Determining and communicating the value of the special library

Information Outlook, March, 2003 by Joseph R. Matthews

Strategy is about making choices and deliberately choosing to be different. Decisions about the strategic direction for the library should answer the following three questions:

* The who: Whom do you think you serve, and whom do you actually serve?

* The what: What information resources and services do you provide?

* The how: What is your organizational structure--the combination of people, facility, collection, and other resources?

Strategy is concerned with the organization's choice of business, markets, and activities. Strategy is about the basic value that the library is trying to deliver to its clients. Strategy allows the library to set limits and thus focus on what it is trying to accomplish. Strategies can be grouped into five broad categories:

1. Differentiation. Identify ways in which the library can provide unique value to its clients. This might involve a customer orientation, quality service, innovation, reputation, branding, and so forth.

2. Cost. Provide efficient services and identify the strengths of the library.

3. Focus and accessibility. What customer segments or geographic focus will the library employ? Whom will it serve? Is it possible to remove any barriers to access that library clients perceive or experience?

4. Synergy. Has the library identified ways to partner with its clients? Does it provide personalized service?

5. The preemptive move. In some industries, it is possible to establish standards or develop partnerships with suppliers that effectively eliminate competitors. Can the library provide so much value to its customers that it is always the first place they think of when they have an information need?

Broader Strategies for Change

When a library wishes to consider adopting a new strategy or making modifications to an existing strategy, a number of options can be followed. Among these are the following:

* Expand service offerings

* Narrow or refocus service offerings

* Narrow focus to "higher impact" customers

* Improve quality of service

* Employ vertical integration strategies

* Make customer convenience a priority

* Increase product/service usage

* Increase the frequency of usage

* Increase the quantity of usage

* Find new applications for current users

* Focus on new markets

* Geographic

* Segments

Note that providing a technology-based service is not a strategy but simply a means to an end. For example, FedEx employs a wide variety of technologies to enable it to pursue one of its most effective strategies: providing up-to-the-minute status information to its customers regarding the location of a particular package.

If a library wishes to consider adopting a set of strategies that will be most responsive to its customers, it can consider three broad avenues:

1. Customer intimacy: Library staff members could use a combination of manual and automated tools to increasingly personalize the services provided to each client.

2. Innovative services: The library might develop creative new services that respond to the needs of its clients.

3. Operational excellence: The library could become known for its timely, cost-effective, and accurate delivery of information services.