Competency Statement: Apply the fundamental principles of planning, management, marketing, and advocacy.

Introduction

In recognizing that adjusting to a competitive and changing environment will help it thrive, it is inevitable that information organizations have structures to implement change, which is time-consuming and costly. Projects may encounter obstacles at any point that can affect the morale of the information professional and the people that carry out changes. The competency of understanding the importance of planning, management, marketing and advocacy allows information professionals to implement change effectively and efficiently.

Planning

Strategic planning is a long-term activity that includes periodic analysis and revisioning developed around a vision or value statement (Ozoh, 2021). Preparation of a plan is a critical and foundational step where information professionals conduct a careful and holistic understanding of its mission statement, vision, and long-term goals, and an assessment of its environment, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.  Information professionals can start developing a plan by identifying and formulating strategies to mitigate weaknesses and threats that pose risks to the organization, which may include researching and applying other organizations’ strategies. It is also important to establish an organizational structure to share management responsibilities before implementing the plan and measuring and reporting results to help “anticipate potential changes in future conditions and prescribe alternative actions as required” (Rosenblum, 2022, p. 601).

A strategic plan is a communication tool that makes transparent to stakeholders high-level reasons why and how an organization will conduct its mission to meet community needs and how it intends to hold itself accountable toward that goal. It serves as a blueprint and a reminder of the organization’s original mission.

Management

Having a plan gives management a blueprint to get back on track when things go off the rails. Keeping management sturdy and healthy goes a long way to implementing change.  These include human resources, budget, and technology management.

Human resources management is a balancing act in creating an organizational culture that encourages learning, growth, and socialization of individuals of varied personalities, desires, and interests with sustainable workplace policies and practices. High retention and low attrition can be achieved by ensuring opportunities, such as performance evaluation, to discuss acknowledgement of an employee’s contributions, their strengths and weaknesses. Correcting employee performance is best dealt with progressive, not retaliatory, disciplinary policy based on “principles of fairness, consistency, and proportionality” for (Mackenzie-Ruppel, et al, 2022, p. 730). An organization will have an easier time implementing change when it fosters habits and a culture of growth in its employees.

Critical principles to budget management include accountability, credibility, evaluation, and planning (Jones, 2022). Budget managers are responsible for evaluating what materials to keep or let go and what large investments and expenditures to approve while following legal requirements and staying within budget. Reliable budget management can ensure spare reserves for future change.

Rapid changes in tools and services challenge technology management, and it is important for managers to understand what products would provide the most access and discovery for a library’s users, while also being sustainable for staff to maintain (Breeding, 2022). Monitoring technology trends, such as subscriptions, web standards, and platform devices, can also inform libraries how user expectations will change and prepare for those changes.

Marketing & Advocacy

Marketing offers opportunities to inform an organization’s users of new services and programs and what they can anticipate from the changes, as well as raising awareness to the general public of the value that the organization brings. Targeted marketing plans strategically based on the results of environmental scans can provide additional reach, not necessarily to more users, but for public support. According to the 2008 and 2018 results of the OCLC’s From Awareness to Funding report that looked at the political support of libraries, “there is no statistically significant difference between a user and a nonuser in their support or opposition of a library” (Sweeney, 2022, p. 902). The report also found that the single motivator for individuals to actively support libraries is their relationship with library workers (Sweeney, 2022). Libraries are in a favorable position as information hubs of their communities to cultivate a network of supporters and empowering them to keep libraries funded and from being next on the local budgetary chopping block.

Evidence

The evidence I chose to present to demonstrate this competency include a work experience artifact marketing a new feature I was involved with on Rocksmith+, an INFO 204 assignment identifying issues public libraries face and solutions, and an INFO 204 group assignment in creating a strategic plan.

