un

Do You Know What Your Mission Is?-A CLEAR SENSE OF

PURPOSE PROVIDES

AN ESSENTIAL >

FOUNDATION FOR

SUCCESSFUL

STRATEGIC PLANNING

FOR THE FUTURE."

by J A N E T Libraries are suf-L. B A L A S fering from an iden-

tity crisis. It usedto be so simple—they were aboutbooks. Librariansacquired books,cataloged them, ar-ranged them in prop-er order on shelves,and helped patronsfind the ones they

wanted to read or use for research. But it'snot so simple anymore. Libraries still havehooks, but they also have audio and video ma-terials. And then there is the Internet withits vast resources that some feel will soon ren-der libraries obsolete when everything inprint becomes available online.

In response, libraries have diversified. Wenow promote our organizations as destina-tions for entertainment and social activities.We are opening cafes, installing game ma-chines in teen areas, promotingtheuseofourcomputers (not only for research but also forsocial networking activities such as bloggingand picture sharing), and developing pro-gramming to appeal to people who are look-ing for entertainment. Bernard Vavrek iden-tified this trend in an article that appearedin American Libraries in 2001. "Wanted!Entertainment Director" proposed that weshould promote the entertainment value ofthe library instead of the more traditionalrole of information source, since the Internetcan and is handling that function in a man-ner that is quite satisfactory to most infor-

mation seekers. Vavrek suggested that therole of the library director is to be an enter-tainment director because the mission of li-braries has changed; their role now is to en-tertain rather than to inform.

It's aTopsy-Turvy World

It's a topsy-turvy world now, with cafesand the Internet in libraries and books incafes and on the Internet.

Perhaps librarians are abandoning bookstoo quickly. While we are seeking to expandbeyond being repositories for books, otherestablishments appear to be rediscoveringthem. Starbucks has recently introduced sev-eral initiatives that are concerned with booksand reading. One is the Starbucks Book Break,which was held on Oct. 26,2006. This nation-wide event took place at more than 27 Star-bucks locations as readers of Mitch Alhom'sFor One More Day met to discuss the novel.Starbucks intended for the discussion to con-tinue via a blog to allow interaction betweenreaders and the author.

According to several news reports, Star-bucks also has plans to distribute books in alimited way as it has begun to do with musicand movies. The Motley Fool has noted theseefforts, as has USA TODAY and The BookStandard. According to the article on The BookStandard Web site, Starbucks has signed anagreement with the William Morris Agency to"suggest film, music and book projects to pro-mote and market in Starbucks locations." Ti-tles would be carefully selected to appeal toStarbucks customers.

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IN

online treasures

The initiatives at Starbucks involvenew books, but there is a new online ser-vice that promotes the circulation ofolder books. Entitled BookMooch, theWeb site identifies itself as "a commu-nity for exchanging used books." Mem-bers of BookMooch earn points by list-ing their used book titles on the site andthen sending them to other users whorequest them. Members redeem pointsby requesting titles from among thoseoffered by others. Membership is free,but users must pay the postage to sendtheir books to requesters. In order tocontinue to be eligible to receive books,participants must give away one bookfor every five they receive. Members cancreate book wish lists and be notifiedwhen titles become available.

1 particularly appreciated the ex-planation of why '"mooch" was chosenfor the name. According to tbe site'sfounder, one of the meanings of moocbis "to borrow something without in-

tending to return it." Cer-tainly many library pa-trons would prefer to"mooch" a book ratherthan borrow and returnit. Actually, sometimes Ithink that is the inten-tion of many patrons. It isironic that, as librariansseek to modernize tbeirservices and collections,BookMooch has steppedin to serve readers inter-ested in older titles.

IDing the Library's Missionfor Today and Tomorrow

All of this is very confusing to li-brarians and trustees who are trying todecide what our organizations shouldbe and what services they should offer.While it is important to be aware of thecompetition, we cannot hope to be suc-cessful if we are doing nothing morethan reacting to the capricious and of-tentimes contradictory trends in soci-ety. Libraries will always be playingcatch-up and will never be able toshake tbeir image of being behind tbetimes. Administrators need to have aclear vision of the library's mission inorder to make consistent decisions onnew programs and services. The basison which any successful organizationmakes its decisions is its mission state-ment. As librarians and trustees planfor the future, they need to begin bywriting a concise statement of their li-

brary's mission.

It is easy to find ex-amples of library missionstatements on the Web.A quick search using anysearch engine will returna lengthy list of results.I decided to look for themission statement of theLibrary of Congress andfound it on its About tbeLibrary page, along withits strategic plan.

Examining the mission statementsof other libraries, such as the Libraryof Congress, can be helpful, but whendecision-makers sit down to write theirown, that blank whiteboard can be justa bit daunting. Fortunately, there ishelp available for those charged withthis task. A document that might helpat the beginning of the process is Howto Write a Mission Statement by JanelM. Radke, available as a PDF on theGrantmansbip Center Web site. It de-tails wby a mission statement is nec-essary and lists the three questions itmust answer. Several examples of mis-sion statements are examined to seehow they answer these questions.

