D - Planning and Advocacy
Apply the fundamental principles of planning, management, marketing, and advocacy.
Introduction and Explication
Digital Information Age information professionals act as advocates for their organizations and the communities they serve and recognize that positive user experiences lie at the heart of internal and external organizational success and sustainability (Reference and User Services Association, 2019). To fully achieve this mandate, the development of a clear, stream-lined, strategic plan is crucial for information centers seeking to identify and evaluate essential and emerging needs, and eliminate service redundancy which do not meet organizational and community goals. As part of the strategic plan, a marketing plan that enables targeting communications in multiple formats is critical for effective stakeholder outreach and engagement. Digital Information Age information professionals recognize the inevitably of organizational change and understand that an informed and proactive change management strategy is critical.
Strategic Planning
Defined as an approach to solving the problem of ensuring long-term organizational viability and sustainability, strategic planning involves the assessment of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to an organization’s functional and operational elements, and the resources required to address identified issues of concern (Rosenblum, 2018). The development, implementation, assessment, and revision of a strategic plan always occurs within the context of professional principles and best practices; organizational mission and goals; stakeholder information needs; and budgetary requirements and constraints. The fundamental goal of a strategic plan is to increase organizational efficiency, accountability, and long-term sustainability (Rosenblum, 2018).
As with all organizations “in rapidly changing sectors with challenging fiscal models that serve diverse constituencies”, libraries, archives, and other information centers rely on innovative, forward-thinking strategic planning to sustain themselves for the long term (Rosenblum, 2018). Because of funding, staffing, and other resource constraints, information organizations utilize the strategic planning process to identify those services, programs, activities, and resources essential to their missions and goals and, in turn, intentionally direct their limited resources toward those areas first (Rosenblum, 2018).
An effective plan provides a transparent and accountable organizational roadmap to stakeholders, promotes staff collaboration and cooperation, and justifies budgets (Rosenblum, 2018). Planning begins with the development of a planning team composed of identified organizational leaders and other internal stakeholders. This team conducts an environmental scan and assesses organizational strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The scan occurs within the contexts of information science and current sociocultural, economic, and political trends. Technical, legal and regulatory issues must also be considered. Within this framework, the planning team identifies the organization’s strategic planning issues; formulates strategies to address those issues; develops and implements a salient organizational vision; and iteratively measures, analyzes, reassesses, and revises the plan in response to assessed outcomes (Rosenblum, 2018). As a tool to facilitate sustainability, the plan is a forward-looking strategy that envisions the organization’s future. Therefore, it is intentionally crafted and implemented for a specified time period and includes a statement of strategic vision (e.g., five years) (Rosenblum, 2018).
Management
In information organizations, management is a multi-faceting function and responsibility that encompasses all aspects of organizational effectiveness including user experience; services; budgets; collections; technologies; programs; personnel; and facilities (Hirsh, 2018, p. 229). Digital Information Age information professionals embrace change, manage it strategically, and understanding the structural requirements of planned change management including building a sense of organizational urgency and engagement in the organization; developing and communicating a vision for the change; overcoming obstacles and setting short- and long-term goals; and building upon the change by “anchoring [it] in the organization” (Barefoot, 2018). As innovative change leaders, effective information professionals uphold a positive vision for changes; adopt changes early; support stakeholders through changes; and communicate with, listen to, and address the feedback of stakeholders with the intention of creating “an atmosphere of acceptance and transparency” that inspires positive organizational change (Barefoot, 2018).
Marketing
Today’s libraries and archives are dynamic, socially responsible entities responsible for providing user-centered, information-specific solutions targeted to meet the evolving needs and norms of society (Barefoot, 2018). In order for these solutions to have expansive and lasting impact, however, information professionals must employ theory-based strategies and techniques to promote them to their internal and external stakeholder communities. Marketing plans and stakeholder outreach and engagement initiatives are essential, inter-related communication strategies employed by effective information organizations seeking to “provide evidence that they add value to the communities served” (Alman, 2018, p. 339). An outgrowth of an organization’s strategic plan, a marketing plan outlines the organization’s targeted strategy to inform and engage a specific group, or to promote a specific message or service in its physical and digital spaces (Alman, 2018). As with all actions and transactions within an information organization, the marketing plan should center around user feedback and information needs.
Traditional methods of promotion and outreach, such as press releases, newsletters, and other publications, can contribute to an organization’s outreach benchmarks, but their standard formats do not always actively solicit direct and immediate user/organization interaction. Nor do they reflect the collaborative values of a user-oriented, interactive approach to stakeholder engagement. Fortunately, content in physical newsletters and publications easily translate to, and merge with, online environments and platforms, allowing them to be posted on multiple platforms at once, and to reach a broader, more diverse audience. In this way, these traditional methods become part of an information organization’s online strategies for marketing, outreach, and engagement. When used strategically, online tools of engagement allow information organization’s to reach – via multiple platforms – existing and potential users through targeted, interactive, measurable campaigns of engagement (Parilla & Ferriter, 2016). Well-structured, social media strategies are rooted in transparent and equitable professional practices which, in turn, strengthen outreach efforts, build social networks, promote collections, programs, and events, and can improve internal efficiency.
Advocacy
In the Digital Information Age, a successful information professional is a proactive champion for an informed and creative citizenry (Pawley, 2018). We advocate for intellectual freedom and human agency; collaborate with other information centers to increase the breadth of information available to our community members; actively advocate for intellectual freedom and open-access resource solutions(Abram, 2018; Hirsh, 2018). By consistently assessing societal trends in technology and human behaviors, libraries and archives role-model and function as key hubs of innovation, creation, and collaboration for their patrons (Abram, 2018; Hirsh, 2018).
