Federation of Ontario Public Libraries Strategic Plan 2020-2023 

Vision:  One Voice for Ontario’s Public Libraries

The purpose of the Federation is to strategically support and advocate furthering Ontario public libraries and the communities they serve. In order to strengthen and improve the provision of public library service, the Federation will act in a cooperative manner with other organizations to market public libraries’ value and collaboratively, coordinate opportunities to build people capacity within Ontario’s public libraries. A resilient Federation will support our own research and build a sustainable public library sector.

Advocacy & Influence

FOPL raison d’être is government relations. Our number one goal should be focused on this activity.  We should not just focus on good relationships but on results.  We also need to be scanning the Ontario environment for emerging issues to prioritize and choose to address.

Marketing Public Library Value and Impact

We are the ONLY place for all Ontario library metrics and can frame these in an impactful way.  We need to move this from a HQ activity to involve more members using OMD and the Stats Report as well as other studies.  We need to increase targeted communications of these data and insights.

People Capacity: Training & Development

FOPL cannot do this alone and we must rely on building capacity in our membership.  We need to focus on municipal relations leadership, advocacy, and anti-racism training and being there on a situational basis too.

FOPL Resilience Sustainability

FOPL must review its long term fiscal sustainability of our finances to deliver on our mandate – specifically membership fees – with an eye to communicating our value proposition to members.

Strategic Objectives and Initiatives 2020-

Although we don’t know what 2020 will bring in our sector (and from all fronts), FOPL does need to remain flexible and use our resources wisely to make a difference in our sector.  In large part this means:

  • Empowering Our Members
  • Informing Our Members
  • Communicating with Our Members
  • Maintaining Good Relationships with the Government

Advocacy & Influence

  • Partner with OLA (and involve other Ontario associations) to speak with one voice
  • Work with our professional government relations counsel.
  • Partner with CFLA to address national issues.
  • Scan policy and legislation – Be at the Table!
  • Create a Government Relations priorities list and targets.

Positively influence legislation and government initiatives impacting Ontario Libraries

  1. Build relationships with provincial elected officials and civil service to influence government policy and practices
  2. Support members’ libraries efforts in municipal government advocacy
  3. Support First Nations libraries with national and provincial advocacy
  4. Remain agile to enable timely response to emerging issues and opportunities
  5. Act as a conduit for government to supply information to Public Libraries

Marketing Public Library Value and Impact·

  • Bring the OMD project in house – as planned – and build on this success.
  • Publish and promote the analytics and impact assessments we have through the statistics and metrics work we’ve done.
  • Use our social media effectively.

Coordinate and assist in the implementation of strategic marketing for Ontario Public Libraries

  1. Be recognized as the trusted single voice of Ontario Public Libraries
  2. Inspire and mobilize the library community
  3. Develop and provide research to inform marketing initiatives
  4. Develop province-wide social media marketing campaign tools
  5. Pursue partnerships beyond traditional library partners such as AMO, school boards, vendors and media
  6. Collaborate to create consistent promotional messaging for use by Public Libraries

People Capacity: Training & Development

  • Specifically build capacity in 2020 to address local government and their DC/CBC bylaws.
  • Continue to offer influence support and training to our members.
  • Partner with SOLS/OLS-North on Learn HQ, Governance Hub and PeerHQ.

Provide Ontario’s Public Libraries with professional training and development

  1. Coordinate training opportunities such as seminars, workshops, symposia, and webinars
  2. Collaborate in creation of trustee training tools
  3. Share expertise at professional conferences and events such as OLA Super Conference and Marketing Think Tank
  4. Build consensus in the Ontario Public Library community
  5. Increase awareness of grant and subsidy opportunities
  6. Focus in 2020-2021 on anti-racism training and BIPOC issues

FOPL Resilience and Sustainability

  • In 2020-2021, address our membership fee revenue since it has never been changed over the course of FOPL’s lifespan since 2006.
  • Begin to replenish the surplus funds

Increase organizational resiliency:

  1. Seek alternate sources of funding to ensure fiscal stability
  2. Grow and retain membership through increased member engagement
  3. More effectively and more frequently communicate with individual members and FOPL caucuses
  4. Increase involvement and contribution of FOPL committees and task groups
  5. Overcome challenges of diversity and geography

Progress on these goals are reported quarterly at the FOPPL Board of Directors meetings in the executive director’s report here:

Board of Directors Documents

and here:

Executive Director Reports