Competency D
Introduction
The fourth competency requires demonstrating that one can "apply the fundamental principles of planning, management, marketing, and advocacy;". Planning, management, marketing, and advocacy are essential components of a successful information organization. Commonly considered within the context of private and for-profit businesses, these components can also be applied to public and non-profit information organizations contexts.
Planning (or strategic planning) is the process that connects an organization's mission, aims, and vision with the actions and results of the organization. Whether by intention or not it is appropriate that planning is listed first in this competency as planning establishes the framework to support the organization's management, marketing, and advocacy efforts. Planning assesses the organization by looking at the organization's past, present, and future, and identifying and analyzing the internal and external forces surrounding the organization. It also helps assess the organization's identity and role both to internal staff and employees as well as to the organization's patron's, clientele, and community. The organization's missions, vision, goals, priorities, service offerings, tasks, and actions are all influenced by this planning process.
Benefits of planning include new questions, perspectives, and ideas that help the organization's staff and leadership see the organization as it really is and not as they want it to be. Planning also helps in managing the organization's staff and resources as well as fundraising and budgeting. Planning assists in unifying and focusing the organization's staff on a common vision that all commit to following. Having a strategic plan also gives the organization a clear path for delegating responsibilities and tasks so that all in the organization are empowered to contribute their part for good of the whole.
Management refers to the responsibility and control of the organization and its staff. Management uses the organization's mission, vision, goals, and priorities to establish what work and services the organization will provide. It also includes making financial, hiring, and marketing decisions as well as assessing the performance of the organization's work and services. A key of management is establishing an environment of great leadership and loyal trust among all employees of the organization. It involves working with others in teams, groups, and committees towards the common mission, values, and goals of the organization.
Marketing is about promoting the organization and its offerings. Marketing is about persuading patrons that the products offered by the organization and its staff is worth their time and attention. While information organizations may not produce physical goods themselves, products offered by an information organization include services, people, the organization itself, and ideas (Kotler and Levy, 1969, p. 12). Marketing applies broadly to all organizational activity from organizations of all types including public and non-profit organizations. It can only be avoided by the organization at the peril of the organization's relevance and existence (Kotler and Levy, 1969, p. 15).
A sister to marketing is advocacy which is about generating public support for the information organization and its offerings. Like marketing advocacy can be used by an organization to demonstrate the value and benefit of the organization to its patrons and community. Successful advocacy efforts lead to increased use and loyalty by patrons of the organization. Advocacy can also lead to increased fundraising for the organization ensuring its long-term existence.
Evidence
The following evidence from previous course work demonstrate the application of planning, management, marketing, and advocacy.
- A semester-long research project developing a strategic plan for a public library.
- A discussion post about leadership and trust
- A discussion post about budgets and financial management
- A discussion post about team and group work
- A library conference proposal assignment
- An evaluation of a library website's effective marketing
LIBR 204 Strategic Planning Project
A two-phase, semester-long group project in LIBR 204 included formulating a strategic plan for the Hingham Public Library in Hingham, Massachusetts. Phase one in the project included a literature review about the process of strategic planning and environmental scanning, creating the public library's mission, vision, and values statement, an environmental scan of the library, and SWOT analysis. Elements of phase one were used to formulate and present a strategic plan for the library (phase two). This strategic plan was compiled and presented in Prezi format.
Researching and developing a strategic plan for the Hingham Public Library gave first-hand experience with the planning process. The current mission, vision, and goals of the library were evaluated. An environmental scan including a SWOT analysis was conducted for the library. These aspects of the process revealed insights into the role the library played in the community. The planning process helped in calibrating the library's mission, values, and goals with the needs of its patrons and surrounding community.
While the project content offered a chance to apply the principles of planning the group work for the project provided a first-hand experience with management principles including leadership, team work, goal setting, follow-up, delegation, and assessment. One person alone could not have accomplished the project. It required communicating clearly and effectively with each team member about the project requirements and goals. Regularly scheduled meetings with the group helped assess the project's progress, review accomplished work, and assign out remaining tasks. Working together to manage our time and resources individually and for the group was a key to successfully creating a strategic plan for the library.
LIBR 204 Discussion Post: Leadership and Trust
This discussion post demonstrates the truth that leadership and trust are vital principles of management within an organization. Within information organizations leadership can tend to be less concentrated. This type of leadership has been referred to as "legislative leadership" which "relies more upon persuasion, political currency, and shared interests" to foster correct decision making (Collins, 2005, p. 11). Leadership is about the relationship between leader and follower, not the sum of an individual's traits, skills, and decisions (M. Fairholm and G. Fairholm, 2000, p. 108). Trust plays a crucial role in establishing the nature the of relationship between leader and follower.
Research for the discussion post identified obstacles to creating trust between leader and follower. These obstacles include poor communication, apathy, alienation, selfishness, pride, lack of sensitivity towards others, domineering organizational authority structure, lack of accountability, and decaying moral values (i.e. honesty, integrity, commitment) are internal and external obstacles to establishing a trusting relationship between leader and follower. The obstacles of trust show that the organization's culture plays a more critical role in solving issues between leader and follower than the structure of the organization. The power of an organization to make unified decisions derives from the trust established between leader and follower. By correctly identifying weaknesses in the trust between leaders and followers an organization can work towards improving this relationship so that leader and follower work together with trust and respect.
LIBR 204 Discussion Post: Budgets and Financial Management
This discussion post provided an opportunity to apply principles of management to a scenario commonly faced by library directors: being asked by the city council to reduce the public library's operating budget by 20%. The solution presented in the discussion post included plans to reduce the budget by 10% and increase revenue by 10%. The plan involved assessing all library services and expenditures in the light of their value to both library staff, patrons, and the local community. With feedback from the library staff, patrons, and community the library services could be ranked in order of most to least value. Programs and services with little value would be targets to cut.
