Library Unbound ...

Welcome to Library Unbound – our new strategic plan.  Some pieces of it are still in process (as you will see), but I wanted to share what we have so far, so you can see where we are heading.  It will definitely impact all of us.

The first thing you should know is why we’re doing this ... What’s the purpose? ... Why do anything differently than we have? – After all, our members like us, and we do a good job, our funding is strong ...  So, what’s the big deal?

For me it boils down to this: 

We currently have less that 24% market penetration.  That means fewer than one-in-four of all household in Oklahoma County have an active library card.  In addition, for every new card holder we add, we lose more than two.  A recent survey conducted by OLA found that nearly nine-of-ten eligible voters believed that libraries are important to communities, and that they and their families get good value from their library.  How long do we think this will continue if we have less than 24% market penetration, and we lose more members than we add every year?

So, we needed a new way to look at our business, in order to ensure that we can deliver value to our members now and in the future.

As you know, we have created (and the Commission has adopted) the foundation for the strategic plan (also referred to as the Strategic Outline and Principles, or SOaP), which includes our mission, vision, core values, and 20-year goal.  The full SOaP can be found at: http://www.metrolibrary.org/guiding.

While I won’t hammer on this too long, our mission is to “grow smarter communities, one person at a time,” and the way we will reach it will be to achieve the vision: “to be our community’s hub for critical thinking, creative problem-solving, and lifelong enrichment.”  It’s the 20-year goal that really sets the table for the work we have ahead of us: “By 2035, every person in the community will use a library service.”  While the other statements were nice and well-meaning, the 20-year goal throws down the gauntlet.  It may not be dynamic or super inspiring, but it tells us where we want be, and it gives us a deadline.  To aid us in charting our course toward this 100% goal, we identified five measures to act as weigh stations along the highway, helping us to gauge our progress regularly.  The five measures are:

1. Increased market penetration
2. Increased member retention
3. Increased Net Promoter score
4. Increased destinational traffic
5. Increase circulation of children’s materials in areas of high risk

Because several of these measures require us to gather data that is currently unavailable, we determined that we would narrow our focus and use only two of them – market penetration and member retention – as the primary data points for the next year.  So, what that means is our goals over the next year (and beyond) is to:

1. Get people to sign up for cards (Market Penetration), and
2. Make sure they use those cards at least once (Member Retention).

Collectively, we are calling these two “M&M,” (Market Penetration and Member Retention), so you will likely hear more about M&M in the future.   Additionally, while we will add in the other three measures later in the lifecycle of the plan, they will not be addressed in year one. 

The targets for M&M over the next three years are pretty straight forward.  We will:

1. Increase market penetration over the next three years from 24% to 40%, with a 20% increase in in FY2016-17.  This will move us from the bottom quartile of our peers to the upper half.
2. Increase member retention by 15% over three years, with a target of 5% in FY2016-17.  Likewise, this will move us into the upper half of libraries similar to us.

These are not inconsequential numbers, but we will reach them by prioritizing our resources, time, and efforts so that we will intentionally reach our goal.  The targets will focus us on expanding membership by enticing them to sign-up for cards while also strengthening our connections with our existing members to ensure that they remain active users.

The next step in the planning process began a month or so ago, when we asked department managers across the Library to draft their annual business plans.  These plans were their descriptions of how they would help achieve our system-wide measures.  After they submitted their initial plans, we worked with our consultants from OrangeBoy to determine how we would classify and think about activities and projects aimed at increasing our M&M, and we decided to use the four experiences most common in the libraries’ business plans.  They were (along with a sampling of what might be included):

1. Collection Anywhere – experiences that focus on delivering information anywhere, anytime
   May include:  A large Digital Library serving all member segments and needs.  Small, but high-circulation physical collections onsite for adult members.  Ample physical youth collections supporting reading and school success.  Small but highly circulating physical teen collection focused on reading.  Offsite warehouse (Collection Anywhere Center) housing moderately use collections, system last copies, and InterReach collections.  Expanded networks of libraries for retrieving anything for our members and delivering it fast.

