Ascendant Bringing Strategy Development with the Balanced Scorecard to Ten Libraries in Partnership with ARL

"Ascendant and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) extend their partnership by signing up 10 more libraries for Balanced Scorecard strategy development training."

Washington, DC, May, 23, 2011 -- The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and Ascendant Strategy Management Group agreed to begin development of Balanced Scorecards (BSCs) for a group of 10 libraries.

The agreement marks an extension of a partnership between the two organizations that began in 2009 when Ascendant and ARL helped the libraries at Johns Hopkins University, McMaster University, the University of Virginia, and the University of Washington develop BSCs that would enable them to track and report on the execution of their strategic plans.

“This is a great opportunity to leverage the work we did with the first group of university libraries so that a second, larger cohort can take advantage of those efforts to build a robust strategy management framework for research libraries,” said Ted Jackson, Managing Partner with Ascendant.

“Libraries are thinking strategically about delivering increased value with limited resources and the BSC framework is an effective way of developing and maintaining strategy while ensuring sound implementation,” said Martha Kyrillidou, Senior Director for ARL Statistics and Service Quality Programs.

This second strategy development cohort will kick off in June with in-person workshops in Washington, DC, that will include multiple representatives from each library. This will be followed by two more workshops and monthly teleconferences that will enable the libraries to:

* Develop robust, individual scorecards tailored to their unique organizations; * Achieve executive buy-in to the BSC framework; * Conduct effective reporting meetings; and * Communicate the BSC to the rest of the library and university.

Ascendant will also be providing the libraries access to its ClearPoint Strategy software tool as part of the agreement. ClearPoint is an easy to use scorecarding solution that helps organizations manage performance.

The 10 university libraries participating in this second BSC cohort include: the University of Calgary, the University at Buffalo, New York University, Emory University, Florida State University, the University of Notre Dame, Texas Tech University, Case Western Reserve University, James Madison University, and the University of North Texas.

Ascendant Strategy Management Group helps nonprofits, agencies, associations, and foundations manage strategy, collaborate with stakeholders, and build communities around their strategy execution efforts. Ascendant offers Balanced Scorecard and performance management training, facilitation, and consulting to help organizations accelerate mission results. For more information, visit Ascendant online at http://www.ascendantsmg.com and ClearPoint Strategy at http://www.clearpointstrategy.com.

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 126 research libraries in the US and Canada. Its mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, facilitating the emergence of new roles for research libraries, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the web at http://www.arl.org/.

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