A number of well‐designed, comprehensive manuals are now available to library managers to help guide their planning and evaluation activities. The ALA and PLA are currently also promoting Peter Hernon’s manuals on service quality and customer satisfaction at the same time as they continue to add to their already quite extensive list of planning manuals. While the well‐informed library manager will want to investigate all these approaches, on the whole most would be advised to select the one that makes the most sense in their own context and get on with the job.
This new manual on planning highlights the problem that library managers face concerning the amount of time and organisational energy to put into planning and evaluation and where to put the focus. The previous ALA manual, Planning for Results (1998), appeared in two volumes – a guidebook that introduced the steps involved and a manual that explained how to implement them. The use of two volumes and the amount of detail in the methods, although intended to be helpful, had a counter effect. The publishers cheerfully acknowledge that many found the level of detail daunting. This new volume is intended to remedy that problem, to introduce planning to library managers in a simpler and more user‐friendly mode without losing too much of the value of the earlier edition.
In this endeavour The New Planning for Results succeeds. A total of 23 planning tasks are reduced to a more manageable 12, and the order slightly changed, but the key points are still covered under the headings of Part 1: Planning to plan, Identifying possibilities, Inventing the future, Assembling the future, Informing the stakeholders, Moving into the future. Under these headings are the key tasks. For example, Inventing the future covers two tasks: selecting service responses to community needs and writing goals and objectives.
Part 2 outlines a number of service responses the library might make to community needs, such as setting up a business information service, or a local history and genealogy service. It is constantly emphasised that the choice of services will be in response to the community profile, and typical community needs that such a service would address are indicated. Good examples of how these services operate in named libraries are given. Part 3 includes “toolkits” needed to carry out some of the tasks, such as managing groups and helping them reach decisions. Part 4 contains the relevant worksheets for the various tasks, SWOT analyses, writing objectives, gap analyses, etc. Case studies based on “Anytown”, used in previous ALA manuals, again help illuminate key points and processes. There is considerable support for the novice and some fresh insights for the experienced manager. Basically this volume distils much of the best of the past endeavours, and the wisdom of many able and experienced consultants to the project. It is presented in simple, accessible language; clear learning objectives and dos and don’ts of processes make it simple to follow. This is an excellent, easily‐used manual, and the author and ALA are to be congratulated on it. Buy it and use it.
