This SPEC kit which contains its accompanying SPEC Flyer prepared by the Systems and Procedures Exchange Center (SPEC) focuses on strategic planning. A planning process which emphasizes redefining goals and objectives and reordering priorities based on a dynamic environment, strategic planning has been considered to be particularly applicable to the continuous technological flux and constantly changing situation of research libraries. In designing this survey on strategic planning, the ARL (Association of Research Libraries) was especially interested in finding out how libraries have implemented strategic planning during the last five years, how useful it has been to those libraries, and, particularly, how successful it has been. Sixty-nine of the 199 ARL libraries responded to the survey, and of those 47 indicated they had produced a written strategic plan since 1989. Thirty-one libraries indicated that they had used other processes such as TQM (Total Quality Management), focus groups and surveys, planning task forces, retreats, long-range planning, and so forth. Of the 47 libraries with strategic plans, 38 have ongoing formal planning processes, only 12 of which were in place prior to the initiation of strategic planning. Most libraries initiated strategic planning as a response to the complexity of issues facing research libraries in the 1990s. Stimuli included the need to maintain current levels of acquisition and more services, especially electronic access, the university, or a new library director. Eighteen of the 47 libraries used a consultant. In most cases the director (24) or the assistant director (16) had responsibility for the process. Almost every library reported that strategic planning has enabled the library to address the key issues that generated the need for strategic planning in the first place. It has enabled the library to make informed decisions about the allocation of time, personnel, and money, and has provided an overall structure in which to set priorities. The main body of the SPEC kit is comprised of examples of strategic planning from the University of Alberta (Canada), the University of British Columbia (Canada), Brown University (Massachusetts), Emory University (Georgia), Harvard University (Massachusetts), the University of Kansas, Louisiana State University, the University of Pennsylvania, Purdue University (Indiana), and the State University of New York at Albany. Contains a 13-item selected bibliography. (Author/MAS)