Strengthening Strategic Planning Through Diverse Collaborations

Abstract In previous strategic plan development, the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) Health Sciences and Human Services Library (HS/HSL) used a “library knows best” approach, where the Library Leadership Team (the Team) decided on the focus, time frame, and format of the plan. Breaking with this tradition, the Team embarked on a new strategic planning mission to deliberately and inclusively reach out to users. This effort resulted in the first strategic plan constructed collaboratively with stakeholder input acquired by exhaustive outreach efforts. The Team developed a new collaborative methodology for collecting user input and documented the process throughout. The Team knew the strengths, weaknesses, and capabilities of the environment. It was important to understand users and build a strategic plan focused on their success. This chapter reports on the collaborative and inclusive planning process key to the HS/HSL's strategic planning success.