The mission of the Mount Vernon Public Library is to provide a safe, accessible facility, well-organized and up-to-date collections, friendly, professional service and highly skilled staff who serve people of all ages, interests, and abilities with fairness and equality, where lifelong habits of learning, self-improvement and self-expression are championed, where people, information and ideas come together to enrich lives and build community, and where informational,  educational, and cultural exchanges take place. The Mount Vernon Public Library is guided by the following principles to achieve excellence: support for intellectual freedom, literacy promotion, patron confidentiality, respect for and inclusion of the entire community, fostering a healthy democracy, the formation of strong partnerships, adaptability, and innovation. As the Central Library of Westchester, the Mount Vernon Public Library focuses on developing unique collections, providing staff that can help other libraries, as well as offerings that are new and can expand to other libraries in the system, that can build on technological advances including social media, computer classes, eReaders and that serve the diversity of patrons throughout the county.