New job learning curves....

As mentioned in an earlier post, in January I moved to accept a new job. The new job is in the state I lived in prior to accepting my first full-time librarian position, so the area is familiar and comfy. As in a previous career, job changes are kind of wonky. You know how to do the job, but you have to learn the "way" your new organization does it. And, in my case, it's hard not to compare the two. I'm learning to take on functions in different ways and to let go of things I did in my previous job (and enjoyed) while acknowledging that it is somebody else's job here. A key difference for me is the new position is in a much larger library. So, more departments and more distinction between groups and the role they play in the overall scheme of the everyday running of the library.

One of the biggest differences is in the collection development aspect itself. Here the librarians do the selection. Faculty requests are almost always purchased, but the main selecting of materials is done by the librarians - both by "manual" selections and with approval plans. Some will nod their heads and say "yeah, isn't that how it's done?" In my previous position, the majority of the materials budget was given to the departments, thus the majority of the collection development was done by the faculty. We weren't alone in this approach. Some say they are in a better position to choose. Recieve a couple of list from Amazon's Listmania and you'll start to wonder about that. Another downside is some faculty will select based on their research interests and not necessarily to support the courses being taught. I had come to the conclusion that, at a minimum, a combination of the two approaches should be used. So, I'm looking forward to doing the process from the other side.

At your service....

The below articles reference the growing trend for government agencies to place forms online only and then send the users of their services to the library to access and recieve help with these forms. I haven't worked in a public library, just academic, but this came as no surprise to me. The forms may be different, but in many ways, academic libraries fill these roles for their students.

In my time at the reference desk, especially at the beginning of the semester and in the summer, we frequently had students coming in to complete financial loan paperwork and other student aid paperwork. Many with slips of paper with the wrong information - bad URL, erroneous password, a step left out, etc. We also helped students enroll in classes - it's all online now and many don't have computers. And, I've helped a few get in and do their taxes online.

The good was that our computers were newer (upgraded about a year ago and about 20 were added), the bad is the same as for the public libraries. Lack of training or just no information about what's going on and who's going to be coming over. I'm happy to help, but that help would be better if I know they're coming.

Drafted: I Want You to Deliver E-Government in Library Journal (August 15, 2006)
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6359866.html

Librarians expected to become our e-government service in The Florida Times-Union (January 31, 2007):
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/013107/nen_7610167.shtml

Electronic Resource - Gartner

In fall of 2004, we at the library were approached to participate in bring the electronic resources of the Gartner Group to campus. An agreement of understanding was drawn up between the Business School, Information Science, CyberCollege, Computing Services, and the Library. Each of the units would contribute significantly to the price tag while the library would take on the administration and maintenance of the contract and resource.

In spring of 2005, the proposal to purchase the resource went the the legislature. -- Yes, in Arkansas, any purchase over $20,000 has to be approved directly by the legislature. -- Members of the agreement of understanding went to the floor of the state congress and obtained the approval to sign the two-year contract.

At our price point, we received the following with our contract - 2 seats at a Gartner conference, Research Analyst assistance, unlimited access for the campus to their online resources, and a monthly audio newsletter for the collection. The library commenced to setup the requisite PGP authentication required by Gartner as well as logging. Access was provided to the campus through validation with their network login and password - thus allowing access to all university affiliated patrons no matter their location. Once established, a couple of the core participants started to use the resources as an integral part of their instruction.

During the course of the first year, the Computing Services department experienced some issues with the Research Analyst assistance. While working on a portal implementation project amongst many others, they ran into roadblocks in how to most effectively use this service. What they had been hoping for was that anyone from the Computing Service department would be allowed to call and use this service to aid in the research behind starting a new project. What they experienced was a need for the actual seat holder - in this case the CIO - to be present on each phone call that was being made. In addition, the assistance that was received was limited to 30 minute sessions and ended in the university staff member simply being pointed to appropriate online resources, not being given a consolidation or analysis of what the literature said.

