Shaping the Future of Your Library
At O’Fallon Public Library, our mission is to connect our community to learning, resources, and services that place people first. That mission continues to guide everything we do—and it’s the reason we began taking a closer look at how well our current space supports the needs of a growing and evolving community.
Our 2023 Master Plan identified several challenges. With more than 135,000 annual visits, strong program attendance, and hundreds of thousands of items checked out each year, demand for library services is clear. At the same time, space limitations affect nearly every area of the building. Storytimes regularly reach capacity. Study rooms and seating fill quickly. Programs often have waitlists. Sound carries throughout the building, making it difficult to balance quiet study with active use. The current location and site constraints also limit our ability to grow alongside the community.
As part of that study, we explored both renovating and expanding the existing building as well as constructing a new facility. While an addition could provide some short-term relief, it would not fully address long-term space needs, site limitations, or future growth. A new facility offers the opportunity to more fully meet both current demand and what’s ahead.
That’s where Together O’Fallon comes in.
Since launching last year, this community-led effort has focused on listening first. Through workshops, conversations, tours, and ongoing outreach, we’ve gathered thoughtful input from residents across the community. That feedback has helped us better understand priorities, make meaningful tradeoffs, and bring the overall vision for the project into clearer focus.
This is a community-driven process, and your voice continues to play an important role.
What you can do next:
- Explore the FAQs below to learn more
- Submit your own question
- Attend an upcoming Together O’Fallon event
What We've Done and What's Next
Over the past several months, hundreds of residents have taken part in our Together O’Fallon community workshops. These sessions brought people together to learn, share ideas, and work through the real opportunities and challenges facing our library. The feedback we received—thoughtful, practical, and rooted in real community needs—has helped shape and refine the direction of this project in meaningful ways. Thank you to everyone who participated and helped move this process forward.
That work isn’t over. As we continue to build on what we’ve learned, we’re now focused on making sure the community has clear, credible information and ongoing opportunities to ask questions, share concerns, and stay involved.
In addition to those workshops, we also offered several behind-the-scenes Library Tours. These small-group tours offered a chance to see our space in action, better understand our limitations, and connect those realities to the planning work underway.
In late April, we held a Community Information Session. At this come-and-go event we made key players available for questions and conversation, including the library director, architect, construction team and others. The goal, as always, was to inform residents on proposed project, gather feedback, and address concerns.
Most recently, we completed a Community Survey designed to gather feedback on a potential new library project. The results of that survey are summarized in the Official Reports listed below.
What’s next:
- Blog Series (new posts every Friday)
We’re excited to launch a new blog series as part of Together O’Fallon, designed to give you clear, behind-the-scenes insight into your library. What’s working, where we’re feeling the squeeze, and what comes next. As our community grows, so does the demand for space, programs, and services. This series walks through those realities in a transparent, easy-to-follow way.
Official Reports
Below you’ll find the official documents from our Community Engagement Workshops and online survey. The PDFs include verbatim responses of what was shared, along with executive summaries to highlight the major themes. We’re sharing these openly as part of our commitment to transparency and to keep everyone informed as the project moves forward. We invite you to explore the reports, stay connected, and join us for upcoming opportunities to help shape Together O’Fallon’s next steps.
- Spring Survey 2025 (Executive Summary)
- 1st Workshop: November 6, 2025 (Executive Summary)
- 1st Workshop: November 6, 2025 (Verbatim Responses)
- 1st Workshop: November 6, 2025 (Slide Deck)
- 2nd Workshop: February 5, 2026 (Executive Summary)
- 2nd Workshop: February 5, 2026 (Verbatim Responses)
- 2nd Workshop: February 5, 2026 (Slide Deck)
- 3rd Workshop: March 19, 2026 (Executive Summary)
- 3rd Workshop: March 19, 2026 (Verbatim Responses)
- 3rd Workshop: March 19, 2026 (Slide Deck)
- Community Information Session: April 23 (Station Boards)
- Community Survey (Executive Summary)
