library development and cooperative planning

albert halcli
coonsultant, library systems

Cooperative planning is planning by two or more libraries for common benefits. Cooperative planning does not imply comprehensive planning. It is directed planning covering those areas in which libraries intend to interact with a purpose. The scope of the planning may be relatively narrow or large, depending on the situation, but it would not preempt individual

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libraries from comprehensive planning to meet the needs of their constituents. In one sense, cooperative planning might be more purposeful than comprehensive planning, at least to the extent that it fills immediate needs and is geared to concrete situations.

The term "cooperative planning" may be new, the practice is not. A great deal of cooperative planning has taken place in ILLINET and in ILA over the past decade. System long-range planning, system interlibrary cooperation and multitype development projects, intersystem cooperative agreements and the creation of cooperative data bases are all outstanding examples. Cooperative collection development has been tested and a workable model is ready for use. In 1982-83 several new developments have taken place:

The adoption of Avenues to Excellence.

The 1983 revisions of the Library Systems Act (COMLOS revisions).

Completion of the manual for coordinated cooperative collection development.

Workshops on The Planning Process for Public Libraries, and Output Measures for Public Libraries.

Revisions of the State Library's Rules and Regulations for library systems.

As a result of these developments, we can say that an edifice for cooperative planning is now in place. The use of a new term for this kind of planning is justified by the fact that the developments cited in the above paragraph will be brought into sharp focus by the revisions in the State Library's rules and regulations. These rules will redefine the library system plan of service to emphasize cooperative planning, and at the same time will utilize Avenues to Excellence, the new Illinois library standards, in a constructive way to encourage library development.

Library Systems and Plans of Service

The Illinois State Library rules will make very explicit the character of library systems as organizations of cooperating libraries. This definition was very clear in the Library Systems Act from the very beginning. However, many, if not most, libraries soon fell into the habit of identifying the "system" with the system headquarters, and tended to see the system as something "other," a thing apart from themselves. In the early years of the network it was somewhat justifiable for member libraries to look upon "system services" as system headquarters services to supplement local library resources. In the 1970s, the pattern of system services began to change in most systems, and even earlier in some systems. The advent of automated data bases and the quickened pace of multitype development brought about fundamental changes. However, old habits die hard, and the idea of the library system headquarters as the "system" still lingers. One of the functions of the new rules is to render that idea forever obsolete.

The Systems Act states its objectives in broad and sweeping terms, including among others, an objective to "provide a stock of books and other materials sufficient in size and varied in kind and subject matter to satisfy the library needs of the people of this state." The framers of the Act intended library systems to improve library service to the people of the system area by promoting local support of, and responsibility for services while using state aid to supplement local resources. The Act defines systems as organizations of "libraries which enter into a written agreement to provide some or all services on a cooperative basis." It also requires systems to have an approved "plan of service describing the specific purposes for which the system is formed and the means by which such purposes are to be accomplished." The framers of the Act made no attempt to give precise definitions to "written agreement," "cooperative basis," or "plan of service,") and very wisely left a wide latitude for library systems to develop along individual lines in different parts of the state.

The State Library adopted the same philosophy and limited its rules and requirements to bare essentials to allow for maximum innovation in the implementation of the Act. It required systems to have approved bylaws and to keep their plan of service current with an annually updated long-range plan. With the development of distinctive patterns of cooperation over the past two decades, it is now appropriate for the State Library to give more precise meanings to the key terms in system organization that have been cited.

There is good reason for doing so at this time. Though each system has developed individually there are as many, or more, likenesses among systems than differences. After eighteen years experience under the Act (it was passed in 1965) there are clear lines of development that apply to all systems. One of these is the need for greater cooperation among the libraries participating in a system. This need has been reinforced by the fact, which is now obvious to all, that there is a limit to the growth of system headquarters' services. Though there will be dollar increases in system funding it is unlikely that there will be any major expansion in real headquarters resources of staff or funds in the near future. If systems are to continue to develop at a substantial pace, it must be through greater resource sharing within the system and more intense and diversified patterns of cooperation.

