulation of 100,000. Our services have also expanded over the past century from simply providing access to print materials, to adding audio-visual items, digital content, educational programs, internet access, and more. As our patrons’ needs have changed and diversified, so have our offerings. Our facilities and services are ever evolving, but our core values have remained constant: connecting people, sharing knowledge, and enabling life-long learning. We are passionate about enriching our community and making our patrons’ lives better.
Who Are We?
The Vespasian Warner Public Library District strives to be a welcoming place that meets the diverse needs of its communities through high-quality resources and supportive services to stimulate and facilitate creativity, curiosity and learning.
Our Vision
Connecting People
Connecting Patrons to our services, connecting with other community groups when goals align, and connecting patrons to other groups in the community that can help them meet their needs when the library can’t.
Sharing Knowledge
Serving as a central hub in the community as a repository for knowledge, especially in the field of local history. A wide range of information is shared in a variety of formats to meet patron needs.
Enabling Lifelong Learning
Facilitating the development of life-long learnings in the community through programming, active participation, and engagement with all patrons.
So What Does That Look Like?
How does our strategic plan impact you? Let's take a look at the library's four strategic areas of focus.
Partners and Outreach
The library will expand its reach in the community and create a heightened profile in the district. The library will become a priority destination. This strategic area includes the library being proactive in bringing the community together and establishing the building, contents, staff, and services as valuable and irreplaceable assets. It will be a place to conduct business, engage with others, and participate in recreational and educational activities.
What does that look like?
The library serves as a gathering place for various community groups, such as 4-H clubs, homeschool organizations, and non-profit entities like the DeWitt County Mental Health Board, Clinton Tree Commission, and the DeWitt County Genealogical Society. It participates in numerous community events, including the Clinton Business Expo, the Warner Hospital and Health Services Community Health Fair, and the annual Clinton Christmas Parade. Throughout the school year, Melissa, the youth services manager, visits the schools for special storytimes. Every two weeks, outreach services to Liberty Village of Clinton provides physical books, audiobooks, and puzzles to nursing home residents. Three little libraries, restocked monthly, provide a selection of books, magazines, and movies free to members of our community.
Discovery and Skills
The library will create and facilitate effective, targeted, and inclusive programs, collections, and services, all in a welcoming environment. This strategic area includes opportunities for engagement through programs, services, and library materials. Patrons walk through the library doors with the intent to discover something new, and everyone in the community can benefit from added knowledge and skills. The library will offer quality resources for free information, education, and entertainment.
What does that look like?
This is the core function of the Vespasian Warner Library. This strategic focus area is what comes to mind when people think of a library. By circulating over 19,000 adult items and more than 18,000 children's items, we continue to fulfill our patrons' needs. As part of the Illinois Heartland Library System (IHLS), we can borrow items from partner libraries across the state to provide materials of interest that we don't have in our collection. The library is committed to offering the most current and reliable information by consistently purchasing new and updated materials. Additionally, library programming plays a key role in discovery and skill-building. We offer programs for children, such as donut parties and weekly storytimes for our youngest visitors, while offering programs like crochet bookmarks and live animal experiences for our youth, creating a safe environment for learning, idea-sharing, and socializing for all. Teen programs, including Dungeons and Dragons, Nintendo Switch competitions, and paint parties, offer similar experiences for our community's teens. We also recognize the importance of relaxation, creativity, and socializing for adults, providing opportunities through paint parties, gardening webinars, book clubs, journaling classes, Yoga, and Tai Chi.
Accessibility and Equity
The library will ensure that all its patrons, regardless of ability, will have equitable access to library resources.
What does that look like?
Offering spacious aisles for browsing, elevator access to all floors, and curbside service ensures our building remains accessible. We are working on making our website compatible with screen readers and ensuring our color contrasts and font sizes are adequate for those with visual impairments to easily navigate and find the information they need. Providing resources such as audiobooks and large print books offers essential services to our patrons with visual impairments. The introduction of our quickreads book selections allows access for those who are dyslexic, new to reading, or at a lower reading level but desire books beyond the children's section. For patrons unable to visit the library in person, we are pleased to come to you! Staff can deliver items curbside or meet you for notary, copy, and/or fax services. Our homebound outreach program can even deliver books, audiobooks, puzzles, and movies directly to your door on a bi-weekly schedule.
Preserving History
The library will maintain its role as an expert and destination for the preservation of local history and archive items. This strategic area includes the preservation, restoration, digitization, and display of historically significant artifacts and documents. Effort in this area has the potential to bring in an audience the library has not interacted with previously. The preservation of local history has the potential to use shared experiences to strengthen the community’s bond.
What does that look like?
The library holds thousands of items that represent DeWitt County's local history. In the archives, you'll find the original collection of books donated by C.H. Moore, which established the library in 1908. The Civil War Collection features diaries, photographs, and artifacts from the 20th Illinois Volunteer Regiment. The archives also contain materials documenting the construction of the power plant, historic buildings in the community that no longer exist, DeWitt County schools, various community organizations, and much more. From inside the library, you can access Newspaper.com for local newspapers from 1854-1963, and Advantage Preservation for digitized local papers from 1964 onward. On the main floor, you'll find the Local History Collection, which includes local yearbooks from DeWitt County schools and nearby areas, local cookbooks, Summer Reading Club Scrapbooks, books on the local history of DeWitt County and Illinois, and a vertical file of newspaper clippings sorted by subject. The "Clinton-Murder" is a particularly popular vertical file. The library is actively digitizing local history collections on Archive.org, Illinois Digital Archive, and HistoryPin.com, where we've gathered around 500 images. Additionally, the DeWitt County Genealogical Society is located here. The Genealogy room offers numerous resources, including census, death, marriage, birth, and probate records. Genealogists meet every Thursday, and the Genealogy room is open to the public from Monday to Saturday during regular library hours.
As we move forward into the future we will continue to be passionate about enriching our community and making our patrons’ lives better.
Strategic planning is an ongoing process for any vibrant institution, and we anticipate adjusting and updating this plan before our next formal plan is released. We greatly value the input and opinions of our patrons, so please engage with our staff and board to share your ideas and needs as we continue to build the Vespasian Warner Public Library District to serve our community as it enters the third decade of the 21st century.
For more information about any of the services mentioned in this blog, jump over to our webpage, vwarner.org, for more information and
a complete list of upcoming programs!
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