On the Complexity of Case-Based Planning

We analyze the computational complexity of problems related to case-based planning: planning when a plan for a similar instance is known, and planning from a library of plans. We prove that planning from a single case has the same complexity than generative planning (i.e., planning "from scratch"); using an extended definition of cases, complexity is reduced if the domain stored in the case is similar to the one to search plans for. Planning from a library of cases is shown to have the same complexity. In both cases, the complexity of planning remains, in the worst case, PSPACE-complete

Reinventing the Library at Eastern Washington University: An Intensive Strategic Planning Experience with Faculty

In the spring of 2006, Eastern Washington University Libraries received an institutional strategic planning grant to hold a two-week strategic planning institute with faculty members representing the six colleges at Eastern Washington University (EWU). The purpose of the institute, titled “Reinventing the Library,” was to articulate a five-year vision for the role of the library within the university. The institute was held at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library on the Cheney campus of EWU from July 24 through August 4, 2007, and was planned and facilitated by Dean of Libraries Patricia Kelley. Thirteen faculty members, including two members of the library faculty, participated. The curriculum for “Reinventing the Library” included presentations by guest speakers on national and institutional trends affecting EWU Libraries, group discussion, and planning activities. In the last days of the institute, participants achieved consensus on the future role of the EWU Libraries and drafted a vision statement. The institute has had a significant impact on library planning and operations

Crossroads, Connections, and Creativity: Musselman Library Strategic Plan

The Musselman Library Strategic Plan grew out of two all-staff meetings held in January 2007. During the first, library staff identified areas of strength and weakness, as well as opportunities for improvement and growth. Maureen Sullivan, an organization development consultant for libraries, led the next meeting. Ms. Sullivan helped to deepen the analysis begun during the previous meeting and encouraged the staff to begin envisioning the future of the Library. In late January, Robin Wagner, Director of Library Services, formed the Strategic Planning Committee (see list of participants below). The committee’s initial tasks were to complete an environmental scan and to identify upcoming trends and best practices in library services, while formulating mission and vision statements for Musselman Library. These were presented to the rest of the staff for feedback during meetings in March and April. Also in April, the Strategic Planning Committee invited other library staff to serve on task forces charged with creating goals and action items for the plan’s four core issues (see Appendix C). Maureen Sullivan facilitated the launching of these task forces, and each group, led by a member of the Strategic Planning Committee, then met independently numerous times during the next few weeks. The final task force reports were completed in early May and shared with the entire library staff. On May 21, Maureen Sullivan led an all-staff meeting to discuss the task force recommendations. Ms. Sullivan then met with the Strategic Planning Committee and Robin Wagner to begin the process of revising, prioritizing, and incorporating the goals and action items into one cohesive strategic plan. Crossroads, Connections, and Creativity: Musselman Library Strategic Plan was submitted to Robin Wagner, on June 12, 2007. [excerpt

The school-housed public library

Discusses the issue of school-housed public library. Some basic considerations in public libraries; Role and function of public libraries; Importance of advance planning for joint operations of public libraries; Importance of the location of the public library; Significance of personnel selected to operate the public library; How the funding of public library can affect the operation; How the collection of material should be develop in the library; Importance of constant evaluation

Rightsizing Projects with EasyProjects

Planning and implementing two major projects at once made some form of team-accessible planning software a must. Learn how one library chose a cloud-based project management tool, rightsized it for the two teams\u27 needs and brought organization out of chaos

Model-Lite Case-Based Planning

There is increasing awareness in the planning community that depending on complete models impedes the applicability of planning technology in many real world domains where the burden of specifying complete domain models is too high. In this paper, we consider a novel solution for this challenge that combines generative planning on incomplete domain models with a library of plan cases that are known to be correct. While this was arguably the original motivation for case-based planning, most existing case-based planners assume (and depend on) from-scratch planners that work on complete domain models. In contrast, our approach views the plan generated with respect to the incomplete model as a "skeletal plan" and augments it with directed mining of plan fragments from library cases. We will present the details of our approach and present an empirical evaluation of our method in comparison to a state-of-the-art case-based planner that depends on complete domain models

An Extensible Benchmarking Infrastructure for Motion Planning Algorithms

Sampling-based planning algorithms are the most common probabilistically complete algorithms and are widely used on many robot platforms. Within this class of algorithms, many variants have been proposed over the last 20 years, yet there is still no characterization of which algorithms are well-suited for which classes of problems. This has motivated us to develop a benchmarking infrastructure for motion planning algorithms. It consists of three main components. First, we have created an extensive benchmarking software framework that is included with the Open Motion Planning Library (OMPL), a C++ library that contains implementations of many sampling-based algorithms. Second, we have defined extensible formats for storing benchmark results. The formats are fairly straightforward so that other planning libraries could easily produce compatible output. Finally, we have created an interactive, versatile visualization tool for compact presentation of collected benchmark data. The tool and underlying database facilitate the analysis of performance across benchmark problems and planners.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine (Special Issue on Replicable and Measurable Robotics Research), 201

A spatial revolution continues in Oakland

The article describes the purpose-built young adult space in Oakland Public Library\u27s (OPL) 81st Avenue Branch in California. Launched on January 29, 2011, the space emphasizes the library\u27s dedication to young adult literature. The space expands the library\u27s commitment to public space equity for teenagers as well as contributes to the facility\u27s revolution in serving young adult readers. An overview of the planning process involved in the construction of the space.