Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 Assistant Professor, Department of Knowledge and Information Science, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
2 Assistant Professor, Policy Evaluation and Science, Technology and Innovation Monitoring Department, National Research Institute for Science Policy (NRISP), Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Introduction
The situation of university libraries in Iran shows that due to the existence of a gap between strategy development and implementation, these organizations have not achieved much success in implementing their strategies, and there is a fear that the developed strategy, like the strategic plans of most organizations, will remain theoretical or its implementation will be postponed. Therefore, in the current research, it was decided to first examine the strategic plans that have been developed and implemented by the world's top academic libraries based on the Times ranking, and based on that and relying on the specific conditions of the country, a strategic plan for Iranian academic libraries will be developed. The current research sought to provide a simple and practical framework for the custodians, practitioners, and those interested in Iranian university libraries, so that based on this framework, they can provide a road map for activities and practical actions in libraries. It is expected that this research will be the starting point for the formulation of comprehensive and large national programs that will help to improve reading and study as well as the development of reading culture in the society. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to examine the strategic plan of academic libraries in the world and to present a proposed model for Iranian academic libraries.
Literature Review
A review of the conducted researches shows that the ever-increasing complexity of activities and continuous changes in organizations have made managers face new challenges that neglecting them will lead to irreparable consequences. Surveys indicate that the existence of a strategic plan helps to improve the performance of libraries and defines the direction of the organization and can provide a clear understanding of the performance of the library to the authorities and the user community. Investigations show that various researches have been conducted on the presentation of strategic plans, and on the other hand, the review of previous researches indicates that a large percentage of the proposed programs were only suggested and not implemented. This reason led to the present research, in order to provide a strategic plan for university libraries in Iran by using the strategic plans of the best university libraries in the world. Outside of Iran, many studies have been done to develop a strategic plan for libraries. Most of the mentioned researches have presented the findings obtained from the formulation or implementation of a strategic plan at the micro and macro levels of the activities of a university library.
Methodology
The current research is practical in terms of its purpose and it is hybrid in terms of method. In the current research, library, Delphi, and descriptive survey methods have been used. In this research, three questions have been raised, and to answer them, special tools related to each have been used. In response to the first question of the research regarding the identification of university libraries that have a strategic plan, first by referring to the website of the studied university library, if they have a strategic plan, the plan was extracted and stored, and if there was no section on the website under the title of the management plan. Ask me through the department or ask the librarian about the strategic plan of the library, and if no answer was received from this department, in the last step, the public relations manager or the director of public services of the library followed up on the strategic plan of the library and whether it was or not. The strategic plan was determined. In order to answer the second question of the research, which sought to identify the main criteria in the strategic plan of university libraries, the libraries that had a strategic plan were identified in the first stage, and in the second stage, their plans were analyzed and evaluated, and the principles of each of the plans were extracted. According to the reliability standard law, if the principle was common in at least 70% of the strategic plans, it is chosen as the principle of the strategic plan. To answer the third question of the research, after extracting the principles of the strategic plan of the library, a list consisting of various principles that are important in presenting the strategic plan (based on the main criteria of the strategic plan of the world's university libraries) was prepared. Then, with the Delphi method, the list was provided to 14 experts in the field of information science and epistemology and university libraries in Iran who had the experience of managing university libraries. In the last stage, according to the obtained results, a model for a strategic plan in Iranian university libraries was presented. The research community for identifying the strategic plan of the world's university libraries included the libraries of twenty-five top universities based on the Times ranking in 2020-2021. In the Times ranking system, educational, research, welfare, cultural and service criteria are emphasized, so they were chosen as the research ranking system.
Results
The results of the research showed that all the studied university libraries have a written strategic plan, but the strategic plan of 4 university libraries of Yale, Pennsylvania, London School of Economics and University of Washington is not up to date and out of date. Also, according to the investigations, the strategic plan of two university libraries, Stanford and Massachusetts, does not have a time frame. But most of the strategic plans developed for a period of 2 to 5 years have been presented. A brief look at the structure and content of the strategic plan of the world's academic libraries shows that the emphasis on the introduction section, necessary actions, implementation schedule and the mission of the library is more important than other components. The result of the analysis carried out in the current research; the strategic model of Iranian academic libraries is as follows. The proposed strategic model for Iranian academic libraries should include introduction, summary, mission, goal, vision, planning and implementation.
Discussion
In this research, the strategic plan of 25 university libraries ranked 1 to 25 in the Times ranking was examined and evaluated. According to the surveys, all 25 university libraries had a written strategic plan, which shows the importance of having a strategic plan for university libraries. The studied university libraries had a section entitled About Us on their home page, which was part of the strategic plan. In the survey that was conducted, strategic plans were presented in three ways. The first picture is that the different parts of the strategic plan were presented in a list form and by clicking on each part, the related information was provided. The second form was that a brief introduction of the strategic plan was placed on the site and the link to download the strategic plan was next. And the third form was that the strategic plan was fully presented in this section. In some university libraries, the presented program was complete and comprehensive with all the necessary details mentioned, and in others, the program was presented in a brief form, and finally, a model was designed for the program. The noteworthy point in the strategic plans of university libraries was the importance of the university to the strategic plan of the library, in several cases of the investigated libraries, the strategic plan of the library was presented as a part of the strategic plan of the university. Also, according to the surveys, most of the strategic plans had a time frame and their goal was to focus on the time frame of 3 to 5 years. The existence of a short period of time indicates continuous changes in organizations and the need to review and update the strategic plan. Considering the rapid scientific progress and the need to change university policies, updating the strategic plan is very important for the university library, and libraries should always have short-term, medium-term, and long-term plans to achieve great goals.
Conclusion
According to the research conducted on the strategic plan of university libraries, in most of the strategic plans, the introduction section of the library, necessary measures to carry out the strategic plan, the schedule of the implementation of the strategic plan and the missions of the library were present, and this shows the importance of the mentioned items. The purpose of the strategic plan is to provide a better vision of the library and plan it for a better future. Therefore, the existence of the library introduction section, which includes a brief introduction of the university, introduction of the library, history of the library, number of library resources, different sections of the library, library facilities, locational and physical condition of the library, and information of this kind, is very important and almost in most programs. The subject of this section was to provide information in summary or complete form. The next thing that is very important in the presentation of the strategic plan is the necessary measures to achieve the goals of the library during the strategic plan. In this section, all the activities that the library must do according to the strategic plan to achieve its ultimate goal are presented. Most of the investigated libraries were very careful about this issue, and in some programs, the actions were divided by library departments or by library goals, and the indicators of their achievement were provided. The third part that is very important in the strategic plan is the discussion of the implementation schedule. Due to the rapid growth of science and the change of programs and the change of the scientific course of the country, it is very important to pay attention to the schedule, the strategic plan should be up-to-date and adjusted according to the needs of the society at the present time. Also, the strategic plan should be evaluated at certain time intervals and if there is a weakness or problem, it should be fixed. Another part that was important in the strategic plans was the discussion of the library's missions. The clarity of the missions facing the library helps to define the framework of the strategic plan, and the strategic plan is set based on the missions of the university library.
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