Strategic Plan 2020-2024

Photo credit: Steven Evans

Update on our Strategic Plan process

Toronto Public Library is creating a new Strategic Plan that will guide our work over the next five years. More than 5,000 Toronto residents and partners have participated in our consultation process so far, sharing ideas about what TPL can do to support them and their communities now and into the future.

Thank you to all those who took part in our focus groups or completed our online surveys. A big focus of our consultations was understanding some of the key issues facing our communities and how the library can make a difference in the lives of Torontonians and our city. Your input, along with our environmental scan and feedback from our staff and partners, has helped us identify seven areas of challenge and opportunity to explore where the library can have the most impact:

  1. Decline in affordability and increase in cost living as Toronto is becoming more expensive.
  2. Increase in vulnerable populations (e.g. newcomers, seniors, low income families and youth) and their needs.
  3. Lack of access to public and community spaces.
  4. Changing demographics and increasing population density as Toronto becomes more urbanized.
  5. Rapid pace of technological change and the related disruption.
  6. Responsive programming that better addresses the changing needs of Torontonians.
  7. Leveraging partnerships to deliver public service more effectively and efficiently.

Our next step is to dive deeper into these areas through targeted consultations to translate these needs into strategic areas of focus for the next five years. The Library Board will be reviewing and approving the Strategic Plan later in the fall, and we’ll launch our Plan in early 2020.

For more details, read the full report (PDF) summarizing our consultations and environmental scan to date.

You can find additional information about our progress in the Library Board documents and minutes on the Library Board Meetings page.