2. TeXperiences – experiences that use technology to enhance effectiveness and efficiency
   May include:  Increased investment in tech devices for in-library and lendable use to extend use of the Digital Library.  More floor space for computer workstations.  “Catalog showroom” for technology-enabled learning and play.  Technology to accelerate and simplify the experience and work of staff and our members: sorting systems, discovery systems, and automation and handling systems.  Use of open data to deliver targeted tech experiences and solutions.  Gaming stations to extend the virtual narrative, and use of visualizations to activate data.

3. Playful Learning – experiences that engage members in play and focus on learning
   May include:  Open sightlines across the library.  Bright, inviting spaces with room to physically play and engage.  Intergenerational spaces for multi-dimensional learning.  Pop-up (point-of-need) learning activities/programs.  Learning toys and games available for in-library and home use. Spaces truly focused on the needs of people, not to warehousing equipment or the collections.  Meeting, study, and multi-purpose rooms incorporating library and member-owned technology.

4. InterReach – experiences that reach into the community from the local library
   May include:  Staff resources targeted at reaching into community.  Partnerships that reach new audiences.  Pop-up “libraries” for targeted experiences at external events and gatherings.  Library sponsored in-school events.  Literacy and homework help onsite and offsite.  Subject collections lent to schools/classrooms/partners.  Embedded librarians in government agencies, local nonprofits, and other groups that share the Library’s mission and outcomes.

Each manager will revise her business plan, focusing specifically on increasing M&M and aligning all activities to one of the four objectives/experiences listed above.  Most of the activities related to Collection Anywhere will be budgeted and managed centrally, since most collections-related functions are already centralized, and digital collections are available anywhere the member is located.  Because we recognize that we will have the greatest impact engaging with local groups and individuals when doing so locally, activities associated with InterReach will be budgeted and managed at the local library level.  Activities in the two remaining areas – TeXperiences and Playful Learning – will be budgeted both centrally and locally, depending on the specific activity.  Additionally, we will ask libraries to create InterReach and TeXperiences-focused pilot projects that will deliver increased M&M.  These will be funded through an internal RFP process in which administration will award funds to a library (or libraries) that innovate potentially high return-on-investment services.  The intention is to incentivize risk-taking locally in hopes of achieving breakthrough results that can be rolled out to the entire system.

The final phase of the planning process involves having the support departments create their business plans.  While most departments do not deliver direct services to the public, everything they do meets a need or enables a library to meet a need.  Specifically, the departments will craft plans that support and enhance the customer experience system-wide through Collection Anywhere.  They will offer collaborative assistance during the RFP development process, ensuring that our libraries and other public service departments are able to refine and amplify TeXperiences, Playful Learning, and InterReach experiences.  Lastly, their plans will generate higher levels of productivity, identifying new methods of getting things done, while increasing efficiency and effectiveness.

Over the next few weeks, all of these business plans will come together and we will be allocating the FY2016-17 budget.  Undoubtedly there will be changes – to collections, service models, buildings, programming, marketing, technology, etc., -- you name it, small and large changes will occur.  And I hope that this message helps you understand a bit more about why the changes are necessary and how, by working together, we will help ease the transition.

We need to add new households to our membership and keep our existing card holders active so that we can build momentum and chip away at the 20-year goal of everyone using the library.  We will all need to focus on efforts that support Collection Anywhere, TeXperieces, Playful Learning, and InterReach, while the departments helps improve the customer experience, enhance system-wide productivity, and support collaborative pilot programs that incentivize risk-taking.  We will live the core values, and in so doing, will achieve the vision of being the community’s hub for critical thinking, creative problem-solving, and lifelong enrichment.  And all of this will result in us growing smarter communities, one person at a time.

This new direction fundamentally changes how we and our members will see the library now, and in years to come.  The plan is called “Library Unbound” because it unshackles us from aspects of public library management that might have worked well in the past but are not positioned to do so today.  It also frees us to think of new ways to serve, engage, and deliver value to our growing community.  

Let me know what you think so far ...

-- Tim