NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release: February 2, 2004
Contact: Kathlin Smith 202-939-4754
CLIR Publishes Guide to Business Planning for Cultural Heritage Institutions
WASHINGTON, D.C.—"How do we get money for this?" Cultural heritage institutions frequently ask this question as they face the challenge of moving from a grant-funded, one-time project to a long-term program that provides a product or service. According to the authors of a new report from CLIR, securing the funds needed to maintain a project requires business planning. Business planning is critical to the sustainability of any initiative, including digital initiatives. Yet few cultural heritage organizations today engage in such planning.
Business Planning for Cultural Heritage Institutions is intended to help these organizations plan sustainable access to digital cultural assets and to do so by means that link their missions to planning modes and models. Authors Liz Bishoff and Nancy Allen advocate a business-planning approach that helps organizations take a long-term, strategic view of digital asset management.
The authors write from extensive personal experience: Liz Bishoff is executive director of the Colorado Digitization Program and owner of The Bishoff Group, a library management consulting organization. Nancy Allen is dean and director of Penrose Library at the University of Denver.
The report begins by identifying nine components of organizational planning for governmental and nonprofit organizations. It discusses non-grant-based revenue sources, such as sponsorship and advertising, partnerships, donors, and foundations. It then describes specific considerations for cultural heritage institutions in developing a business plan, from assessing general business trends, to understanding the value that audiences place on different projects or services, to harnessing the power of the Web for communication and distribution of products or services.
To better understand whether and how cultural heritage institutions engage in business planning, the authors conducted a telephone survey of 13 institutions experienced with undertaking digitization projects or programs. Interviewees included single institutions, collaborative efforts, service providers, and consortial initiatives. While showing that few institutions are currently doing business planning, the survey revealed that some institutions are beginning to view digital resource management as a core function, and are beginning to reassign regular operating funds to maintaining the infrastructure.
In the final section of the report, the authors provide a template that introduces the major business-planning elements—from organizational mission to product evaluation. The report also provides examples of how different cultural heritage institutions have addressed these elements. The template is intended to help institutions prepare their own business plans.
Business Planning for Cultural Heritage Institutions is available on CLIR's Web site at http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub124abst.html. Print copies are available for ordering through CLIR's Web site, for $20 per copy plus shipping and handling.
The Council on Library and Information Resources is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the management of information for research, teaching, and learning. CLIR works to expand access to information, however recorded and preserved, as a public good.
