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CLEVELAND
PUBLIC LIBRARY STRATEGIC
PLAN A
BLUEPRINT FOR THE FUTURE OF “THE PEOPLE’S UNIVERSITY” Researched
and Prepared by the Cleveland
Public Library Board of Trustees for the Citizens
of Cleveland December
2002 |
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface 1
STRATEGIC
PLANNING FOR
CLEVELAND PUBLIC LIBRARY
The Board of Trustees of Cleveland Public Library (CPL)
approved a planning process to research the future of CPL based on what is
known, or anticipated, to impact urban library collections, services, and
patrons’ needs.
The Board, Director and Administrators of CPL have
consistently adopted a multi-year planning approach to ensure the continuous
growth and improvement of services to the community. The 1995-99 plan, “Building on Excellence,” laid the groundwork
for the plan that is being proposed today.
That plan was regularly updated as to new strategic directions on a
rolling three-year calendar. In
February 2001, the Board, Director and Administrators held a retreat to
confirm, celebrate and renew the strategic directions for 2001-2003. At that time it was agreed that a process
ensuring more neighborhood outreach would be important to address in the next
strategic plan for 2004 and beyond. In
the spirit of inclusion and outreach, the following strategic planning process
was undertaken.
All strategic planning processes include fundamental steps
of good governance and vision. These
steps include:
o
Conducting an environmental scan
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Determining the organization’s strengths and weaknesses
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Identifying obstacles or barriers to success
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Maximizing opportunities
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Researching best practices
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Understanding trends for urban library development
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Analyzing the information gathered
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Setting a direction for the future
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Acquiring the resources necessary to achieve the future
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Preparing the organization for change
Each of these planning process steps was carefully
undertaken and is documented here. It
took up to twelve months to implement and fulfill each activity in the process
so that the Strategic Plan (page 11) could come to life and become the guiding
document for the library’s future and for the future of the Citizens of
Cleveland.
The planning process included a thorough environmental scan
using numerous resources and input channels.
Table One shows the extensive outreach that was undertaken to ensure a
legitimate and comprehensive environmental scan. A summary of the channels for
the environmental scan is listed below.
TABLE ONE – ENVIRONMENTAL SCAN CHANNELS
The environmental scan provided
the Board of Trustees and Staff a wealth of information about the physical,
technical, social, and service nature of CPL. The richness of the feedback is
exceptional, providing CPL with insights as to public perception, public need,
and the future role of the library system.
Summary of Results from Community:
Overall the library
system has an exceptionally high rating within the city. Using the survey data alone, the results
show that the library plays a key role in the patron’s neighborhood experience. Some of the key survey results[3]
are shown in Table Two.
TABLE TWO –
SURVEY RESULTS
|
Use Library
from one to four times per week |
56% |
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Satisfaction
with branch library used |
95% |
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Rating of
service of library as very important |
81% |
The focus group
participants[4] shared
similar positive views of the library as both a service center and an
educational center in their lives and in their families’ lives. The purpose of focus groups is to solicit
feedback that will be helpful to change.
While comments were favorable, the critical feedback is equally
important. Most of the critical
feedback referenced the physical space or the technical resources that the
library user experiences. Some of the
important messages from the focus groups referenced:
o Crowded
and/or noisy facilities
o Insufficient
personal computers to serve the number of users
o Difficult
access to and limited parking at some branches
The youth focus groups offered a similar view on the facilities
and personal computers and also suggested more youth services geared to entice
and retain youth interest in education, literacy and communication.
The Town Hall Meetings[5]
reinforced the comments from the survey and the focus groups. They placed even more emphasis on:
o
The collection (management and diversity)
o
Training on computers
o
Hours of operation
The Leadership Advisory Panel considered the information
from the community and added some feedback with regard to better marketing and
community relations as well as understanding the changing nature of the
neighborhoods and the neighborhood users of the library.
Summary of
Results from Library-based Scan:
The staff of the Cleveland Public Library is truly its
organizational strength. They are
committed to the library and value its contribution to the community. The staff believed that more outreach is
needed to the community it serves. The
staff anticipated the need for more personal computers and periphery that allow
library users more time and more flexibility on the system. The staff understood the limits to computer
usage without proper training and also identified the need for increased
training and services on basic and advanced computer/Internet usage.
The staff articulated the need to upgrade youth services and
develop a more service and programmatic approach to youth visitors rather than
a monitoring and control approach. The
staff also identified the need for on-going development of services of interest
to older adults.
The staff understood the advancements that technology can
make on the operations side of the library.
While staff saw the opportunity and need for more automation support
internally, this need was not perceived by the community. In fact, one member of the community
articulated that he would not trade the personal service of staff for more
automation.
