It has been ten years since Wisconsin government sponsored a statewide conference on the future of library services. Given the advances in technology, changing demographics and service needs of Wisconsin’s citizens it is time to engage the library community and citizenry in envisioning a new and exciting future for Wisconsin’s libraries and information networks. Toward this aim, Superintendent Burmaster and COLAND are sponsoring a Strategic Visioning Summit & Year of the Library’s Future as a focus for 2008.
The Strategic Visioning Summit will
- Support 21st century education initiatives
- Include all types of libraries
- Encompass library service development construed broadly
- Explore a vision for the future of library services
- Include 80-100 invited participants representing library constituents
- Be accompanied by other activities that encourage broad participation of library constituents--especially through a virtual environment
- Develop recommendations for the development of library services over the next decade or two
An umbrella concept of the Year of the Library's Future will create a focal point for other activities, such as
- Invite partners to host and facilitate area of interest (i.e. health science community; k-12 library/media; reference; children's services; etc.) meetings and visioning processes around state
- Encourage all 17 public library systems to host/hold sub-regional mini-conferences either within their system areas or cooperatively with other adjacent systems
- Invite white papers on future issues and scenarios
- Invite future of the library essays or poster project
The Summit will take place in the spring of 2008 and will make recommendations to the Superintendent in time for the 2009/11 budget planning process. Recommendations from the Summit should be submitted to the Superintendent in May 2008.
An Executive Planning Group will plan the Summit and provide oversight for activities leading up to the Summit. The Executive Planning Group will have representatives from COLAND, DPI and partner organizations and will be responsible for:
- developing a mission statement for the summit and activities tied to the summit
- encouraging broad participation especially through virtual environment
- identifying topics for the Summit and planning the agenda
- identifying the format and schedule for the Summit
- approving the meeting space and logistical arrangements
- selecting the names of the invitees (80-100 persons)
- providing oversight on the invitations and preparation materials
- soliciting input from the community of library users and library service providers
- communicating broadly regarding the purpose and outcomes of the Summit
- delivering Summit recommendations to the Superintendent by May, 2008