Community Conversation 2 - Woodstock Library: Turned Outward

56 Rock City Road,Woodstock NY 12498

02 June, 2021

Description

Woodstock Library conversations with people across town to discuss their aspirations, concerns, and how they see Woodstock in the future. In January and February, the Woodstock Library Trustees held six dialogues with voters on their reasoning behind voting yes or no on the 2020 Bond Vote for a New Building. We have recently sent the summary to all participants and posted our report on these at woodstock.org/planning. Over the next few months, the Woodstock Library will be holding more conversations with people across town to discuss aspirations, concerns, and life in Woodstock. What are their aspirations that would make the Woodstock community –and hamlets like Bearsville, Willow, Shady, and Sawkill/Zena – a better place to live? We have invited folks from many different groups and organizations in Woodstock, and we hope to have a robust cross-section of Woodstockers. These conversations will inform the update of the Library’s 5 Year Plan of Service and Organizational direction. These conversations will focus on life in Woodstock rather than the Library facilities issue. Our full schedule is: Saturday, May 22 at 1 pm on Zoom Wednesday, June 2 at 11 am at the Community Center Pavilion Saturday, June 5 at 11 am on Zoom Monday, June 14 at 4 pm at the Community Center Pavilion Wednesday, June 16 at 1 pm on Zoom Monday, June 21 at 7 pm on Zoom * with more dates as needed “Turning outward” is a process developed by The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation in collaboration with the America Library Association's Libraries Transforming Communities, which entails taking steps to understand communities better, changing processes, and thinking to make conversations more community-focused, being proactive to community issues, and putting community aspirations first. This year the Woodstock Library is working with the Mid-Hudson Library System cohort to gather input from the community, in developing a strategic or long-range plan to address community needs that resonates with library staff and trustees and the people the library serves. Woodstock Library serves the community and visitors of the most famous small town, Woodstock, NY for 107 years. The mission of the Library is to encourage free and open access to information, in all its forms but especially printed materials such as books, facilitate lifelong learning and the stimulation of ideas, celebrate the rich history of Woodstock as the Colony of the Arts, and provide opportunities for creativity and community engagement.