Action is essential when developing a plan to engage with users and other stakeholders but this action needs to have a context. It is not sufficient simply to offer a programme of generally positive activities with the hope that in some mystical way such initiatives will generate deep engagement and associated positive actions among users, potential users and other stakeholders.

Every type of library and information unit benefits from devising a clear statement of ambition to keep it close to users, potential users and the expectations and requirements of the funding bodies and other stakeholders. Reflection on the ideas discussed in Chapter 2 will help you clarify what you mean by engagement, but how will you know if the action plans in your strategic marketing and engagement plan have been successful? Simply completing tasks may not achieve desired outcomes. A statement of ambition gives you a baseline from which to judge success or otherwise, and these statements are particularly useful in managing relationships with funding bodies. In an amended form, they can potentially inspire users, potential users and other stakeholders.

For instance, public librarians need to show how they are contributing to the priorities of the councils that fund them, company librarians should align with the goals of the wider organisation (which are often related to delivering profit or a culture of innovation but may have wider social concerns as well) and health librarians need to show how they contribute to the delivery of a high level of patient care at reasonable cost. Academic librarians should show how they contribute to successful student experiences and outcomes and support faculty contributions to knowledge through research. In each of these, and other cases, this gives context for what the library and information service will encourage users and other stakeholders to engage with.

Perhaps the most overt application of ambition has been made in public libraries. In the UK, for instance, in 2018 the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport published Libraries Deliver (DCMS, 2018). In Scotland, the Carnegie UK Trust was commissioned to write a national strategy for public libraries, Ambition and Opportunity (Carnegie UK Trust, 2015).