Rethinking Our Jobs: Toward a New Kind of Academic Library

January 2012 Duquesne Gumberg Library 1

Rethinking Our Jobs

Karen Calhoun

Prepared for Library Staff Day

Duquesne University

January 3, 2012

Overview

The traditional service model for

academic libraries is broken

Change is necessary if the library is to

continue to be relevant and funded

Changes that have been successful at

other academic libraries

A process for enabling change in library

services and jobs



http://www.educationadvisoryboard.com/pdf/23634-EAB-

Redefining-the-Academic-Library.pdf

http://www.educationadvisoryboard.com/pdf/23634-EAB-Redefining-the-Academic-Library.pdf












The Well “They come and go and draw

from the well”

•The Library as a center

of collections

•The Library as a center

of experts and tools to

guide users to

appropriate resources

The Way We Worked

Books

Journals

Newspapers

Gov docs

Maps

Scores

AV

Dissertations

Special

collections

Manuscripts

Papers

Univ records

Journal

articles

Conference

proceedings

Etc.

Library catalogs

Special Coll/Archives

Abstracting &

Indexing services



Where Do You Begin a Search for

Information on a Topic? (2005)

Starting an Information Search

89

2

0

20

40

60

80

100

Search engine Library Web site

Where Search Begins

Pe

rce

nt

College Students’ Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources: a Report

to the OCLC Membership: http://www.oclc.org/reports/perceptionscollege.htm

http://www.oclc.org/reports/perceptionscollege.htm

Where does search begin? (2009-)


Slide from EAB report p. 11

Print Collections Rarely Used


EAB Report p. 49


The Catalog in Context

•Online catalogs

represent one node in

the student’s and

scholar’s information

universe

•As information

systems, catalogs are

hard to use http://www.loc.gov/catdir/calhoun-report-final.pdf

Calhoun, Karen. 2006. The changing nature of the catalog and its

integration with other discovery tools.

http://www.loc.gov/catdir/calhoun-report-final.pdf





An Eroding Role for Library-Created Metadata:

2003-2009

Schonfeld, Roger C., and Ross Housewright. 2010. Faculty survey 2009 :key strategic insights

for libraries, publishers, and societies. [United States]: Ithaka S + R, p. 5

Available: http://www.ithaka.org/ithaka-s-r/research/faculty-surveys-2000-2009/faculty-survey-2009


http://www.ithaka.org/ithaka-s-r/research/faculty-surveys-2000-2009/faculty-survey-2009















Median Circulation and Reference Transactions in ARL

Libraries 1991-2008, With Five Year Forecast

0

50000

100000

150000

200000

250000

300000

350000

400000

Circulation

Reference Transactions

Linear (Circulation)

Linear (Reference Transactions)

Data source: ARL Statistics 2007-2008

http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/arlstat08.pdf


http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/arlstat08.pdf

Circulation and reference trends at

Duquesne



What Did Users Say They Want? (2002)

•Faculty and students do more work

and study away from campus

•Loyal to the library, but library is

only one element in complex

information structure

•Print still important, but almost

half of undergraduates say they rely

exclusively or almost exclusively on

electronic materials

•Seamless linking from one

information object to another is

expected

•Fast forward to 2012: these

trends many times stronger!

Do you use electronic sources all of the time,

most of the time, some of the time, or none of the

time?

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

All of the

time/most of

the time

Some of the

time

None of the

time

Responses

Perc

en

t

Faculty/Graduate

Undergrad

http://www.clir.org/PUBS/reports/pub110/contents.html

Expenditure on E-Resources: 2008

ARL Average



Networked E-Resources at Cornell (2005)

About 10% of the collection

36% of the materials budget (2005)

About 50% of the use

Size and Usage of Physical and E-Resources at

Duquesne (2007-2011)


Circulation

of Materials 84,945 83,077 81,154 77,544 73,265

Volumes 710,571 700,245 715,518 721,569 728,587

E-Journal

Titles 30,525 30,980 31,060 77,747 87,441

E-Articles

Accessed 1,049,728 1,287,560 2,109,457 4,853,275 4,164,211

Some recent news items: Higher education

funding declines are long-term issues


The Washington Post, December 22, 2011.

Guest post: 8 thoughts on higher education in 2012:

“Many of our current challenges are long-term and will,

if anything, become more serious”—

• Funding cuts

• Practical cap on tuition hikes

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 17, 2011.

“Duquesne University has offered voluntary buyouts to

nearly a fifth of its faculty and staff in the face of expected

revenue declines from decreasing enrollment.”

There is ample reason to expect HE funding shortfalls

to affect library budgets unfavorably.