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Cooperation is a key concept in the functioning of a system, and there is one aspect of it that needs greater emphasis than it has heretofore received. Cooperation means a common effort, an association for common benefits. It is usually thought of as doing things jointly, or as a mutual process of giving and receiving. Cooperative resource sharing has expanded the concept to include library's efforts in common to develop their capabilities for sharing, as well as the sharing itself. This points to an essential dimension of cooperation that is often ignored. Strengthening individual libraries strengthens the entire system, and becomes a fundamental element in cooperation in its own right.

Libraries in systems should be working to strengthen the system, that is, the cooperative organization of libraries. They can do this by strengthening the system headquarters operations (however they may be defined), by strengthening multilibrary functions, or by strengthening individual library members. One of the first steps in library cooperation is for libraries to increase their capabilities to meet the needs of their public. By so doing they increase their capability to interact with other libraries, and thus are functioning on a cooperative basis.

This somewhat lengthy preface is necessary as background for an understanding of the State Library's redefinition of the system's plan of service. It has always been understood that the system's plan of service is the fundamental document for system operations, just as the bylaws are the foundation of the system organization. When the movement for comprehensive planning took hold in Illinois in the early 1970s, the State Library required the systems to adopt long-range plans as a means of updating their plans of service. These plans have tended to stress the development of system headquarters services, a good thing in itself. Without consciously intending to do so, they have also helped to perpetuate the idea of the system HQ as the "system." In taking a new look at the concept of the system plan of service the State Library has aimed to strike a balance that recognizes the need for the development of the system as a whole, as a cooperating organizaton.

The system plan of service, as redesigned by the State Library, will consist of two major parts, which may be separate documents. One constituent will be a long-range plan for the maintenance and development of system HQ operations. This is the kind of plan the systems have been submitting and updating for over a decade. It does not represent anything new. It will continue to conform to the concept of a comprehensive plan. The new element will be a plan of cooperation among system member libraries. This is not intended to be a comprehensive plan for all the libraries. It is a type of cooperative planning, limited in scope, and directed to areas of interaction among libraries.

At this point it should be pointed out that the word "plan" has several connotations depending on how it is used. It can mean a projection of means to achieve an end into the future. This is the usual meaning when we speak of a comprehensive or long-range plan. The word can also be used in the sense of design or diagram, as in ground plans or floor plans. A plan of cooperation has both connotations since it should reflect both a current design and projection into the future. The emphasis, perhaps, will be on current design, but the element of projection should also be present.

As conceived by the State Library, the system plan of cooperation will do two things. The plan will state, first of all, how member libraries will use or expand their local resources to serve their primary clientele. In this part of the plan, libraries will specify local responsibilities to meet the needs of their communities, rather than interaction with other libraries. The intent is for libraries to have a clear idea of what they will do for themselves without relying on outside assistance. The intent is also for libraries to indicate how they will strengthen their capabilities for sharing with others. They can do this by agreeing on general guidelines or strategies for future development of individual libraries in the system as individual libraries.

The next phase of the cooperation plan will specify how libraries will work together cooperatively to meet the needs of residents of the system area. Firm guidelines for reciprocal borrowing should be included in this phase of the plan. In both phases, the role of member libraries should be clearly distinguished from the role of the system HQ. Thus the future development of the total system can be projected on the basis of a solid agreement as to the respective roles of member libraries and of the system HQ.

It must be repeated that the plan of cooperation does not infringe on the autonomy of member libraries or abridge their right to plan for themselves. This plan is an extension of joining a system. Libraries join systems to enjoy the benefits of membership. When they join, they agree to share and cooperate with other members. The plan of cooperation simply states how they will go about doing that. What is new in the idea of a written plan of cooperation is not the agreement to engage in cooperative efforts — members have always done that — but the clear definition of roles within the system and a clear-cut commitment to contribute strength to the system both in the present and in the future.

