Strategic Staff Planning Plan

Presented by NBLC and WOB (Library Employers Association)
The Hague, 18 October 2025

The public library sector is in a process of change: the urge to innovate new products and services, large scale IT implementation, demand-oriented services, quality improvement and restructuring place enormous pressure on the library organisations. Organisational development, professional innovation and staff training programmes require practical support. NBLC and WOB members adopted a policy paper for strategic staff planning and a common action plan 2001-2004 in June 2001. A committee for labour market problems has been established and financial support from the ESF (equality programme) has been sought. One of the tasks is to set up a centre of expertise for staff and organisational development. Methods, tools and people will converge in this national centre which will work in co-operation with experts.

The recommendations of the Meijer report will be implemented; the three levels of government have signed a general covenant to restructure and support the public library sector: set up of base libraries, dissolving PBC management in local libraries, set up of regional facility centres and establishing the post of a government Library Consultant.
IOO has estimated the incidental and structural costs for successful restructuring of the sector to be 120 million guilders each year for the first four years. The quality factor, as mentioned in the report, considers the development of human resources as one of the five key factors for innovation.
The provincial government plays a key role in the restructuring process: provincial library policy plan, tailor-made to the province and agreed with the local municipalities.
At the national level, process management (annual budget 1,5 million guilders) will support the restructuring. This envisages setting up a special Knowledge Centre and adopting a number of best practice projects.

All restructuring initiatives require financial support: 12,2 million guilders a year is available for the coming four years. This fund is the result of the wage mitigation at the beginning of the 1980's. Formal subsidy regulations have yet to be adopted. In the year 2001, the funds will be transferred directly to the provinces, in 2002 they will be distributed to smaller municipalities (less than 30.000 inhabitants) and are earmarked for staff related costs in the broad sense, to set up the base libraries.

The policy plan aims at joining forces for a combined centre for knowledge and support; if possible, combining the Knowledge Centre for restructuring (process management) and the Staff & Organisation Expertise Centre (NBLC).
Possible projects related to the restructuring of the public library sector are foreseen based on mergers of library boards and governing boards; merging of staff and organisations, equating and reformulating service policies of several libraries into a single base library.
Furthermore, quality care systems, market and customer information systems have to be developed and introduced and co-operation in larger networks and/or buying supra-local services must put in place.
The strategic staff planning programme of NBLC and WOB will help to support the programme of restructuring. This includes the following projects:
- OBIP+, a software tool for staff management, including personal development plans, professional profiles, training programmes, etc.
- (Virtual) mobility centre; an overview of mobility programmes and availability of people and functions in various new library organisations.
- Education and training: programmes for all sorts of training and education at various levels, including work experience.

(Summarised by Marian Koren, NBLC)