Mission statements are not unique tolibraries, so resources on writing themfor businesses or nonprofit organiza-tions can often contain ideas and infor-mation that is applicable to libraries.I found several useful articles on theAbout.com Web site. One article, enti-tled How to Write a Mission Statement,is available in tbe Management sectionthat F. John Reh, an About.com guide,maintains. This article breaks the pro-cess into 12 steps. At the end of the ar-ticle are links to related materials.

One of tbe links led to another articlein the Nonprofit Charitable Orgs area ofAbout.com. This article by the section'sguide, Joanne Fritz, was called MissionImpossible? How to Write Your MissionStatement. It explains tbe importanceof a well-written mission statement, of-fers tips on writing one, and provides ex-amples from real organizations. Again,there are links to additional resources.

While tbe general principles of writ-ing a mission statement apply to li-braries, it is helpful to learn from otherlibrarians who bave worked throughthe process and are willing to sharetheir hard-earned knowledge. Tbe Pri-vate Law Libraries Special InterestSection of the American Association ofLaw Libraries has developed a Mar-keting Toolkit that includes an articleon writing a mission statement and abibliography of materials on the topic.

www.infotoday.com '^ FEBRUARY 2007 3 1

C O M P U T E R S I N L I B R A R I E S

online treasures

The Ohio Library Council has de-veloped orientation materials for newstafFand has included a section on mis-sion statements. This section discussesbasic questions that a mission state-ment should answer, and directs usersto learn about their specific organiza-tions' mission statements and explorethose of other libraries through thelinks provided.

The Ohio Library Council also un-derstands that a clear mission state-

Resources Discussed

ment is essential for ef-fective marketing. Themarketing training ma-terials developed for pub-lic library staff include asection titled Mission &Goals for Internet Mar-keting. The section be-gins with the statement,"Marketing starts withthe mission." In additionto the discussion of how

Why Do Libraries Exist?What's your mission'

AboutPiinnKD i GM

Vavrek, Bernard. "Wanted! Entertainment Director." American Ubrories; June/July2001. Vol. 32, Issue 6, p. 68,4 pp.

Starbucks Book Break Group Home Pagehttp ://s tarbucks.gather com

The Starbucks Book Club—Fool.com: Motley Fool Take, Aug. 8, 2006www.fool.com/news/mft/2006/mft06080824.htm

USATODAY.com—Starbucks aims beyond lattes to extend brandwv/w.usatoday.com/money/indusrries/food/2006-05-1 B-starbucks-us3t_x.htm

Starbucks Looks to Books After Taking on Music and Movieswww.thebookstandard.com/bookstandard/news/retail/artic1e_display.jsp?vnu_content_id= 1002425815&imw=Y

BookMoocbwww.bookmooch.com

Mission and Strategic Plan of the Library (Library of Congress)www.loc.gov/about/mission

How to Write a Mission Statementwww.tgci.com/magazine/98fall/mission.asp

Write a Mission Statementhttp://management.about.com/cs/generaimanagement/ht/MissionStatemen.htm

Writing a Mission Statement—How to Write Your Mission Statement—Learn about Mission Statement Writinghttp://nonprofit.about.eom/od/nonprofitbasics/a/mission.htm

PLL-SIS Independentswww.aailnet.org/sis/pllsls/Toolkit/toolkit.asp

Mission, Orientation for New Employees, Ohio Library Councilwww.olc.org/orientation/lib.htm

Internet Mission and Goals, public library marketing trainingwww.oic.org/marketing/5mission.htm

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marketing efforts must be based on thefoundation of the library's mission, itpresents examples of Ohio libraries thatare effectively marketing services thatreflect their missions.

Writing a mission statement is dif-ficult, especially today when the needfor libraries is being openly questioned.Now more than ever, librarians, trustees,and patrons must determine how li-braries can best serve their commu-nities and express their conclusions intheir mission statements. Aclear senseof purpose provides an essential foun-dation for successful strategic planningfor the future. Proposed and existingservices, including space utilization,collection development, programming,outreach, and technology applications,should all reflect the library's mission,and we should evaluate their effective-ness on this basis, not on the basis of hownew and trendy they are. Successful niai'-keting also requires understanding theorganization's mission, since it wouldbe almost impossible to "sell" a serviceif you could not explain its value. It is nolonger enough to say that libraries mat-ter; we must be able to express why theymatter and demonstrate their value tousers and potential users. •

Janet L. Balas is library informationsystems specialist at Monroeville (Pa.)Public Library. Her email addresses arejbalas@telerama.lm.com and balasj@einetwork.net.

3 2 FEBRUARY 2007