Evidence #1 – Work experience – New feature update on Rocksmith+, Bass Chord Charts: How to Play Bass Chords (Link to website)

On May 5, 2022, the Ubisoft marketing team published a news update for Rocksmith+ about Bass Chord Charts, a feature I had been working on in preparation for Rocksmith+’s release that was new to the franchise. I was approached by the marketing team weeks before to describe this feature and how players can practice using these charts to play and improvise bass chords. One of the goals of Rocksmith+ was to make more content for bass players since the previous iteration. This was an opportunity to get players with Rocksmith experience to upgrade to Rocksmith+, but also attract bass players and those wanting to learn bass who are new to Rocksmith. What I wanted to voice in this piece was to express commonality by sharing my own guitar-learning journey and understanding the importance of chords, as well as the time and effort we invested as music and game professionals to make a fun learning experience.

This evidence demonstrates my ability to create marketing material announcing changes to a targeted group and what users can anticipate from them.

Evidence #2 – INFO 204 – Information Professions – Operational challenges and solutions assignment

In the first assignment in this early core course, I identified issues and offered solutions to challenges libraries face and was also introduced to citing academic and professional research to support my claims. I talked about library references services being overlooked and the lack of leadership skills that would usher adaptive change to improve it. This exercise not only prepared me for assessment with the environment scan and SWOT analysis that would be useful in a later assignment, but by doing the research, I was able to collect ideas and anecdotes from library settings that strengthened my statements rather than going off the cuff as a novice to the profession.

This evidence demonstrates my ability to research and deeply understand the library setting as part of the planning stages of implementing change.

Evidence #3 – INFO 204 – Information Professions – Orlando Public Library Strategic Goals and Assessments

A strategic plan was an assigned group project for INFO 204. Our group of seven members met every week to discuss parts we would volunteer to research and write. We came from varied backgrounds and library experience levels, including one member who worked at a law library and another who came from the marketing industry. We all talked about the mission statement and values and gave our individual approvals for the final draft before we got into the rest of the plan because we anticipated that it would set the tone for the rest of the plan. We volunteered to write parts of the environment scan where our strengths lie, and I chose Technological Developments. In the SWOT analysis, I and another member worked together to fill out the Weaknesses section. This group project was a well-constructed assignment that demonstrated to me best practices in starting a strategy and developing a plan of action.

This evidence demonstrates my ability to develop a strategic plan and take responsibility for a section while working collaboratively in a team. 

Conclusion

There is a commonly held perception that libraries are outdated, slow to respond, and going obsolete, and people forget that libraries are interested in investing in reliable and useful access to authoritative information to its patrons. This competency is valuable to the profession because strengthening the community and not overloading it with unecessary expenditures and maintenance requires careful planning and judicious management, in addition to meeting the community where they are at by being transparent with industrious marketing and advocacy. 

References

Breeding, M. (2022). Managing technology. In S. Hirsh (Ed.), Information services today: An introduction (3rd Ed., pp. 793-829). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

De Rosa, C. & Johnson, J. (2008). From Awareness to Funding: A study of library support in America. Dublin, OH: OCLC. https://www.oclc.org/research/publications/all/funding.html

Jones, S. F. (2022). Managing budgets. In S. Hirsh (Ed.), Information services today: An introduction (3rd Ed., pp. 685-707). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Mackenzie-Ruppel, M. L., Haller, B., & Goch, R. (2022). Managing human resources. In S. Hirsh (Ed.), Information services today: An introduction (3rd Ed., pp. 708-744). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

OCLC and American Library Association. (2018). From Awareness to Funding: Voter Perceptions and Support of Public Libraries in 2018. Dublin, OH: OCLC. https://doi.org/10.25333/C3M92X.

Ozoh, R. (2021). Planning change management/strategic planning: Maintaining a competitive advantage [PowerPoint slides]. Canvas@SJSU. https://sjsu.instructure.com/

Rosenblum, L. G. (2022). Strategic planning. In S. Hirsh (Ed.), Information services today: An introduction (3rd Ed., pp. 597-630). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Sweeney, P. (2022). Advocacy. In S. Hirsh (Ed.), Information services today: An introduction (3rd Ed., pp. 896-915). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.