As I’m learning about effective ways to identify needs and create strategic plans, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on how far my understanding of strategic and operational planning has developed since I started in the library role at the end of 2020. In the last two weeks of 2020 I did my best to wade through the vast depths of the library space, resources and services and created a table to help me identify everything that the library did and everything that needed to be either fixed, implemented, or reassessed. This was such an overwhelming job and I felt completely unprepared, especially since the library didn’t have any policies or procedures that I could refer back to in my planning. At the time I managed to narrow it down to 5 key priority areas (I’ve deleted the other specifics since the original document went over a whopping 6 pages!):

Priority Area	Purpose	Strategies	Timeframe
Resource Management Support Student Learning Library Promotion Literacy Improvement Social Inclusion

In 2021 I had a bit more time and understanding of the library role, and refined this planning by setting 5 key goals which I reflected on in my 2021 Annual Library Report. It’s interesting to see how my chosen priority areas have been refined, and how my reporting of these achievement was simplified to show the value of the library to my school’s Senior Executive:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 2022 this planning was further expanded via the brainstorm below. It’s interesting that at this stage of my understanding I’ve started to hone in on specific aspects of each goal. The achievements associated with each goal were reflected on in my 2022 Annual Library Report which was once again given to the Senior Executive.

Looking back on these now, they seem quite amateurish in comparison to the strategic plans explored as part of my studies for ETL504. However, at the time I was almost completely lacking any realistic knowledge of the library roles and responsibilities or of leadership theory, and so these initial attempts at strategic planning were the best I could accomplish with my limited knowledge. Now that I know better, I intend to do better and hopefully the library will flourish as a result!