Creating Your Library's Business Plan: A How‐to‐Do‐it Manual with Samples on CD‐ROM

Citation

Ormsby, R. (2009), "Creating Your Library's Business Plan: A How‐to‐Do‐it Manual with Samples on CD‐ROM", Library Management, Vol. 30 No. 3, pp. 219-220. https://doi.org/10.1108/01435120910937456

Like any librarian with public and academic experience, I've helped many hopeful entrepreneurs and students find resources on business plans. Sometimes, after a busy day of offering a variety of services to diverse users, I've thought, “How is what I'm doing helping to advance our library and our users?”. This well‐written book fills the void in resources specific to guiding librarians through the business planning process so that their organizational vision is better connected to everyday practices.

In the first of ten chapters, Harriman, an experienced library manager, consultant and professor, provides the reasons for developing a business plan – to guide operations and ensure viability and growth. She then outlines a step‐by‐step process for a business plan that describes services, conducts assessments, considers objectives, allocates resources, determines strategies and actions, develops a marketing plan, and measures the results of the actions taken. Components of business plans from varied libraries, information centers, and library associations, in the USA, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, and Australia, as well as from business‐oriented sources, such as Entrepreneur.com, are interwoven throughout the work. Although these examples are very helpful, after reading the book, I wished there had been more commentary on why these specific libraries and associations were selected. Non‐US readers might have found helpful the inclusion of free consulting resources equivalent to those referenced as being available from the Small Business Development Centers of the US Small Business Administration.

As Harriman guides librarians along the process, I found two statements, the first relating to assessment – “Design your services only after learning what you clients value and balancing those values against what the library can afford to offer, the mission, and the trends of the information industry” (p. 52) – and the second, relating to marketing – “You provide benefits, not services, and your message communicates this clearly (p. 155) – to be powerful and memorable. The final chapter details how to write an executive summary and recommendations for communicating the plan successfully to all stakeholders.

Harriman puts to rest the thoughts that developing a business plan would be too difficult or would take too much time. One need not “reinvent the wheel” as the accompanying CD‐ROM will save many hours as it replicates the book's templates, worksheets and sample business plans so that the models may be shared, revised and customized to help develop a plan best suited for a specific institution's goals.

This well‐referenced book is strongly recommended as a resource for all librarians who need to develop a complete business plan. Others will find consulting the individual chapters on describing services, conducting assessments and evaluations, creating marketing and financial plans, and improving communications to be a valuable ongoing resource.