All of these books are available from the American Library Association online store.

Sandra Nelson, Strategic Planning for Results. American Library Association, 2008.

The PLA Results Series has long served to help public librarians envision, evaluate, and respond to community needs with distinctive programs and services. Building from this proven model, Strategic Planning for Results is the fully revised version of Planning for Results, the foundational book in this groundbreaking series.

Strategic Planning for Results focuses on the essential steps to draft a results-driven, strategic planning process that libraries can complete over the course of four months, regardless of organizational structure or size. It reflects the current planning environment for public libraries with an emphasis on strategic rather than long-term planning and includes a wealth of information about understanding and managing the change process to help staff.
Included are the newly revised and adopted Public Library Service Responses, case studies, workforms, and tool kits. Strategic Planning for Results offers librarians a wealth of ideas to effectively meet changing community needs.

June Garcia and Sandra Nelson, 2007 Public Library Service Responses. American Library Association, 2007. (e-book available for download).

Service responses describe "what a library does for, or offers to, the public in an effort to meet a set of well-defined community needs," and they are an integral part of public library strategic planning projects.

In 2006, the Public Library Association initiated a process to review and revise the original 1997 Public Library Service Responses. The process was open and allowed all interested librarians, library staff, and library trustees to participate, either in person or via the Web. The final service responses reflect the wide array of input received.

Sandra Nelson and June Garcia, Creating Policies for Results: From Chaos to Clarity. American Library Association, 2003.

This comprehensive how-to book addresses each major area of library services: governance and organizational structure, management policies, and services relating to customers, circulation, information, and groups. The book provides guidelines to help library staff assess existing policies and revise and develop new ones. The book also provides the tools needed to communicate the new and revised policies to ensure that staff have the information they need to do their jobs and that library users receive consistently excellent service.

" An effective and knowledgeable "how-to" guide for developing and implementing seamless governance of sound policies.... Creating Policies For Results is very highly recommended reading -- especially for library workers, administrative staff, and library board policy makers."
— Midwest Book Review

"Creating Polices for Results is very well written and argues forcibly for the thoroughness of its recommended approach. I highly recommend it."
— The Australian Library Journal

Every public library, regardless of size, has four important resources to help meet its mission and achieve its goals in the community. Staff, the library’s collection, technology, and the library facility itself all need to be carefully managed for the library to achieve the results outlined in its strategic plan. Managing for Results helps librarians to take a proactive approach to marshaling and managing all of the library’s resources effectively.

“Recommended for all public libraries and library science collections.”
— Library Journal

Other titles that are currently out-of-print include:

Sandra Nelson and Diane Mayo. Wired for the Future: Developing Your Library Technology Plan. American Library Association, 1999.

Sandra Nelson. The New Planning for Results: A Streamlined Approach. American Library Association, 2001.