PFR SERVICE RESPONSES
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)
What is a Planning for Results Service Response?
What Are the Current Service Responses?
What are the Components of Service Responses?
What are the Functions of Service Responses?
What are the Characteristics of Service Responses?
What Process Will be Used to Revise the Service Responses?
When Will the New Service Responses Be Complete and Available?
How Extensive Will the Revisions of the Service Responses Be?
What Elements are Included in the New Service Responses?
Is There Research Available on the Future of Public Libraries?
What Were the Public Library Roles included in Planning and Role-Setting for Public Libraries in 1987?
What is a Planning for Results Service Response?
A service response is what a library does for, or offers to, the public in an effort to meet a set of well-defined community needs.
What Are the Current Service Responses?
The thirteen service were developed as a part Planning for Results: A Public Library Transformation Process in 1996-97. The service responses were included unchanged in The New Planning for Results: A Streamlined Approach in 2001. The service responses are listed below. Click here for a brief description of each service response and links to full descriptions of each.
What are the Components of the Current Service Responses?
Each of the current 13 service responses includes the following components:
What are the Functions of Service Responses?
What are the Characteristics of Service Responses?
Service responses are broad descriptions of the types of services that might be offered by a public library.
What Process Will be Used to Revise the Service Responses?
New service responses will be identified through an open process that allows all interested librarians, library staff, and library trustees to participate, either in person or via the Web. The process is being managed by Sandra Nelson and June Garcia, the editors of the Results series.The process will take place during 2006/07 when Susan Hildreth will be the President of PLA. When asked about the project, she said, “Involving community leaders is the key element of the PLA Planning for Results process. The Service Responses are used to help community leaders understand the wide range of possible priorities for their local libraries. I am glad that this review and revision process is going to be open and that all interested librarians, library staff, and trustees will have a chance to participate. Working together, we will be able to develop a list of Service Responses that will help shape the future of public libraries”
The process began with three meetings during the 2006 ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans. One meeting was an invitational meeting for people who have attended one or more of the Planning for Results train-the-trainer programs. The other two meetings were widely publicized and open to all interested librarians, library staff, and trustees. The results of these three meetings have been summarized and posted on the PLA Blog.
Those who were unable to attend one of the two open meetings in New Orleans were given an opportunity to participate in the revision of the Service Responses through this Web page and the PLA Service Response Blog. The discussion of the current service responses on the blog started in early August, 2006 and continued until mid-November. Then June Garcia and Sandra Nelson developed a list of proposed service responses that reflected all of the input they received.
Drafts of the proposed new service responses were available on this site and the PLA Blog through January 1, 2007. Final drafts of the service responses were posted to this site and to the PLA Blog on January 2, 2007. The final draft of the Service Responses will be presented at an open meeting during the 2007 Midwinter Conference in Seattle. The meeting is scheduled to be held on Sunday, January 21, from 1:30-3:30.
When Will the New Service Responses Be Available?
All comments and suggestions must be received by February 15, 2007. The new service responses will be completed by early March, 2007 and available for sale from PLA by mid-April, 2007. Information about the sale of copies of the new service responses will be posted to the PLA Web site.
How Extensive Will the Revisions of the Service Responses Be?
The review process is based on the following assumptions:
What Elements are Included in the New Service Responses?
| Title | The title includes two phrases. The first phrase describes what the user receives and the second describes what the library offers. |
| Description | This describes the benefits to the user because the library provides the service and is written in terms that lay people can understand. |
| Suggested Target Audiences | Target audiences are defined by demographics (typically age) or by condition (student, business owner, new immigrant). If a service is designed to serve a single target audience that audience has been defined in the title and description. However, if a service can be delivered effectively to multiple target audiences, then the title and description are age- and condition-neutral and library planners are encouraged to identify target audiences during the goal setting process. |
| Typical Services and Programs in Libraries that Select this as a Priority | These are the kinds of services and programs that libraries that select this as a priority might provide. The list is intended to describe services that go well beyond the basic level of services that a library might provide to support services that are not priorities. |
| Potential Partners | Libraries have always collaborated with other community agencies and organizations to provide services and that collaboration has become more important in the past several years. This section lists some of groups that the library might partner with if they select the service response. |
| Policy Implications | Most service priorities have policy implications. This section includes a list of some of the policy issues that may need to be addressed if a library selects the service response. The list of policy implications is not intended to all-inclusive. Each library is unique and staff will have to assess all of the policy implications of a new priority based on local conditions. |
| Critical Resources | These are the types of resources that libraries that select the service response will need to provide the service effectively. The lists are not intended to be all-inclusive.
|
| Possible Measures | There are four methods that can be used to measure progress toward meeting the goals that are established to support the selected service response. This section includes sample measures for some or all of the four methods. The four methods are:
|
Is There Research Available on the Future of Public Libraries?
There have been a number of studies in the past several years about the future of libraries. The two most recent and extensive studies are listed and described below.
2005 Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources
With extensive input from hundreds of librarians and OCLC staff, the OCLC Market Research team developed a project and commissioned Harris Interactive Inc. to survey a representative sample of information consumers. In June of 2005, OCLC collected over 3,300 responses from information consumers in Australia, Canada, India, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States. The Perceptions report provides the findings and responses from the online survey in an effort to learn more about:
- Library use
- Awareness and use of library electronic resources
- The Internet search engine, the library and the librarian
- Free vs. for-fee information
- The "Library" brand
The findings indicate that information consumers view libraries as places to borrow print books, but they are unaware of the rich electronic content they can access through libraries. Even though information consumers make limited use of these resources, they continue to trust libraries as reliable sources of information.
This ALC-sponsored study, conducted by Public Agenda and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, shows that libraries are poised to lead the way to solutions to today's pressing community problems, including providing a safe and engaging place for teens; building a strong and literate workforce; and extending access to technology. Taking on such challenges is also the best bet for libraries to strengthen their communities and their own funding futures
What Were the Public Library Roles included in Planning and Role-Setting for Public Libraries in 1987?
The concept of using roles to define the potential service priorities for public libraries was introduced in Planning and Role-Setting for Public Libraries in 1987. The eight roles are listed below. Click here for a brief description of each role.
© Sandra Nelson, 2006
© Sandra Nelson, 2006