About the NJ Libraries Strategic Plan:
- Mind Map of Planning Proccess – track the project from beginning to end and have access to pertinent notes, documents and other media.
- Statewide Strategic Plan for the Future of Libraries in New Jersey
In the current era of accelerating social and technological change, our collective knowledge is expanding at an ever accelerating rate. More people than ever before are involved in the development and publishing of new knowledge and creative works, the process having been greatly democratized by the advent of computer technologies and the Internet. And while knowledge is now ubiquitous, it can be difficult to understand its meaning and how to apply it to achieve our goals. The need for information and knowledge literacy has never been greater. Libraries and librarians have a vital new leadership role to play in this context, to help citizens make sense of the complexity and develop the capacity to apply our collective knowledge wisely.
At the same time, the challenges are great. Public libraries, for example, are facing an unprecedented demand for services such as citizen access to the internet, the lending of materials that people could not otherwise access or afford and help with writing resumes to get jobs or studying for new careers. Yet the services of public and school libraries are being reduced or curtailed to help balance state and municipal budgets.
The New Jersey State Library with LibraryLinkNJ, The New Jersey Library Cooperative, took a proactive approach by creating a Statewide Strategic Master Plan that provides a resource to help guide the development of New Jerseys libraries well into the future. The purpose of this plan is to insure that the states diverse interest, age and cultural groups are equitably and creatively served as they seek to acquire, share and create knowledge and enhance their well-being.
The strategic planning process presented us with opportunities to develop a deep understanding of the profound shifts underway, address the challenges and identify possibilities for innovation, collaboration and growth. The overall goal were to design, discover and implement innovative methods and service models to help reinforce and reinvent the relevance of libraries and librarians, and ensure that New Jerseys libraries are able to preserve the very best of what they already do well while capitalizing on emerging technological, economic and social trends.
For more information, visit http://librarylinknj.org/strategic-plan.