How to Plan an Information Centre: A Step-by-Step Guide

Setting up an information centre is far more than acquiring books and switching on a few computers. It is a deliberate, structured process that decides whether the centre will serve its users well or struggle to stay relevant. Planning is essentially deciding in advance what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and who will do it. A well-planned centre saves money, avoids duplication of effort, and ensures that the right information reaches the right person at the right time. This guide breaks the process into four clear stages: formulating objectives, arranging inputs and resources, designing an organisational structure, and embedding quality management.

Why planning comes first 🔗

Planning is not a one-time activity completed before the doors open. It is a continuous process that requires constant reappraisal. A plan is a means to an agreed aim, not an end in itself, and it must be revised in light of changing situations, technology, and user expectations. Most well-run centres begin by forming a planning committee that studies needs, drafts proposals, and oversees implementation. This committee brings together administrators, subject experts, and information professionals so that decisions are not made in isolation.

Skipping the planning stage is a common and costly mistake. Without a defined direction, a centre tends to accumulate resources that nobody uses, hire staff without clear roles, and offer services that do not match what users actually need. The four stages below give that direction.

Step 1: Formulating objectives 🔗

The first step is to set clear objectives. Without a well-defined purpose, the entire project becomes directionless. Formulating objectives means understanding exactly who your users are and what role the centre will play in meeting their needs.

Define the user community 🔗

Every decision that follows depends on knowing your users. A centre serving research scientists at a national laboratory has very different needs from one serving undergraduate students or rural community members. Identify the size of the user base, their subject interests, their information-seeking habits, and the depth of information they require. This is sometimes called a user or community needs assessment, and it forms the evidence base for everything else.

Decide the services to be offered 🔗

Once you know your users, you can decide what services will meet their needs. These might include lending of books and journals, access to online databases, current awareness services, document delivery, training sessions, workshops, or reference and consultation services. These services form the backbone of the centre’s operations and directly shape the design of both physical and digital spaces.

Set measurable goals 🔗

Vague aspirations like “serve users better” cannot be tracked. Goals should be specific and measurable, such as digitising a defined collection within a year or extending access hours. Setting objectives is also a recognised stage in the wider field of strategic planning for libraries and information services, where measurable targets allow managers to check progress and justify budgets to the parent body. Keep objectives flexible enough to absorb change, but firm enough to guide development.

Step 2: Inputs and resources 🔗

Once objectives are clear, the next step is identifying the inputs and resources needed to achieve them. These fall into three broad categories: human, technological, and physical.

Manpower 🔗

Staff are the single most important resource. High-quality staff can transform even a poorly funded centre into one that offers excellent service, while weak staffing can undermine the best collection. Planning for manpower means deciding how many people are needed, what qualifications they should hold, and how duties will be divided. Provision should also be made for continuing education and training so that staff keep pace with new tools and techniques, and so that a steady supply of skilled professionals is always available. Seminars, workshops, and conferences help promote the exchange of experience.

Technology 🔗

A modern centre must give serious thrust to information technology. This involves computer hardware and software, telecommunication facilities, reprographic and digitisation equipment, and the networks that connect them. A centre that neglects technology will find itself handicapped in serving users who increasingly expect remote and round-the-clock access. The digital component complements the physical centre and greatly expands its reach to users who are physically distant. Planning should therefore include building a comprehensive technological infrastructure and developing the technical staff to run it.

Infrastructure and finance 🔗

Physical space requires careful thought. Space planning combines budgeting, staffing, architecture, equipment, and logistics into a single coordinated plan that guides the centre through construction or renovation. The location matters too: a special library, for example, is often best placed near the parent organisation’s main building so that it sits within easy reach of its users, with the ground floor frequently preferred for accessibility. Underpinning all of this is finance. A realistic budget must cover not just the initial setup but recurring costs such as salaries, subscriptions, maintenance, and technology upgrades. In India, many public information centres depend on government grants and bodies such as the Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation for sustained funding.

