Apply the fundamental principles of planning, management, marketing, and advocacy.
While the details depend to a large extent on institutional contexts, most libraries utilize organizational paradigms and tools that have parallels – and sometimes origins – in the business world. Without robust and adaptable approaches to management, planning, marketing and advocacy, over time most libraries will suffer from increasing negative consequences including diminished community relevance, declining patron use and internal friction. Quite a few management activities require engaging with different stakeholders, whether the Boards of Directors, academic deans or city governments which influence or even dictate priorities and funding on the one hand, or with patrons and local communities on the other, all of which we see crystalized in the strategic planning process described below.
Library management unsurprisingly encompasses and orchestrates many logistical and administrative aspects of running an effective and useful library. A long but not exhaustive list of these could include: budgeting, strategic planning, policy making, defining staff and departmental responsibilities and workflows, carrying out marketing campaigns, writing and enacting collection development and preservation policies, space planning, maintaining archival facilities, continually creating and implementing programming and employing outreach efforts to promote the library’s value to current and potential user communities, optimizing services and expanding access to resources. Because these demands are situated in a dynamic and often technology-mediated environment, effective leaders must embrace change and develop skills and attitudes that support flexibility and experimentation. Smith describes a large scale shift which is tilting libraries away from collection management and towards creating learning experiences: “[in public libraries today] creating interactions, marketing ideas, and designing learning opportunities – both large and small – are beginning to take shape as key focus areas” (2018).
And yet management is about more than chasing the latest paradigms, optimizing processes, best practices and execution. It is also about cultivating desired organizational cultures, relationships and opportunities for growth and learning. Reflecting on what they call the “collaborative mind-set” in their article The 5 Minds of a Manager (2003), Gosling and Mintzberg argue that management should not be about “managing people” but “managing relationships among people,” an idea they attribute to their “Japanese colleagues,” who call this approach “leadership in the background.” The management implications are considerable, as a holistic concept of a group made up of individuals who thrive through connectedness becomes more important than the fixed roles of the org chart, upending the managerial imperative “I deem and you do” with a “we dream, so that we do” collective paradigm.
There are many approaches to strategic planning and the particulars of what it entails varies widely. Nonetheless there is a strong consensus in the library field that strategic planning is a critical activity. Rosenblum succinctly explains why the “living document” which codifies a strategic plan is so important: “[if] done well and implemented consistently, [strategic plans] have the potential to transform an organization” (2018). A plan’s time horizon is most often 3-5 years though new planning may be triggered by a variety of events like the formation of a new Board of Directors, or simply a desire to revise an existing plan. Planning typically begins by articulating the mission statement and values of the library through dialogue with diverse stakeholders. Roth argues for an approach that he calls “participative strategy”: “Everyone affected by a designed change must be made cognizant of that change, must be asked for input, and must agree to it before implementation, ensuring integration” (2015). While the trend in strategic planning appears to be moving towards a wider definition and inclusion of stakeholders, in some organizations’ stakeholder conversations still do not involve front-line staff, local communities or external partners, but are rather limited to library directors and Board members.
In an academic or special library context a library’s mission statement usually reiterates that of its parent institution. Mission, vision and values statements guide the entire planning process including reviewing the plan’s results. With this cornerstone in place, further investigation of the state of the organization, its environment and users may follow. Every organization has a rich array of analyses to choose from: environmental scans (needs assessments or gap analysis), SWOT reports, internal audits of capabilities, or forecasting, to name a few. These are used to build a framework of action steps, timelines, goals and objectives through which plans can be implemented, outcomes measured, and the fulfillment of the mission evaluated. Goals are longer term, more overarching expressions of purpose, and gauged in terms of outcomes and effectiveness. Objectives, rather, are stepping-stones towards goals, broken down into actionable tasks. They provide quantifications of performance and are assessed in outputs and efficiency. Operationalizing goals and objectives must also take into account available resources and identify and describe key projects and programs. Once a roadmap of the plan’s implementation has been outlined, it may be necessary to reach out to external and institutional decision makers to advocate for funding commitments. At this point the strategic plan can also be shared with the public and all library staff. A more in-depth document reiterating the mission, vision and values of the organization and adding description of the planning process, the implementation roadmap, and a report on goals and objectives along with an executive summary of key points should be created for a broader audience (Rosenblum, 2018).
