The Rural Library Strategic Plan

The Strategic Plan
Andrea Berstler

The well written strategic plan performs several important, functional purposes:

• Causes the organization's stakeholders to think about, discuss and put down on paper their goals for the library's future
• Sets measurable, defined and time specific goals
• Allows the board, director, staff, volunteers and customers to know where the organization is going and keeps the director, staff and the board accountable
• Defines what is "success" for that library

The Plan brings the mission and vision statements down to earth. The strategic plan gives you a set of priorities -- what we can do -- what we cannot do -- you cannot be everything to everyone.

You need to define what success looks like. How do we know we are a successful library if we have  not defined success?

Five-year plans are too long -- if you make no changes, and if the plan simply stays in a file in a cabinet, then it is dead and pretty useless after a few years.

A strategic plan is organic, it is changeable, evaluated and evolved.
How does a Strategic Plan differ from a 5-Year Plan or a Long-Range Plan?
Sets goals for the coming weeks and months
An organic document
Defines the strategy of the library

Steps to a Strategic Plan

1. Brainstorm and Dream: Put it all on the table. There are no wrong answers. This will give you insight into where each person sees the library going
2. Organize: Take each idea and assign it to a "department" that could include Buildings & Facilities, Staff, Collection, Resources, Outreach, Training, Technology, Programming/Instruction. At this time you are not removing anything from the list. Just organizing.
3. Prioritize: This is where you place the items in order of which are going to be the most important in each category.
4. Plan: Create goals and objectives and describe how you are going to get there and when you want to arrive. This is where you define the changes you need to make.
5. Commit: Everyone involved in the process of implementing this plan must buy in to the plan. They should have had input into the plan and now is the time for them to take ownership of the plan and invest personally into the plan's success
6. Implement: Don't waste your time or energy by creating a plan that you cannot or will not implement. Many organizations create a plan just to have a plan. "A plan on the shelf is just shelf paper." -- Berstler

Do not allow the plan to micromanage your library, instead use it as a compass.

The plan should:

• point you in the right direction
• allow you to make course corrections
• guide you to decisions
• promote the overall goals

[Andrea Berstler. The entrepreneuriallibrarian@gmail.com]

Fines, Dewey and Boards -- Oh, My!

Birds of a feather, flock together -- the basis idea behind a late afternoon of special interest discussion tables. But in this case, the entire flock wanted to discuss each topic at one table.

Discussion: Fines

The first discussion topic was the issue of charging fines. Many rural library staff would be stunned to know that some libraries charge no fines. When in actuality, many libraries do not charge fines for a number of reasons:

• They feel the fines are punitive, meant to punish the patron
• Some patrons feel that they are entitled to library service since they have already paid taxes
• The fines would not go to the library, but would be deposited to the local county or city general fund

Those libraries that charge fines justify the practice for their reasons:

• The fines can raise a significant amount of revenue, sometimes over $10,000 a year
• Libraries who are governed by a Board of Trustees are usually able to absorb the fine revenue into their general fund
• Charging fines provides an opportunity for children to learn responsibility
• Even though most patrons are taxpayers, that does not "entitle" them to abuse the privilege
• Paying fines is not mandatory. If a patron simply renews the item or return it on time, they will not be fined

For those libraries who are governed by a city or county entity -- who find themselves not being able to "keep" fine revenue, perhaps they could work towards changing the process, regulation or law. As impossible as that may sound, it still warrants investigation. If nothing else results in looking into this loss revenue, at least the public would be informed that the fine revenue is currently not going to the library, but to the city or county's general fund.

Fine revenue could be earmarked for acquisitions of new materials and computer services. This is something that the public would support. Why would the city or county government reap the benefits of a revenue that should rightly go to the rural public library -- especially if the library is facing extreme budget cuts from that entity? With shrinking budgets, libraries should be encouraged to raise revenue through fines and fees.

Another point to consider is passing a policy that states patrons must have a zero balance on their account before they can borrow library material or use library computers.

It must be frustrating for those libraries who have to rely on the local government for their funding -- especially if they are not given the opportunity to raise revenue to benefit their materials or computer budgets.

Discussion: Dewey or Don't We? Picture Books and Junior Series Display Options

What about shelving picture books by subject? Along with a general collection of picture books, consider shelving "like subjects" together, such as:

• Dinosaur
• Farms
• Animals
• School
• Alphabets
• Counting
• Princesses
• Fairies

Children will love to go directly to the section that has their favorite books. Picture books that do not fit into any obvious category could be shelved in the general Picture Book section.

Consider creating a section of the collection called "Junior Series Section". After an author has published three books in a series, shelve them together by the series title. For example, in this collection, if a young reader was looking for Harry Potter books, they would go to the Junior Series Section and look under "H" for Harry Potter. The call number would also be changed to include the series name.

Discussion: Boards

• Many libraries who are governed by a city or county government, will have "advisory boards" in place.
• Many board members are older, retired and really out of touch.
• Many board members have never used the library and do not even have a library card.
• Micromanaging can result in the loss of an effective director