Step 3: Organisational structure 🔗

With objectives and resources defined, the centre needs a structure that turns plans into daily operations. Organising means establishing a formal, well-defined structure of authority that coordinates effort towards the centre’s objectives.

Departments and job design 🔗

Proper job analysis and assignment ensure that no two roles overlap unnecessarily. Similar tasks are grouped under one department, while dissimilar tasks are kept separate. A typical centre is organised into functional units such as acquisition, technical processing (classification and cataloguing), circulation, reference and information services, periodicals, and a technology or systems section. The powers, functions, and duties of each departmental head must be clearly defined so that responsibility is never ambiguous.

Administration and service delivery 🔗

A sound structure balances two sides of the same coin: administrative functions that keep the organisation running, and service functions that deliver value to users. Both must be planned together. A centre that is administratively efficient but offers poor service has failed its purpose, and one that delivers good service without sound administration cannot sustain it. Internal organisation also means physically placing different work areas sensibly, so that workflow moves logically from one stage to the next.

Centralised or decentralised 🔗

One key decision is how much authority to retain at the top. Centralisation keeps decision-making with senior managers, which tends to produce uniformity of policy, fewer errors by subordinates, and tighter control over operations. Decentralisation pushes authority downward, which can speed up decisions and motivate staff. Larger systems sometimes adopt a matrix structure that draws staff from different functional areas into project teams without removing them from their home departments. The right choice depends on the size and purpose of the centre.

Step 4: Quality management 🔗

The final stage ensures that the centre does not just function, but functions well. Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management approach centred on quality, based on the participation of the whole organisation and aimed at long-term success. In an information centre, quality means delivering the right information, in the right quantity and quality, to the right person, at the right place and time.

Core principles of TQM 🔗

TQM is built on a set of guiding principles that apply directly to service organisations like information centres. The basic principles include customer focus, where user needs and expectations drive every decision; leadership commitment from the director downward; involvement of all staff; a process approach that improves how work is done rather than blaming individuals; and fact-based decision-making that relies on objective data such as usage statistics and satisfaction surveys. A further important principle is that quality must be appropriate to need rather than excessive for its own sake.

Continual improvement and evaluation 🔗

TQM is a continuous process, not a one-off programme. The principle of continual improvement encourages a centre to regularly seek feedback, stay current with technology, and adopt best practices so that it keeps responding to changing user needs. This is where evaluation closes the loop with the objectives set in Step 1. By measuring performance against the original goals, managers can see what is working, identify weak areas, and feed those findings back into the next planning cycle. Empowering staff, doing each job correctly the first time, and breaking down barriers between departments all support this culture of improvement, drawing on quality frameworks such as Deming’s principles.

The result of embedding quality management is tangible: higher user satisfaction, more efficient operations, and better use of limited resources. It also turns planning into a cycle rather than a straight line, because each evaluation informs the next round of objectives.

Bringing the four steps together 🔗

These four stages are not isolated boxes to tick. Objectives define who you serve and what you offer. Resources supply the people, technology, and space to deliver it. Structure organises that effort into smooth daily operation. Quality management measures the outcome and feeds lessons back into fresh objectives. Treated as a continuous loop, this process keeps an information centre relevant, efficient, and genuinely useful to its community long after the initial setup is complete.

What do you think? If you were planning an information centre for your own college or community, which user group would you design it around first? And which of the four stages do you think most centres neglect once they are up and running?

References

1. https://www.netugc.com/planning-a-library-and-information-science-centre-library
2. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/library-strategic-planning
3. https://ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in/lisp13/chapter/organisational-structure-of-public-library-system/
4. https://epgp.inflibnet.ac.in/epgpdata/uploads/epgp_content/S000021LI/P000101/M001976/ET/1483086665p6_m_7.pdf
5. https://www.lisedunetwork.com/total-quality-management-tqm-in-library/
6. https://www.academia.edu/12104429/TOTAL_QUALITY_MANAGEMENT_TQM_AND_ITS_APPLICATIONS_IN_ACADEMIC_LIBRARY_AND_INFORMATION_SERVICES