Hello All,
Please read below an important message from HSLG Chairperson, Bernard Barrett about the ongoing Strategic Planning Process. Please note, there is time sensitive information below. Please read and reply as soon as possible!
all the best
Louise Farragher, HSLG Communications Officer
______________________________________________________________________________________________

Dear Colleagues,

I wrote to you on the 18th January, concerning the group-wide Strategic Planning process which was begun by all those who attended our Annual Conference in Tullamore last November.

My e-mail of the January 18th contained a summary of the discussions and output from the working groups at the conference.

At the conference, a number of you expressed your delight that a formal planning process was now underway. Now is your chance to get involved and really make a difference oin behalf of the group as a whole

The purpose of this e-mail is to

1. Outline the next steps
2. Ask for your continued involvement.

This is a planning process that is owned by all of us - not just the committee, or those who attended the conference. Without the involvement of all of you, the process will not be successful.

I'd like to clarify some of the language that is used within the Strategic Planning process, and the meaning that we as a group are attaching to these terms.

* Vision, Mission and Values Statement

These are normally top level statements which set out in broad what we as a group are trying to achieve - what we feel our essential purpose is, and the values and principles that inform the work we do as health care information professionals.

The HSLG has at this stage elected only to have a mission statement.

It may be that as a result of our further discussions, we will also wish to have a Vision and Values statement - but that is for the future and is something that will be decided by us all.

You may remember that a mission statement had been drafted by the committee, which many felt to be far too wordy. A number of alternatives were put forward by the conference working groups. I'm delighted to tell you that the committee, at its last meeting on February 10th, overwhelmingly decided to accept one of these. As a result the mission statement of the group now is;

The Health Sciences Libraries Group is committed to empowering all our members to excellence in the fields of information management, and by doing so, advancing health for all.

We will be using this as our mission statement from this point onwards.

* Timeframe.

Every Strategic plan works according to a timeframe - as a group we have agreed a three year time scale / time frame for our planning process. The process began in Jan 2005 and will operate until December 2007.

* Goals.

As you will recall, the committee prior to the conference had discerned 7 goals. Details of these are below. Goals are broad programmes of action.

* Objectives.

The Working Groups at the conference did a great deal of work on devising objectives for each goal. But more still needs to be done. The questions (among others) that now need to be asked for each objective are

* Does each objective constitute a particular action or task?
* What needs to happen first?
* When should it happen (i.e. in Yr 1, 2 or 3?)
* What will it cost

Objectives are actions which will make the goal a reality (or in the language of the Strategic Planning process a deliverable!)

Each goal may have a number of objectives.

Every objective should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timebound).

* Working Groups

To provide the answers to these questions, and to ensure that the objectives are carried forward, we need all of you, irrespective of whether you attended the conference or not, to join one of seven working groups (one for each goal) which will clarify (where necessary) and implement our agreed goals

Each of these groups will be facilitated by one or more members of the committee, and their names and e-mail addresses can be found under each of the goals below.

Please contact one of the committee members below by March 9th, to let them know which goal you intend to work with them on. If you had worked on a particular goal at the conference, and would now like to change to work on another goal, that's no problem.

I appreciate that many of you may be concerned about the element of time involved, and perhaps about having to negotiate for time to attend meetings.

The committee intends that the work of discussing and implementing the goals and objectives, will be accomplished mostly electronically, using e-mail and chat room technology. It may be that a working group will decide to have an actual meeting occasionally - but that is for the working group to decide.

1. Develop links and strategic partnerships with relevant external professional bodies, both within Ireland and internationally.

Maire McClarnon maire.mcclarnon@mailx.hse.ie

Dympna Lynch Cavan.Library@maile.hse.ie

2. Work with all relevant individuals and bodies to actively influence national policy in all matters relating to information, knowledge and libraries, particularly with regard to the Health Service reform programme

Bernard Barrett bernard.barrett@mailh.hse.ie

3. Actively seek opportunities to promote the role and work of Health Science Librarians.

Ciara McCaffrey ciara.mccaffrey@ul.ie

Sue Faulkner sue.faulkner@scjms.ie

4. Examine ways of increasing and maximising membership involvement within the group.

Louise Farragher lfarragher@hrb.ie

5. Review and implement measures to improve communication and networking within the Health Sciences sector, through the continued planned development of the IHSLG web site, and evolution of our annual conference.

Brian Galvin bgalvin@hrb.ie

Rosarii Buttimer r.buttimer@ucc.ie

6. Develop our relationship with our parent organisation, the Library Association of Ireland.

Bernard Barrett bernard.barrett@mailh.hse.ie

Maire McClarnon maire.mcclarnon@mailx.hse.ie

Ann O'Byrne ann.obyrne@dental.tcd.ie

7. Develop the Continuing Professional Development Programme.

Aoife Lawton aoife.lawton@mailk.hse.ie

Fiona McCarthy fiona.mccarthy@mailc.hse.ie

* Next Steps

Confirmation of the group you have asked to work in will be e-mailed to you via your group leaders on March 14th

The period from March 14th to June 3rd will then be used to devise objectives which will deliver the goals over the three year time period

The committee meets on June 16th, which is the first opportunity we will all have to collate the work that has been done, and have an overview of the entire plan.

June 17th - implementation of the plan begins.

We look forward to hearing from all of you and thank you for your support

Kind regards

Bernard
HSLG Chairperson

Bernard Barrett
Information Scientist
Mental Health Directorate
Health Service Executive
Mid West Office,
Office 3, South East Wing
St Joseph's Hospital,
Mulgrave Streeet,
Limerick,

IRELAND
t. (+353) 61 461204
e. bernard.barrett@mailh.hse.ie