Organization Monkey

here’s a thought for us to nibble on:

To pursue bright spots is to ask the question “What’s working, and how can we do more of it?” Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Yet, in the real world, this obvious question is almost never asked. Instead, the question we ask is more problem focused: “What’s broken, and how do we fix it?”

from Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

In November 2009 I put together a team to evaluate our existing electronic resource management system (ERMS) to determine if it was satisfactory or if we needed to pursue another commercial option.  The first part of the process was completed by Team 1: Evaluation, the second part of the process is happening now by Team 2: Implementation.  Here’s a description of the charge of each Team.

Team 1: Evaluation
Team 1 will be comprised of at least one member from each department identified as a stakeholder, to broadly address electronic resource management needs throughout the library.  Team members will be selected in consultation with department heads.  The departments identified as stakeholders: Acquisitions/Serials, Document Delivery, and Reference.  Other departments may be consulted on an ad hoc basis as decisions affect their work.  The team will be led by the Serials & Electronic Resources Librarian (Acquisitions/Serials dept).  This broad group will develop a list of known commercial ERMS, create a set of criteria by which to evaluate those ERMS, and do an evaluation of the available commercial ERMS.  Our existing ERMS will be included in this evaluation.  If Team 1 determines that our ERMS is sufficient with revision, a report will be forwarded to Team 2 outlining which components of the ERMS need to be addressed.  If Team 1 determines that a different ERMS satisfies more criteria than Serials Solutions, a report will be forwarded to Management Council for consideration.

The timeline for completion of Team 1 work will be six months.

Team 2: Implementation

If Team 1 determines that our existing ERMS satisfies the majority of specified criteria, Team 2 will develop a plan to better use or expand the system through whatever mechanisms are necessary (training, reevaluation of workflows and principles involved with management of electronic resources).

If Team 2 determines that a different ERMS satisfies more criteria than Serials Solutions and Management Council approves action to make the change, Team 2 will be involved in the acquisition of the program and all aspects of its implementation.

Team 2 will be led by the Serials & Electronic Resources Librarian.  The composition of other members of Team 2 will be determined by the findings of Team 1, and will be more narrowly and technically focused.

—

Team 1 recommended that we move from Serials Solutions (a subscription service) to Innovative ERM (a purchased module that interacts with our library management system).  Team 2 is now in the thick of preparing for the actual implementation of that module.

Breaking this process into two steps was a smart decision, as the questions and concerns of a group charged with evaluation are very different than those of implementation.  I’ll evaluate this whole process after we complete implementation, but it feels as if we’ve made all the right steps so far.

* special note * The seed for a two-team approach to ERMS selection was planted at ER&L 2009, at the session by Sanders and White.

“Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple” — Charles Mingus

this is my guiding quote of the week.

in the serials world the date september 1 is celebrated annually.  it’s the day serials librarians around the u.s. return their journal renewal documents to their subscription vendors.  returning the documents on that date mostly assures that subscriptions will be renewed on time and that print issues of journals will continue to arrive at the library and electronic issues will remain accessible via the web.  returning the documents later in the year means that the publisher might not get the subscription renewal until too late and will stop sending issues or turn off access, creating gaps in the collection and gnashing of teeth from library patrons waiting to get their favorite journals.

the process starts usually in mid-june with the release of the renewal list from the subscription vendor.  this list is a printed document hundreds of pages thick with all the subscriptions our vendor manages on our behalf, including information about the subscription term, format, current volume, and estimated price of each title.  some libraries receive the document in the mail and simply mark changes on it and return the whole stack of papers to the vendor to enter the changes into the system.  somehow we missed getting our document this year because we were busy moving from our old library to a new building.  occasionally i’ll wonder about whose door that ream of paper is propping open…  we didn’t stress about missing our printed renewal list because this year we downloaded it from our subscription vendor web site into excel.

we’ve been using the excel file to make notes and corrections for our internal office use, making changes in the file as if we were marking up the printed document.  instead of returning a paper document or sending the excel file to the vendor we’re now in the process of updating the renewal form online with corrected fund codes, new order numbers, and changed formats.  i’ve never used this subscription vendor’s online renewal form and am really enjoying the paperless process.  on august 31 we’ll approve the renewal form online and our title list will be frozen with the new information, and an invoice will be generated.  and on september 1 we’ll celebrate with champagne.

today our brand new library officially opens!  what a treat to walk into the main doors of the library without swiping my card or having to maneuver around construction fences.  when i walked in this morning, our very first patron was already there to check out two books.  awesome!

