Planning in the University Library

Comprehensive planning has become an essential element in the management of the modern university library. The purpose of this book is to help those now engaged in this important management function by summarising the history of academic library planning and analysing its practice in a group of major libraries over the past several decades. The most significant changes confronting academic libraries over the past decades have been technological, social and economic. Strategic planning is used as the tool for making these libraries more responsive to their environments and for helping them anticipate and prepare for change. Stanton F. Biddle examines the extent to which strategic planning is being employed, analyses the planning documents, and develops guidelines for improving the quality of future planning efforts. The volume begins with a discussion of strategic or long-range planning taken from the literature of management and organisational theory. The next chapter reviews the historical development of large academic libraries and practices to their administrations through the 1970s. The following chapter focuses on the widespead dissatisfaction with traditional approaches to library planning source documents, and the final chapter concludes with recommendations.