Planning Committee Information
Overview
The following pages document the strategic issues and action plans that the St. Charles City-County Library District envisions will be key to accomplishing its mission as St. Charles County's informational utility and provider of library services. The plan is based on the Professional Library Association's "Planning For Results" process, and focuses on Service Responses, PLA defined target areas for public library services. There are thirteen such Services Responses; the District has selected nine, and added two additional, Not-For-Profit Services, and Children's Services.
While this District followed some of the concepts developed in Planning For Results, we modified both procedures and outcomes to better suit our particular needs and those of our patrons. Planning For Results seems geared toward small libraries with limited professional staff and frankly, limited expertise. We are fortunate to be a relatively large, well-funded library system, with an experienced, enthusiastic staff of diverse talent and areas of expertise. We similarly have a caring, service-oriented Board of Trustees which has shown its consistent willingness to try new ideas and support the District's efforts toward quality service. Thus, considerably more of the planning was handled internally than the PLA otherwise recommends.
Similarly, PLA recommends identifying five or six Service Responses to pursue. The District's planning teams assumed that its core services in Local History, Business and Public Management Services, Government Documents and GIS would continue their public roles. With the addition of Not-For-Profit Services, planners determined that under the letter of the Planning For Results guidelines, four of the maximum number of Service Responses would be consumed by extant specialty areas, and thus the Responses available to cover the rest of the information mission would be severely limited. We decided therefore, to increase the number of Service Responses that the District would recognize, and even though we nearly doubled PLA's suggested we believe that the Responses chosen will promote more accurate reporting and more importantly, better assessment of strategic public service.
Additionally, Planning For Results focuses exclusively on services, and does not provide for administrative, human resource, collection management, technology or facilities planning. Since these issues are central, and indeed in some cases precursor steps toward attaining our information service objectives, we added six library trends which distinctly account for operating functions. These are listed in the Mission Statement to emphasize their importance to District operations and their centrality to its role in the community.
The strategic plan itself is based on goals and objectives for each Service Response and library trend. There were three primary considerations, defined in advance, upon which the Service Responses and trends were selected and substantively developed. First, the plan should call for no new stand-alone buildings. It does call for studying county demography and identifying potential locations for future construction, and allows for cooperative efforts such as that at Winghaven, but new construction beyond the ten existing branches was not considered. Secondly, strategic steps and activities must be accomplishable without increasing the 26-cent maximum tax rate. Thirdly, the plan was to focus on better, rather than new services. This was the most difficult parameter in that there is sometimes a very fine line between new services and changes that make existing services better. For example, this plan identified a need for expanding community referral, helping patrons identify and contact social service organizations in time of need. We do not currently emphasize referral, though we do make a passing effort to maintain some local information and to network with organizations such as the Community Council, which have access to information of greater depth and specificity. Emphasizing Community Referral could be perceived as tantamount to adding new responsibilities and consequent costs, and thus new services. On the other hand, devising strategies to meet customer needs, and more effectively and efficiently respond to the growing number of social service questions could equally be interpreted as a qualitative step toward improving every day reference performance.
This document is the result of countless hours spent in discussion, committee sessions, review, and analysis. As with any plan, it presents advanced projections of most likely or most desirable outcomes, but as such, it is not entirely concrete. It is relatively aggressive in scope and immediacy, and thus some of the strategies identified may not be operationally accomplishable in the time frames listed. Similarly, because the District must respond to a rapidly changing information environment, it cannot be restricted solely to steps that are specifically identified in the plan. Contingencies may arise that require modifications running the gamut from deleting identified objectives, to restructuring time lines, to adding responses which were not foreseen, and in this flexibility lies the advantage of strategic planning -- the ability to respond to changing environments without losing focus on the overall mission.
Considerable emphasis will be placed on evaluating our services. We will, for example, conduct patron surveys to quantify satisfaction levels. We will consider alternative ways, within the tight boundaries of copyright and product licensing, through which our customers can access information both within and externally to our buildings. We will evaluate our selection of print and electronic products for usefulness, accuracy, and accessibility. We will evaluate strategies to improve catalog records and public searching effectiveness. We will evaluate our collection and develop it to its fullest extent. We will evaluate staff training, morale, and functions to assure that patron needs are met. We will evaluate our funding mechanisms and seek revenue streams outside the tax-based system. We will aonstantly evaluate our role in the community and prepare responses that are fiscally, operationally and functionally effective.
That this ongoing evaluation will, over the years, suggest diverse, sometimes new strategies is inevitable. Fortunately, the District has the ability, resources, and staff, board, and community support needed to act quickly and responsively for we are, above all else, driven by our mission of excellence. Because this plan is substantive, yet flexible, we anticipate that it will be adaptive to community needs and allow us, in the long run, to deliver the highest level and quality of service possible.
The Planning Committees
The Community Visioning Committee
Deborah Tomich Board of Trustees Dennis Rohlfing St. Charles School District Nancy Stuenkel St. Charles Chamber of Commerce Rose Brooks St. Charles County Community College Tom Ashburn City of O'Fallon Virginia Dowden New Melle
Planning For Results Committee Chairpersons
Community Referral and Consumer Information Nancy Pruitt Middendorf-Kredell Branch Lifelong Learning and Information Literacy Scott Morris Corporate Parkway Branch Business & Public Management Services Jim Hicks Spencer Road Branch Government Documents & GIS Anna Sylvan Middendorf-Kredell Branch Local History and Genealogy Ann King Kathryn Linnemann Branch Non-Profit Services Tim DeGhelder Spencer Road Branch Current Topics and Titles Betty Murr Deputy Director General Information Bill Strecker Kisker Road Branch Facilities Planning Mary Heinbokel Kathryn Linnemann Branch Training & Staffing Julie Cinco Human Resources Coordinator Community Partnerships & Linkages Carl Sandstedt Director Funding and Finance Bob Houck Planning & Development Coordinator Collection Management Betty Murr Deputy Director
Review and Priorities Committee
Elaine Green Board of Trustees Frank Noto Board of Trustees Carl Sandstedt Director Betty Murr Deputy Director Maggie Preiss Coordinator, Children's Resources and Marketing Julie Cinco Human Resources Coordinator Cheryl Hanks-Sinecki Volunteer Resources & Staff Training Audrey Bangert Information Technology Coordinator Jim Brown Branch Manager, Spencer Road Branch Library Bill Strecker Branch Manager, Kisker Road Branch Library Bob Houck Planning and Development Coordinator