Strategic planning is basically all about long term plans, from 3-20 years, developed by executive chiefs of an organization, or, to quote someone else, "it's analogous to top-level, long-range planning". They go on to say succinctly, "[it is] ... fundamental decisions that shape and guide what an organization is, what it does, and why it does it, with a focus on the future."
If you know anything about digital technology in a library setting then you know the development of a digital library or digital collections are rarely supported by hard-wired funds, that means soft money, that means projects, that means you better plan for it and it better be a long term plan. Even the slowest administrators have now realized that this stuff doesn't keep indefinitely. Which is to say, you better get a money stream flowing and keep the gate open.
Guess what? You want a digital project? You better f-ing plan for it, and I don't mean conventional planning where you just go by what's right in front of you and hope for the best, waiting around until something breaks. Shooting from the hip won't get you very far. And if you think for a second it's only "top-level" managers who make these kinds of decisions, well, they might but it's highly doubtful that - unless they've come up through the ranks on the digital train - they're going to know enough about serious digital preservation to even know where to begin. Which is to say, get a clue - it's your lower-level/mid-level managers that do the stuff day in and day out that actually know enough to make a long term plan. Sorry but there are some projects that do not allow living in an ivory tower and watching the river roll by and, in this age of technology, it's digital projects that demand every manager get on board and plan accordingly. Oh, sure, your top level people can make all the decisions but it's a bad, bad, bad idea. Okay, admittedly, I'm pissed at bad managers and even worse educators playing at being managers (I thought that's what theater was for).
I know, I know, the textbooks would have us believe that "strategic planning" is meant to drive a larger organization's planning efforts, such as a whole library system or a university. Take Lee Todd's business plan that's meant to guide the entire university toward top 20 status (best I can tell even that's just about money and little else), THAT took strategic planning. UK's libraries and how they're organizing themselves to meet such a challenge - THAT is strategic planning. I'm not arguing that such is not strategic planning, it is, what I would argue is that even smaller steps require "strategic planning" in the truest sense of the term. It is the one year, three year, five year plans that matter every bit as much if not more - a 20 year plan won't do you any good if you don't know what you're doing right now. "Organization" means involving everyone, not just the top level managers, unless you just want fail then, be my guest. Real life good management means listening and communicating with everyone in the system, deciding where you collectively are at this moment, where you want to go, what you need to get you there, how you're going to get what you need to get you there, and what it's going to take. Then it is a matter of making it happen in a pro-active manner (SWOT and PEST and all that mumbo jumbo).
So, for instance, let's say you want to build a digital library that has a ton of collections that includes all kinds and media and is respected nationwide. Right now, all you have is a flat bed scanner from Wal-Mart, yourself, and a student workforce of 2 kids at less than 20 hours a week each, and an archivist colleague screaming that everything they have is equally as important as everything else they have and it all needs to be digitized right now because you have a computer, a flat-bed, and a job and the internet is free. What do you do?
1. Don't shoot yourself (though it may feel like the best thing to do at the time)
2. Don't shoot your colleague (though they may deserve it on some meta-physical level)
3. Decide what's most important to get your colleague to shut up (like coffee and relaxed conversation for starters)
4. Make a dream list of what your perfect digital library would look like and how it would function. Now, start working backwards from that point....
5. How many people do you see it taking to make that perfect library? Why start with people? Because the technology is the easy part - finding smart, creative, affordable experts (this is especially true at UK and other bureaucracies that have "fixed" pay scales) is actually the hard part...you'll see....
6. What kind of gear do you have?
7. What kind of collections do you have? Audio? Video? Live streaming? Images? Are they search-able? Why or why not? What's your interface like? Does the same interface serve all of your collections or are you using more than one application and/or interface to search and serve your goods? Remember, part of this is in anticipation of what technological advances will be in place by the time you actually get to this point (which is damn near impossible to figure but - try)
8. Work backwards - who's the last person you hire? What's the last piece of gear you add to your arsenal?
Get the picture? Keep working backward until you reach today, right now. You've got no budget, a flat-bed, yourself, 2 students, and a pissed off colleague that has NO idea what's involved in digital collections. What do you do? Work with them to decide what's really most important that you can reasonably digitize on a flat-bed scanner in x amount of time.
Good. You scan it. First project over. That worked out. Now what are you going to do with it? Where's it going to be stored? How's it going to be accessed? Who's going to do that work? Aha - perhaps you should have answered these questions before the pissed off colleague showed up, eh? Maybe, maybe not. For all the "strategic planning" in the world I guarantee life will find a way to throw a wrench in your system and you'll be lucky if it's ever something this simple. It's actually more along the lines of the sky falling and you doing your best Chicken Little imitation. Impressive how how your pitch can go!
Anyway, you get the point, you have to visualize what you want and start with what you have right now to "strategically plan" how to get there. And it is never, ever, ever just a one-person show. Oh sure, one person may end up taking all the credit, and that's fine - somebody has to - but it's never just one person.
