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Last revised: 03/12/2008

Gathering the Stakeholders
Instructions & Index


Instructions:

STAKEHOLDERS are those people inside and outside the library who have a vested interest in the library.


This section of Pathways will help you identify the people in your community who have a stake in your library and will suggest methods you can use to share your planning ideas with your stakeholders and gather their feedback. You included many of your "internal stakeholders" (the staff, the administrators, the board, and volunteers and Friends of the Library) in the process of gathering information about your community and your library. Now is the time to identify those people outside the library who are stakeholders in the library's work and plan.

Begin your stakeholder analysis by considering these questions:

1. Who in the community is vocal about the library, its services and policies? For example, if you're contemplating a relocation or refurbishing who would be vocal? Who observes board meetings? Writes letters to the editor? Expresses support by donation money? Demonstrates an understanding of the mission of the library?

2. Who are the stakeholders who are not likely to be involved but if they were might threaten the success of the library's plan?

3. Who is in a position to take action on library issues? Has power to make decisions? To influence decision makers? Who must the library pay attention to because of his/her/their influence and/or authority? How are you planning your approach to these people?

4. Who would most likely be nominated as those who have a stake in library plans, services and/or policies? Who by reputation or stereotype is most likely to be thought to have an interest in the services or policies under consideration?

5. What demographic groups haven't you thought of? Do you know anyone belonging to these groups? What would their opinions be?

6. Who is involved in other community activities, agencies, etc.? Would their support benefit the library? Who are the activists whose energy should be harnassed? Who has the time to invest in taking action?

7. Who are the opinion leaders? Who do people listen to? These may be people that do not fall into any other category.

8. Who else has a stake in any changes to the library? Suppliers, potential suppliers, users, creditors, allies, competitors (other information service providers), regulators, and employees should be idenitified.

Include your staff in your stakeholder analysis because:

  • It will take some of the burden off the library manager.
  • Staff motives may be less suspect than those of the library manager.
  • It will provide practical leadership development.
  • Employees are, after all, stakeholders themselves.

The activities outlined in Worksheets 7A, 7B, and 7C will help you identify your library's external stakeholders, gather feedback and input for your library from these these stakeholders, and use that information to refine your plan and assign responsiblities for implementing it.

Worksheet 7A guides you through the identification of your library's stakeholders. Use it to identify the people in your library community that have a vested interest in your plan and can help you make it a reality. As you identify your stakeholders make a note of their telephone numbers and addresses so that you can begin to contact them to gather their feedback.

There are many ways to share your library's plan with your stakeholders. Some suggestions are to put copies of the plan in the library collection for public review, publish it on your web site, or ask you local newspaper to publish the plan or a summary of it. Sharing your plan, however, should involve two-way communication with your stakeholders. It is important for you to use this opportunity to gather your stakeholders feedback and input regarding your library's plan.

You can choose from a variety of data gathering methods to collect feedback and input from your stakeholders. Focus groups and interviewing are especially useful for collecting this information. You may also want to consider conducting a S.W.O.T. Analysis with a stakeholder group. Use the worksheets provided in Profiling Your Community, Gathering information from the people in your community and Internal Library Audit, SWOT Analysis Worksheet to gather your stakeholders' input. Then use Worksheet 7B to record a summary of what you learned from your stakeholders.

Now use your completed Worksheet 7B and your goals, objectives, and action steps (see Worksheets 6C-1 and 6C-2) to help you answer the questions on Worksheet 7C. These answers will help you refine and edit your draft plan and will also help you assign roles and responsibilities to your stakeholders for the implementation of your plan.

Index:

Worksheet 7A Identify Your Stakeholders
Worksheet 7B Gathering Stakeholder Input
Worksheet 7C Stakeholders' Responsibilities