Planning For Library Excellence

Intended to be used by librarians, this guide will also be useful to boards of trustees, governing officials, members of funding agencies, and community support groups involved in planning on a local level and within the context of regional and state library service. It provides information to help libraries plan and evaluate their services and meet the needs of users in the most effective way their resources will allow. Information is presented in three major sections: (1) administration and planning (structure and governance, planning, finance, public relations, friends and junior friends of the library); (2) resources (facilities, collections, personnel, staff development, volunteers, automation); and (3) services (access to service, reference, interagency cooperation, programming, extension). Each section contains a philosophy statement, goals, guidelines, and a bibliography. Appended materials include selected sections from Virginia's Freedom of Information Act; requirements for grants-in-aid; library lighting standards; a site evaluation questionnaire; the "Library Bill of Rights"; "Freedom to Read" statement; "Freedom to View" statement; "Free Access to Libraries for Minors"; "Guidelines for Library Services to an Aging Population"; "Standards of Practice for Professional Librarians"; "Statement on Professional Ethics"; "Children's Services Suggested Guidelines"; "Young Adult Services Guidelines for Virginia"; and a glossary. (SD)

The PLA Results Series has long served to help public librarians envision, evaluate, and respond to community needs with distinctive programs and services. Building from this proven model, Strategic Planning for Results is the fully revised version of Planning for Results, the foundational book in this groundbreaking series. Sandra Nelson, senior editor of the Results Series, focuses on the essential steps to draft a results-driven, strategic planning process that libraries can complete over the course of four months, regardless of organizational structure or size. Reflecting on the current planning environment for public libraries, Nelson makes the case for strategic rather than long-term planning and includes a wealth of information about understanding and managing the change process to help staff Assess the change-readiness of the library and preparing staff to implement forthcoming changes Simplify data collection and decision-making processes through the use of 14 reproducible workforms Identify service priority options and reach agreement as a group Successfully present and communicate within their library Including the newly revised and adopted Public Library Service Responses, along with case studies, workforms, and tool kits, Strategic Planning for Results offers librarians a wealth of ideas to effectively meet changing community needs.

This text offers a planning programme to improve public library management and evaluative processes. It is devoted to defining missions, setting appropriate goals and writing the planning document.

Planning and assessment are both crucial elements of a public library that functions efficiently and flexibly. So why are they often treated as separate processes? This concise book combines planning and evaluation in a holistic approach, helping public library managers and staff put library resources to work for the community. Based on a series of successful workshops, the workflow presented by the authors is made up of manageable steps for integrating outcome-based planning and evaluation (OBPE) into the routine functions of the public library. Offering step by step guidance that’s transparent and easy to follow, this book introduces the concept of OBPE and explains how it can be a streamlined, effective method of getting library users’ feedback; defines “outcomes” and shows why public libraries should use them to plan and evaluate services;shares methodologies for assessing community needs and interests, including key informant interviews, surveys, focus groups, and environmental scans;demonstrates how to use community assessment data to create outcome statements that not only guide the creation of new library services, but also provide targets for measuring the effectiveness of those services;offers techniques for designing services that directly serve the community while also achieving the outcomes the library has targeted; andprovides tips for sharing the results with stakeholders and maximizing successful outcome-based programs to leverage the library’s role in the community.Featuring plentiful examples of how to proceed through each phase of the OBPE model, this book boils down planning and evaluation into an approachable, easy to understand process for public librarians, library managers, and grant writers.

In the seven chapters of this book, first published in 1991, the topics of planning and creativity as they apply to the management of academic libraries are discussed fully, with specific examples and detailed guidelines. Topics such as involving all members of the library staff in decision making and encouraging creativity in an unstable work environment are explored, as are new developments like performance measures.

Discusses the importance of library instruction, tells how to determine the needs of patrons, and outlines the techniques used to prepare and evaluate a presentation.