Planning for Results - A Toolkit for Alberta Libraries
The following are resources for libraries doing planning:
Information on Planning for Results
- Strategic Planning for Results Workbook: This workbook summarizes the book Strategic Planning for Results and includes various document templates and forms.
- Advice for smaller libraries: How to do planning for your smaller library.
- A one page description of Strategic Planning for Results
- Tasks and steps in Planning for Results
- Plan of Service pamphlet: electronic version of a trifold pamphlet that briefly describes plans of service in Alberta public libraries.
Workforms, templates, meeting agendas and other tools
- Responding to the Community: A library board meeting agenda for after the first (or only) community meeting. It helps a library board respond to the community group's recommendations.
- Goal writing templates: This template from Lac La Biche and this workform from Strategic Planning for Results will help you write goals based on your selected Service Responses.
- Objective writing templates: This template from Lac La Biche and this workform from Strategic Planning for Results will help you write objectives that put your goals into action.
- Picking library services that respond to community needs: If you use this form in your public meetings, it will make the participants pick Service Responses that respond to community needs (as opposed to responses that "sound good")
- Communication plan workform: This will help you write a Communication Plan at the beginnning of the process.
- Community Vision form: This is for use in your public meetings; it will help the group formulate a vision for the ideal future community.
- Selecting Community Planning Committee members: this form will help your board pick the people it wants to invite to determine community needs and library service responses.
- SWOT Analysis: this form will help community planning committee members to identify the community's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
Other resources
- Community Information Database: An easy-to-use, free online tool which provides information on Canadian communities. Good support for your community needs assessment.
- Strathcona County Public Library Lessons Learned: The Strathcona County library used a modified version of Planning for Results when developing their plan of service in 2009. Their "Lessons Learned" describes how the process worked for them and how the public responded to it.
- Sample plans from Alberta Libraries
The following resources for trainers and presenters teaching libraries about planning:
Sandra Nelson workshop slideshow, handouts and trainer notes: these are for use when delivering the 4.5 hour workshop developed by Sandra Nelson for Alberta Libraries. This workshop should be delivered by people who were trained in Sandra Nelson's September 2009 sessions. The slideshow is a PowerPoint presentation. The handouts should be printed and distributed to all workshop attendees. The trainer notes explain the slideshow for the trainer delivering the workshop.
A short Plan of Service presentation: this has been used as a paper handout in a 90 minute presentation given to library boards. No slideshow has been used in these presentations, just a verbal presentation following the handouts and a discussion of the library board's situation.
The following are presentations for facilitators leading Community Planning Committee (CPC) meetings:
CPC meeting 1 (Airdrie): A presentation used during the first CPC meeting at Airdrie Public Library.
CPC meeting 2 (Airdrie): A presentation used during the second CPC meeting at Airdrie Public Library. Note that this presentation is tailored to the information that came out of Airdrie's first meeting. Also note that information from Airdrie Library including a summary of the first meeting is not included.
The following are presentations on service planning given at conferences, etc.:
It Does the Hard Planning So You Don't Have To: Slideshow of presentation given at the 2010 Rural Libraries Conference by Ken Feser (in PDF format).
Board Basics slideshow: slideshow of a trustee orientation workshop
