Long Range Plan 2003-2007  

This Massachusetts Long-Range Plan 2003-2007 has been developed by The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) to set broad strategic direction for the use of Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) federal funds, to inform Massachusetts libraries of these directions, and to meet statutory requirements. This Plan has been filed with the Institute of Museums and Library Services, the federal agency with oversight responsibility for LSTA.

Staff of the MBLC's Library Development Unit has worked with a MBLC appointed Steering Committee to develop this Plan to guide the use of LSTA funds.

This 2003-2007 Long-Range Plan should be viewed as a revision of the 1998-2002 Plan. This Plan proposes changes in areas of emphasis and makes mid-course corrections, but the overall thrust is the same.

SOME HIGHLIGHTS

The Background section has been entirely revised to bring it up-to-date. Wherever possible 2000 census data has been used along with the latest data from MBLC files. Goal 1 has a new focus on developing a digital library for Massachusetts (see Objective 2). We believe that this objective gives MBLC the flexibility it needs to initiate projects that further the development of a digital library as funds become available. If efforts to re-authorize LSTA at a higher funding level are successful, this would be one of areas to be developed.

Goal 4 has been expanded to reflect an ongoing emphasis on children's and youth services. This would be another area in which we would plan to recommend new expenditure levels as new appropriations become available.

Goal 6 reflects the library community's growing interest in pursuing a variety of public awareness efforts. The intention is to expand our current successful efforts to inform the public of the benefits of library service and to extend these efforts to the local level.

General Policies have been updated to: further clarify the network upgrade program to make formal the grant limit of 60 percent of hardware and software costs; clarify the use of grant funds for personnel, especially in schools; establish a general policy of one grant per round per applicant, and establish a two-year grace period for expired long-range plans.

Procedures have been modified to delete the Innovative category of grants and replace it with the Open category.

The section on Evaluation places greater emphasis on the use of professional outside evaluators, consistent evaluation methods for mini-grants, and an overall evaluation of the program that leads directly into the next planning process.

Appendix C - Long-Range Plans section has been retained. We remain convinced that the planning requirement furthers the development of library service. We clarify the planning requirement for school libraries, especially those who choose to plan at the district level.

This Long-Range Plan continues the current policy of developing an annual Program and Budget for the grant rounds. We note the interest expressed by many libraries in multi-year projects and plan to continue and expand these offerings. We also note the interest in higher dollar amount grants, and we expect to make a greater range of awards available in the coming years. In addition, the Plan acknowledges the option of joint projects-both those conducted by several libraries together and those that might be proposed by a region, network or other formal cooperating group.

While the 2003-2007 Long-Range Plan does not deal directly with questions about ease of completing applications and ease of reporting progress of grant funded projects, we continue to examine both our application forms and report forms in an effort to streamline and simplify these processes.