Transcript Two Libraries, One Plan: Combining and Refining Technical

Two Libraries, One Plan:
Combining and Refining Technical Services
Across Two Campuses
Living the Future 6: Wow! Where Next?
April 5-8, 2006
Representing the Library Technical Services
Denison-Kenyon Work Redesign Team
Andrea Peakovic
Library and Information
Services
Kenyon College
Gambier, OH
Ellen P. Conrad
William Howard Doane
Library
Denison University
Granville, OH
Our Context
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Both are members of the Five Colleges of Ohio
consortium (plus Oberlin, Ohio Wesleyan, & College of
Wooster)
Share an online catalog & joint storage facility
All are members of OhioLINK
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Statewide union catalog
Direct, patron-initiated borrowing from any institution
 Consortial purchase of 100+ databases
Denison and Kenyon are similar in size, acquisitions
and technical service staffing
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Grant
January 1, 2004 – August 15, 2005
Goal of the Project
“To improve access to information
resources and create value-added
services for our patrons through the
cooperative efforts of the libraries of
Denison University and Kenyon
College”
Planning Groups
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Pre-planning committee
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Study and brainstorm
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Champy)
Planning task force
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Reengineering the Corporation (Hammer &
Charge: To create a robust system for combined
library technical services in which the focus in on
constantly evolving patron information needs,
research patterns, and desires. The system must
be flexible, transferable, malleable, and adaptable.
And so they did!
Implementation team
Objectives of the Project
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Apply dramatic efficiencies to 80% of what we
currently purchase
Streamline receipt and delivery
Reallocate resources to enhance our
collections so they better serve our users
Empower our technical services division to
create new services and manage information
in all formats
Enable our users to fully realize the liberal
arts in an age of electronic information
Key Planning Processes
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Vision Statement
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Planning Assumptions and Principles
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Workflow Model
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Final Plan
Significant Task Force Activities
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Task force retreat
All-staff retreat
Workflow evaluation by outside Consultants
Background information
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Information exchange
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Reading plans
Web searches
Conferences
 Living the Future 5
All-staff meetings
Minutes & monthly reports
Email distribution list
Drafting final plan
Task Force Retreat
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Two-day retreat, Roscoe Village
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Task Force, Directors, and Consultant
Key Outcomes
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Work redesign principles
Planning assumptions
List of questions
Environmental assessment
Vision—the ideal
Development of initial work redesign
What we need to know and learn
Group agreements
Timeline
Evolution of a Vision…
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"The organizational restructuring of the four libraries
was discussed to allow for the consolidating of
technical services functions. Monographs could be
purchased and cataloged through a single
monographic department for the four colleges. Serials
might be acquired and processed through a single
department. Standards for cataloging would need to
be accepted by each of the four colleges, however,
membership in OhioLINK would bring about this
standardization."
May 31, 1994
Paul Gherman, Kenyon College
Evolution of a Vision…
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Grant Proposal: “A single collection management
unit…responsible for:” [paraphrased]
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Acquiring resources in all formats;
Managing resources to maximize usefulness;
Improving users’ access to resources—both physical and
virtual;
Leading the Ohio5 consortial collection development
initiatives;
Managing the Ohio5 off-site storage facility;
Continuously adopting, adapting and innovating ways to
make research more comprehensive & efficient to use.
“This unit will organize its work process around the
current and future needs of our patrons, making no
assumptions about existing processes, while fully
embracing technological and managerial innovations
in our field.”
Vision Points from All-Staff Retreat
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Categories we identified:
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Staff and staffing issues
CONSORT Catalog
Service
User needs/desires
Use of space
Technical resources (vis-à-vis use of
systems)
Miscellaneous
Final Vision Statement
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BE COURAGEOUS!
Act as a collaborative unit to best serve users at
multiple locations
Provide intellectual representation of collection as a
whole
Foster a culture of staff empowerment that effectively
utilizes and rewards individual strengths
Enable research and development capacity for entire
organization
Appreciate that as we combine our processes, there
may be activities best implemented separately
Developing Key Processes
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Process Map
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Key Work Activities Map
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Retreat
Work Process Model
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Grant proposal
Task force
Staffing Model
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Implementation team
The Workflow Model
Implementation
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Three member implementation team began
January, 2005
Workflows refined
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Staff involvement integral part of workflow
refinement
Frequent meetings with staff to encourage
involvement and participation in the process
Combined approval plan initiated
Daily delivery between Denison and Kenyon
Staffing allocations and recommendations
made
Combining Workflows
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Implement workflows in phases, beginning
with books
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Largest portion of our workflow
Easiest to begin with
Use YBP for major vendor
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Use of GOBI for all ordering
Utilize PromptCat records
Materials arrive shelf-ready
Received and cataloged at Denison
All non-YBP materials are ordered and cataloged at
Kenyon
 Online electronic order form developed
YBP work processes
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Electronic invoicing
Shelf-ready materials
Change PromptCat profiles
Design new property stamps
Transition orders to GOBI
Change shipping addresses
Develop mechanisms for quality
control
Non-YBP work processes
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Develop online order form
Create and modify vendor accounts
Train staff in invoicing and Millennium
Materials non-mainstream
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Foreign language and/or publishers
Scores
Art
Identify local cataloging practices
Lessons Learned
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Details, details, details!
