What is Strategic Service Planning?
At its core, strategic service planning is an engagement process that enables libraries to envision their future, identify their goals, and develop actionable plans to achieve them. It's a disciplined effort to produce fundamental decisions and actions that shape what an organization is, what it does, and why it does it.
At its core, strategic service planning is an engagement process that enables libraries to envision their future, identify their goals, and develop actionable plans to achieve them. It's a disciplined effort to produce fundamental decisions and actions that shape what an organization is, what it does, and why it does it.
Strategic service planning differs fundamentally from operational or tactical planning.
Strategic service planning focuses on the "what" and "why"—determining your library's direction over a 3-5 year horizon, identifying major initiatives, and allocating resources to achieve transformational goals.
Operational service planning focuses on the "how"—the day-to-day activities, procedures, and workflows that keep your library running smoothly.
Tactical service planning bridges the two—translating strategic goals into specific projects and initiatives with shorter timeframes (typically 1-2 years).
The strategic service planning process is inherently cyclical, not linear. It involves a thorough assessment of the library's current state, an understanding of the external environment, and a clear articulation of the library's desired outcomes. Once implemented, design implementation must be analyzed, evaluated, and adjusted based on results and changing circumstances, creating a master planning improvement cycle.
Here are a few of our past medical library projects. Also note, almost every Academic Library we have worked on in the past 8 years have supported nursing students and their collaboration needs.
Cornell Medical Library
New York City, NY
DMU Medical Library
Des Moines, IA
FDA Libraries
White Oak, MD
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, Massachusetts
Tripler Army Medical Center
Honolulu, HI