The library community has redescribed its roles in the information lifecycle by building on the extensive knowledge base we have developed through buying published research and organizing and archiving information. With a growing sense of urgency, libraries have defined publishing and archiving services as critical to 21st century research institutions, but dysfunctional in the current environment. Our research and IT colleagues trust Libraries to address these needs that cannot be readily met through existing publication channels or through the existing research infrastructure. But how do libraries effectively operate these services when both short- and long-term costs are not well understood? This presentation provides a research update on Business Cases for New Service Development in Research Libraries, a CLIR/DLF-funded research project to recommend methods for effective service planning in research libraries, adapting processes from the business as well as the not-for-profit sectors. Our research will examine how business planning methods can be applied in our not-for-profit contexts, and we will recommend some best practices that may be adopted. We will also research and write up to six case studies based on the development of campus-based publishing programs and research data management services. Our presentation at DLF will recap the goals of this project, present our planning model and outline our plans for case studies. We wish to solicit feedback on how our project can best meet the community’s needs. This presentation was made by Mike Furlough & Elizabeth Kirk on November 1, 2011 at the DLF Forum in Baltimore, MD. The slides served as the basis for a similar presentation by Carol Hunter & Judy Luther on November 4, 2011 at the Charleston Conference in South Carolina.

1. Business Case Planning for Research
Support Services
A Progress Report to the DLF Forum
Mike Furlough & Elizabeth Kirk, November 1, 2011

2. Responsibility and Credits
 Ted Fons, OCLC
 Mike Furlough, Penn State
 Elizabeth Kirk, Dartmouth College
 Carol Hunter, University of North Carolina
 Judy Luther, Informed Strategies
 Michele Reid, North Dakota State University
 CLIR/DLF sponsors this work
 MediaCommons will host results of our work
 Beverly Lynch, Director, Senior Fellows
Program, UCLA introduced us

3. Context for the Project

4. Our goal is to provide the Library/Higher Education
community with processes, tools, best practices, and
examples to enable successful planning for library
services to support new scholarly communications
practices.

5. Transformation: Drivers
 Consumer technology and user expectations
 The marketplace for academic publishing
 The open access/copyleft movement
 The emergence of digital scholarship in humanities &
social sciences
 The emergence of computationally-driven data-
intensive science
 Mass digitization
 …

7. If you can’t persuade me that the work you’re doing is going to make us more famous, we’re
not going to be interested in investing in you…. Is that wise and profound and good? No. It’s
stupid. But that’s the way it is….
--John V. Lombardi, President of Louisiana State University at the October 2011 ARL
Meeting.

8. Recommendations:
Business Planning for Emerging
Services

9. Recommendations for Success
 We need a toolkit for making informed decisions
about creating new services
 Diagnose organizational and institutional readiness
 Develop a business case
 “A culture of discipline is not a principle of business;
it is a principle of greatness.” (Jim Collins on non-
profits)

10. Organizational readiness
 In your DNA, or a radical shift?
 Are the climate and capacity ready for very different
kinds of services?
 Four steps:
 Understand if you are mission-ready
 Know your risk tolerance
 Determine outcomes that promote impact and
sustainability
 Make sure that you can put resources in the right places

11. Mission and risk
 Do proposed new services “fit”?
 Create a balance between allowing change and
maintaining identity
 Are the library and the institution comfortable with
new service development?
 Is risk-taking rewarded or is maintaining the status
quo essential?
 Is there an understanding of the importance of
revenue and a willingness to keep services
financially feasible?

12. Outcomes and resource allocation
 Social enterprises balance social and economic
values
 Outcomes must promote high mission impact and
high viability
 Is the moment right?
 Environmental scan: are all of the essential pieces in
place?

13. Developing a business case
 What happens if… ?
 Multiple steps
 Create a basic outcome statement
 Identify options and analyze them
 Pinpoint and test
 Write your implementation plan

14. Outcomes and options
 Define what a service will accomplish
 Tie desired outcomes to library and institutional
strategic goals
 Brainstorm every possible option for action, then
narrow the list
 Gather data and analyze the options
 Benefits, viability, costs
 Should you really do this alone, or as part of a distributed
effort?
 Timeframes
 Talk to key stakeholders early and often (marketing)

15. Pinpoint, test, implement
 Find the sweet spot
 Identify and plan for risk
 Be realistic: avoid best-case scenarios
 Rewrite the outcome
 Write an implementation plan
 Action items and timelines
 Value proposition and marketing

16. Further considerations: Test. Build. Assess.
Rebuild.
 To pilot or not to pilot?
 Project management skills required
 Creativity and freedom to fail
 Execution and assessment
 And more assessment
 The cycle of change and assessment

17. Go/No
Go
3. Launch
Decision
2
2.2 Pilot
4. Periodic
2.1 Business Reassessmen
Case t
Development
Go/No Decision
Go 3
Decision
1
5.1 Service 5.2
1. Modification Exit
Organizational
Assessment
Time
Business Planning
Lifecycle

18. Case studies and timeline

19. Why Case Studies
 Explore planning processes employed by libraries
"on the ground"
 Can we identify best practices?
 Refine and extend initial work
 Publish examples from practitioners to provide
models

20. Recruiting 6 Participants
 The commitment:
 Initial questionnaire on baseline data
 1.5 day on-site interviews about planning & managing the
services
 Follow ups & write ups
 http://is.gd/casestudies
 Respond by November 15
 This is NOT A CONSULTING SERVICE

21. Timeline
 By end of 2011:
 Publish our initial report via Media Commons for public
comment
 Identify pool of case study sites
 First half of 2012:
 Conduct case study research
 September 2012:
 Publish final results

22. Questions
 Email address of today’s speakers
 Mike Furlough: mfurlough@psu.edu
 Elizabeth Kirk: elizabeth.e.kirk@dartmouth.edu
Suggest a case study subject
http://is.gd/casestudies