When the renewal for year two approached, Computing Services began to mention that they would not be renewing the contract. At this point, the library started working with the other players to see where they stood on the resource. The two academic units that had integrated the resource into their curriculum were very strong for renewing the contract. The third unit found itself in a budgetary quandary and would not be able to continue its support. Between it and Computing Services, this left a shortfall of roughly $14,000.

We worked with Gartner to see what other service levels might be available to continue its presence. What we learned was that the unlimited access to the electronic resource was a benefit of the Advisor/Analyst seats and therefore could not be purchased separately. After a careful analysis of the usage logs and the library's budget, we were able to increase our portion to cover half of the difference. Unfortunately, this was not enough to save the product on our campus.

The electronic resources were wonderful for our academic units and we have been quite dismayed to have to release them. In a time where most libraries are clamoring for vendors to package more of their services to keep from the constant stream of "add-ons", we hope that in the future Gartner will find a method to provide this access separate from the overhead of the rest of their services.

Chat .... as a work tool

I was the editor of my state library association journal and recently moved to another state. Not all that bad except as the editor I did the layout and sent to the printer, etc. Problem - the software belonged to the association not to me and I was moving! I couldn't take it with me. Tine to the rescue - she volunteered to lay it out for me. I couldn't have been more grateful. With the exception of one meeting before I actually left town (at a Pizza Inn, no less) we've collaborated on this issue using Yahoo! IM and e-mail. Yes, we've done it virtually and have what I think is a pretty good product to boot. I've coordinated many items with the Associate Editor via e-mail, but I believe chat improved this a great deal, including walking me through changing the page numbers, as it is "real time." There is no delay. And, in many ways it's better than the phone, because conversations usually remain on "target." Not to mention the multi-tasking that can be done while chatting.

We wound up using different software, Microsoft Publisher, rather than Adobe InDesign, but in the end it worked out. I actually have Publisher at my new job, which made it possible for me to do some of the edits. Publisher has presented a couple of challenges with the printer, but we're on the downswing now. The important thing was getting it laid out and ready for the printer. Tine and I have always done professional collaboration using chat, but I'm a little impressed that we managed to put together an issue of a state library journal virtually.

Academic Library Makeover - Part 2

Volunteers were solicited for participation on the Mission and Vision team. This group spent some time this fall semester synthesizing and refining the work that was started in the one day retreat in August. At each revision the drafts were reviewed by not only the Dean and the Provost but also our retreat leader. (Our end product can be found at: http://library.ualr.edu/whatsnew/missionvision.htm.)

Once a consistent message was crafted, the Dean took us on our next level of organization building - Goals and Objectives. The nine vision points were consolidated into six major themes - Assessment, Collections & Access, Collaboration & Outreach, Excellence through Staff Development, Physical Environment, and Fundraising. Six work groups were established with volunteer participation to develop one goal and three to five objectives to be attained in the next one to three years.

Each work group met and strived to stay focused on the goal and objective level of the assignment. It was obvious how passionate some participants were for their theme as they seemed to jump right into troubleshooting/task mode. Some groups, including ours, had to continually remember that we were not at the "tasks or strategies" level. In the end, each group was successful and submitted their completed pieces of the plan.

The Mission and Vision team was reconstituted as the Goals and Objectives team (GOT) to pull a cohesive document together. This document was then again submitted to the Dean, Provost, and retreat leader. Our Provost offered several suggestions which were easily incorporated and one that took some detailed effort. This one observation was to the whole document being too inward focused. The GOT chair was charged with further refining the document with special attention for connecting the Library's Strategic Plan directly to the University's Strategic Plan.

At the chair's request, I was involved in this process. We sat with the document and made two major enhancements - links to the University Strategic Plan at both the theme and goal levels AND adjusting goals to directly address students, faculty, and staff where possible. With these adjustments in place, the Dean approved the GOT's presentation of the plan to the Dean's Council meeting in December 2006. (Feel free to email for copies of resulting document or presentation.)

Our next steps are to form new task forces to develop strategies, prioritize those tasks, and begin our work with a new purpose.