While in theory planning proceeds through discreet stages starting from mission and values statements to measurement of outcomes, in practice these stages are deeply intertwined, often iterative and not always linear. A strong case can be made for regularly soliciting input from stakeholder groups on the progress and / or problems with the plan as it’s being rolled out. Ongoing measurement and reporting provide regular updates to stakeholders on the headway made in terms of the strategic plan’s implementation, and this added transparency and presentation of data can facilitate more stakeholder feedback and deeper buy-in. The measurement of objectives also offers a chance to recalibrate different components of the plan, from goal setting to budgeting and implementation of various operational elements. Determining the success of strategic goals uses more qualitative rubrics to examine desired outcomes and changes. Though the life cycle of strategic planning I’ve described offers a blueprint for a functional, ordered process, it’s important not to overlook the role of creativity and learning that can be found throughout the library. Enabled by continual learning, staff should ultimately be encouraged to take ownership of goals and objectives. As far empowering these human resources, Mintzberg’s poetic summary of the potential of planning at its most resonant should be aspirational and inclusive: “Strategies can be rich visions, intricately woven images that can create deep-rooted perspectives” (1994).
The completion of the strategic plan – to the extent that “completion” is an absolute or even desirable state – presents an opportunity, if not an imperative, to launch a marketing campaign to generate publicity for the library. Details about the plan may be distributed by email (to staff), on site, on the library’s website, through press releases on social media or via other marketing channels. Meetings with different stakeholders including community leaders can be effective ways to engage in more meaningful dialogue and spread word of mouth marketing for the library’s programs and services. Strategic plans may also be distributed by email (to staff), available on site or on the library’s website, and through press releases on social media or via other marketing channels. Library staff are not just passive receivers of the strategic plan’s messages but are expected to embody its mission and values; in some cases, there may be training programs to explore the plan’s practical implications for library policies, programs and services and for its organizational orientation and culture. Alman advises that “an individual (or department) within the organization needs to be the designated communication strategist who is tasked with oversight of the organization’s marketing, public relations and outreach” (2018).
One core goals of many libraries’ strategic plans is to improve marketing efforts. In another sense, marketing campaigns are often formulated as objectives of the strategic plan’s goals. A goal to expand the use of a library’s special collections, for example, may include an objective of using a marketing campaign to promote awareness of this resource. A separate, stand-alone library marketing plan follows a similar format as the strategic plan: a mission statement, stakeholder consensus, goal definitions, assessment, etc. In their 2007 “Marketing @ your library” workbook, the ALA describes a conceptual framework and enumerates a sequence of self-directed questions and steps they recommend using to build a communication plan (aka marketing plan) to “tell your library’s story.” These steps include considering the environment (challenges, opportunities, relevant data, etc.), defining goals and objectives, considering how you want the library to be perceived, identifying and prioritizing target audiences (internal and external), developing succinct key messages and slogans, generate budget-appropriate strategies for delivering messages to target audiences using a variety of publicity and outreach activities, partner and collaborate with the community, and evaluate results against an array of qualitative and quantitative measures and through these reflect on learning takeaways.
Advocacy is another vital form of communication for librarians – one whose goals are often closely related to those found in marketing plans – who want to reach a particular audience. Stenstrom argues that “successful advocacy campaigns are built on an understanding of decision making, context, timing, the economic climate, and the individuals involved in funding information organizations” (2018). Advocacy usually targets institutional stakeholders or potential benefactors and partners, and the emphasis is on creating awareness of the library’s brand and programming, using effective messaging to persuade stakeholders that the library can help them fulfill their vision and goals, demonstrating the multifaceted value created by the library to meet the needs of its patrons, and ultimately engendering support for the library – financial and otherwise. Budget insecurity is more acute for school and public libraries and depends on convincing funding bodies and officials at the site level (institutional administrators), local / city / district levels, and state and federal levels to financially support the library. Academic libraries are more likely to advocate for support for specific projects and programs through grant applications, collaborations with academic departments, and in special cases – staging a archives-based exhibition about the school, for example, or building new library spaces – by way of supplemental allocations from the university controller.
