Strategic Planning for Public Libraries


Book Description

Strategic Planning for Public Libraries is a complete planning toolkit. Each purchase comes with a downloadable supplemental folder full of reusable templates, worksheets, as well as real-life examples from other libraries to help guide the reader through the planning process. This book provides a framework that any library, whether it serves urban, suburban, or rural communities, can use as a basis for its strategic planning.




Strategic Planning for Results


Book Description

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.




Starting, Managing and Promoting the Small Library


Book Description

A guide to the establishment of the library which covers materials acquisition, the organization and usage of the library's collection to provide a variety of services and the use of automation. This book aims to instruct the librarian on managing the small library effectively.




The Little Free Library Book


Book Description

LFL history, quirky and poignant firsthand stories, a resource guide, and some of the most creative and inspired LFLs around.




Little Free Libraries & Tiny Sheds


Book Description

Expand the sharing movement to your community with Little Free Libraries and Tiny Sheds—your complete source for building tiny sharing structures, including plans for 12 different structures, step-by-step photography and instructions, inspirational examples, and maintenance. Around the world, a community movement is underway featuring quaint landscape structures mounted on posts in front yards and other green spaces. Some are built for personal use, as miniature sheds for gardeners or as decorative accent pieces. More commonly, though, they are evidence of the growing trend toward neighborhood organization and community outreach. This movement has been popularized by Wisconsin-based Little Free Library (LFL), whose members currently include 75,000 stewards seeking to build community togetherness and promote reading at the same time by sharing books among neighbors. LFL has inspired builders to use similar structures to share things like CDs, food, garden tools, and seeds in the community. Produced in cooperation with Little Free Library, Little Free Libraries and Tiny Sheds is the builder's complete source of inspiration and how-to knowledge. Illustrated throughout with colorful step-by-step photography and a gallery of tiny structures for further inspiration, Little Free Libraries and Tiny Sheds covers every step: planning and design, tools and building techniques, best materials, and 12 complete plans for structures of varying size and aesthetics. In addition, author and professional carpenter Phil Schmidt includes information on proper installation of small structures and common repairs and maintenance for down the road. Little Free Libraries and Tiny Sheds even includes information on how to become a steward, getting the word out about your little structure once it's up and running, and tips for building a lively collection. Community togetherness has never been so at the fore of our consciousness—or so important. Little Free Libraries and Tiny Sheds is one tool on the road to helping you build community in your neighborhood.




Planning for Library Services


Book Description

Planning for Library Services assists library and information service managers in initiating, improving, and sustaining good planning practices in their organizations. It provides practicing librarians with a guide to assist in their planning methods for increased library effectiveness and promotes a better understanding of the concepts, benefits, potential problems, and processes related to planning.




Administration of the Small Public Library


Book Description

Integrates principles of public library management with a marketing approach to library service. Offers solutions for administrators faced with the challenge of hiring and training staffing amidst economic pressures, social change, and technological developments.




A Planning Process for Public Libraries


Book Description

This guide from the Public Libraries Association (PLA) describes a planning process to be used by individual library systems to establish their own standards appropriate to local conditions and needs; design strategies to reach those needs; and inaugurate a planning cycle that involves continuous monitoring of progress and regular adjustment of objectives as community conditions and needs change. The introduction to the guide discusses the need for planning, the planning process, collecting and using data, and subsequent planning cycles. The first of three major sections then addresses preparing to plan, which includes the planning committee, tailoring the process to the library, information for planning, using the data, and presenting the data. Focusing on the planning process, the second section provides information on developing a community profile to determine user needs; assessing how well the library is currently meeting those needs; determining the role the library should play in the community; setting goals, objectives and priorities; developing strategies for change; implementation of the plan, including measuring activity and performance, and monitoring and evaluating progress; and the collection of management data. The third section addresses the collection and use of data, including secondary data for the community profile; statistics and performance measures for the evaluation of services; designing questionnaires, coding and processing the findings, and sample questionnaires for surveys of the library staff, citizens, students, and users; and processing the survey data. Four appendixes contain examples of library goals and objectives, sample forms and maps for the community profile, a set of sample tables for current library services, and sample tables for the analysis of survey responses. Twenty-seven figures and a 44-item selected bibliography are included. (SD)




The Small Library Manager's Handbook


Book Description

The Small Library Manager’s Handbook is for librarians working in all types of small libraries. It covers the everyday nuts-and-bolts operations that all librarians must perform. Following an introduction, 27 chapters are arranged in six major parts: Management (including staffing, working with volunteers, and annual reports) Marketing (including social networking and how to prove your library’s worth to your boss) Money (including budgeting and grant writing) Services (including reference and circulation) Collection Development (including assessment and weeding), and Professional Development (including free webinars, YouTube videos, and networking) Each chapter is written by an expert. The chapter authors work in academic, public and special libraries. They work in hospitals, prisons, museums, colleges, courthouses, and corporations. Their libraries consist of books across the Library of Congress or Dewey Decimal system, and they work in specialized libraries that use a limited range of cataloging possibilities. Librarians in small libraries wear many hats. This handbook written by experts who are small librarians themselves will help all small librarians to do multiple jobs at the same time.




Planning for a New Generation of Public Library Buildings


Book Description

The public library director needs information that helps in understanding what is involved in planning for a public library building project. This applies whether the subject is a free standing independent building, a branch library, a joint-use facility with a museum, a senior academic library, a community or junior college library, or a school library. Reading this book will not turn a reader into a qualified specialist on library buildings, but it will help librarians and others learn what should be known about a project so that they may function effectively as part of the planning team. The concept of modern libraries is moving toward interactive connections with information sources far beyond the immediate community. For the contemporary public library, this means connection to a network, with several terminals constantly online to the Internet. New library buildings must be constructed with these and other needs in mind. The public library director needs information that helps in understanding what is involved in planning for a public library building project. This applies whether the subject is a free standing independent building, a branch library, a joint-use facility with a museum, a senior academic library, a community or junior college library, or a school library. This book will help librarians and others learn what should be known about a project so that they may function effectively as part of the planning team.