Creating Our Future:
Statewide Strategic Plan

Many thanks and best wishes to Judy Everitt (Hillsborough High School) & Marian Bauman (Neptune Public Library), outgoing Board Members who served their colleagues well, and who are about to enjoy what we hope will be lengthy and happy retirements.

Gale Cengage Recovery Packages
LibraryLinkNJ is very pleased to offer discounts from Gale Cengage. Many of the resources were formerly in the FY14 Statewide Database Offering, but were lost due to budget cuts. Others are new. Libraries can purchase databases previously provided by the New Jersey State Library at steep discounts.

There are three discount packages for three target audiences:

• public libraries (9/30 order deadline)
• school libraries (12/1 order deadline);
• academic libraries (9/30 order deadline).

The vendor is calling them Gale Recovery Packages.

EBSCO Restoration Offer
Don’t forget the EBSCO Restoration Offer discounts. EBSCO deadline is 7/31/14.

Details on these and other discounts are available on our Discounts page.

Super-Quick CE Survey

What do you need to learn this year? Help us set the schedule of continuing education programming for the new fiscal year by completing this super-quick survey. How quick? About the same time as it’ll take you to finish reading this call to participate!

The survey will be open til 10 AM on Monday, June 30. Thank you for sharing your priorities with us!

Fresh Lit 2014!: New & Forthcoming Literary Fiction
for Readers and Book Groups

Tuesday, July 22, 2014 | 10-11:30 AM
Presented by NJ’s very own Roz Reisner!

Program Description:
Tracking popular genre authors is easy—the bestseller list is filled with thrillers, mysteries, fantasies, and paranormal novels—but what about all that great literary fiction, the mainstay of so many of our readers and “best” lists? Join Roz Reisner to learn about the best of the recent and forthcoming midlist literary fiction from the big publishing houses and the best small literary presses, so you’ll be able to suggest titles to your patrons. We’ll also share resources for keeping up with new titles.

Learning Objectives:
After participating in this webinar, you will be able to:

• Recommend current and forthcoming literary fiction to your Readers’ Advisory patrons;
• Identify and use print and online resources for staying abreast of new and upcoming titles.
• Learn which small presses are publishing interesting, award-winning, literary fiction.

This 90-minute webinar will include a 60-minute presentation and 30 minutes for Q&A, as well as an interactive portion about resources and keeping up with new and forthcoming titles.

Registration is now open!

The complete Plan, Executive Summary and this compact version are all available at http://librarylinknj.org/strategic-plan.

We invite you to use this same page to “Showcase and Share” what you do and what you’ve done to implement the plan at your library.

The New Jersey Association of School Librarians is working on a strategic plan this year, and we asked Joanne Roukens to help us facilitate the process at our recent board meeting held at the LibraryLinkNJ office. You may find this process (or a version of it) useful at your library or organization.

Our overarching, essential question during planning is, “What needs to happen to ensure that NJASL meets our stakeholders’ needs?” Our three key data sets are:

• Responses from two recent member surveys - one about general needs and interests, and one pertaining specifically to our annual conference;
• SWOT analyses of our organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats from strategic planning process participants;
• A review of our mission statement and last year’s strategic planning goals, objectives and action steps.

Part of examining our SWOT created the opportunity to brainstorm about continuing and new goals, objectives and action plans.

My goal for the strategic planning meeting was uncontentious consensus with my passionately productive partners. I wanted everyone to be heard. I found some great consensus-building exercises for strategic planning in A Tried and True, Virtually Painless Strategic Planning Process, from the American Association of University Women of New York State.

At the meeting, we were then able to review the goals/objectives and action steps together. To do this, we asked:

• What did you say you would do, and what did you actually make happen?
• Was it the right thing to do?
• Did it get you closer to your goals? Why or why not?

We then brainstormed our 2014-15 goals and objectives, using a process that combined flip-charting, lively discussion, silent reflection and the sharing of un-censored ideas and questions via many, many Post-Its, which we arranged, re-arranged, and re-arranged again until they made the most sense to us all. To set priorities for the coming year, we chose a consensus-based approach focused on identifying measurable goals and ways to measure the outcomes for the year.

The day’s exercises resulted in eight distinct goal areas and action steps for NJASL to focus on in the coming year. In consultation with the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees, we will create a formal draft of our strategic plan for 2014-2015, taking into consideration the goals and objectives of our partner organizations like LibraryLinkNJ, The New Jersey State Library, and the American Association of School Librarians.