ALA Washington, D.C. - Program 2

Art and Science of Staffing...

This program was packed - I guess a lot of administrators are losing sleep at night!

Look at the speakers' scenario listed below and their ideas for change.

What do you think of their goals and tips for success? Is the picture this bleak? Do you have ideas for change that you'd like to share?

Art and Science of Staffing, Structure and Organizational Design in an Age of Permanent Change
Speakers:
Paula Singer, Principal Consultant, The Singer Group, Inc.
Gail Griffith, Deputy Director, Carroll County (MD) Public Library


“Changing demographics. Changing customer expectations. Half the staff is retiring in five years. You’re answering fewer reference questions. You wake up in the middle of the night and say, “What would happen if….?”

Goals:
1. Implement a strategic plan
2. Use qualitative and quantitative data
3. Staff for results

Tips for success:
1. Finite about of money to run the library, cannot do everything for everybody – look at strategic plan

2. Ask the right questions when analyzing data – don’t ask, “how many children came into the library last year,” but ask, “what’s the percentage of children in the population who came into the library, and how can we reach the others?”

3. Involve staff in change management processes – ask them what they would change.

Implementation:
1. Communicate the case for change. Create of sense of urgency.

2. Assess what the Library must do differently and better to carry out the strategic plan successfully.

3. Be clear and articulate the results you are looking for.

4. Outline how you expect to get those results.

5. Reward people for making changes and producing results.

6. Communicate, communicate, communicate!

ALA - Washington, D.C.

By all accounts the Annual Conference in Washinton, D. C. was a huge success. Over 28,000 librarians and venders attended this conference and set an attendance record for ALA.

The social networking theme permeated many programs and discussion forums. Are libraries ready to have online discussions with their patrons? Are patrons, especially young patrons, ready to communicate with librarians online? Do they want libraries in their social spaces? These are all questions that librarians are trying to answer.

To join the discussion you must look at and become familiar with a few of the online tools that are being used today. I have set up this blog to send out my notes from programs that I attended in Washington, D. C. I'll post a program a week. Please feel free to comment on or ask questions about any of the programs.

Transforming Your Services: Your customer has been transformed, so where is your library?

Speakers:
Karen Hyman, Chair, South Jersey Regional Library Cooperative
George Needham, OCLC
Joan Frye Williams, Information Technology Consultant

“What do people want and where is your library in that picture? What are the high impact new services that could reinvent your library today?”
Some interesting ideas:
1. Rethink reference: today’s librarians train and coach the user to do online research, they keep up with the hot topics in technology, they are extreme “googlers”, and they should promote their learning specialties to target audiences, and they should take appointments.
2. “Dispatched” Service: information desk to direct patrons
- librarians work on call
- tech staff work on call
3. Leverage the book brand
- order books that reflect patrons lifestyle
- books should be clean and displayed in bright locations
- programming: literary and entertaining
- “stop making it (the library) feel like church” – patron
4. “Information is everywhere – convenience will top quality any day.” Our job is to make quality convenient for our patrons.