SCLS Mission Statement and Principles

Mission

The mission of the South Central Library System is to help its member libraries provide the best possible service to the public.

Vision Statement

SCLS embraces challenges and opportunities to provide innovative solutions that empower our member libraries.

SCLS Staff Values

1. We stay focused on our mission and measure all of our work, plans, programs, activities and behaviors against it.
    
2. We strive to do excellent work that exceeds member expectations.
    
3. We are responsible for achieving and maintaining good working relationships with every member library and with every co-worker.  We make it a high priority to treat people well.  We are always courteous to members and to each other. When we make mistakes, we acknowledge them, apologize, and move on.
    
4. We are a strong team with diverse talents and serve a community of people who are different from each other in many ways. We respect the contributions and viewpoints of members and of each other. We freely share information and communicate our plans, activities and concerns to the other members of our team and give credit where credit is due.
    
5. We work toward solutions for problems and connect our members to the resources they need.  Innovation is an integral component of our daily work life.
    
6. We keep our commitments, meet our deadlines, and take responsibility for getting the training and resources we need to do our work.
    
7. We are sensitive to members’ perceptions and strive with each interaction to make them more positive than before.
    
8. We are mindful of the long term costs and impacts of our work in order to remain efficient and sustainable.
    
9. Our work is far too important for us to always be serious. We approach it with a sense of fun and include as many laughs as we possibly can.

SCLS Basic System Principles

• Every member library must have a voice in the planning and governance of the South Central Library System (SCLS) and clear opportunities for input into system direction and service priorities. Every member library has an accompanying responsibility to participate in these planning and governance processes.
   
• SCLS and member libraries will attempt to clearly communicate library issues to all stakeholders.
   
• SCLS is a community of libraries that differ from each other in many ways. SCLS must be designed so as to offer something of value to all its members, to respect diversity, and to engender mutual respect among members and between members and system staff. Because of this diversity, SCLS may have different structural relationships with different counties within the system. To the extent feasible, each county should have the primary responsibility for determining the general nature of that relationship.
   
• SCLS exists to make its members stronger. To this end, SCLS will concentrate on providing services to and through its member libraries rather than directly to the public. An exception to this principle may occur when an existing agency cannot deliver a needed service, or when the system can provide the service in a substantially more effective manner.
   
• SCLS should be a trailblazer, an innovator, and a catalyst. SCLS should initiate projects and then empower local libraries to continue them. System funds must in no way replace local efforts for established services.
   
• SCLS, as a whole, must be greater than the sum of its parts. The services provided to each member library must be of greater value than that member could achieve by simply spending its own share of the funds separately.
   
• SCLS must operate within the framework of statutory requirements while striving to meet member needs.

(originally adopted 8/1981; revised 8/2000; revised 7/2014 SCLS Board of Trustees)