Communicating That Vision Thing: Strategic Planning and Library Services

1. Communicating That Vision Thing: Strategic Planning and Library Services Ann Campion Riley Director, Technical and Access Services Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

2. Mission vs. Vision • Mission – what we want to do (and usually are doing) • Vision – where we want to be (and how we will know when we get there) • Many higher ed sources, CLIP notes, websites to help with mission statements

3. Library Mission and Vision • Usually a statement on collections and services related to constituency served • Essential to identify key services to institutional stakeholders • Advocacy most effective with focused messages to selected groups/stakeholders • Requires identifying services they want (ALA/ACRL @your library Toolkit)

4. Major Changes in Public Services • More online, self-service interactions with libraries • Different use patterns, foot traffic changes • Use of microforms, paper serials dropping • Increased emphasis on information literacy and instruction • Fundamental questions on what value libraries add and what we do

5. Major Changes in Technical Services • More integration of services • More availability of cataloging copy along with emphasis on standards in shared data bases • Primary access to resources through sources additional to the catalog, e.g., lists of electronic sources

6. More on Technical Services • More technical knowledge needed for loading files, system administration etc. • Original cataloging more demanding– electronic resources, multiple version issues, amalgamated resources • Decreased resources, shortage of qualified staff

7. A Little About Planning • An abundance of experts, a multitude of approaches, overall a modern concept • Historical trends in planning • Business began the movement, much came from military experience • Planning literature starts to appear in the 1950s, grows in the 1960s, flowers in the 1980s • Public entities and governmental agencies prolific planners • Library planning literature starts in the early 1970s

8. Trends in Planning Terms • Long-range—usually more than one year, up to 10 or more, begins with unit or individual goals and objectives • Short-range– usually one year or less • Strategic Planning– any length of time, vision-driven, usually begins with leadership’s ideas • Strategic Management—operational aspects included in plan

9. Why Strategic? • Strategic or long-range • Survey of 65 library plans on websites done by Ana Pacios • Emphasis on mission and vision in strategic the major difference • @ your library Toolkit supports strategic marketing

10. Strategic Vision vs. Plan • One day meetings or retreats can do one or the other, rarely both • Too much structure can destroy creative and strategic thinking • Need to distinguish big picture from operational aspects (Mintzberg 108)

11. Vision • Based on strategic thinking • Should be done as precursor to planning process • Can be done using the same processes as planning but at a different time • Usually comes from leadership • Evaluating vision against mission essential

12. Shareholders and Stakeholders • Shareholders • Business term, those who benefit or suffer financially from end result, owners • Stakeholders • Anyone who is part of the organization or whose fate is affected by decisions made • Example: doctors, nurses and patients in a hospital, families of patients, drug and supply companies, etc.

13. More on stakeholders • In libraries: users, staff, vendors, institutional administrators, custodians, etc. Differ from shareholders in that stakeholders may all desire different outcomes • Each stakeholder offers possibly different viewpoint and vision of success; e.g., staff ease of use vs. student ease of use • Need to seek out stakeholders’ ideas

14. Context for Planning • “Organizations are much more creatures than creators of their environment.” (Bolman & Deal 235) • Organizations are “confronted with constraint”

15. Planning Preliminaries • Examine university, institution or governing board goals • Examine any planning process of which you are or would like to be a part • Identify any relationship between planning and budget development and any pertinent timeline • Identify how– or if– you will connect to any past or existing process

16. Change? • Incremental vs. transformational Flamholtz, Eric and Yvonne Randle. Changing the Game.(New York: Oxford University Press, 1998) Johnson, Spencer. Who Moved My Cheese? (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1998)

17. Decisions • What is your desired result? (of the process, not the resulting plan) • Measurable progress toward a planning goal? • A document for institutional leadership? • Real communication about department directions?

18. Data • Data as raw material: informing rather than controlling process • Look at existing stats • Look at easy ways to get more stats • Gather in relevant ways • Focus groups • Surveys

19. Example: Library Technology Plan • Four library directors surveyed literature for trends and questions • List of questions developed, not unlike LIBQUAL ones (did not use) • Same questions asked of all groups– only ten questions • Focus groups of students, faculty, staff and administration drawn from lists generated by HRIS; sessions transcribed by court reporting students Self-initiated; intended to incorporate advocacy for library programs Focus group results formed basis for discussions to identify goals within existing mission

20. Using Focus Groups • Basic market research technique– may be able to use a campus business training group • Select no more than ten open-ended questions • Try for representative but small (10-12) group

21. Example questions • How do you use the library, if you use it? What do you do here if you come in? • What do you see as the most important things or services the library offers? • What would you like the library to offer that it doesn’t? • How has any in-class instruction on the library affected you? • Which of the campus online services do you use, if any? • Tell us about the worst experience you had in a library.

22. Example: Campus Strategic Plan • Needed to accommodate AQIP accreditation process • Needed to incorporate existing Baldridge award efforts • Tradition to plan in the early spring for budget preparation in April • Much ongoing negativity toward administrative processes • Selective/appointive process to choose attendees • Write-up done by selected administrators • Structured around pre-chosen goals

23. Process A • Brainstorming, small groups and flip charts • Dreaded by many, designed by extroverts • Comfort in familiarity • Still a standard approach to involve many people; often very effective • Updated with laptops, projector and white boards

24. Process B • Solicit written ideas ahead of time on goals and objectives • Suggest units take time to do this during regular staff meetings to insure participation • Emphasize assets and past achievements (very important to long-time staff) • Large meeting with small group discussion to respond to compilation of ideas

25. Different Ways to Discuss • Analyze internal and external factors relating to your functions • SWOT analysis (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) to your mission • Scenario planning using pre-supplied vision and goals with responses evaluated against them only afterward

26. Collision of Data and Vision • Data often show trends not in accord with vision: e.g., • Vision– make more staff available to serve public • Data– more materials needing cataloging; fewer paper monographs, more continuing resources and non-book material

27. Back to the Mission • Focus on essential services identified that library provides and functional roles within the library • Seek ideas on directions to go to become more valuable; e.g., move forward in technology, more effectively use resources, etc. • Examine how internal library functions can affect external perceptions by stakeholders • Clarify connections of functions to services for all staff

28. Producing a Plan • Organize the results of the discussion according to your needs • Avoid long documents; three pages good • Essential to communicate the product of the discussions back to the participants • Useful to do assessment of the process

29. Create a Cycle • Use assessment results to modify the process • Keep to a calendar • Remind people throughout the year of progress and need to have ideas for next planning session • Remember strategic thinking has no timetable

30. Use the Plan • Nothing more effective for planning than to use the plan with awareness • Nothing more guaranteed to doom the process than for it to look irrelevant • Manage consensus; beware the Abilene Paradox (Harvey)

31. Works Cited • @ your library Toolkit for Academic Libraries. Chicago: American Library Association, 2003. • Bolman, Lee and Terence E. Deal. ReframingOrganizations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2003. • Harvey, Jerry B. The Abilene Paradox and Other Meditations on Management. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1988. • Mintzberg, Henry. “The Fall and Rise of Strategic Planning.” Harvard Business Review 72.1 (1994). • Pacios, Ana R. “Strategic Plans and Long-range Plans: Is There a Difference?” Library Management 25.6(2004).