Planning for the Future: An evaluation of academic and public library strategic plans in New Zealand

Abstract

Research problem: This study does not consider the strategic planning process, but looks at the end product of the process – the strategic plan itself. A review of previous international studies suggest that library strategic plans are not always completed or focussed, and thus do not assist the library in its forward planning and advocacy efforts as well as they might. This project aims to establish if the state of strategic plans in New Zealand is similar and, if so, provide guidance for their future development.

Methodology: The methodology for the research project was two-fold. The first part consisted of a content analysis to identify key strategic terms, issues and priorities from among the strategic plans. In the second part, a prescriptive analytical framework was applied to the core components of each strategic plan in order to measure the level of completeness. The overall sample size was 33 library strategic plans, comprised of 25 public and 8 academic plans.

Results: The results from the first part of the study showed a high prevalence of strategic terminology across the library plans. The academic library plans used terms that reflected more future oriented thinking. In comparison, the public library plans used more performance based terminology. The second part of the study highlighted a general lack of ‘completeness’ across the plans, particularly the public library plans, when measured against a traditional strategic planning framework. The areas of priority facing libraries included staff, collections development and improving technological capabilities.

Implications: This study addresses a gap in the existing literature as no prior research has been conducted on the level of completeness of library strategic plans in New Zealand. The findings from this study can be used to help in the formulation of future strategic plans for New Zealand libraries, including areas of current strength and improvement. Suggestions for future research studies include conducting qualitative research among library management to better understand their use of strategic planning methodologies in the development of their strategic plans. In addition, an analysis that compares a series of plans over a period of time could also be explored to understand evolutionary patterns in strategic planning development within the library sector.