| Historically Black college and university libraries are at a crossroad. If they are to continue to improve in their role as information centers of their parent institutions and attempt to serve as links to external sources and environments, the future of these libraries must not be obscured by traditional planning strategies in the areas of program development, budgeting, staffing, and resource development.; The purpose of this study was to investigate how certain planning strategies affected the library administrators' ability to obtain support for library programs and development at historically Black colleges and universities over a ten-year period from 1982 to 1992. Usable responses were received from 89 respondents out of the 103 institutions surveyed. A response rate of 64 per cent was achieved from the mailed questionnaire which was developed, pretested, and validated by the researcher.; The descriptive survey method using mailed questionnaires which contained both Likert-type scale queries and open-ended queries was selected as the most appropriate approach in gathering data. The 103 institutions surveyed included 66 public and 37 private two-year and four-year historically Black colleges and universities. Background descriptive data on the status of the institution were collected. Five hypothesis were tested using Chi-square analysis.; The research findings indicated that no relationship existed in Chi-square analysis between the superiority of any planning strategy in general, whether Management By Objectives, Long-Range Planning, or Strategic Planning, and the ability of the academic library administrator to obtain support for library programs at the historically Black college or university during the period 1982 to 1992.; Although results in this study did not reveal a significant difference in the level of effectiveness of any one planning strategy, it was apparent that planning strategies led to successful results. |
