Library History

"In February 1943 library service was officially established in DeSoto. The Library (a branch of the Dallas County Library System) shared facilities with DeSoto High School library on Belt Line Road and was open five days per week during the winter and on a part-time basis during the summer. Branch librarian, Jeannie Chowning, and the school librarian, Bonnie Flyr, shared the duties at the library."

"Dallas County Library System continued its financial support until 1983 when the Library became a City department."

"In 1983, the Library became an accredited member of the Texas Library System and a member of the Northeast Texas Library System." from Desoto: A Texas Tale 1847-1989

Best Southwest Library Partners

DeSoto Public Library is a founding member of the Best of Southwest Library Partners, a community of local public libraries that share library materials. This consortium allows your DeSoto Library card to be honored at any of the member library locations.

Best Southwest Library Partners share one library catalog so you can search for materials at any of the libraries and can request material to be sent to DeSoto Public Library.

Mission Statement

The Mission of the DeSoto Public Library is to provide books, materials, programs and services to residents of all ages to assist in their pursuit of information and resources to meet their educational, cultural, recreational and professional or vocational needs.

Vision Statement

To create a dynamic environment in which the Library creates value within the community and city government and provides the resources to enable information dissemination and facilitates recreational, vocational, cultural, social and educational activities.

Key Issues, Challenges, & Critical Success Factors

The DeSoto Public Library intends to operate by providing enhanced service at a reasonable cost to the taxpayers. The Library will maintain the lowest budget of libraries in the area with a similar service population. We are focused on reducing operational costs any way that we can while adding services when possible.

The DeSoto Public Library believes that it is important to transcend the idea of a bricks and mortar operation and take the services out into the community so community members can access us in any manner that works for them. We intend to be customer oriented, innovative and adaptive in our method to providing and to create an entrepreneurial approach to the delivery of library services.

The Following Strategic Objectives and associated Service Goals detail critical issues for this library and how we intend to solve them:

Strategic Objectives:

1. Provide superior customer service (internally as well as externally)
2. Develop an efficient and highly productive staff
3. Keep costs down (fight cost on everything)
4. Provide the right mix of product for the market (materials for checkout and programs)
5. Utilize volunteers extensively
6. Engage with the community and community groups (including educational institutions)

Service Goals:

A. Provide courteous and effective service through a trained and enthusiastic staff:

Investments in staff development and training in our changing technology-driven field are critical to achieving the organization's varied goals. Objectives include recruiting excellent staff, improved staff training, a focus on performance evaluations, effective use of available staff, providing a work environment that values productivity and the resultant reward and self-motivation for excellence.

B. Information resources, materials and programs will be conveniently accessible:

Many obstacles potentially face consumers seeking to use Library resources. This goal represents the Library’s pledge to provide convenient easy access for information or materials they seek commensurate with access provided by a “market basket” of area libraries. The library must incorporate access and methods of obtaining information to improve availability and accessibility of information.

C. Make available high demand, popular materials in a variety of formats for all ages:

The library’s ability to achieve its mission depends largely on its ability to provide the materials the public demands. The collection of materials must be well selected and well maintained. From the cost of the book to the shelf space, the investment in the library’s collection is one which must pay solid dividends as measured by our ability to satisfy customer demand. Occasional weeding of the collection will be a large part of maintaining the collection so under-performing assets can be removed allowing us to maintain a well utilized collection.

D. Provide accurate, timely reference and information services:

Individuals of all ages seek information from the Public Library to aid school studies, for job or business needs, and or personal interest. The Library also provides research and information dissemination as needed within the City Government and will actively market this function to all city departments and elected officials. Achieving this goal requires a staff trained in reference interview techniques and knowledgeable in the use of all reference materials and information resources. The library will provide a focused reference collection and technologies to expand available resources and speed the delivery of information.

E. Manage resources and functions effectively to achieve strategic and service goals.

Tax resources are necessarily limited and require real results in terms of services provided. The Administration of the library must meet current and future demands in the face of increasing operating costs without diminishing service. The collection of accurate and meaningful data for evaluating services, improving efficiency through self-examination and continuing to incorporate new technologies to improve accuracy and productivity and allowing for easy accessibility for consumers are service goals as well.