Trustee Manual: Strategic Planning
Chapter 7 Strategic Planning | Next Chapter | Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | PDF
Purpose of Planning | Measuring Progress | Reporting on Your Plan | Annual Report
The State Library requires all certified public libraries to submit a comprehensive long-range plan, approved by the board, which addresses all aspects of library operations including:
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Planning for the library's future is a basic duty of the board. To obtain a broad vision of community needs and potential roles for the library, the board and the library director should work closely with stakeholders in the community through the strategic planning process. There are many committed individuals in any community willing to share their experience and expertise with the library board and they should be recruited to provide valuable input. In addition, statistical data of public library services is collected annually by the State Library and should be used as another tool to evaluate the library's performance in a number of service categories.
The Purpose of Planning
Planning focuses attention on specific community needs the library can address. A good long-range plan is visionary, but it is also based on real community analysis. The Public Library Association, a division of the American Library Association, has proposed a long-range planning model called "Strategic Planning for Results." This model suggests that in order to reach excellence and provide effective, meaningful service to the public, the library must prioritize the expressed community needs and design services in direct response to those needs. A useful tool for library trustees and library directors is the list of Service Responses (See Appendix D) researched by the Public Library Association; these service responses offer many ideas for things the library can do to reach certain goals and various ways of measuring and demonstrating progress. In the end, the strategic plan establishes action items, timelines, reallocation of limited library resources, and a record for accountability.
Planning involves answering basic questions, including:
- What does our community look like now?
- What do we want our community to be in the future?
- What is the role of the public library in the community?
- What is our purpose?
- Who do we serve and what do our customers want from us?
- What does success look like for us?
- How will we get there and what is our timetable?
- What staff, collections, facilities, technology and other resources will we need to achieve our planned goals and objectives?
Measuring Progress & Evaluation
For maximum effectiveness, the implementation of the strategic plan should be monitored and evaluated periodically by the library director and at least annually by the library board. Evaluation is the process of determining the quality of something based on criteria such as effectiveness, efficiency or performance. Regardless of how evaluation is done, it requires the assignment of a value to an activity or program and attempts to determine the following:
- Did this activity accomplish its objective?
- How well is the program being implemented?
- How can the activity be improved?
- Should the activity continue or are there better ways to accomplish the objective?
Earlier planning steps will have prepared the library to undertake the evaluation process. Specific programs will have been selected for their potential effectiveness in achieving specific, measurable outcomes. The evaluation process provides important information to help the library board identify activities that are operating well and those that are in need of improvement. Much of this information will emerge as programs and activities are being implemented but some information can only be obtained at the conclusion of the activity.
Reporting on Your Plan
Reporting is especially important because it publicizes what the library is doing, how well its activities are being done, and what improvements can be made. Reporting is an excellent means of increasing community awareness of the library and its services, marketing specific library activities, services to target audiences, and generally promoting the importance of the library.
A Planning Resource – The Statistical Annual Report
Every year, the State Library collects statistics from all the public libraries in Utah as set forth in UCA 9-7-406 and 9-7-506. The data is used to prepare a statewide report on Utah's public libraries and to contribute to the federal database maintained by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Local libraries will find the annual report data useful for comparing their own library's performance with peer group libraries within Utah, as well as out-of-state. Local and national library statistics are available online. The library director should be familiar with these data sources, but assistance is available to anyone through the State Library staff.