Mission statements are expected elements of business plans and corporate communications. Yet, practice in creating them and monitoring their impact varies and skeptics wonder about their usefulness. A survey of business literature provides a context for school library mission statements. Mission statements define the nature, purpose, and role of…

Writing a mission statement is difficult, especially today when the need for libraries is being openly questioned. Now more than ever, librarians, trustees, and patrons must determine how libraries can best serve their communities and express their conclusions in their mission statements. A clear sense of purpose provides an essential foundation…

Since its establishment in 1839 to serve the branches of state government, the Illinois State Library has undergone an evolution in the methods, resources and services provided. Over the years, the State Library's sphere of service has expanded to meet the information needs of the public through a statewide network of libraries and regional…

In this article, the author discusses her personal experience of coming up with a mission statement for her library. A significant part of that goal was to identify what a best-practice library looked like so that she could emulate the model in her library. The entire process is described in this article.

This Systems and Procedures Exchange Center (SPEC) kit, an update of a 1975 kit, considers trends in the development and use of goals and objectives statements in Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member institutions, as illustrated in documents received in response to an August 1979 SPEC survey. The kit comprises: documents on developing…

Program presentations on issues related to the use of statistics by research libraries and business meeting minutes are combined in this report from the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). The full text is provided for the three papers on the program theme that were presented at the meeting: (1) "Information to Manage--The Economics of…

This kit on resource allocation in academic and research libraries contains nine primary source documents and a concise summary of a 1976 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) survey on management of fiscal spending activities in ARL libraries. Based on responses from 70 libraries, the summary discusses 3 specific subjects within the general…

One section of a spring 1979 Systems and Procedures Exchange Center (SPEC) survey on communication in Association of Research Libraries (ARL) institutions examined how members exchange information with external groups including the university administration, faculty, users, support groups, other libraries, and the profession in general. According…

Based on the comprehensive library self-study method developed by the Association of Research Libraries' (ARL) Office of Management Studies (OMS) and first used as the Management Review and Analysis Project (MRAP), this resource notebook presents surveys and diagnostic aids, OMS self-study reports, and ARL member library documents related to…

A March 1985 survey of members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) netted 63 responses on 4 topics related to gifts and exchange programs: organizational change, the use of automation, changes in priorities, and the impact of the Tax Reform Act of 1984. Comments throughout the responses reflect that materials collected through gifts and…

This final report is a product of a Preservation Planning Program (PPP) self-study conducted by the Iowa State University, working with the Association of Research Libraries' (ARL) Office of Management Studies. The PPP is designed to put self-help tools into the hands of library staff responsible for developing plans and procedures for preserving…

This document records testimony before the U.S. Senate on the reauthorization of Public Law 84-597, the Library Services and Construction Act (LSCA). The original purpose of the LSCA was to bring library services to rural areas and to those citizens who had previously been deprived of access (the handicapped, disadvantaged, and those who speak…

This publication is a collection of library public services policy statements, which were received in response to a survey of members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) in the fall of 1980, and additional recent statements. A concise summary of issues related to public services policies precedes the main body of the kit, in which 25…

This report summarizes activities conducted from fall 1984 through spring 1985, under a planning grant from the Council on Library Resources for Innovation and Improvement of Basic and Supplementary Education for Academic and Research Libraries. The report includes a review of selected literature related to educational programs for academic…

This program plan for online reference service--the individualized assistance provided to a library patron using an online system--at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, covers the areas of funding, eligibility for online services, search request eligibility, database eligibility, management of online services, reference faculty…