1. Running head: STRATEGIC PLANNING
Strategic Planning for the Catholic University Library
Peter NT Snow
INFO 204 - Information Professions
San Jose State University
October 2, 2016

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Abstract
This paper analyzes the strategic planning process by focusing on the libraries of two
Catholic universities: Georgetown University and the University of Notre Dame. This analysis
proceeds through each step of the plan: needs assessment, SWOT analysis, development of
mission, vision, and values statements, setting objectives and goals, institutional assessment, and
provision of sustainability for the library’s purpose, mission, and practices. Special attention will
be given to the unique characteristics and needs of the Catholic university library.

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Strategic Planning for the Catholic University Library
In a world where the digital revolution threatens to undermine and discredit libraries as
sine qua non institutions, information professionals must overcome many obstacles as they seek
to persuade a skeptical public about the relevance, significance, and indispensability of libraries.
This is no mean task. When budgets are tight, comptrollers scrutinize every line item, judging its
relative value within the organization as a whole. Moreover, internet technologies have
democratized information retrieval whereby anyone with a smartphone can Google any topic,
obtaining information (however dubious) which is regarded as “useful” knowledge. Within this
environment, how can LIS professionals convince the public that libraries are nonpareil cultural
institutions which must be fully supported and funded?
To this end, strategic planning has become a critical tool to assess, evaluate, and promote
libraries as vital cultural institutions. While the development and implementation of strategic
plans are critical tasks for all libraries, this paper will focus very sharply on the strategic plans of
American Catholic university libraries, namely those from the libraries at Georgetown University
and the University of Notre Dame. In addition to the general concerns which all universities must
address, Catholic universities have a unique set of needs that must be met in order to maintain
and promote their identities as Catholic academic institutions. Thus, their libraries’ strategic
plans must reflect these concerns.
Before developing the outlines for their strategic plans, these libraries must first construct
instruments for needs assessment (Stemmer, 2015, p. 12). The libraries at both Georgetown and
Notre Dame have standing committees which oversee and administer surveys of all library
stakeholders: faculty, library staff, students, and alumni (Georgetown University, 2016;
University of Notre Dame, 2016). The survey questions asked by Notre Dame’s library
committee are very similar to those posed by any academic library: What is the library doing

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well? What additional services would stakeholders like the library to provide? What role should
the library play vis-à-vis research, teaching, scholarship, etc.? (University of Notre Dame,
2012b). Fundamental to this process is gathering necessary and sufficient data to further the
decision-making process (Gibbs, Boettchner, Hollingsworth, and Slania, 2012, p. 268).
Once solid data has gathered and processed, then an analysis of the library’s strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) can proceed (American Library Association,
n.d.). Any given library will have its own particular strengths and weaknesses. The libraries at
both Georgetown and Notre Dame have reported similar areas of strength: general and research
library services. (Georgetown University, n.d.; University of Notre Dame, 2012b). In addition,
both libraries also identified opportunities to improve their uniquely Catholic profile by
redoubling their commitment to obtain and maintaining resources (like digitizing existing
collections of Catholic historical and theological interest) relating to their Catholic identity
(Georgetown University, n.d.; University of Notre Dame, 2012a, p. 6).
A library’s statement of mission, vision, and/or values is critical for establishing
alignment with the overall mission of the university as a whole. At many university libraries,
there has been a marked disjunct between these two entities; one common problem is that
strategic planning documents of “academic libraries [often do not] include reaffirmation of
accreditation… despite its importance to the campus as a whole” (Saunders, 2015, p. 287). In
Georgetown Library’s values statement, great care is taken to enunciate the Catholic Jesuit vision
which permeates the entire school (Georgetown University, 2010). Similarly, Notre Dame’s
library vision statement clearly articulates that “the University’s Catholic character informs all
[of the library’s] endeavors” (University of Notre Dame, 2012a).
These endeavors are determined by the objectives set out in the academic library’s
strategic plan. In an era of “continuous computing and participation [in ongoing virtual

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conversations],” an academic library must revise its goals and objectives in light of the rise of the
“hyperlinked library” (Stevens, 2015, p. 186). But setting goals is a fool’s errand without
accountability (Cunningham and Rosenblatt, 2015, p. 163). Assessing the library’s contribution
to student learning and value to the university often involves “establishing a baseline and then
testing progress at the end of a student’s career” (Hockenberry and Little, 2013, p. 289). Like
many (if not most) American university libraries, Georgetown’s library employs a full-time
assessment librarian whose portfolio includes “ conducting ongoing evaluations of user
perceptions of [library services]” as well as “acting as the data liaison for library-wide and
university-wide assessment initiatives” (Georgetown University, 2015).
Of course, strategic planning as an undertaking is only as good as it is sustainable. Long-
term investments in library resources, technology, and staff development are key to the
sustainability of an academic library. Demonstrating the library’s value to the university is an
ongoing task. Without these efforts, the library’s long-term plans will be undermined, as will the
quality of student learning which the library supports (Gilman, 2015, p. 68). In its strategic plan,
Notre Dame’s library management explicitly states that in order to “create a sustainable culture
of continuous improvement and service excellence,” the library must…
 Steward and develop financial, personnel, and space resources in alignment with
academic and research priorities
 Create a more flexible, responsive, and well-managed organization with a strong ethic of
service excellence
 Communicate regularly and strategically with both internal and external constituents
(University of Notre Dame, 2012a).

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Similarly, Georgetown has developed a very specific strategy to obtain social, political, and
actual currency to sustain its library’s vitality and viability over the long haul. As laid out in the
Georgetown University Library Strategic Initiatives, 2015-2020, the library will…
 Broaden the base of library friends and sustainers (i.e. donors)
 Ask alumni to “enhance” library endowments
 Build closer partnerships with fellow Jesuit university libraries all over the world
 “Enhance” collaborative relationships with the Washington Research Library Consortium
and interested members of the greater DC community (Georgetown University, n.d.).
Of special note is that, at both Georgetown and Notre Dame, strong emphasis is placed on both
developing reliable funding streams and on building personal and institutional relationships. This
strongly suggests that it takes far more than mere money to build, maintain, and grow a strong
and healthy academic library.
Ultimately, each academic library must to learn to ride the waves of social, economic,
and technological change which continue to crash upon the foundation of the ivory tower in
which it resides. To survive – nay, to flourish, university libraries must embrace innovations in
technology, social interaction, and information retrieval. These institutions must both respond to
and anticipate the information needs of faculty and students. They must always plan for the
future, again and again and again.
But for Catholic university libraries, there is more at stake: they must not only reach
forward to serve those students and faculty as yet unborn, but they must also reach back to
retrieve and appropriate the spirit of Catholic academic scholarship extending back to the earliest
days of the Universities of Paris and Oxford in the 11th and 12th centuries. Between the 12th and
16th centuries, before the Reformation, the Universities of Paris and Oxford boasted the two best

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Catholic theology faculties in the world (O’Malley, 2012). Thomas Aquinas, John Duns Scotus,
Roger Bacon, William of Ockham, Sir Thomas More: they were theologians and philosophers,
scientists and legal scholars – the preeminent intellects of their age. Today, students and faculty
and librarians at Catholic universities worldwide stand on the shoulders of these giants. Carrying
on this great tradition of faith and reason during an era in which unbelief and irrationality
increasingly dominate Western social, cultural, and political life is to lead a profoundly counter-
cultural lifestyle. Yet, librarians at Catholic universities persist and perdure, quietly empowering
rigorous scholarship in every discipline. It’s just what they do.

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References
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opportunities, and threats. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/advocacy/swot-analysis-
your-librarys-strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-and-threats
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