One of the library’s strategic initiatives continues to be sustainability, including environmental, fiscal, and social sustainability.
To ensure the library remains fiscally sustainable to allow for continued growth, a staffing audit was conducted that helped identify opportunities to streamline workflows and re-imagine service desks to optimize current staffing and improve the patron experience while continuing to be fiscally responsible.
While library staff continue to advocate for funding at the state level, we also embraced opportunities to reduce costs by evaluating spending. Two significant cost saving projects in 2025 included a change to staff health insurance that reduced costs by 45% and a change to cleaning procedures that reduced costs by $2,000 per month.
Social sustainability remains a priority. Thanks to a grant from the American Heart Association, a blood pressure station was used over 900 times by visitors to take an active role in their health and get referrals for medical assistance near them.
Other projects in 2025 included:
- Westerville South High School seniors uncovered hard-to-find Black history with the help of the Westerville History Museum archives.
- Visitors received referrals to over 50 different organizations to assist with addiction, counseling, food, healthcare, legal, utilities, and other basic needs.
- Library staff received training on gender neutral language.
- Free printing was implemented for government documents, helping to remove barriers to access to basic services.
- Social stories and signs were designed to help those with autism or sensory sensitivities navigate the library.
- Created a discovery hub for all of the library's sustainability efforts. Learn more.
Environmental sustainability took center stage with numerous community swaps and donation drives throughout the year, including a prom swap for formal wear, an ongoing plant & seed swap, an ongoing puzzle & game swap, a costume swap, as well as gift wrapping, food, and back-to-school supplies donation drives.
The library is also embracing the power of repair by participating in Sustainable Westerville's Repair Cafe each spring and then hosting our first spin-off event specifically for sewing and mending in the fall.
In addition, 291 boxes of books that were withdrawn from the collection were given new life through a partnership with Better World Books, 3,179 pounds of donations were collected for WARM, 31,790 plastic bottles were saved since refillable water fountains were installed in 2023, and countless plastic bottles were saved by switching the vending machines to aluminum cans.
To learn more about the library's sustainability efforts, visit this page.