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Avenues to Excellence
and Public Library Development

The adoption of written system plans of cooperation will be one step in the development of cooperative planning. Equally, or even more importantly, will be the use of the new Illinois library standards in local library planning. The adoption of Avenues to Excellence in 1982 represents a true milestone in the approach to library development. By adopting flexible standards of performance to encourage individual library planning, the new standards provide libraries with a workable tool that can be adapted to the needs of libraries of any size and in any stage of development. Avenues in itself was a cooperative undertaking within ILA, and it has been adopted, in law, by the state of Illinois as a guide to library development within the state.

In the document, the ILA/PLS Committee made it clear that one of its aims was to strengthen the library network. Without using the words "cooperative planning" the committee endorsed the idea:

There is another reason why state standards are needed for Illinois public libraries. One of the great strengths of library service in this state is the Illinois Library and Information Network (ILLINET). This network, consisting of all types of libraries joined together for the purpose of sharing resources, depends on the strengths of its members. Resource sharing implies there is something to share, and that libraries can and will realize mutual benefits from membership. Since networking is essential to the accomplishment of the public library's purpose, and there are definite responsibilities inherent in network participation, some specific standards must be available to address those responsibilities.

By the very act of using the standards in planning its future growth, a library will be engaging in cooperative planning. Thus Avenues to Excellence, taken in conjunction with system plans of cooperation, lays the foundation for cooperative planning throughout the state.

Illinois law instructs the State Library to use the Illinois library standards in administering the program of per capita grants for public libraries. To be eligible for such grants, libraries must provide services which either meet the standards, or show progress toward meeting them, as determined by the State Librarian (Illinois Revised Statutes, Chapter 81, paragraph 118 (2) ). Under this mandate, the State Library must require libraries applying for grants to show what progress they are making. The State Library is also empowered to determine what constitues "progress." In the past, ISL made use of the previous standards, Measures of Quality, in carrying out there per capita grant program. Those standards were too much on a single level, and were too rigidly statistical. As it turned out it was not possible to use the standards very systematically with libraries of varying size and characteristics. The new standards are a different matter. They have built-in features which make them very suitable for statewide use.

Though the State Library will set some general criteria for measuring library progress in meeting standards, it will not emphasize specific standards applicable to all libraries, regardless of the size and character of the communities they serve. Instead it seems best to treat Avenues to Excellence as a planning tool, a purpose for which it is well designed. According to law, to qualify for state grants, they must be making progress toward meeting the standards. By stating objectives they will show that they have begun to decide for themselves what kind of progress is most important to them and how they intend to move in a desired direction.

Rather than attempt to prejudge what is "progress" for all libraries in the state, the State Library approach will be to ask libraries to define this for themselves. The idea is certainly not to require libraries to submit long-range plans based on A Planning Process For Public Libraries. Libraries will do that when they feel that they are ready to do so. The State Library's aim is to insure that all applicants for grants will use Avenues to Excellence thoughtfully, as they are required to do by law. They will be asked to look at the needs and resources of their own communities and decide upon priorities. In so doing they will begin to plan, not on a comprehensive scale, or by a prescribed model, but in a limited and directed manner, the direction being their own decision. By assessing their own needs, and setting objectives for themselves, they will provide valuable input into system planning, and then into state planning. In this way they will be planning cooperatively both to strengthen their own libraries and the systems of which they are a part.

This, in outline, is how cooperative planning is expected to take shape. Eventually it should become the foundation of all planning within ILLINET. It brings a step closer the ultimate goal of three leveled planning in Illinois — local, system, and state. Ideally all planning should begin with local libraries. Local planning should feed into and become the foundation of system planning, which, in turn, should feed into state level planning. Too often planning in Illinois has been "top down" planning. This has been unavoidable since there has been no concerted movement for local planning. As cooperative planning takes root and expands, the situation might be reversed, as in theory it should. Planning should begin at the grass roots and work up to all levels above it. With cooperative planning, the first steps are being taken in that direction. What the end will be we cannot foresee completely. But surely it will mean a greater sense of being a member of a community of libraries in the state, a community in which all libraries support each other, and all participate in making decisions that affect all.

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