It takes a leader to be strategic!

Students of Drexel's library program are required to take a management course and the library system where I work has a dynamic Director with a vision for the system. As such I was interested in some real world examples of library systems which made some changes.  elow are some of the points that struck a note with me, especially as someone who is beginning in the library career and considering what path to take.

Speakers:
Melinda Cervantes, County Librarian, Santa Clara County Library
Derek Wolfgram, Deputy County Librarian
Paul Meyer, Tecker Consultants, LLC
Adam Gay, OrangeBoy, Inc

• a leader doesn't provide energy, but releases it. The Strategic Plan provides focus.
• STs not only build on your strengths, but also on your weaknesses.

Elements of a SP:

• Truly strategic, distinct from operations and budget.
• Focused, specific goals which have priorities. Goals that have been achieved are no longer in the SP, b/c they are now in operations and part of library culture.
• A stretch beyond present position.
• Measureable- not just quantitative, but qualitative. ex. increase volunteer hours OR increased advocacy skills of library ambassadors.

Data Collection, 3 types

• Market and economic conditions
• Industry trends
• Customer information

-Library cannot be all things to all people. Need to ask, "which groups of customers shall have our focus?" [here I thought, "why can't different branches serve different demographics?] Therefore, strategic planning is about proactively deciding who to target for service. (Doesn't mean you won't serve other people, just that they won't be targeted.)

Match the strategic planning programs with known users. Which is why data collection is so important. ex. a library offered 300 programs. As a result of identifying three user groups to focus on, they were able to drop 263 programs which targeted users who were not going to show up.

Things they did while waiting for data collection:

• RFIDed everything
• redesigned the website
• customer service training to staff on staff day
• all of the above created positive momentum

Annually mail a report to all tax paying residents about the successes of the library.

Marion Johnson, CLA 2010 Keynote

So I read Johnson's book and it didn't blow me out of the water for her writing style, nor the constant references to herself, but I thought she had some good chapters for a librarian to be to read in terms of what s/he can do with the MLS degree. My favorite being creating 2nd Life libraries which can be explored in a 3rd space.

But I digress. Johnson's keynote was more of a "rah- rah- sis- boom- bah-" for a profession which is under scrutiny for their relevance in the digital age especially as many (or at least those in the public eye) are employed by governments or are funded by government money (school libraries, public libraries, academic libraries). But I suppose this was a good thing, because you know, we could use the moral booster. Some quote to take home and use when our necessity is called into question. Here are a few:

"Libraries are the engines of democracy."

Libraries are:
"Books, Social justice, Free speech, Open access & Privacy. Not covered in billboards. Neutrality, Value questions- not sitting in judgment, an Intellectual service..."

Solo

She urged librarians to:
"share more than books- cake pan collections; tools; create unusual collections"

"put patrons to work applauding you" - basically, instead of responding to a thank you with you're welcome, ask patrons to tell someone else about their experience and to pass it forward.

Librarians can provide a pre-address, stamped post card for patrons to fill out their positive experience and send on to political officials OR have a link on the site which allows patrons to email their positive experience directly to politician's email.

All in all, a nice speech with some good pointers to implement, but not what I was expecting. Which is a different post.