The document outlines four strategies for developing sustainable libraries: 1. Focus on the user by engaging them in service development and prioritizing their changing needs. 2. Design services to ensure they continue meeting user needs over time through convenient access, appropriate formats, and adapting based on feedback. 3. Design sustainable organizations by investing in staff, having a clear mission, and demonstrating impact. 4. Get necessary help through foresight on trends, building partnerships, and nurturing stakeholder support.

1. Strategies for Success – Developing
sustainable libraries
Nick Poole, Chief Executive, CILIP
Axiell User Conference (03.05.2017)

2. This is a “user” (also sometimes
known as a ‘person’). All
discussions about sustainability for
libraries should start here...

4. User-centred
Adopting the principles
of ‘user-centred
design’ helps to
create services that
are attractive, valued
and used – key to
sustainability...

6. Service Design
The way you design &
develop your services
needs to reinforce the
relationship you want
to have with the user

8. Organisational
development
The organisation you
build to develop &
sustain these services
must continue to focus
on and adapt to the
changing needs of
the user

9. Foresight Money
Partnerships Stakeholder
support/buy-in

10. Foresight Money
Partnerships Stakeholder
support/buy-in
External partners
No organisation is an
island – achieving a
user-centred library on
a sustainable basis
means making
friends &
influencing people

11. Strategies for success 1: Focus on the user
Sustainable organisations are part of the community they serve – they know &
build relationships with their users & prioritise the changing needs of the user.
 Actively engage the user in service development
 Proactively promote the benefits of the service to the user
 Focus on customer service excellence and the user experience
 Develop and manage relationships

12. Strategies for success 1: Focus on the user
“Swansea University Student’s Union has recently
announced a big win for students, who use the Bay campus
library as a base of study.
After strong campaigning and negotiation, Swansea University have
decided to add 52 additional study spaces to the Bay campus site.
In addition two Bay campus study rooms and one Singleton room
have become self-bookable.”
http://waterfrontonline.co.uk/news/swansea-students-win-on-bay-library-study-spaces

13. Strategies for success 1: Focus on the user
“Student involvement has
been crucial to delivering
the concept of “hubs” which
shifts the paradigm from the
academic library as
detached ‘provider’ to
students as partners in their
education and experience of
university life.”
Benjamin Meunier
UCL Cruciform Hub

14. Strategies for success 2: Service design & development
The service should be designed, developed and adapted over time to ensure that
it continues to meet the changing needs of the user.
 Convenience and accessibility of locations
 Service hours to meet user needs and lifestyles
 Attractive, comfortable physical environments
 Content and formats appropriate to user behaviours
 Use technology to solve real problems/create opportunities for engagement
 Adapt services based on observation & feedback

15. Strategies for success 2: Service design & development
Intake Primary School, Doncaster

16. Strategies for success 2: Service design & development

17. Strategies for success 3: Designing sustainable organisations
 “Culture will get you through times of no strategy better than...”
 Invest in and develop your people – they are your service
 Embrace the values and ethics of your profession (incl. senior managers...)
 Ensure you are clear about your mission and have a plan to achieve it
 Promote leadership at every level of the organisation
 Be clear on the difference you make – your outcomes/impact
 Have data/metrics in place to help you celebrate success & target development

18. Strategies for success 3: Designing sustainable organisations
Source: Axiell Public Libraries UK Survey 2017

19. UCL Libraries Strategy 2015-18
Strategies for success 3: Designing sustainable organisations

20. UCL Libraries Strategy 2015-18
UCL 2034 underlines and extends UCL ’s mission to be London’s Global University: a diverse
intellectual community, engaged with the wider world and committed to changing it for the
better; recognised for our radical and critical thinking and its widespread influence; with an
outstanding ability to integrate our education, research, innovation and enterprise for the
long-term benefit of humanity.
The Library Services Strategy is embedded in this ambition and seeks to deliver a first-class user
experience across the whole UCL family of libraries. UCL Library Services will deliver innovative services
and facilities in six over-arching areas of activity:
• User experience
• Staff, equality and diversity
• Finance, management information and value for money
• Systems and processes
• Sustainable estate
• Communication, Open Access and outreach

