NMSU Library Strategic Plan Working Documents

NMSU Library's strategic planning process consists of several phases and functions. Five separate committees have been established and each are undertaking various parts of the process. On March 27th and 28th, a planning retreat organized by the Values Scanning/Mission Formulation Committee was held at the Holy Cross Retreat Center to scan the values of Library employees and our community and to begin reformulating the Library's mission statement.

The retreat was modeled after the "Future Search Conference" concept in which a large group of internal organizational members and external "stakeholders" meet to share and synthesize their vision of the future, evaluate the past, and devise strategies for directing the organization towards the future. This process is different from the meetings and committees an organization usually utilizes for planning and decision making in that it is focused on examining the whole system rather than solving problems within discrete areas.

The conference was attended by half of the Library's employees and an equal number of external participants. Among the latter were faculty, students, staff, community members, vendors and other information providers. These participants contributed their unique views of the Library and our future.

A framework of five questions evoked observations on the history, values, ideals, constraints and opportunities that effect us. After discussing relevant trends and values, we identified who the organization should serve, what products and services we should provide and how this should be accomplished. These were the basic elements of a draft mission statement. We then brainstormed specific actions for bridging the gap between the present and the future we envisioned.

Library staff noted with enthusiasm how much they had learned about themselves. After the conference several library participants met informally to share observations about the process. "I never thought about the Library that way," one participant commented. "We learned things about ourselves that weren't always good but we needed to know. We also learned what things we're doing right."

Since then, the results of the conference have been synthesized into mission and values statements and passed on to the next committee. This "strategic business modeling" committee is currently using them to establish the formal "lines of business" in which NMSU Library engages. These will give way to a set of goals and methods for measuring how well we accomplish our goals.

The committee will also identify "strategic business units." Such groups are very often not constrained to formal departments or traditional units within departments but are nonetheless instrumental to accomplishing certain goals. Costs and resource allocations for each line of business will be assessed in light of the newly devised goals and future environmental conditions and trends.

This phase is expected to require an intense 16 or more hours of work and we anticipate its completion by the end of May. We expect to finish the strategic plan and begin implementing it by the fall semester. Anyone interested in commenting on the planning process is invited to do so. A Web site has been established where planning documents can be viewed and e-mail comments can be made. The address is: http://lib.nmsu.edu/aboutlib/plan.

We would like to thank those who participated in the retreat and others who have contributed their input and guidance to this process. Particularly, we wish to thank Larry Mays, Phil Bernick, and Ellen Rosell who helped us organize a successful retreat.

Please address comments or questions about this document to Laural Adams, ladams@lib.nmsu.edu, Chair, Mission/Values Scan Committee

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