Action plans are the blueprints for getting things done in your library. Don’t miss these important reminders when you’re writing yours.

This week’s how-to-do-it tip comes from Creating Your Library’s Business Plan: A How-To-Do-It Manual with Samples on CD-ROM by Joy HP Harriman. It’s full of templates, worksheets, case studies, and samples from a wide variety of libraries, big and small, to help you create your business plan quickly and efficiently, saving you time, money, and frustration.

Action plans name the specific work done to achieve the strategies and reach your objectives. Each action plan is a small event contributing to the growth of the service. Each plan statement directly relates to an objective and a strategy by describing a specific task with a deadline….

Putting together an action plan of the main activities necessary to achieve the objectives and strategies of your business plan requires a great deal of communication. Make sure all stakeholders understand the reasons for change by providing as much information as possible and keeping the dialogue moving. Communication will always have to be tailored to the interests and understanding of the listener. Not every staff person comes to the table with the same background, experiences, or emotional awareness. Those factors must be taken into account and used to adapt messages.

Include information in the action plan about participation or support by leaders, strategic alliances, or partnering. This can be a strong signal of the library’s significance and potential for success to anyone reading the business plan. If the plan is being used to apply for support, a grant, or funding, then explain how much support or money or is needed, how it will be used, or how you plan to meet the requirements.  Core elements to include in your action plans:

• If possible, each plan will have a stated impact
• Each plan is directly related to a strategy; the strategy is related to an objective
• As much as possible each plan has an identified budget; clarify how much support or money is needed for this project and how it will be used
• List each step in the action plan
• Each step is prioritized, specific, measurable (metrics or milestones), doable, and timed
• The individual responsible has direct involvement in creating the plan and has access to necessary resources
• Results are assessed at timed stages and according to budget
• Supervisors are aware of the timeline for which they need to support the work by either rewarding staff for completing them or correcting if necessary
• Timelines and specific steps are clearly communicated
• Allowances and contingency plans are built in
• Flexibility is a quality to be understood by all involved in the process
• The individual responsible is provided with adequate tools, knowledge, and training to complete the job
• Individual performance follow-up is conducted at frequent intervals to determine if the plans are moving on course or if coaching is required or if the objective, goal, or plan requires shifting

- Excerpted from Creating Your Library’s Business Plan: A How-To-Do-It Manual with Samples on CD-ROM, pp. 135-137. © 2008 by Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

Remember, there is a practical, new How-To-Do-It Tip from Neal-Schuman’s acclaimed How-To-Do-It Manuals® every two weeks. Make sure you never miss an update by subscribing to our blog feed or signing up for email delivery.

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CHICAGO - American Library Association (ALA) President Molly Raphael and Neal-Schuman President Patricia Glass Schuman today announced that on Dec. 23, 2011, Neal-Schuman Publishers will become part of ALA Publishing.

Neal-Schuman Publishers, founded by John Vincent Neal and Patricia Glass Schuman in 1976, will continue to offer print and electronic publications under the well known imprint, but will join ALA Editions, TechSource and the new Huron Street Press under the ALA Publishing umbrella, which also includes ALA Digital Reference, Booklist Publications, American Libraries and ALA Graphics.

“We are very excited about Neal-Schuman joining the ALA family,” Raphael said. “We look forward to continuing the tradition that Pat Schuman and Jack Neal have established – as the best in library and information science education. We welcome the creativity and energy of the imprint and the contribution we see it making to the Association as it seeks to provide the highest quality resources, education and training in this rapidly changing digital environment.”

“Jack Neal and I are extremely proud of the company we have built over the last 36 years, ” said Neal-Schuman co-founder Pat Schuman, who has served as both ALA president and treasurer. “We see ALA as a perfect home for Neal-Schuman, where the imprint can continue to grow and evolve, serving a new generation of librarians.”

Over the next three months, ALA plans on relocating Neal-Schuman operations from New York City to Chicago. Neal-Schuman will continue to maintain a separate product line.

According to ALA Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels, the acquisition of Neal-Schuman closely supports the Association’s strategic goals, which include making the highest quality library service available to all library users and making the highest quality, affordable face-to-face and online continuing education available to libraries.

“New technologies offer the possibility for everyone working in libraries to have access to the training and continuing education they need to provide the best possible service to their users,” said Fiels. “At the same time, rapid changes in technology and our communities themselves make it essential that those who work in libraries have access to the latest information and training on a wide range of topics. The pressure to keep up is tremendous.”

ALA Editions authors have played a growing role in online continuing education for the profession, Fiels noted, and Neal-Schuman’s rich content and many author-experts will allow ALA to offer a much broader range of online and face-to-face learning, as well as enriching ALA Editions’ growing list of e?books. Neal-Schuman publishes hundreds of well known titles, including the popular How-To-Do-It series, The Tech Set® and many textbooks used by library and information science graduate programs.

“The Neal-Schuman imprint will enable the association to expand its publishing program and to bring in new revenue that will augment support for member programs and services,” said ALA Treasurer Jim Neal. “We need to find new financial sources to sustain and grow our capacity in legislative advocacy, public awareness, intellectual freedom, diversity and the full range of ALApriorities.”  Neal also cited the rich potential for expanded international sales in Europe and Asia and the capacity to extend ALA’s electronic publishing capacity.

“Like libraries across the U.S., ALA has been challenged by the economic downturn,” according to Neal, “but thanks to careful stewardship of our resources over many decades, ALA remains fiscally strong.  It is important for the Association to invest in its future to develop new markets and products and, thus, to better serve libraries and ALA members.”