21. UCL Libraries Strategy 2015-18
UCL 2034 underlines and extends UCL ’s mission to be London’s Global University: a diverse
intellectual community, engaged with the wider world and committed to changing it for the
better; recognised for our radical and critical thinking and its widespread influence; with an
outstanding ability to integrate our education, research, innovation and enterprise for the
long-term benefit of humanity.
The Library Services Strategy is embedded in this ambition and seeks to deliver a first-class user
experience across the whole UCL family of libraries. UCL Library Services will deliver innovative services
and facilities in six over-arching areas of activity:
• User experience
• Staff, equality and diversity
• Finance, management information and value for money
• Systems and processes
• Sustainable estate
• Communication, Open Access and outreach
If you’re part of a larger organisation
(a University, School, Local Authority,
business), make sure your Library
Strategy quotes & connects to their
overall strategy & plan

22. UCL Libraries Strategy 2015-18
UCL 2034 underlines and extends UCL ’s mission to be London’s Global University: a diverse
intellectual community, engaged with the wider world and committed to changing it for the
better; recognised for our radical and critical thinking and its widespread influence; with an
outstanding ability to integrate our education, research, innovation and enterprise for the
long-term benefit of humanity.
The Library Services Strategy is embedded in this ambition and seeks to deliver a first-class user
experience across the whole UCL family of libraries. UCL Library Services will deliver innovative services
and facilities in six over-arching areas of activity:
• User experience
• Staff, equality and diversity
• Finance, management information and value for money
• Systems and processes
• Sustainable estate
• Communication, Open Access and outreach
Be ambitious about the role your
library or information service can play
– define excellence in your own terms

23. UCL Libraries Strategy 2015-18
UCL 2034 underlines and extends UCL ’s mission to be London’s Global University: a diverse
intellectual community, engaged with the wider world and committed to changing it for the
better; recognised for our radical and critical thinking and its widespread influence; with an
outstanding ability to integrate our education, research, innovation and enterprise for the
long-term benefit of humanity.
The Library Services Strategy is embedded in this ambition and seeks to deliver a first-class user
experience across the whole UCL family of libraries. UCL Library Services will deliver innovative services
and facilities in six over-arching areas of activity:
• User experience
• Staff, equality and diversity
• Finance, management information and value for money
• Systems and processes
• Sustainable estate
• Communication, Open Access and outreach
Target the areas that have the most
relevance/resonance for your users and
stakeholders

24. Strategies for success 4: Get the help you need
 Keep an eye on trends – foresight helps spot opportunities & mitigate risks
 Be clear on where your money comes from, consolidate 1st, then diversify
 Build partnerships – they help keep you fresh & up-to-date
 Nurture your stakeholders & secure long-term buy-in

25. Strategies for success 4: Get the help you need
“Give up a deficit model and embrace the
aspirations of the community. Rather than
talking about how the community can’t read,
research, or access the Internet, we need to talk
about how reading, researching and accessing
the Internet can help our communities unleash
their potential.
We should be asking how libraries help our
communities thrive. If we can put together that
vision in a compelling way, people will support
libraries out of self-interest, not out of pity,
charity or a sense of obligation.”
R David Lankes

26. According to Axiell’s 2017 UK
Public Library Survey, 97%
of respondents feel that
advocating for the library
service within the local
authority is their job.
Strategies for success 4: Get the help you need

27. Strategies for success 4: Get the help you need
Building creative partnerships (in this case between the Library
Service, local booksellers & the Tourism Service) helps drive
sustainability

28. Foresight Money
Partnerships Stakeholder
support/buy-in

29. This is a “user” (also sometimes
known as a ‘person’). All
discussions about sustainability for
libraries should start here...