| The purpose of this study was to determine to what extent long-range planning is utilized by academic library administrators. In addition the study was to determine how academic library administrators divide the planning processes into specific planning activities for application in academic libraries.; Comparisons were made in several categories of academic library administration: (1) comparison of the public sector vs. the private sector, (2) the comparison of small academic libraries vs. large academic libraries, (3) administrators with management degrees or terminal doctorate degrees vs. administrators with masters of library science degrees or second subject masters degrees, (4) length of time as administrator vs. attitude toward planning.; The findings indicated: (1) Academic library administrators are not presently involved in planning processes to the extent they think they should. (2) No evidence of difference exists between the public sector and private sector, nor between small academic and large academic libraries, in relation to time devoted to planning, or should be devoted to planning. (3) No evidence of difference exists by administrators having doctoral vs. masters degree in relation to time devoted to, or should be devoted to planning. (4) Length of time as director indicates the largest dissimilarity in planning activities. Shorter-term library administrators (five years or fewer as director) place higher emphasis on the amount of long-range planning that should be done than do the longer-term directors (eleven years or more as director). (5) Administrators rate long-range planning and collection-development planning as the two planning activities that should receive the primary emphasis.; Long-range planning has come to be recognized as an integral part of the function of managing an organization, whether that organization be in the profit sector or that organization be in the not-for-profit sector. Despite the importance of planning within libraries, library planning has been accomplished only sporadically and with uneven results. The planning process, done effectively and on a regular basis, can clarify the library's role and provide a framework that directs the work of its component parts. |
