The Fayetteville Public Library is in the early stages of building out its latest strategic plan, and they're looking for your input. The first of three community conversations is happening this week. Randy Wilburn is the director of communications for the Fayetteville Public Library. He joined Ozarks at Large last week in the Bruce and Ann Applegate News Studio Two.
Wilburn: What does it look like? What do we want it to look like? The Fayetteville Public Library is in a very unique position because we're in one of the fastest growing regions of the country, Northwest Arkansas. I hear now 40 people a day are moving here. So Fayetteville is experiencing some of that growth. And the Fayetteville Public Library, like a lot of libraries, needs to be thinking about what they want to offer their patrons for the future. And that's kind of where we find ourselves right now. We have hired a company called Constructive Disruption to work with us and help guide us through the next phase of growth. It's not unlike what the library did prior to the expansion. The expansion probably wouldn't have happened without some real talk through a strategic plan of what we want to see, what we need in Fayetteville, what does the community need. And so we're at that same space now as we talk about continued growth at the Fayetteville Public Library. Beyond just the walls, the building, it's the programming. What do we need staff-wise? What is the community clamoring for? There are so many things that are happening in the country. When you talk about artificial intelligence and all that, we need to be figuring out how do we address all of those needs to make sure that our community gets what they deserve.
Matthew Moore: And when you say community, you don't just mean Fayetteville.
Wilburn: No. I do mean Fayetteville, but I also mean all of Northwest Arkansas. One of the things I learned when I joined this library about eight months ago was that even though we physically are in the confines of Fayetteville, we serve the region of Northwest Arkansas. We have over 1,300 people a day come to the Fayetteville Public Library. We get people from Bella Vista, Siloam, Eureka Springs, obviously Bentonville, Rogers, Springdale, West Fork — you name it. We just had a group come up from Fort Smith this week and they took a tour. We are very blessed in Northwest Arkansas to have a number of what I would call crown jewels. Crystal Bridges being one of them. I think the Fayetteville Public Library is another. And because of that, everybody that's a part of this community needs to have a say in what they want to see in their library.
Moore: The library is offering the community a chance to play a role in the strategic plan, to let their voice be known, to let you guys know what is missing, what is working really well. You're offering three different opportunities for the community to provide some input here, right?
Wilburn: So this strategic plan is not a short process. This plan will take us all the way through January of 2027. This is not something where we're going to work on it for 30 days and be done with it. We're asking for the public's help because we want people in the community to come and be a part of these virtual town halls, where you can learn about the strategic planning process, ask some questions and share some insights and feedback and thoughts about the library that you hope to see in the future, and maybe even some of the issues or things at the library currently that you might like to see changed. We're having an event on Monday night at 6 o'clock, which will be the first event. Then we're also doing it again Thursday at 11 a.m. and at 6 p.m.
Moore: What are you hoping people bring to this?
Wilburn: I'm hoping people bring ideas. I'm hoping people bring their curiosity about what is so important to the Fayetteville Public Library, or what do I think should be something the Fayetteville Public Library should have on their radar for the future. We had some folks come to an in-person session last week with some creatives and nonprofits, and of course we heard things like workforce development, AI training, AI help. There are a number of different needs that the community has that the library can serve. There is also an awareness factor we really want to push through and help make sure people know that we have a tool loan library, that people can use the event center, people can use our board rooms, our study rooms. They're accessible and available to everyone. It's not just for the college students up at that great university up on the hill, or for somebody starting a business. We have the facilities and the tools for everybody in the community.
Moore: When we think about the end of this decade, when we get to 2030, what do you hope these conversations lead to?
Wilburn: I hope it leads to us being flexible with our programming, that we're able to recognize on the ground what people want and give it to them at that time, and not hope or wish that maybe one day we can serve that need, but that we can offer those programs and serve those needs right now. And so that's why a strategic plan is critical for us. But what's even more critical is that we get feedback from the community. It can't just be the directors or the staff or the managers. We all want to see the best library we can see, but we also know that there are people down in south Fayetteville or on the north side or the east side or the west side that all have ideas about what they want to see for their library. Maybe they want a branch. There are a number of different initiatives you could think about that could be coming down the line. I'm excited about what's going to happen in the next four and a half years leading up to the end of this decade. The things that will happen, a lot of them will happen because of the conversations that we have now through these town halls and through one-on-one conversations with individual stakeholders in Northwest Arkansas. The library is probably as close of an entity as you're ever going to find that tries to be all things to all people. You want anyone that comes to the public library to feel welcome and to feel like, man, I can find what I need here and it will help me be a better person because of it.
Wilburn: Whether you're listening to this on the podcast or listening to this after 6 o'clock Monday night, we will have other opportunities and people can always contact me at the Fayetteville Public Library. There'll be a lot of information on our website at faylib.org for people to register for this town hall. It's a simple link right there on the main page. You can register, and we'll be with you for about 60 to 90 minutes. And trust me when I say this — it will be well worth your time. We will follow up with you afterwards so that they know what we're doing, what our plans are, and how the time that they spent sharing their insight and thoughts and ideas led to what it looks like when it comes to pass.
Randy Wilburn is the director of communications at the Fayetteville Public Library. Those dates are today, May 18, at 6 p.m., and two on May 21 — Thursday at 11 a.m. and at 6 p.m.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
