Understanding the core dimensions of the chosen strategic option is fundamental to determining the suitability of the library strategy. This study explores the nature, and complexity of the strategic orientation of one public library service. The findings presented here form part of a wider study that investigated market orientation (MO) in libraries specifically in relation to performance (Sen, 2013). ‘Market orientation is the organization culture… that most effectively creates the necessary behaviors for the creation of superior value for buyers [or users/customers] and, thus continuous superior performance.’ (Narver, & Slater, 1990: 21). Narver and Slater’s
(1990) definition of MO includes three behavioural components; customer co-ordination, competitor orientation and inter-functional co-ordination. Other activities attributed to organisations that exhibit market oriented behaviour are responsiveness, intelligence gathering, and intelligence dissemination (Kohli & Jaworski, 1990).