112   INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND LIBRARIES  |  JUNE 2006

Book Review Debra Shapiro, Editor

Strategic Planning 
and Management 
for Library 
Managers
By Joseph R. Matthews. Westport, 
Conn.: Libraries Unlimited, 2005. xiv, 
150p. $40 (ISBN 1-59158-231-8).

The reality for most librarians is 
that, sometime in their career, they 
will be involved in strategic manage-
ment and planning. While library 
school courses occasionally deal with 
this topic, it is from a theoretical 
perspective only. Most librarians are 
promoted or coerced into leadership 
and management roles, often with 
little or no training or resources at 
their disposal to assist them with 
the transition or change of respon-
sibilities. Strategic planning is one 
of those duties assigned to library 
managers and leaders that often get 
pushed to the lowest-priority list, 
mainly because there are few guide-
lines and handbooks available in this 
area. Since the publication of Donald 
Riggs’s Strategic Planning for Library 
Managers (Oryx, 1984), little atten-
tion has been given to this vital topic. 
Matthews’s book attempts to provide 
information on how to explore strat-
egies; demystify false impressions 

about strategies; how strategies play 
a role in the planning and delivery 
of library services; broad categories 
of library strategies that can be used; 
and identification of new ways to 
communicate the impact of strategies 
to patrons. As the author states in 
the introduction, the focus of librar-
ies has moved from collections to 
encompass the arena of change itself. 
Finding strategies to enable opera-
tion in a fluid environment can mean 
the difference between relevance and 
irrelevance in today’s competitive 
information marketplace. 

The book is divided into three 
major sections: (1) what is a strategy, 
and the importance of having one; (2) 
the value of and options for strategic 
planning; and (3) the need to moni-
tor and update strategies. The first 
four chapters make up the first sec-
tion. Chapters 1 and 2 go through the 
semantics and the need for strategies, 
as well as the realities and limitations 
of strategies. Chapter 3 provides brief 
introductions to schools of strategic 
thought. These include the design 
school, the planning school, the posi-
tioning school, the entrepreneurial 
school, the cognitive school, the 
learning school, the power school, 
the cultural school, the environmen-
tal school, and the configuration 
school. Chapter 4 introduces types 
of strategies: operational excellence, 

innovative services, customer inti-
macy, and the concept of strategic 
options. Section 2 consists of chapters 
5 through 8 and provides information 
on what strategic planning is, what its 
value is, process options such as plan-
ning alternatives and critical success 
factors, and implementation. Section 
3, comprised of chapters 9 and 10, 
focuses on the culture of assessment; 
monitoring and updating strategies; 
and tools available for managing the 
library. Two appendixes are provided: 
one containing sample library strate-
gic plans, and another with a critique 
of a library strategic plan.

Overall, the book is very straight-
forward and understandable, with 
numerous illustrations, process work-
flows, and charts. I found the infor-
mation very interesting and useful, 
and the final section on assessment 
and measurement of strategic plan-
ning is essential for libraries to 
implement and monitor in today’s 
marketplace. The various explana-
tions related to schools of strategic 
thought were especially helpful. This 
book should be read by every library 
manager and director involved in 
strategic planning and process.—Brad 
Eden, Associate University Librarian 
for Technical Services and Scholarly 
Communication, University of California, 
Santa Barbara

EBSCO cover 3 LITA 107, 111, covers 2 and 4

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