The most comprehensive input from the library-based
environmental scan came from the firm, Providence Associates. Providence Associates conducted a
comprehensive library review on behalf of Cleveland Public Library. Its primary focus was the neighborhood
branches. Its role was to advise the
Board and the Director of CPL on how to move the organization forward, serving
the community, and continuing to lead in urban library trends. References to Providence Associates’ report
may be made throughout but a summary of the key elements of the report follows
in Table Three.
TABLE THREE – PROVIDENCE ASSOCIATE FINDINGS[6]
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Physical/Spatial Issues |
Plan for and undertake a major capital
improvement plan, touching all of the branch libraries. |
|
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Service Issues |
Develop a full service youth library initiative
including improvements in collection, programs and services. |
|
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Access |
Increase library user access by extending
library hours and increasing number of days open to public. |
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Technology |
Undertake an aggressive schedule of upgrading
personal computers for library users. |
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Operations |
Reorganize the structure of the organization to
improve efficiency and services to the community. |
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Productivity |
Revamp library staff space and workstations to
allow for increased efficiency. |
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Summary of
Results from Research-based Scan:
The demographic study, conducted by Cleveland State
University, indicated a trend of decreasing population in the Cleveland
neighborhoods. The Providence report
acknowledged that a shrinking trend might cause administration to reconsider
its size and number of branches.
However, equally strong considerations were given to two significant
statistics: 1) Cleveland has a higher
than average youth population and 2) a younger than average adult population
compared to the peer libraries and national urban studies. Consequently, the recommendations took into
account the age of the library users as much or more than the slight shrinkage
in overall population. Similarly, the
security consultant addressed the threat and risk to neighborhood residents
comparing Cleveland statistics to national statistics. The security consultant addressed safety and
security around the exterior of a branch and within the library. No significant safety threats were
identified. Consistent with all other
feedback, the security consultant also identified an observable change in the
environment when the after school youth arrived. This change seemed to create
the perception of an unsafe or an insecure facility due to the increase in
traffic and noise.
The feedback from the
environmental scan was carefully studied and analyzed. However, the scan would be incomplete if it
ignored general city, state and national conditions. The research and scan were undertaken right after:
1. A national threat to the country was experienced on
September 11, 2001.
2. A change in city and council administration occurred
in January 2002.
3. A reduction in state funding occurred in 2002,
affecting 2003 budget planning.
The opportunity for the
Cleveland Public Library to grow is hindered only by the sense of uncertainty
for the future. In discussing the
organization’s strategic plan, the Administrators took into account the
external environment including those elements beyond its control.
The information gathered from the environmental scan allows
CPL to study its organization, facilities and delivery system objectively and
critically. From this scan the
Administrators can then determine which strengths to maximize, which weaknesses
to address and how to manage the barriers to success and the opportunities
available. This analysis is called the
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats or SWOT analysis. From this analysis will result the best
possible strategic plan.
Strengths of Cleveland Public Library
The general consensus is that the library benefits from
well-respected and well-known strengths as shown in Table Four.
TABLE
FOUR - STRENGTHS OF CPL
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Weaknesses Within The System
The intent in identifying weaknesses in a system is twofold:
1) to ensure that any weakness that is an obstacle to success is addressed in
the planning process and 2) to foster the spirit of continuous improvement
organization-wide. The weaknesses of
CPL fall into two basic categories. One
category includes items relating to the delivery of service to the
community. The other category relates
to typical issues for any large, complex organization such as infrastructure,
visibility, tradition and resources.
If the Administrative team were to break these areas down
into more detail, then the analysis in Table Five represents their areas of
concern. There is similarity between
the Administrators’ list and the community feedback.
TABLE
FIVE – WEAKNESSES IN THE SYSTEM
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SERVICE DELIVERY |
ORGANIZATIONAL |
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o
Partnership/sponsorship management o
Coordinated implementation & execution of plans |
Opportunities For CPL Planning
The opportunities that the Administrators recommend be
considered in the strategic plan may be categorized as shown in Table Six on
the following page. The opportunities
identified are the basis for the themes and strategies shown in the strategic
plan.
TABLE
SIX – OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLANNING
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CATEGORY |
EXAMPLES |
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o
Free services o
Improve literacy o
Help with job readiness o
Assistance to students o
Assistance to businesses/entrepreneurs o Fund development |
Areas Of Concern For CPL
Planning
The opportunities that allow
the organization to thrive need to be balanced with the areas of concern to the
CPL organization and its constituency.
A realistic approach to the areas of concern will help the organization
respond in a positive, constructive manner. Needless to say for each opportunity
there is a countering threat. For
example, the economy may increase impoverished areas in city neighborhoods. The stated needs of library users may
exceed the ability of the library to respond in as timely a manner given the
realities of funding and training.
In addition, to
counter-balance concerns against opportunities, there remain the additional
concerns that are built into the proposed plan as shown in Table Seven.
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