Increasing the budget by 10% involved identifying new "revenue centers" (Evans and Ward, 2007, p. 409-410) that can generate income for the library. These could include working with the library's friends group to generate money through the sale of duplicate or unneeded library items and equipment as well as creating a library membership service that allows donors the ability to contribute funds on a subscription service. Another source of revenue could be to rent out conference rooms in the library for local groups or organizations. Applying the principles related to management in this discussion posting revealed the importance of making budgetary decisions one that includes participation with library staff, patrons, and the local community. Working together in transparent ways ensures that all needs will be met in the most effective way possible.
LIBR 204 Discussion Post: Team and Group Work
Within information organizations the principles related to planning, management, marketing, and advocacy are social in nature. They cannot be accomplished by a single individual. They necessitate working with others in teams and groups. A discussion posting in LIBR 204 illustrates the difference between committees and teams. Committees lack authority and autonomy to make decisions and create a product. In contrast members of a team have “have independence over how they're going to address the problem or issue that they've been given” (Haycock, 2007). With greater autonomy comes greater responsibility and accountability in accomplishing the goals of the team. Multiple classes in the MLIS program provided opportunities to apply these principles. This group experience shows that the keys to a successful team are unity in purpose and individual accountability.
INFO 220 Library Conference Proposal
Information organizations have many opportunities for marketing and advocacy. An assignment for a class about Digital Humanities (DH) and the library (INFO 220) addressed an opportunity to market and advocate the value and benefit academic libraries have in the field of DH. DH and DH scholarship refer to a broad range of scholarly activities that explore the intersection of computing and the humanities.
The assignment involved creating a conference proposal to explore the intersections of academic libraries and DH scholarship. The conference proposal included descriptions of a keynote presentation and three break-out sessions. The keynote presentation focuses on a statement by Charles William Eliot, the president of Harvard University in the late 19th century, that the library is the heart of the university and therefore asks if the academic library is at the heart of DH. The first session looks at how the academic library provides opportunities for learning DH-related skills and techniques through library instruction and teaching. The role of the library in data creation and maintenance is the topic of the second conference session. The third session explores the role the library plays in collaboration between library staff and DH scholars in the local community. Holding a DH conference at an academic library provides the opportunity to market the library and its strengths to other university scholars. The conference proposal also includes a conference advertisement as well as a video summary of the proposal. This conference proposal was a hands-on project to apply principles of marketing that generate awareness of the programs, services, and offerings the academic library has to the local scholarly community.
LIBR 204 Discussion Post: Marketing
Marketing is used by an information organization to showcase to its community the various services provided as well as stimulate the community's use of these services (Evans and Ward, 2007, p. 96). New emerging technologies give information organizations new ways to market and advocate their products and offerings. Computer networking technologies including the World Wide Web expand an information organization's reach to communities and audiences throughout the world. A discussion post in LIBR 204 asked to evaluate the effective use of marketing by an information organization's website. This discussion post evaluated the website for the Harold B. Lee Library (HBLL) at Brigham Young University. The HBLL website was found to be a strong example of effective marketing that helps build the relationship between the library and the university community. The HBLL website accomplishes this by the it's design and visual hierarchy that emphasizes activities relevant to the library's patrons and potential new patrons. Hyperlinks at the top of the main page link to library events and exhibits that tie into the university's focus of life-long learning and service. A large search field is displayed prominently at the top and center of the page that invites finding physical and electronic materials and services offered by the library. Sections on the right and bottom of the page highlight the library's hours of operation as well as library events ands news announcements. This assignment provided the opportunity to see how a library website uses principles of marketing to build its relationship with it's university and scholarly communities. The HBLL website design has successfully marketed and advocated its services and programs as the library has seen an increase in the physical and digital offerings of the library.
Conclusion
Information organizations face the brutal fact that they must change and innovate or risk obsolescence and failure. This necessity for change and innovation depends heavily upon effective decision making (Evans and Ward, 2007, p. 107, 121). Effective decision making within an information organization includes appropriately applying the principles of planning, management, marketing, and advocacy.
Assignments completed in the SJSU MLIS program offered opportunities to apply principles of planning that set the course and direction of an information organization. Developing a strategic plan for a public library gave hands-on experience with principles of leadership, team work, communication, goal setting, delegation, assessment, and accountability. Course work also showed how the principles of leadership and trust create a management culture within an information organization that helps staff and leaders work together in unity. Management also includes making hard financial decisions for the information organization as well as working together in teams and committees. These examples show the essential nature of team work, collaboration, and transparent communication in strengthening the relationship between the information organization and its staff as well as between the organization and its community. Marketing is defined as "a process of exchange and a way to foster the partnership between the library and its community (Weingand, 1995, p. 296). Advocacy works together with marketing to promote support for the library and its services. Hosting a conference as well as using new computuer and network technologies an information organization can find creative ways to connect with their patrons and community in a way that constructively builds this relationship. Planning, management, marketing, and advocacy are powerful tools to help an information organization evolve and adapt so that the organization can more effectively meet the needs of their staff and patrons.
References
Collins, J. (2005). Good to great and the social sectors. San Francisco, CA: Elements Design Group.
Evans, G. E., & Ward, P. L. (2007). Management basics for information professionals. (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Neal-Schumann.
Fairholm, M. R., & Fairholm, G. (2000). Leadership amid the constraints of trust. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 21, 102-109. Retrieved from http://www.emerald-library.com
Kotler, P. and Levy, S. J. (1969). Broadening the concept of marketing. Journal of Marketing, 33, 10-15.