Engaging in an organized environmental scan is a key element of the overall program development process. The scan process allows an opportunity to gather key information on the local environment and build a shared understanding of ongoing activities, past accomplishments, and potential opportunities. By its nature, a scan is outward-focused; it looks at the larger institutional setting, outside of the library.
To get started, establish your goals for the environmental scan. These might include
identifying supportive and/or influential individuals (e.g., "faculty champions")
identifying institutional entities that would be logical allies (e.g., Faculty Library Committee, Office of Research)
finding out what issues resonate with your campus
expanding subject librarians' knowledge of the departments they work with
Identify specific factors to investigate, such as
faculty members serving as journal editors, professional society officers, etc.
current activity levels for Open Access publishing, support of alternative publishing venues
participation in an existing institutional repository or interest in establishing one
previous governance attention to scholarly communication issues, regardless of result (e.g., consideration of resolution supporting OA, endorsement of author's addendum)
tenure & promotion code terms related to publishing
relevant institutional policies, such as use of grant funding for author fees
Examples of survey instruments:
ARL/ACRL Schol Comm Opportunity Assessment [PDF]
UM schol comm environmental scan pt. 1
UM schol comm environmental scan pt. 2
Establish the procedures you'll follow:
Determine who will gather the information; will the work be distributed among all subject librarians or centralized, or performed by an outside consultant?
Establish an appropriate scope for the scan (e.g., limit to information easily gathered from existing sources, or require detail that could only be discovered by interviewing faculty members).
Choose a data-collection tool (e.g., Zoomerang, SurveyMonkey, wiki).
Plan the data output format and report-generating mechanism at the time of initial design.
Draft the scan instrument and test-drive it, paying particular attention to whether responses should be open-ended or controlled-vocabulary.
Harvest the scan results.
Perform the scan. Collate and analyze the results.
Example: Peer-reviewed journals/book series published at UMN
Report out, both to the library staff and to any appropriate institutional entities (e.g., the Office of Research might want to see the list of faculty editors).
Use the results to inform program activities; where are the opportunities to expand awareness of the issues and/or encourage behavior change? how can you develop a joint plan of action with the allies identified?