1. Top 7 Strategic Plan Goals for Public
Libraries
Stephen Abram, MLS
Teton County Libraries Staff Circle
March 6, 2013

2. Every Day in every way libraries are
throwing pebbles

5. Libraries core skill is not
delivering information
Libraries improve the
quality of the question
and the user experience
Libraries are about learning
and building communities

6. Libraries Have Seasons

7. Librarian Magic

9. The Complex Value Proposition
Smelly Or
Yellow Sex
Liquid Appeal?

10. What are the goals?
• What are your goals?
• What are their goals?
• Is there a difference?

12. Books, eBooks Serve and Change
Magazines Answer and Decide
Websites Engage and Discuss
Buildings, Branches Link and Learn
Rooms Entertain and Play
Desks Tell a story
Programs Do
Nouns can be warehoused Action verbs imply dynamism
and ‘cut’ and impact

13. Are you locked into an old library mindset?

14. A Verb . . . an Experience, enlivened for an audience

15. A Noun . . . A foundation but not sufficient with professional animation

16. Grocery Stores

17. Cookbooks, Chefs . . .

18. Cookbooks, Chefs . . .

19. Meals

20. Remaining Relevant and Having a Positive Impact

21. Up Your Game
• Know your local community demographics
• Focus on needs assessment and social assessments
• Prioritize: Love all, Serve all, Save the World means nothing
gets done
• Priorities are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable,
Relevant, & Time bound
• Look for partnerships that add value

22. Amazon
Chapters/Indigo
Barnes & Noble
BN BookBrowser
Borders
Suggestica
Inside a Dog (teens)
MySpace Books
Books We Like
OCLC's FictionFinder
All Consuming
LibraryThing
Next Favorite
StoryCode
Rating Zone
Hypatia and AlexLit
WhichBook.net
AllReaders.com
Reader's Robot
gnooks

23. Up Your Game
• Align with Collections – every collection must be justified by
programs
• Force strategic investment budgeting
• Look for partnerships that add value
• Don’t go it alone. Focus on large scale sustainable programs
• Connect to the longer process not just events
• Virtual and in-person
• In the Library and reaching out with partners

24. What are the real issues?
• Craft versus Industrial Strength
• Personal service only when there’s impact
• Pilot, Project, Initiative versus Portfolio Strategy
• Hand-knitted prototypes versus Production
• e.g. Information Literacy initiatives
• Discovery versus Search versus Deep Search
• eLearning units and program dissemination
• Citation and information ethics
• Content and repository archipelagos
• Strategic Analytics
• Value & Impact Measures
• Behaviours, Satisfaction
• Economic and strategic alignment

25. Up Your Game
• Align with Collections – But add virtual experiences
• Start being Mobile
• Look for partnerships that add value
• Ensure the program delivery person is embedded including
librarians
• What are your top 20 question domains? Start there.
• Don’t go it alone. Build scalability and sustainability.
• Look for replicability – every neighbourhood

26. The new
bibliography and
collection
development
Ask Us, KNOWLEDGE
PORTALS
KNOWLEDGE,
LEARNING,
INFORMATION &
RESEARCH
COMMONS

27. Up Your Game
• Start offering diplomas and certificates
• Look for partnerships that add value
• Offer real educational opportunities not just adjacencies
• What does your community need for economic advantage?
• What courses to you offer or recommend? (TED, Khan
Academy, etc.)
• Play and connect

28. Up Your Game
• Understand the new Common Curriculum (esp. 6-8 and 9-12)
• Understand Pedagogy in the context of student experiences
and educational goals
• Understand human development from early years through
teens
• Connect across developmental stages, link to schools
• Consider partnerships to put teachers in the library
• Consider coaches and tutoring partnerships

29. Up Your Game
• The strong ‘library’ brand – adding dimension
• Personal branding – Who are your stars? Promote them.
• Program branding
• Take risks for attention (AIDA)
• Embed your brand beyond the library walls and virtually

30. Up Your Game
• Grow collections investments in strategic areas (for example
economic impact, jobs, early years, hobbies, political alignment,
homework, …)
• Develop hybrid strategies that are consistent for digital and
print and programs
• Be obsessive about recommendations and advice
• Integrate virtual and physical - hybridize

31. Up Your Game
• Dog, Star, Cow, Problem Child/?
• Reduce investment in successes
• Increase investment
• Look at TCO
• Look at all costs incurred and not just hard costs
• Review opportunity costs in soft costs

35. Being More
Open to
Comment

36. Being More Open to Criticism
and Feedback

37. Being More Open to
Recommendations

38. Support Aspiration

39. Be Creative and Attract

40. Being More Open to Change

41. The Library as Sandbox

43. ‘New’ Library Cultures
Support Your Team

44. Being More Open Experimentation,
Pilots and Innovation

45. Being More Flexible

46. Being More Open to Risk

47. Being Open
to a Mosaic
of Solutions

48. Being Open to Ambiguity

49. Be
More
Open
to Social
Technologies
and
Unintended
Consequences

50. Being Comfortable with Speed

51. Being Open to New Ideas

52. Letting Go of Control

53. Remove the Borders Inside Libraries
Be the Change We Want to See

54. Remove the Borders In the
Library Community
Be the Change We Want to See.

55. Remove the
Borders Between
Libraries and Users
Be the Change We Want to See.

56. Be Inspirational

57. Know What Makes Us Different

58. Finding Our Voice and Using It

59. Tell Your Story:
Until lions learn to write their own story,
the story will always be from the perspective
of the hunter not the hunted.

61. Honest to G*d – Let’s
Encourage Some Fun!

62. Stephen Abram, MLS, FSLA
Consultant, Dysart & Jones/Lighthouse Partners
Cel: 416-669-4855
stephen.abram@gmail.com
Stephen’s Lighthouse Blog
http://stephenslighthouse.com
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