Lean Library Management

Lean Library Management: Eleven Strategies for Reducing Costs and Improving Customer Services
By John Huber
Neal-Schuman, 2011

I'm still making my way through the professional collection. There really are some good books there! I picked this one up to do some research to include in a second edition of my (and Mary Kelly's) book, Making a Collection Count. (Yes, we're gluttons for punishment and we're hoping to update the book with a second edition. More on that later.)

All I can say is: John Huber is a genius. Seriously, if you know this guy, tell him that I am now his biggest fan. This book speaks to me on so many levels! I wanted to cite so much information from his book in ours that I ended up just suggesting it as a companion read.

It is filled with real-world examples, which is great because you can picture your own library in relation to the case studies presented.

 It is also filled with phrases like "performance indicators" and "service performance metrics." Be still my beating heart! I love it. Remember my post about putting the science back in library science? No? Well, here it is. As a profession, we need to pay more attention to metrics. That should excite us, not bore us or strike fear in our hearts!

Huber talks about going deep into the core of processes and service deliveries to find and fix any gaps between where we want to be and where we are. One of my favorite lines (page 44) is: "What you measure drives performance; therefore, what you do not measure must not be important." and its corollary: "What you measure gets most of the attention and therefore drives your priorities." His conclusion? "Based on my travels and discussions with library management and staff I feel comfortable in my conclusion that budgets and circulation are the primary performance drivers of your typical library." (p.44) Yes! Those are exactly the primary performance drivers of a typical library! (Primary, not only drivers.)

Librarians, non-librarian staff members, managers, and library school students need to READ THIS BOOK!

Crash Course in Reference

Crash Course in Reference
by Charlotte Ford
2008

This is an excellent primer in reference service! I recommend it to library school students, paraprofessionals who provide reference service, and library interns. In fact, library interns are the reason I read this. I was browsing the professional reference collection in my office when it caught my eye. I wasn't looking for anything specific, but did have intern training in mind.

This book assumes no knowledge or understanding of library reference services. It starts with a chapter called "What is Reference Service."

Then there is a chapter on doing a reference interview, but it takes into account the idea that each situation and circumstance warrants its own methods and techniques of communicating with the patron. Sometimes closed questions are better than open-ended. Sometimes you need to follow through more with one patron than another. Sometimes patrons are frustrated and angry with the answer (or lack thereof).

The book goes through all kinds of sources, describing standard titles like the Merck Manual and the World Almanac and Book of Facts. It also discusses databases, library catalogs, and search engines and search techniques for each.

Finally, there is a section on ethics and policies. Those new to reference service definitely need to be reminded to be discreet when necessary, as well as issues like copyright. The book wraps up with a chapter about networking with other librarians, staying current through various current awareness tools, and continuing education.

I hope that Ms. Ford updates this book in the next few years. It's still very relevant, but as I was reading I kept thinking that in a few years some of the links cited throughout could be obsolete. The nature of reference is changing, and a nod to the different types of questions librarians are asked these days would be welcomed.

Overall, this is a timely, relevant, and useful training tool for new librarians and other reference service providers.

Talking Points

They say you should have an elevator pitch ready to go about your library. I agree, and I would add to that the idea that you should also have a spiel about librarianship ready to go at all times. When people find out I'm a librarian, the first thing they ask me (after they stop laughing at the unlikeliness of that...) is what librarians do. If they knew what librarians do, they wouldn't be laughing, because librarian is the perfect profession for me!  They know (thankfully) that I don't sit around and read books all day, but they don't know what it is I do. Here are my talking points on what librarians do.

1. We find information. We know when Google and Wikipedia are a good first step in research. We also know when to skip the general internet and dive into databases. We know our own library's collection well enough to know when a catalog search is likely to find a book on the topic. We know when a subject exceeds the scope of our local collection and requires searching holdings at a different kind of library. People come to us and say "I didn't find anything online!" and are amazed when we come up with journal articles and books on exactly what they need.

2. We evaluate information. The library's collection is made up of items chosen by librarians. Librarians are trained to assess materials for accuracy, authority, currency, and relevancy. When you find an item on a library's shelves, someone looked at it and dubbed it worthy of being in the collection. (That's why collection management is so important! Awful Library Books is what happens when collections are ignored!) We've done the work for you, so the information a librarian gives you is trustworthy.

3. We teach people how to do #1 and #2 above. We teach people how to use a computer so that they can find, use, and evaluate information. We teach people how to use the library and its resources. We teach people how to weed through all the information on the Internet and find the good stuff.

4. We share information. We plan programs and events where people can get together and learn something new. We share books in discussion groups, we bring speakers to the library on a variety of topics that they might also find in the library collection.

There are lots of other activities that librarians do, but you have to keep an elevator speech short! No one wants a lecture on librarianship when they are just curious about what we do. I love the Library Day in the Life project because it lets librarians share what it is they do directly with anyone who cares to read it.

What the Future Holds

I started a new job a little over a year and a half ago.  It was a step up, career-wise: a bigger library and all the things that come with that (budget, collection, staff, etc.)  I have loved every minute of the time I've worked here.  I've learned so much and experienced things I would never have experienced in a smaller library.  Let me be clear: I have no plans to do anything different, career-wise, any time soon.  I've got a ways to go in my current position.  There is still a lot to learn and experience.  I'm just starting to hit my stride, so I'm not interested in making a change for a while.

That said, I do sometimes wonder what the future holds.  I'm ambitious by nature and never want to become bored or burned out.  I'm only 37 years old, so I'll realistically be working for twenty more years, minimum.  It is reasonable to think that there's at least one more move in my career.  That move does not have to be "up," but it does have to come with new challenges and it has to excite me.

