FY2019 OPERATING ENHANCEMENT REQUEST

DCPLs FY19 budget enhancement request supports the Librarys five-year strategic plan
Know Your Neighborhood, a roadmap that better customizes services to individual
neighborhoods. Budget numbers given are approximate. They will be further developed
after discussion on enhancement priorities.

Enhancement 1: MLK Library Opening Day Collection

Amount (Partial Recurring): $1,000,000 in FY19; $1,000,000 in FY20
DCPL Strategic Plan Priority/Goal: Reading Ensure reliable and convenient access to
a responsive library collection.
DCPL Strategic Plan Initiative: Make it easier for readers to discover, request and
access library collections.
Mayoral Priority: Back to Basics: Enhance DC government services (Take the DC
Government customer service experience to the next level).
The new MLK Library will have almost 65 percent more space for public use. This will
allow for about 100,000 books to be housed at the new library. After three years of
closure, it will be important to re-open the new library with current and relevant
books and other library materials that invite District residents to learn and grow. The
opening day collection is critical to ensure that people find what they want on the
shelves when they want it. DCPL seeks funding over two years in order to identify and
build a collection of 100,000 books that will meet public demand and be available in
the new MLK Library when it re-opens.

Investment in a collection available to residents on day one will ensure young children
will have access to the picture books they need to help them learn to read;
entrepreneurs will have the books that will help them start their own business; and
adult learners will have access to information that will help them learn to use
technology or learn a new skill.

Enhancement 2: STAR Learning Spaces

Amount (Partial Recurring): $400,000 in FY19; $400,000 in FY20; $400,000 in FY21
DCPL Strategic Plan Priority/Goal: Strong Communities Reach low-users and non-
users with new services.
DCPL Strategic Plan Initiative: Launch new programs for families to learn together.
Mayoral Priority: Improve Outcomes for Children and Youth (Expand opportunities
that will further close the K-12 achievement gap)
In FY16, DCPLs signature STAR (Sing, Talk and Read) program expanded to include
Books from Birth an initiative that delivers one book a month to a young child up to
age five. Two fiscal years later, more than 35,000 children have participated with
most of them from targeted wards that receive intensive grassroots outreach. A
critical element of the Books from Birth initiative is to ensure that families who
receive the books are engaged in their childrens learning and connected to the
neighborhood library even after they graduate from the program. A key next step is to

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ensure that libraries have interactive learning centers to help extend learning beyond
the home and classroom.

DCPL has many beautiful and colorful childrens spaces that are attractive to residents
but do not provide the active learning opportunities so many children need. Studies
show that children learn best through play. DCPL seeks funding to transform the
childrens areas in about five libraries each year in targeted neighborhoods into STAR
Learning Spaces that are interactive, learn-through-play centers filled with interactive
learning structures, tools and furniture that support education-readiness outside of
the classroom.

Enhancement 3: New Branch Adult Literacy Services

Amount (Recurring): $370,000
DCPL Strategic Plan Priority/Goal: Reading Expand services for adults who are
developing readers.
DCPL Strategic Plan Initiative: Improve access to adult literacy services.
Mayoral Priority: Increase Prosperity across all 8 Wards (Put more DC residents on
the pathway to the middle class).
The Library runs an Adult Literacy Resource Center at a centralized location (currently
Library Express while the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library is being renovated).
The Adult Literacy Resource Center helps prepare adult learners for the GED and
partners with other adult learning organizations to offer services and make referrals
to help individuals meet their learning and employment goals. In FY19, to increase
access to these services in other parts of the city and in partnership with other adult
learning organizations, the Library seeks funding to establish adult literacy services in
libraries in Wards 7 and 8.

Enhancement 4: Staff Development

Amount (Recurring): $300,000
DCPL Strategic Plan Priority/Goal: Stewardship Align library resources with
community needs.
DCPL Strategic Plan Initiatives:
Match staff skills to neighborhood needs; and
Increase technology trainings to include digital literacy, emerging technologies and
digital readiness.
Mayoral Priority: Back to Basics: Enhance DC government services (Take the DC
government customer service experience to the next level).
Library staff continue to be the Librarys most valuable asset to our communities. In
order to meet the goals of the Librarys strategic plan and to ensure that staff are
equipped to provide service based on the needs of the communities they serve, we
need to ensure staff have the tools and support they need. Ensuring they are trained
and keeping pace with best practices in libraries is always a high priority.

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Enhancement 5: Know Your Neighborhood awareness campaign phase one
Amount (Partial Recurring): $300,000 in FY19; $200,000 in FY20
DCPL Strategic Plan Priority/Goal: Stewardship Increase awareness and
understanding of evolving library services.
DCPL Strategic Plan Initiative: Implement innovative methods to raise awareness of
the evolving Library.
Mayoral Priority: Back to Basics: Enhance DC government services (Take the DC
government customer service experience to the next level).
In order to ensure residents are aware and engaged in customized library services in
their neighborhoods, DCPL intends to develop a comprehensive awareness effort to
position the Library as a neighborhood anchor for the community. The initiative will
include the creation of goals and expectations around the user experience in addition
to fully developing and articulating a brand that better connects the Librarys exciting
offerings with the needs of residents of the District.

Enhancement 6: Parklands-Turner Neighborhood Library Site and Service Study

Amount (One Time): $175,000
DCPL Strategic Plan Priority/Goal: Stewardship Plan and design library spaces to
better serve the community.
Mayoral Priority: Back to Basics: Enhance DC government customer service experience
to the next level
A much larger, more than 4,900 square foot, Parklands-Turner Library opened at The
Shops at Park Village in 2009 after the nearby and smaller kiosk closed. Immediately
after opening the much larger facility became too small to accommodate its heavy
usage. In the last three months of FY17, Parklands-Turner Library had more than 38,000
visits. This rivals and often exceeds some of the larger nearby 20,000 square foot
libraries. The library, with its 24 public access computers, saw nearly 11,000 computer
sessions in that same time period. Comparatively, many other larger libraries have
about 12,000 computer sessions with almost double the number of public access
computers. Parklands-Turner Library, with no meeting, study or conference spaces, is
limited in its ability to conduct computer and technology training classes and programs
for young children, provide private study for students and collaboration spaces for those
working on school projects or for business start-ups, and host community meetings for
the local ANC or civic group.

DCPL seeks funding to plan for the design and construction of a new, larger Parklands-
Turner Library to include identifying the ideal service model, conducting community
engagement and needs assessment and identifying land for its relocation.

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