8:30-9 emails [prompted me to give edit access to our Web librarian so he could rebrand our A-Z list and test access in the various Web browsers.]

9 standing daily 15-minute meeting with serials assistant to talk through invoice questions.  summer is our busy time of the year, preparing the journal renewal list.  this is more complicated with each passing year because we’re flipping access to so many journals from print to online-only, an invoicing nightmare.

9:20-10 i emailed myself an article over the weekend, which i’m printing now and will read over lunch.  more emails, skim facebook home page, read first page of friendfeed.

10-10:30 our print periodical collection has been split due to the new display shelving configuration and now we have print journals in 3 places in the library.  coordinated with serials assistant to get the locations in the order records changed so the labels print correctly.  there’s some sort of gremlin in her system permissions that aren’t allowing her to make the change, so she’ll follow up with our Systems librarian.

10:30 prompted vendors via email to send me quotes for 2010 e-only pricing, and i’m still waiting on a title list to do a title reconciliation.

…our catalog has gone down and we can’t check in or make any changes to records. pandemonium in the department until everybody switches to offline tasks, of which there are plenty.  i’m rarely in the back end of the catalog, so this hasn’t affected my tasks for the day.

11 reviewed the new library blog, http://lmulibrary.typepad.com, and sent future post ideas to the Web team.

11:15 i’ve been trying to figure out if we’re eligible for deeply discounted pricing for a print journal that came into a publisher package after we’d already negotiated our deal. it’s making my head hurt.  it’s not helping that in serials solutions the package is split into two collections.  aha!  i found the title list and a contact name, so i’ve emailed to ask if it can be discounted.  and with that success in my pocket, it’s lunch time!

nixed my plans to read an article and had thoroughly enjoyable lunch with a colleague, looking at the fantastic view of the bluff from our new building.

12:15 my university library is part of a consortium of american jesuit colleges and universities.  once a year the library deans get together to report what’s new at their institutions.  i’m going to spend some time to see what kinds of data they report, to see if there’s anything there related to e-resources.
well, that was educational.  the reports were about two pages per university, reporting on institutional changes, library facilities, digital initiatives, campus collaborations with IT, and marketing.  seven data points were reported from each institution, including “% of materials budget spent on electronic resources in 07/08″.  the average of the 22 reporting institutions was 46.7%.  the smallest percentage spent was 25, the most was 68.3.  i wrote up what i found in an email to my boss, noting the percentage our university spends on e-resources.

1:30 my new office has myriad drawers and hanging file options.  i worked on a new filing system, which may or may not be unstoppable.

…and the catalog is back up!

3 met with head of collection development to make decision on whether or not to move on a consortial deal for a publisher package to start in 2010.  since the online package allows perpetual access to material published while subscribed we’ll move on it.  this will allow us to line up these titles to be cancelled in print for 2011 and retain the online access only. filled out order form, got boss to sign off on it.

3:30 sent my boss some talking points for a meeting tomorrow on providing access to e-resources.

3:45 looked at the default wording in serials solutions for our direct subscriptions for e-journals.  the default language to describe that access point is “single journal.”  at some point in the past we decided that that was not satisfying and changed it to “loyola marymount individual titles.”  i’m not a fan of that language because it doesn’t really tell me anything.  i emailed the head of reference to describe the situation and ask if she thinks it should be changed, and to what.  since she’s in touch with patrons each day, she may have some good suggestions for me.

4:15ish it’s nearing the end of my day, the time of day that i consider what i did during the day and look at my calendar for the rest of the week.  i’ll generally use this time to figure out what i’m doing tomorrow morning so that when i come in i can get to work right away.

we’re nearing completion of the move to our brand new library. what better time to reconsider a daily task workflow than when the way one used to do something is now rearranged by a new space! i like change, i thrive on looking for ways to do old things better, i love possible new collaborations. i’ve been surprised to learn *how little* other people appreciate change. it’s safe to say that some dont’t appreciate it *at all*, not even a smidgen! for the time being then, i will be focusing on evaluating my own workflows and help others to simply relocate their cheeses and get settled before thinking outward.