Abstract

The academic library development plan has external importance as it explicitly declares the library’s role and development direction. Internally, it is also a library service guideline. To develop the development plan, libraries must understand the trends and needs of international, national, and affiliating universities and their constituents. Accordingly, this research includes case, content, and network analyses of foreign academic libraries’ development plans to identify the trends. The analysis results show most foreign academic libraries employed various strategies and plans, which can be characterized as ‘collaboration,’ ‘collection development,’ and ‘research support.’ Consequently, we propose the following factors to consider when developing an academic library development plan: specification of mission, vision, and core values; recognition of core values such as diversity, equity, and inclusion; awareness of the significance of collaboration and partnership with other units within the universities and external organizations; and utilization of university library development plans as tools for achieving management objectives.