Competency D: Planning and Management
Apply the fundamental principles of planning, management, marketing, and advocacy.
Introduction to Competency D
I understand this competency as four connected skills that turn a good idea into a service that lasts. Planning decides what will be done, by when, and how success will be judged. Management directs the people, money, and equipment needed to do it. Marketing makes sure the people the service is for know that it exists and understand why it matters to them. Advocacy makes the case to funders and decision makers that the service deserves support. Evans and Greenwell (2020) present management as a set of basics that every information professional needs, whatever their title, and I agree with that position. A librarian who runs one program is planning, managing a budget line, promoting the program, and defending it at review time.
Grant writing is where the four skills meet most visibly. Gerding and MacKellar (2017) present grant work for libraries as a process that begins with planning and community need well before any application is written. A proposal has to state a need with evidence, describe the project, set goals and measurable outcomes, explain how the work will be evaluated, show a budget that matches the activities, and explain how the project will continue when the grant ends. Each of those sections is a planning discipline in its own right. A proposal is also a piece of advocacy, because it must persuade a reader with no obligation to care.
Planning also has to account for what happens after approval. Murray et al. (2010) describe normalisation process theory, which identifies four things that must happen for a new practice to become routine: people must make sense of it, commit to it, do the collective work, and keep appraising whether it is worth the cost. I use this as a management checklist. A makerspace can be funded and equipped and still fail if staff do not understand its purpose or do not have time to maintain it. I have seen well-funded resources go unused because nobody promoted them and nobody was responsible for them. Those resources did not fail on quality. They failed because management and marketing were missing.
Finally, the profession now names sustainability as a core value, describing it as “making choices that are good for the environment, make sense economically, and treat everyone equitably” (American Library Association, 2024). I read that as a planning standard. A plan should show its environmental cost and its financial cost honestly, and it should say who will carry the work.
This competency matters to me because most of my professional work is project work. As a freelance contractor I plan and deliver to deadlines for clients. As volunteer coordinator for the Immersive Learning Research Network I manage people who are not paid and cannot be directed, which makes clear communication and realistic scheduling the only tools available. At Scottsdale Public Library I wrote planning and training documents for the makerspace. The competency matters to the profession because libraries compete for public and private money and must explain their value in terms a funder accepts. A library that cannot plan, measure, and advocate will lose resources to organizations that can.
Evidence
My preparation for this competency came from INFO 204, Information Professions, where my group carried out a SWOT analysis and wrote a strategic plan, from INFO 282, Seminar in Library Management, which covered grant writing, and from the Google Project Management Certificate. [State whether the certificate is complete or in progress.] At Scottsdale Public Library I helped research and write training materials connected to a successful makerspace grant. [Confirm this wording and add the grant name and year if you can share them.]
Evidence 1: Building the Future of Immersive Learning (grant proposal)
I wrote this ten-page proposal in Fall 2025 for INFO 282. It requests $250,000 over 24 months from a private foundation on behalf of the Immersive Learning Research Network to establish professional standards and credentials for people who design immersive learning. [Confirm: this was a course assignment. If the survey figures and the named partnership were invented for the exercise, say so in one sentence here.]
The proposal demonstrates planning and advocacy together. It contains every component a funder expects: an executive summary, organizational background, a statement of need, a project description divided into phases with month ranges, goals with dates and numeric targets, an evaluation plan, a budget with a justification for each category, and a sustainability plan. The goals are specific. One commits to training 250 practitioners with 80 percent reaching proficiency. The evaluation plan separates outputs, such as the number of workshops delivered, from outcomes, such as the share of participants who report changing their practice after six months, and from longer-term impact, such as adoption by institutions. The proposal also aligns the project with the funder’s stated priorities, which is advocacy aimed at a particular reader. [Optional and worth adding if true: one sentence on what you corrected when you reviewed the proposal for this portfolio, such as bringing the budget categories in line with the four project components.]
Evidence 2: Responsible Makerspace: Recycling and Limiting Plastic Waste (report for Scottsdale Public Library)
I wrote this four-page report in 2025 for the Scottsdale Public Library makerspace initiative. It evaluates whether the makerspace should recycle waste filament from its 3D printers.
The report demonstrates management decision making on a small scale. I identified the available recycling programs, selected the most likely vendor, and worked out the cost. A prepaid collection container costs $114. The vendor awards 280 discount points for each kilogram of waste and redeems 100 points for one dollar. A full container holds roughly 47 kilograms, which earns $131.60 in credit, for a net gain of about $17.60. I reported that the program would be close to neutral for the budget once staff time is considered. I then set out the benefits and limitations side by side, including the fact that staff would need a way to collect clean filament. The report also recommends preventing waste before it occurs through correct print setup and dry storage of filament. It includes an advocacy argument as well: a recycling program lets the library show stakeholders that sustainability is part of the makerspace’s goals. [This report is also used in Competency A. Present it there as an example of honest reporting.]
Evidence 3: Connect Arizona: Organizational Analysis and Strategic Plan (group plan)
This five-year strategic plan was written in Fall 2024 for INFO 204 by a group of three. It follows a SWOT analysis of Connect Arizona, a statewide digital equity program, in which I wrote the Weaknesses and Opportunities sections. [State which parts of the plan itself you wrote.]
The plan demonstrates the planning principle that goals should follow from analysis. The SWOT identified what limits the program, including rural distance, dependence on outside partners, and staffing. The plan answers with specific actions: extending the Digital Navigator service from eleven Arizona counties to all fifteen, opening satellite locations in libraries and community centers, combining phone support with in-person service, and creating a community ambassador program to reach rural communities, tribal nations, older adults, and people who do not speak English. The plan is organized around the SMART criteria, with sections that test whether the goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. It ties each goal to the state’s own digital equity plan and to survey figures on the barriers residents report, such as the cost of internet service. It closes by naming the gaps that remain, including infrastructure on tribal lands. My individual reflection on the project summarizes the plan and its reasoning. [Before linking: the plan commits to enrolling people in the Affordable Connectivity Program, which the SWOT says has ended. Correct that, and remove teammates’ names.]
Conclusion
I will apply this competency whenever I propose a service, by writing down the need, the measurable goal, the full cost, and the person responsible before I ask for approval. I also intend to keep writing grant proposals for the organizations I work with. To stay current I will use Candid for foundation research and grant writing guidance, the Project Management Institute for planning methods, and the Public Library Association for management practice in public libraries. [Add a marketing or advocacy source if you use one.]
References
American Library Association. (2024). Core values of librarianship. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/advocacy/intfreedom/corevalues
Evans, G. E., & Greenwell, S. (2020). Management basics for information professionals (4th ed.). ALA Neal-Schuman.
Gerding, S. K., & MacKellar, P. H. (2017). Winning grants: A how-to-do-it manual for librarians (2nd ed.). ALA Neal-Schuman.
Murray, E., Treweek, S., Pope, C., MacFarlane, A., Ballini, L., Dowrick, C., Finch, T., Kennedy, A., Mair, F., O’Donnell, C., Ong, B. N., Rapley, T., Rogers, A., & May, C. (2010). Normalisation process theory: A framework for developing, evaluating and implementing complex interventions. BMC Medicine, 8, Article 63. https://doi.org/10.1186/1741-7015-8-63