When a library has to be more than a library
Preparing Seattle’s most essential institution for the next ten years
Public institutions are under more pressure than ever. Communities are growing more diverse, more complex, and more in need of services that go far beyond what any single organization was originally designed to provide. The Seattle Public Library had been feeling that pressure for years. Evolving demographics, increasing societal demands, and the lasting effects of a pandemic that widened every existing inequity and pushed SPL to become something more than a library. Territory was chosen to help them find what that “something more” should look like over the next 10 years.
Getting to Work
Territory began by working closely with SPL leadership to establish a shared vision. Before gathering any community input, it was important to align on what the library could and should become. That vision wasn’t fixed. It was designed to be tested and shaped by everything that followed.
The strategic plan was developed through extensive community input, workshops, surveys, and engagement with internal and external stakeholders. A “Future of the Library” study identified key issues and scenarios, providing a solid foundation. The resulting plan is implemented over three phases, and implementation plans are created at the beginning of each phase by using a “good, better, best” planning approach to identify changes achievable in the short, medium, and long term.
Working with a public institution means understanding that decisions require time, care, and broad alignment across many layers of an organization. Territory embraced that reality throughout the engagement, the team worked to build shared understanding and support at every level of SPL, from leadership to frontline staff, ensuring that when the plan was complete, the people responsible for carrying it forward had been part of shaping it.
Desired Impact
SPL sought to create the following impact in the community:
Enrichment
Bring joy, spark curiosity, and provide recreation for patrons and the broader community.
Empowerment
Develop confidence, empower people, and expand access to opportunities so individuals can pursue their goals and aspirations.
Literacy
Build language and life skills that help people navigate systems successfully while making learning engaging and enjoyable.
Staffing
Cultivate a workplace where people feel a strong sense of belonging, enrichment, and empowerment, making the organization an employer of choice.
Belonging
Foster a connected community by serving as a central hub that nurtures a shared sense of belonging among staff, patrons, and community partners.
Listening to the City
The scale of the listening effort was substantial. Over 12 weeks, Territory conducted 15 individual 45-minute interviews with key stakeholders from the library community and facilitated six 90-minute focus groups, each bringing together participants representing community organizations across Seattle. The findings were reviewed from two directions: a top-down pass, organizing results into major themes, and a bottom-up pass tracking how individual ideas surfaced across conversations. Both were cross-referenced against the staff survey to ensure nothing important was lost. What came back was a clear-eyed account of a community in transition, and the sharpened divisions Territory and SPL had set at the outset.
Territory brought together a diverse group of library employees who could contribute unique perspectives to this strategic planning session. The goal of the facilitated workshop was to discuss, define, and explore objectives for the next 10 years aligned with the library’s mission, vision, and values. The workshop was an all-day, interactive activity that was not only constructive but also fun and engaging.
This Strategic Plan spanned a 10-year time period. Adoption of this plan required an iterative implementation approach that accounted for financial resources and leveraged the Theory of Change methodology.
Three defined implementation phases account for the City of Seattle’s biennial budget cycles, future library levies, and other funding mechanisms. Each phase began with an evaluation of Library resources to assess their ability to achieve the Library’s goals. The Seattle Public Library’s new strategic plan outlined a robust and inclusive approach for enhancing the Library’s focus and work, and better serve its community.
Bringing it to life
The visual artifacts and storytelling that emerged from the work became the foundation for a citywide campaign to help SPL communicate its new direction to staff partners and the public. Inside branches across the library system, a large-scale mural translated the 10-year vision into something patrons could see the moment they walked through the door. The plan wasn’t just a document. It was something people could stand in front of.
The plan was adopted by the board of trustees and released for public comment in 2024. It is now the guiding framework for one of the country’s most prominent public library systems, serving a city of more than 750,000 people across 27 neighborhood branches.