Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library Strategic Direction Plan
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library Deep Dive Marketing Analysis

For Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library, a 20-branch system serving an area of over one million people, we helped to develop the FY2026-2028 Strategic Direction Plan. We gathered the insights of over 4,200 stakeholders, including nearly 3,900 English- and Spanish-language survey respondents; 365 CML staff survey respondents; and 18 key stakeholders who sat for extended interviews with us. Another 50 community members, CML staff, and Board members participated in our series of seven focus groups.

Utilizing our 4,200-strong stakeholder research, we also conducted a supplementary deep-dive marketing analysis of library users’ priorities by library branch, zip code, and various stakeholder groups to determine constituent needs at a more local, granular level. We identified marketing gaps by determining which library collections, services, and programs remain unknown to some stakeholder groups. Constituent groups included those by age and gender, as well as Latino/Hispanic respondents, teens and emerging adults, those who are highly interested in technology, computer classes, or “edutainment,” and people who do not use the library.