Ken Haycock defines advocacy as a “planned, deliberate, sustained effort to develop understanding and support incrementally over time” (2011). It’s not sufficient to launch a short term advocacy campaign and repeat ad infinitum every time a new cash infusion is needed. In terms of scope, Stenstrom believes that an advocacy plan may encompass many communication techniques including promotion, public relations, marketing, networking, persuasion and lobbying (2018). Each may address individual objectives utilizing their particular advantages, and express the library’s mission and goals effectively, but they should also always align with their audience’s needs. This is especially critical when crafting compelling messages for decision makers, a process which must take into account knowledge about these people’s priorities, experiences, attitudes, and understanding of the information organization. Understanding what motivates your audience and fulfills a need or solves some problem for them is imperative. Successful advocacy efforts ultimately depend on communicating the value of the library or its components to decision makers in a position to act in your interest – and their own.
References
ALA Public Awareness Committee. (2007). Marketing @ your library. Retrieved March 03, 2021 from https://www.ala.org/ala/pio/campaign/prtools/marketing_wkbk.pdf
Alman, S. (2018). Communication, Marketing and Outreach Strategies. In S. Hirsh (Ed.), Information Services Today. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Haycock, K. (2011). Advocacy and Influences. Retrieved March 02, 2021 from http://kenhaycock.com/advocacy-and-influence/
Mintzberg, H. (1994). The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning. New York, NY: The Free Press.
Rosenblum, L. (2018). Strategic Planning. In S. Hirsh (Ed.), Information Services Today. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Stenstrom, C. (2018). Advocacy. In S. Hirsh (Ed.), Information Services Today. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Evidence for Competency D
Evidence 1
The “Information Professions” (INFO 204-02) course taught by Dr. Carol Sawyer included a good deal of readings and assignments related to management theory, most of which was not geared towards libraries per se but was instead broadly relevant to many types of organizations. We read and discussed multiple texts by Henry Mintzberg, among them The 5 Minds of a Manager (2003) written by Gosling and Mintzberg and published by the Harvard Business Review. For this essay we were asked to reflect on this article and excerpts from books exploring similar terrain through the lens of personal experience in the workplace. I was drawn to Minztberg’s discussion of managerial confidence (too much or too little of it are problematic) and Harter and Wagner’s analysis of what makes for a workplace in which people can flourish. Among them, challenging employees to meet “stretch goals” are psychologically invigorating and good for business. This assignment was valuable and relevant on theoretical and personal levels.
Simpson-INFO-204-Management-PhilosophyEvidence 2
A team project for INFO 204 (“Information Professions”) entailed performing an organizational analysis of a local cultural / memory institution. Our team decided to look at the Los Altos History Museum. I wrote the sections “The Spectrum of LAHM Programs,” “Literature Review of a Management Issue,” and “Expand the Los Altos History Museum’s profile and visitor base in Mountain View.” Everyone on the team assisted with copy editing through the delivery of a final draft. The analysis began by examining the mission, vision and values statements of the museum and attempting to determine whether they could be revised to better reflect the current state of the organization and point in the direction of a hoped-for future. From there we did SWOT and environment scan analyses and internal audits in which we took a variety of factors into account, among them background on Los Altos and the region, the museum’s partnerships with non-profit groups and municipal and state entities, the LAHM’s donor and institutional funding and support sources, and more. We incorporated extensive content on best practices for non-profit strategic planning, leveraging relationships, marketing and outreach, and assessing results, among others. We recommended ways to fine-tune the mission and vision statements, develop new strategic goals, execute social media campaigns and other parts of a communication plan, increase retail income and fundraising efforts.
INFO-204-02-Organizational-Analysis