If you know anything about digital technology in a library setting then you know the development of a digital library or digital collections are rarely supported by hard-wired funds, that means soft money, that means projects, that means you better plan for it and it better be a long term plan. Even the slowest administrators have now realized that this stuff doesn't keep indefinitely. Which is to say, you better get a money stream flowing and keep the gate open.
Guess what? You want a digital project? You better f-ing plan for it, and I don't mean conventional planning where you just go by what's right in front of you and hope for the best, waiting around until something breaks. Shooting from the hip won't get you very far. And if you think for a second it's only "top-level" managers who make these kinds of decisions, well, they might but it's highly doubtful that - unless they've come up through the ranks on the digital train - they're going to know enough about serious digital preservation to even know where to begin. Which is to say, get a clue - it's your lower-level/mid-level managers that do the stuff day in and day out that actually know enough to make a long term plan. Sorry but there are some projects that do not allow living in an ivory tower and watching the river roll by and, in this age of technology, it's digital projects that demand every manager get on board and plan accordingly. Oh, sure, your top level people can make all the decisions but it's a bad, bad, bad idea. Okay, admittedly, I'm pissed at bad managers and even worse educators playing at being managers (I thought that's what theater was for).
I know, I know, the textbooks would have us believe that "strategic planning" is meant to drive a larger organization's planning efforts, such as a whole library system or a university. Take Lee Todd's business plan that's meant to guide the entire university toward top 20 status (best I can tell even that's just about money and little else), THAT took strategic planning. UK's libraries and how they're organizing themselves to meet such a challenge - THAT is strategic planning. I'm not arguing that such is not strategic planning, it is, what I would argue is that even smaller steps require "strategic planning" in the truest sense of the term. It is the one year, three year, five year plans that matter every bit as much if not more - a 20 year plan won't do you any good if you don't know what you're doing right now. "Organization" means involving everyone, not just the top level managers, unless you just want fail then, be my guest. Real life good management means listening and communicating with everyone in the system, deciding where you collectively are at this moment, where you want to go, what you need to get you there, how you're going to get what you need to get you there, and what it's going to take. Then it is a matter of making it happen in a pro-active manner (SWOT and PEST and all that mumbo jumbo).
So, for instance, let's say you want to build a digital library that has a ton of collections that includes all kinds and media and is respected nationwide. Right now, all you have is a flat bed scanner from Wal-Mart, yourself, and a student workforce of 2 kids at less than 20 hours a week each, and an archivist colleague screaming that everything they have is equally as important as everything else they have and it all needs to be digitized right now because you have a computer, a flat-bed, and a job and the internet is free. What do you do?
1. Don't shoot yourself (though it may feel like the best thing to do at the time)
2. Don't shoot your colleague (though they may deserve it on some meta-physical level)
3. Decide what's most important to get your colleague to shut up (like coffee and relaxed conversation for starters)
4. Make a dream list of what your perfect digital library would look like and how it would function. Now, start working backwards from that point....
5. How many people do you see it taking to make that perfect library? Why start with people? Because the technology is the easy part - finding smart, creative, affordable experts (this is especially true at UK and other bureaucracies that have "fixed" pay scales) is actually the hard part...you'll see....
6. What kind of gear do you have?
7. What kind of collections do you have? Audio? Video? Live streaming? Images? Are they search-able? Why or why not? What's your interface like? Does the same interface serve all of your collections or are you using more than one application and/or interface to search and serve your goods? Remember, part of this is in anticipation of what technological advances will be in place by the time you actually get to this point (which is damn near impossible to figure but - try)
8. Work backwards - who's the last person you hire? What's the last piece of gear you add to your arsenal?
Get the picture? Keep working backward until you reach today, right now. You've got no budget, a flat-bed, yourself, 2 students, and a pissed off colleague that has NO idea what's involved in digital collections. What do you do? Work with them to decide what's really most important that you can reasonably digitize on a flat-bed scanner in x amount of time.
Good. You scan it. First project over. That worked out. Now what are you going to do with it? Where's it going to be stored? How's it going to be accessed? Who's going to do that work? Aha - perhaps you should have answered these questions before the pissed off colleague showed up, eh? Maybe, maybe not. For all the "strategic planning" in the world I guarantee life will find a way to throw a wrench in your system and you'll be lucky if it's ever something this simple. It's actually more along the lines of the sky falling and you doing your best Chicken Little imitation. Impressive how how your pitch can go!
Anyway, you get the point, you have to visualize what you want and start with what you have right now to "strategically plan" how to get there. And it is never, ever, ever just a one-person show. Oh sure, one person may end up taking all the credit, and that's fine - somebody has to - but it's never just one person.
or·gan·i·za·tion   (ôr'gə-nĭ-zā'shən) Pronunciation Keyn. noun | |
| 1. | a group of people who work together |
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