I went to a workshop recently called "Financial Fitness for Libraries."  It was very intense; information that Directors, Business Managers, and other Department Heads should be aware of.  As it turns out, I was the only person in the entire room who was not either a Director, a Business Manager/Financial Director, or Trustee.  I was the only Reference Librarian there (which I didn't cop to...maybe others were there and didn't either?)  They talked about fraud prevention, avoiding auditing errors, the Federal Standards Labor Act, and budget forecasting, among other serious topics.  I went into this program with an open mind and a good attitude.  These are topics I need to learn and that I want to learn.

As the day went on, though, I realized just how out of my league I was.  Since the majority of the attendees were already aware of these topics, if not completely confident with them, a lot of terms were not carefully defined.  The whole day was very tightly scheduled, and they moved very quickly from one topic to the next. I found myself frantically searching Google for definitions just to keep up.  Words and phrases I did know started to blur because they were being used in context I didn't understand.  Suddenly a fund balance wasn't a fund balance.  Bond issues weren't bond issues.  I got very frustrated.  I started to lose my focus.

I did learn things that I can use in my job.  Budget forecasting is a useful idea for things I'm involved in like collection budgets and staffing.  Also, internal controls to prevent fraud apply to every department.  Since I'm in charge of scheduling for the reference staff, I definitely need to be aware of FSLA rules.

What I really learned that day was what the future probably holds for me.  Not only was I out of my league and frustrated, but I was honestly just not that interested.  I was bored.  In the past, the workshops and conferences I've attended have excited me and inspired me.  For example, the Computers in Libraries conference is filled with ideas that I find fascinating (QR codes, augmented reality, and content management systems).  For another example, MLA's Fantastic Fiction program always helps me perform readers advisory.  I love talking with librarians about reference tools and techniques, collection management, and ways to incorporate technology into reference service.  I am so passionate about these topics that I often present about them at conferences.  I won't be presenting sessions on library finance any time soon - or ever, if I'm being honest.

I understand that library finance is important.  Crucial, even.  Someone has to love those topics.  Someone has to care deeply, with passion, so that the library is fiscally sound.  I care that our library is fiscally sound, and will do my part to make sure my department plays by the rules set by those in charge, but I can not imagine spending my days thinking about and working on library finance issues.  I make sure our collection budgets are balanced.  I make sure our staff is available at the times we need them, without going over the staffing budget.  I'm interested in these things.  It's that bigger picture of bond issues and millages and fund balances that don't thrill me.

So, what does the future hold?  Something in the realm of patron services, technology, collection management, and reference.  And I'm happy about that.

Putting the Science Back in Library Science

(Image Credit)

I know library school has changed since I got my degree in 1999. Many programs have taken the word "library" out. I don't have a strong opinion about that - I call myself a librarian, and my degree is an MLIS. It's the "science" part I am interested in today.

Hard Science or Soft Science?
Wikipedia has a nice definition that says that hard sciences rely more on "experimental, empirical, quantifiable data, relying on the scientific method, and focusing on accuracy and objectivity". The soft sciences are social sciences, or "the fields of academic scholarship that study society."

Those who think about the science part at all might consider library science a soft science. We study how society uses information. Isn't that study a hard science, though? Don't we use experimental, empirical, and quantifiable data? Don't we focus on accuracy and objectivity? My suggestion is that there may be a social science aspect to many library careers, but the work of library and information scientists and what we do with that information is also very much a hard science.

Putting the Science Back
For the sake of example, let's consider a public reference librarian (since that's where my experience lies). That librarian spends their days:

- Connecting people to the information they seek (ie. answering reference questions)

- Choosing what information to collect to meet the needs of those people (ie. collection management)

- Teaching people how to find and use information (ie. bibliographic instruction)

- Providing an environment where information can be shared (ie. programming)

...and a million other things, but let's stop there. Any one of these examples can be looked at as a social science on its surface. There are people and sharing and needs in these examples.

If you go deeper into each example, there is definitely hard science there too. Let's start with "connecting people to information." Answering reference questions requires:

- Experimental, empirical, and quantifiable data. We have to get enough data from the person asking the question to answer the right question. We have to get data from reference sources to get an answer. We have to interpret that data to be sure it does answer the question. Sometimes we have to verify the answer against other sources.

- Accuracy and objectivity. We have to give accurate answers. We have to be objective and not insert our own biases and judgements into the answer.

How about collection management? It's so much deeper than selection and weeding. We don't just read reviews, choose materials, hope they are used, and remove them when they aren't. We use hard science to:

- Set collection benchmarks and objectives using Experimental, empirical, and quantifiable data. Circulation statistics, turnover rates, and request rates are just a few pieces of data we use to determine how our collections are working, what to add or remove from them, how and where to shelve them, etc.

- Accurately and objectively make decisions for our collections. Accuracy is key in cataloging and shelving. Objectivity is key in choosing which materials meet the needs of all of our users.

Information Professionals are Scientists
It is way too easy to get so comfortable in your job that you just show up, answer some reference questions, buy some books, weed some books, and teach some classes. If you forget the science, the work is much too surface. We provide services to our users that the internet can't replace. Have you ever been asked if you're afraid the internet will replace librarians? My answer is always a firm "no." I'm not afraid of that at all. Yes, my job will change over time. I will probably focus more and more attention on access to information in it's ever-changing formats. There will always be people who need an information scientist to help them navigate that complicated field. We will have more and more information to dig through. We will have more and more formats to teach people to use. Technology will try to get between people and the information they seek, but we will be there to help them make sense of it all.

My challenge for you is to dig deeper into the hard science of libraries and information. We need that data in order to give better service on the social side of our profession, as well as to accurately portray our worth to our stakeholders.