Evidence
Evidence 1: Lifting Off: Actualizing OMSI’s 20-Year Strategic Vision Links to an external site.
Lifting Off: Actualizing OMSI’s 20-Year Strategic Vision is part of a group project in which we conducted an organizational analysis of an existing information organization. To complete the project the group identified and researched the organization, and conducted an environmental scan and SWOT analysis within the contexts of information science and current sociocultural, economic, and political trends. Additionally, technological, legislative, and regulatory issues were considered. This document builds upon those activities to produce a list of five concrete, user-centered goals and actionable recommendations for the organization’s internal stakeholders in the form of a report for internal stakeholders. My project tasks included conducting organization research on the organization’s mission, values, and strategic goals; researching economic trends and their impacts on physical information centers during a global pandemic; developing objectives and recommendations for shifting proprietary technology access to an open, community-centered model; collaborating with my team to articulate other objectives and goals; composing meeting notes and action items; and outlining, developing content for, and co-editing the the report. The ethical principles, values and best practices of the information profession provided the central tenet of the proposed strategy: the user experience.
The user experience (UX) lies at the heart of a successful Digital Age information. Bignoli and Stara (2021) explain that “user experience (UX) design is the philosophy of considering spaces, services, and processes from the end user’s point of view”. Whether services are provided in digital or physical environments, usability and findability of information are key elements of this philosophy (Bignoli & Stara, 2021). Additionally, accessibility, usefulness, and credibility of an interaction affect user perceptions (McDonald, 2018). From an UX perspective, an information organization’s most important role is that of community anchor (McDonald, 2018). In the context of information centers, being a community anchor means functioning as an advocate for community-identified needs and providing resources and assistance to meet those needs. For example, libraries may provide access to technology and education that supports constituents' ability to use the internet, thus reducing the Digital Divide. Additionally, effective, UX-directed information centers are reliable and credible places to gain knowledge, and are constantly evolving their services in response to user feedback. Information practitioners in such environments are proactive, intuitive, creative, curious, visible, and empathic (McDonald, 2018). We make ourselves available to users in a variety of ways (e.g., in-person, online), provide information literacy instruction, implement meaningful programming, and create collaborative opportunities for patrons (Tunon, 2018).
This organizational analysis and stakeholder report functions as evidence of my mastery of Competency D by exemplifying my capacity to holistically and strategically investigate, analyze, and craft evidence-based, actionable recommendations by which an information organization can engage more fully with their information communities, more effectively meet information needs in the Digital Information Age, and evolve into an equitable physical and digital community space that invites a broader audience to participate in its programs and services.
Evidence 2: First Public-Facing Annual Sustainability Report Links to an external site.
To transparently elucidate and promote Portland Pet Food Company’s (PPFC) sustainable business initiatives, and to ensure organizational accountability to all stakeholders, I created this evidence-based report for publication on Portland Pet Food Company’s website. The report documents my strategic communication efforts as PPFC’s Sustainability Coordinator to conceptualize and actualize the initiative’s values of transparency and accountability. To accomplish this, I identified and developed the initiative’s core imperative and articulated its impact areas for FY 2022. In combination with PPFC’s sustainable brand accreditation from the Pet Sustainability Coalition (for which I was the project lead), the report directly facilitated industry recognition for the company in October 2024 Links to an external site..
This report functions as evidence of Competency D by highlighting my abilities to proactively identify stakeholder information needs within the context of the industry and my organization’s missions and goals, to advocate for all stakeholders by developing a customer-centered, evidence-based strategic report to meet those needs, to market that report broadly across numerous platforms, and to celebrate and promote my organization’s successes in a transparent and accountable manner that aligns with the organization’s values and the principles and best practices of the information profession.
Conclusion
In order for our organizations to meet their strategic priorities, information professionals uphold a user-centered, community-led strategic vision that embraces diversity, equity and inclusion. We develop innovative strategic plans for our organizations in support of organizational transparency, accountability, and fiscal integrity. We listen to our stakeholders when designing and iteratively assessing innovative, accessible, and usable policies, services, programs, and spaces, and comply with legal and regulatory requirements for the management of sensitive data. Additionally, we employ creative, multi-platform marketing intiatives, engage in proactive change management, and consistently advocate for democratic knowledge creation and sharing for all peoples.
References
Altman, S. W. (2018). Communication, marketing, and outreach strategies. In Information services today : an introduction (pp. 331–342). Rowman & Littlefield.
American Library Association. (n.d.). Mission & priorities. About ALA. https://www.ala.org/aboutala/node/229/ Links to an external site.
Barefoot, R. (2018). Change management. In Information services today : an introduction (pp. 246–255). Rowman & Littlefield.
Bignoli, C., & Stara, L. (2021, March 1). Users at the center of everything: A crash course in UX for your library. American Libraries Magazine.
Hirsh, S. (2018). Information services today : an introduction (Second). Rowman & Littlefield.
McDonald, C. (2018). User experience. In S. K. Hirsh (Ed.), Information services today: An introduction (Second ed., pp. 170–182). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Parilla, L., & Ferriter, M. (2016). Social media and crowdsourced transcription of historical materials at the Smithsonian Institution: Methods for strengthening community engagement and its tie to transcription output. The American Archivist, 79(2), 438–460. https://doi.org/10.17723/0360-9081-79.2.438 Links to an external site.
Reference and User Services Association. (2019, August 14). About RUSA. Reference & User Services Association (RUSA). https://www.ala.org/rusa/about Links to an external site.
Rosenblum, L. (2018a). Strategic planning. In Information services today : an introduction (pp.231–245). Rowman & Littlefield.
Tunon, J. (2018). Information intermediation and reference services. In S. Hirsh (Ed.), Information services today: An introduction (Second ed., pp. 129–141). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.