The devil is in the details!
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Trial and Error
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Property stamp
Spine labels
PromptCat profiles
CatDate field in order records
Communicating while testing new processes
Time-consuming process
Expect work imbalances
Staffing Model
DRAFT Staffing Model
Selection
Cataloging
Electronic, gifts, deselection,
remote storage materials
Yankee/Non-Yankee books & CD’s
A-V Media
Books & CD’s—1 FTE
A-V Media—1 FTE
Electronic—1 FTE
CONStor Prep—0.5 FTE
Gifts & Other Projects—1 FTE
Approval
Plan
Total: 4.5 FTE
20%
Ordering/Receiving/FastCat
YBP books, Approvals—1.5 FTE
Non-YBP books, Approvals—1 FTE
CD’s—0.5 FTE
A-V Media—0.5 FTE
Gov Docs—0.5 FTE
Gov Doc Maps—0.5 FTE
Serials—2 FTE
Total: 6.5 FTE
User Access
Catalog Enrichments & Enhancements—1 FTE
Coordination of Training—0.5 FTE
Rev. 8/4/05
Total: 1.5 FTE
Total: 12.5 FTE
*Please note—the FTE’s represented above are preliminary projected estimates!
Staffing Recommendations
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Collected staff preferences in new
workflow
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Job positions/FTEs were not defined
Staff expressed interest in multiples areas
Comparison of staff preferences and
staffing allocations in model
Loose assignment of job duties
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Full job descriptions forthcoming
Team Structure
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Two-tiered team structure
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Process teams: based on the staffing model
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Each staff assigned to two teams
Ordering/Receiving/FastCat
Cataloging
User Access
Material Type Teams: based on materials
streams defined in the plan
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Books/CDs/Gifts
Electronic/Gov Docs/Serials
A-V Media
Professional Staff Roles
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Professional staff structured differently at
Denison and Kenyon
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Denison: Head of Cataloging, Head of Acquisitions,
Deputy Director
Kenyon: Head of Technical Services
 Title change to: Head of Collection Development
Focus on work processes
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Professional staff positions were not included in
allocations
Some direct involvement in work processes
 Electronic resources and original cataloging
Managing the New Combined Unit
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Associate Director of Collection
Services
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Newly created Kenyon position
Manages combined unit
 ½ time at Denison and Kenyon
Supervises Kenyon support staff
Words to the Wise (from the Weary :)
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Define and study concept of redesign
Develop group agreements for task force and
working criteria
Use consensus for decision-making
Balance size of task force with good
subject/work area coverage
Open and frequent sharing of information
Hire professional consultants
Realize change brings about conflict and
hurdles
Reflections from Staff Retreat
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Develop communication system first
Keep momentum moving
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Expect things won’t go smoothly
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Don’t sacrifice doing it right
Plan for surprises
Outcomes not immediate
It takes time and iterations
Retreat for all TS staff early in process
More reflections…
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Hire or appoint a project leader early in
the process
Keep selectors and other staff
apprised of changes and contacts
Be upfront about real goals, even if it
means downsizing
Remember and revisit your inspiration
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Be courageous!
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“Radical redesign means getting to the
root of things: not making superficial
changes or fiddling with what is
already in place, but throwing away the
old...inventing completely new ways of
accomplishing work.”
Hammer and Champy, p. 36
Stay Tuned for Updates
www.denison.edu/collaborations/ohio5/li
bres/lwrtf/lwrtf.html
Bibliography
Application to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation: Library Technical Services Work Redesign.
[Grant proposal] 2003.
http://www.denison.edu/collaborations/ohio5/libres/lwrtf/proposal.html
Cochrane, Lynn Scott and Christopher D. Barth. “Cooperative Work Redesign in Library
Technical Services.” submitted in October 2005 for publication in Library Administration &
Management.
Conrad, Ellen P. and Andrea Peakovic. “Denison University & Kenyon College Library Technical
Services Work Redesign.” OVGTSL 2005 Annual Conference. 12 May 2005.
http://www.denison.edu/collaborations/ohio5/libres/lwrtf/2libraries_1plan.ppt
Greever, Karen E. and Debra K. Andreadis. “Technical Services Work Redesign Across Two
College Libraries.” Technical Services Quarterly. 24.2 forthcoming 2006.
Hammer, Michael. “Reengineering Work: Don’t Automate, Obliterate.” Harvard Business
Review. 68.4 (1990): 104-112.
Hammer, Michael and James Champy. Reengineering the Corporation. New York: HarperCollins,
2001.
Hayes, Jan and Maureen Sullivan. Mapping the Process: Engaging Staff in Redesigning Work.
[Wheeling, IL: North Suburban Library System], 2002.
Plan for Library Technical Services Work Redesign. [Final plan] 2004.
http://www.denison.edu/collaborations/ohio5/libres/lwrtf/planning_report.pdf
Snyder, Monteze M. et al. Building Consensus: Conflict and Unity. Richmond, IN: Earlham
Quaker Foundations of Leadership Program, 2001.
“Radical redesign means getting to the
root of things: not making superficial
changes or fiddling with what is
already in place, but throwing away the
old...inventing completely new ways of
accomplishing work.”
Hammer and Champy, p. 36