Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the May 7, 2015 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.
How are we doing? What could we do better?
Those are the simple questions that the Morrill Memorial Library needs answers to and there are several ways you can let us know. A quick and painless method is by completing the online survey. It's available on our website at this easy URL: www.norwoodlibrary.org/survey. (You'll also be receiving this link to the survey in your Norwood Light bill this month.) Another way is to fill out a paper survey that is available at the library and several other places in Norwood. This month, we hope to get answers from over a thousand library users.
Every five years, the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners requires the library to complete a Long-Range Plan by October 1. Completion of that plan (and an annual review of our progress) qualifies our library for grant money. The Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) funds these federal grants and our library has been awarded four grants since 2002, including the Norwood Reads Following Atticus program in 2014.
It’s not just about the grants, however. Long-range, strategic planning gives the library an idea of where it needs to go in the future. Today, it’s crucial that the library remains relevant to the community that funds it. Making sure that we are doing the best we can is a very important component of our service to the municipality.
Strategic planning was first developed in the 1960s and came into vogue with some of the largest corporations shortly after. It was quickly adopted by smaller companies and non-profits. Today, a half-century later, it is an integral part of most organizations’ process for determining immediate and long-term successes.
First, it’s crucial to know how you are doing. Second, it’s important to know what you want your future to look like. Third, it’s critical to know how you are doing along the way.
Jack Welch, business executive, author, and retired CEO of General Electric wrote: “You’ve got to deliver on short-range commitments, while you develop a long-range strategy and vision and implement it.” The success, of course, is in doing both at the same time. Welch likens it to “walking and chewing gum” at the same time.
The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center describes long-range planning in its “Inspired Thinking” blog and asks “How many times have you created a goal and 52 weeks later asked ‘where did the time go?’" Formal long-range planning keeps you focused on the “small accomplishments along the way” and the “big prize” of reaching the goal in the end.
Strategic and long-range planning are terms that are sometimes used interchangeably, but there is a difference. The emphasis in strategic planning is how an organization responds to the changing environment between the creation of long-range plans. Long-range planning includes a development of a plan of action to complete a set of goals over a period of years. However, it's also important to see how you're doing along the way. Each year in November, the library looks strategically at its long-range plan and tries to determine how we are doing. We review our goals and activities, and we measure our progress. This annual Action Plan must be submitted and approved by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners each December 1.
Libraries are in an usually unstable world. Who could have imagined the changes in technology in the past few decades and we are in a race to keep up. Since 1995, we have scrambled to gather our collections online with other libraries in our networks, to outfit our staff and our patrons with hardware and software, and to enrich our services with digital collections. At the same time, we are breathlessly trying to keep pace with the changes around us.
I’ve often described the challenge that impacts the funding that the Town of Norwood votes to give us each year. A quarter of a century ago, it was important that we have the at least one copy of a book on hand. You, as library users, expected it. Today, we not only have to purchase the right amount of hardcover or paperback books for our readers' appetites, but we need to buy the large print version, the audio CD version, and the digital (or eBook) version. In addition, we eventually will acquire the graphic novelization. And when the book is translated to the screen, we buy the DVD along with the musical soundtrack.
Sometimes, all of this is mind-boggling as we navigate our world and the world of our users. Scott Adams, the genius behind the cartoon Dilbert, included his spin on strategic planning in December 2014. “If I understand [strategic planning]” states Dilbert’s hapless colleague, “you basically hallucinate about the future and then something different happens.” Perhaps a bit irreverent, Scott Adams, but humorous nonetheless to those of us who are tasked with strategic planning.
As the library becomes more of a destination for everything from education to enrichment to entertainment, it’s more important than ever to know how we are doing and where we need to go. We can then determine how we’ll get there.
To make our 2016-2020 Long-Range Plan a success, we need your input. By completing the online version of the survey, you have a chance to be entered into a drawing for one of several $25 gift cards to businesses in Norwood. Remember, if you are one of our regular patrons, we want to know how we are doing and why the library is important to you. If you aren't and you don't use the library, we want to know that, too. You’ll find our survey in the library or online at www.norwoodlibrary.org/survey
