We are grateful to the many community members, past and present, who have contributed their time and knowledge to the archives at Drake Community Library. This vital community resource exists today and will continue to exist because of their dedication, and we deeply respect the role they play in preserving and sharing Grinnell’s story. We have heard the concerns of several community members and appreciate you voicing any questions or misunderstandings you have.
In 2023-2024, the library undertook a comprehensive strategic planning process involving more than 30 stakeholders, including library staff, trustees, Friends of Drake Community Library board members, city representatives, and community members. That process resulted in a shared vision and mission: to continually evolve to provide access and inclusivity and to serve as a dynamic, inclusive hub that stimulates discovery and strengthens community bonds.
As a part of the strategic planning process, we identified areas where community need and impact were growing most rapidly. These included expanded programming for teens and adults, improved digital access, and increased accessibility for individuals with disabilities. Over the past three years, the library has made significant investments in these areas, including expanded programming offerings and a fully redesigned website built to meet ADA accessibility standards.
Like many public institutions, the library operates with finite resources. Prioritizing these strategic goals required difficult decisions about how staff time and funding are allocated. One of those decisions was to reduce dedicated staff hours for archives work.
We want to be clear: the archives are not being discontinued. They remain an important part of the library’s services and collections. However, the way they are staffed, maintained, and accessed has changed in response to resource constraints and in light of the library’s responsibility to meet the community’s changing needs. All of the archive resources are still available to the public to access at the library: historic maps, city directories, historic district documents, and local stories. Patrons just need to make an appointment to access the archives either online (https://calendly.com/archivesdcl) or in person at the circulation desk.
We want to clarify several specific concerns regarding the archives:
- Staffing and access. Archives access has always been structured around appointments, but with reduced staffing, we are now more consistently relying on that model. This allows us to continue providing access in a sustainable way. At the same time, archives appointments are currently underutilized, and there is still capacity for additional visits.
- Donations and processing. The decision to pause acceptance of new materials reflects a current backlog and limited capacity to properly process and preserve items. Since 2024, the library has experienced a reduction in staff capacity along with the loss of longtime volunteers, which has impacted archives processing. Pausing new acquisitions allows staff to focus on caring for the materials already entrusted to the library.
- Digitization projects. The Poweshiek History Project was a grant-funded initiative with a defined scope, and the work funded by that grant has been fundamentally completed. Future digitization efforts will be evaluated as capacity and funding allow. Similarly, updates to the obituary database have been paused due to staffing limitations, not a lack of recognition in its value.
- Website changes. The new website was designed to improve overall accessibility and usability for the widest range of users. Some legacy content was not migrated from its previous format due to accessibility issues.
- Strategic plan alignment. While the archives were not identified as a primary focus area in the current five-year strategic plan, their underlying purpose – preserving and providing access to information – remains aligned with our mission. Our strategic plan reflects areas of greatest immediate need, not a dismissal of other valued services.
We also want to acknowledge a broader reality: while the library houses, maintains, and administers the archives, those archives are nothing without the community. The model that once supported a robust archives operation – dedicated staff time combined with a large, experienced volunteer base – has changed. Many longtime volunteers have stepped back and while our archives are no less important to the community, recruiting and training new volunteers in specialized archival work has proved challenging.
When Drake Community Library was designed and built nearly two decades ago, the creation of the archives addressed what was then an urgent need. We are still committed to the preservation of local history, but we are not uniquely suited for it. There are organizations within the community whose missions are more directly centered on preserving local history. If Grinnell values a more expansive archives program, it cannot rely solely on the library’s resources. It will require shared responsibility through partnerships, volunteer leadership, and potentially building new organizational capacity to carry this work forward.
We hope this letter will clear up any misinformation circulating online. Please reach out to communications@grinnelliowa.gov with future concerns.
Theresa Pagliai, President, Drake Community Library Board of Trustees
Luke Saunders, Vice President, Drake Community Library Board of Trustees
Emily Fenner, Drake Community Library Board of Trustees
Emily Guenther, Drake Community Library Board of Trustees
John Hammond, Drake Community Library Board of Trustees
Avery Lindley, Drake Community Library Board of Trustees
Lee McFee, Drake Community Library Board of Trustees