Streamlining Library Services : What We Do, How Much Time It Takes, What It Costs, and How We Can Do It Better

Richard M. Dougherty

ISBN 10: 0810851989 / ISBN 13: 9780810851986

Editore: Scarecrow Press, 2008

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nach der Bestellung gedruckt Neuware - Printed after ordering - Librarianship is a service profession and not a bottom-line oriented business. As such, librarians don't normally assign a high priority to efficiency of operations; however, opportunities to improve daily jobs and enhance services are being overlooked every day. Advances in technology drive change at a rapid pace and keeping up is both expensive and time consuming. Tight budgets have made keeping up with technology especially difficult. And while some activities in libraries, such as in-person ready reference and circulation of books and journals have declined, many libraries continue to report increases in the demand for services and resources. The rapid transformation from paper to digital documents is also driving changes in libraries. Today the incentive for examining and streamlining library workflows and the processes and procedures that comprise them should be compelling, but that doesn't seem to be the case for many librarians. Streamlining Library Services presents library managers and staff with the tools necessary to analyze and streamline their library's services. It presents a variety of tools and techniques that can be applied to improve library operations and assist library staff in their efforts to identify what work is done, how much time it takes, and what it costs. These efforts can be used to streamline library processes and, where appropriate, help to free dollar resources to initiate or enhance services that merit higher priority.

Codice articolo 9780810851986

Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: Streamlining Library Services : What We Do, How Much Time It Takes, What It Costs, and How We Can Do It Better
• Editore: Scarecrow Press
• Data di pubblicazione: 2008
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0810851989
• ISBN 13: 9780810851986
• Rilegatura: Taschenbuch
• Condizione: Neu
• Dimensioni: 254 L x 178 A x 16 P (millimetri) 254 millimetri di larghezza per 178 millimetri di altezza per 16 millimetri di profondità
• Peso: 547 grammi

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto

Despite technologies, many basic library activities still lend themselves to analysis and improvement. Author Richard Dougherty provides numerous examples and easy-to-apply tools and techniques that can be used to analyze what libraries are doing, how they are doing it, and how much time is required to do it. These tools include block diagrams, check sheets, flow process charts, work-flow diagrams, flow charts, through-put analysis, self-administered diary studies, and work sampling techniques. Specific examples from all areas of library operations are presented to illustrate how techniques can be applied to analyze what occurs at critical service areas.

Streamlining Library Services provides detailed information on how to diagnose problem areas using such tools as Pareto and fishbone charts; use techniques such as brainstorming and focus groups; organize a work flow study; and build and present cost studies. Special emphasis is placed on activities that should occur after the analysis is concluded, including data analysis as well as reporting study results and making recommendations to management, and guidelines are provided for managers and staff as they strive to streamline activities. The final two chapters should be of special interest to managers. The first chapter is devoted to implementation issues and strategies that must be addressed as new workflows and services are introduced, and the latter chapter focuses on organizational change issues and strategies for building staff support toward change.

Informazioni sull?autore

Richard M. Dougherty is the founding publisher and editor of the Journal of Academic Librarianship, was the Director of Libraries at the University of Michigan and the University of California at Berkeley, was on the faculty at Syracuse University and the University of Michigan, and served as President of ALA. He has served as a consultant to numerous libraries striving to introduce organizational change and conducted many workshops on change management.