Change is necessary

Less money to support the library

Search starts elsewhere; many substitutes for

what the library offers

Of what does get used:

Seemingly unquenchable demand for e-resources

Physical collections rarely used

Use of traditional collection-based services in

decline (the catalog, reference services)

Traditional academic library service model is

less relevant every day and has a dim future


Meanwhile …

People are still doing the jobs called for

by the traditional service model

The service model needs to change

The jobs need to change


At the Crossroads


Alice:

'Would you tell me,

please, which way I

ought to go from

here?‘

'That depends a

good deal on where

you want to get to,'

said the Cat.

Illustration: John Tenniel, Alice in Wonderland. Public domain.


Net Geners and Library Services: A

Disconnect They like

Multimedia

environments

Figuring things out for

themselves

Working in groups

Multitasking

Learning directly

related to courses

We offer

Text-based

environments

Systems that require

prior understanding (or

librarian help)

Services for individual

use

Focus, logical

sequence

Catalogs, databases,

subject guides and

pathfinders

Joan Lippincott, Coalition for Networked Information. In Educating the Net Generation


Michael Habib’s Library 2.0

“Academic Library 2.0 Concept Model,” p. 35.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/habibmi/318027173/in/set-72157594247454511




A multidimensional framework for academic support: a final report submitted to the

Mellon Foundation from the University of Minnesota Libraries, June 2006, p. 47.

http://www.lib.umn.edu/about/mellon/docs.phtml


http://www.lib.umn.edu/about/mellon/docs.phtml

Everywhere, the library: Reaching out with

its people AND its data

Gumberg Library

Photo: Public domain

Library as Place Place as Library


Exposing Your Collections Where Your Users

Live and Work on the Web

Find in a library


Linking systems together to increase

discoverability and use



A New Kind of Library

Build a vision of a new kind of library

Be more involved with research and learning materials and systems

Be more engaged with

campus communities

Make library collections and librarians more visible

Move to next generation systems and services

Embedding the library in the

knowledge community

Changes that have been successful

elsewhere

Library space redesign

Liaison librarian model (the “embedded

librarian”)

Streamlining operations

Combining public service points

Technical services workflow redesign

Collaboration and partnerships


Library Space Redesign


EAB report p. 48

“Box of books” to “learning commons”


EAB report p. 63

Liaison librarian model


EAB report p. 66

Position Description Framework


http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/rli-265-williams.pdf







EAB report p. 71


EAB report p. 75

Streamlining operations


EAB report p. 67


Some Technical Services Workflow

Redesign Principles

Look at the whole process (e.g., selection to ordering to receipt to cataloging to shelf-ready)

To the greatest extent possible, handle items and records only once

Capture bibliographic data as far upstream as possible (at point of selection/ordering if you can)

Perform work where it makes the most sense

Maximize acquisitions/cataloging collaboration

Maximize use of support staff and students

Wholly manual processes do not scale; integrate automated and manual operations

Collaboration and Consolidating

Systems


Orbis Cascade: 37 academic libraries in

Oregon, Washington and Idaho

Strategies:

• Combined collections

• Shared library system, shared discovery

system

• Cooperative collection development

• Collaborative technical services

• Combined digital archives

• Shared expertise

• Professional development

Cooperatively Managing Print Collections


EAB report p. 59

A Process for Enabling Change

Inclusive planning process

Design team

Environmental scan

Stakeholder analysis

Recommendations

Review; build support

Implement


What is a design team and what do

they do?

• A group of people responsible for translating a vision into operational (actionable) terms

• They articulate a clear picture of a desired future state – what it is really going to look like – by providing a blueprint for the organization

• Members are selected for their expertise, ability to influence and work with others, knowledge of the organization and its processes

• Concerned with (1) getting from ideas to actual, specific activities and (2) questions like:

• What new services should be delivered?

• What will changed processes look like?

• What will our new organizational structures look like?

• How will technology be used?

• What roles or responsibilities with people have?

• How will people relate to the communities that we serve?


A process for developing strategic

recommendations

1. Review your long range plan, vision, mission

2. Consider: What are the most important problems to be solved or barriers to be removed at your library?

3. Conduct environmental scan – what are your peers doing? What is the current professional thinking? What are best practices?

4. Review any local constraints or ‘givens’

5. Conduct a stakeholder analysis

6. Conduct something like a “Future Search” conference

7. Define an ideal future state by asking (for example): What new or changed services need to be provided?

What should renovated spaces look like?

What will new or changed organizational structures look like?

What types of key roles or responsibilities will people have?

How will people relate to the communities that the library serves?

What new or changed technologies will be used?

8. Re-evaluate constraints, givens, stakeholder analysis

9. Recommend strategic actions for making progress toward the ideal future state in operational, executable terms

Throughout the process: COMMUNICATE COMMUNICATE COMMUNICATE


To get started, consider a possible

scenario, for example:

What would you do if the library was

asked to reduce staffing levels by 20% in

two years?

In four years?



Thank You!

Karen Calhoun

AUL Organizational Development and

Strategic Initiatives

ULS, University of Pittsburgh

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Rethinking Our Jobs: Toward a New Kind of Academic Library

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