Strategic Planning is an indispensable acitivity: every hour spent on writing strategies and policies more than yields dividends within the medium to long term time horizon.
A strategic plan is necessary because it helps to give a library or information service a sense of direction and clear goals. Formulating a strategic plan helps you to set targets for the short, medium and long-term. Assessment of how well the library meets these targets gives a clear review of our performance. Without setting these targets in a strategic plan how would we assess how well we are performing?
An information service is generally part of a wider organisation perhaps a Hospital Trust or University to which they will have to report to and which provides them with the money to run the service. The organisation will want to know exactly how well the library is performing and how they are planning to develop their services in the future. Having a strategic plan with targets makes the whole process much easier and clearer. A review of how well the library has met the targets from the current strategic plan can be provided as a review of their performance. The strategic plan for the forthcoming year or years can then be provided to illustrate how the service intends to develop. Showing that you have considered your performance and the future would also help if requesting additional funds to provide new or extended services.
Developing a strategic plan gives staff the opportunity to reflect on the service they provide and think about how they want to develop it in the future. We live in a period of continual change and stopping regularly to consider the environment that you are working in helps to ensure that necessary changes are implemented and that the service does not stand still. The process is also an opportunity to consider feedback that the service has received from its customers and ensure that any suggestions have been fully considered and acted upon.
Strategic planning is a library wide activity and by including all staff in the process a variety of different opinion are incorporated. This will also ensure that all staff feel that their opinions are valid and considered and give them a sense of ownership of the plan. Additionally, your staff are the individuals that will be implementing the plan so it is important that they believe in it.
WHAT YOU NEED TO DO:
Add your own comment with your responses to the following:
How important is strategic planning to you?
How important is strategic planning to your information service?
Think about your responses with regards to the information above, your own experience and your course participant’s opinions.
Save a copy of your response in your portfolio. (You can retrieve it subsequently by returning to the ExFiles Forum blog). Please note that extra credit will be given to portfolios that demonstrate response to the comments of others – either at the time of your initial posting, in a subsequent posting or in subsequent personal reflection.