About Neal-Schuman

Neal-Schuman is the leading independent publisher of professional books for librarians, archivists and knowledge managers. Founded in 1976 by Patricia Glass Schuman and John Vincent Neal, the company is based in New York City, with offices in London, England.

Neal-Schuman is considered a premier publisher in the field because of its unique access to librarians and others working on the cutting edge of new services. Neal-Schuman has become the leading publisher of materials specifically designed  to help librarians build on their traditional skill sets and embrace new technologies. Neal-Schuman has more than 500 new, revised and backlist titles in print. In addition, the company markets or copublishes some 200 books and monographs from Chandos Publications, Facet Books (the official imprint of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals), the Medical Library Association and others.

About ALA, ALA Editions and ALA Publishing

ALA Publishing includes ALA Editions, TechSource and the Huron Street Press, as well as ALA Digital Reference, Booklist, Book Links, American Libraries and ALA Graphics.

The publishing imprint of the American Library Association, ALA Editions develops resources, mostly books, for the library and information services community. More than 100,000 copies of ALA Editions titles are purchased each year, helping to support ALA’s general programs. ALA authors are leaders across the field, with their ALA books distributed and valued throughout the world.

ALA Editions’ roots go back more than a century.  The American Library Association committed itself to publishing useful materials for library professionals and researchers. It established a Publishing Section at its 1886 conference in Milwaukee. The Term “Editions” replaced “Books” in June 1994 as the reorganized operation looked forward to a future of multiple formats. With more than 450 new and backlist titles, the publishing program consists of three separate imprints: Editions books and e-books for professional development; TechSource periodicals and online training; and Huron Street Press, a new list for the public.

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The Winter 2011 issue of Documents to the People, the journal of the American Library Association’s Government Documents Round Table, called Fundamentals of Government Information: Mining, Finding, Evaluating, and Using Government Resources by Eric Forte, Cassandra Hartnett, and Andrea Sevetson “a book that will quickly become a staple of government information librarianship coursework and an essential resource for librarians who work in the field.”

The review also called the book “an essential textbook for students and instructors, an invaluable how-to manual for the new or occasional government information librarian, an informative guide for even the most experienced professional, and a fun read for anyone who loves exploring information.”

Congratulations to the authors!

Click here to learn more about Fundamentals of Government Information.

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Caroline Kennedy commended Barbara K. Stripling, co-author of Teaching for Inquiry, in her keynote address for the ALA’s I Love My Librarian awards ceremony last week. Kennedy called Stripling “one of the educators I admire most,” adding, “Barbara has transformed school libraries throughout this city. She is a generous friend, an inspirational leader and has made a real difference in the lives of the 1.1 million students in NYC public schools.”

Click here to learn more about Teaching for Inquiry.

Click here to read the entire text of Kennedy’s speech.

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Sheila is a library director in a small Midwestern town. Recently, the town’s oldest citizen, Maebel Jones, came in to discuss plans for giving a gift upon her death. Unfortunately, the gift came with a few strings. Sheila met with the library’s board of trustees, who told her that she needed to write up a gifts policy. Donor and patron gifts are a common source of funding for libraries. But as with anything involving money, there are several important considerations that should go into any decision making process for donor gifts.

Today’s How-To-Do-It Tip comes from Managing Budgets and Finances: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians and Information Professionals by Arlita W. Hallam and Teresa R. Dalston. This how-to explains and illustrates the nuts and bolts, including types of budgets and how to create and revise them, ways of tracking spending and fund allocation, and timelines for financial planning, such as capital spending.

Before accepting a gift or writing a gifts policy, consider the following:

1. What conditions, or “attached strings,” are acceptable to the library?

2. Does giving a collection, building, or land guarantee naming rights to the library or collection? What are the criteria for naming rights?

3. Is it the donor’s intent that this be an unconditional gift? May the gift be used for any purpose, or is it a designated gift (e.g., for the building fund or for collection development for the genealogy collection)?

4. When will the gift be available for use? Does the library receive the gift before or after the donor’s death? Is the gift an outright donation, or is it established as a trust?

5. What are the donors’ expectations for the gift? (Does the donor realize that it may be circulated, put on reference, sold at the next Friends of the Library book sale, etc.?)

6. What level of gift may each governing body accept? Do gifts of a certain monetary level or gifts requiring ongoing funds for maintenance need to be approved by a higher governing board?

-Excerpted from: Managing Budgets and Finances: A How-To-Do-It Manual, pp. 162. ©2011 by Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

Remember, there is a practical, new How-To-Do-It Tip from Neal-Schuman’s acclaimed How-To-Do-It Manuals® every two weeks. Make sure you never miss an update by subscribing to our blog feed or signing up for email delivery.

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Having grown up in an increasingly digital environment, many of today’s college students think that they can conduct research by simply Googling a topic. But doing so will not yield fruitful results. Engaging First-Year Students in Meaningful Library Research: A Practical Guide for Teaching Faculty will help academic librarians and other instructors instill successful research skills in the new generation of scholars.

From the press release:

First-year students have had trouble conducting research tasks since the dawn of time, but today’s generation of undergraduates faces the increasingly complex online information environment with too- frequent reliance on Internet tools like Google. Academic librarians and other instructors have the immense challenge of teaching students not only how to conduct research, but often what research really is. Engaging First-Year Students in Meaningful Library Research: A Practical Guide for Teaching Faculty, to be released in North America by Neal-Schuman Publishers on January 20, 2012, discusses the importance of instilling information literacy competencies in first-year students and offers practical strategies for doing so, arming them with skills they will need throughout their college and professional careers.

Click here to find out more about this and other titles in Neal-Schuman’s press release database.

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