Beyond Merely Surviving Keeping Libraries Relevant in the Digital Age

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Beyond Merely SurvivingKeeping Libraries
Relevantin the Digital Age

• Rush G. Miller, Ph.D.Hillman University
  Librarian and Director, ULSrgmiller_at_pitt.edu

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Sessions

• The Changing Role of Libraries
• Leadership for Change
• Impact of Organizational Culture and Structures
• Organizational Change at the University of
  Pittsburgh
• Organizational Culture Space
• Strategic planning Technology
• Re-engineering Communication

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Session 1 The Changing Role of Libraries

• How is use of libraries changing?
• What is changing?
• Are our roles affected?
• Are we as relevant as we once were?
• What are we doing about it?

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Captive Audience Era

• We were only information game on campus!
• Faculty assigned term papers, book reports, etc.
  requiring use of library
• Librarians determined what services were
  appropriate to offer based on professional
  standards, tradition, etc.

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Success Declared!

• Easy to measure use and size of collection, etc.
  as indicators of worth
• Use generally rose for many years as enrollments
  grew
• We were not very concerned about what users
  thought of our services

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Success!

• Generally, we used input and output measures as
  if they were outcomes measures!!
• I.E., added books checked out books
  answered ref questions, etc.

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Shooting the Feet!

• Ways we defined relevance of libraries was
  flawed? (Usage that always increased for ex)
• Are we now shot in the foot?

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Traditional Library Use Declining

• ARL Data (1991-2005)
• Lending -7
• Reference -48
• All Academic (NCES)
• Lending -14
• Reference -84
• Gate Counts -71

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Pitt/ARL Circulation Trends
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Frequency of circulation of items in collections,
1987 - 2007
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Pitt/ARL Reference Query Trends
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Visits to the ULS Web Site
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Changing Roles

• Clearly, our roles are changing because of the
  pace of change in information technology
• How we respond, even lead, this changing
  environment will determine our role in the future

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Changing Roles

• It is hard to predict what our roles in the
  future might entail, but one thing is clear to
  me it will be very different in many
  fundamental ways, and without a culture of change
  as well as agility, we will be hard pressed to
  play a meaningful role at all.

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Famous last words

• Books themselves are very efficient machines,
  and the experience of holding a book is part of
  the book culture," says Farrar, Straus Giroux
  publisher Jonathan Galassi, who called the Kindle
  "flimsy" and said it reminded him of an
  Etch-a-Sketch toy.

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More Famous Last Words!

• "E-books are a growing niche for now," Smith
  says, "but I certainly don't see a time when
  everybody will be reading them. People just love
  what the traditional book represents to them."

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Kind of reminds me of other famous
"predictions"

• "Everything that can be invented has been
  invented." -- Charles H. Duell, Commissioner,
  U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.
• "640K ought to be enough for anybody." -- Bill
  Gates, 1981

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And

• "I think there is a world market for maybe five
  computers." -- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM,
  1943
• "There is no reason anyone would want a computer
  in their home." -- Ken Olson, president,
  chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp.,
  1977

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And Still

• "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to
  be seriously considered as a means of
  communication. The device is inherently of no
  value to us."
• -- Western Union internal memo, 1876.

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What is the Value of a Library??

• How is our value determined?
• Who decides what our value is?
• On what basis is this decided?

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What is so Different now?

• Students have alternatives
• Google vs Library http//www.youtube.com/watch?vt
  KvR0OC4nYc http//www.libraries.psu.edu/instruct
  ion/time.mov
• Administration questioning costs of libraries
  today
• Boards wonder why we need libraries and
  librarians since all is on Web!

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OCLC Study of User Perceptions

• Peoples search for information is facilitated
  by
• Friends (61)
• Libraries (15)

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OCLC (cont)

• More people are very familiar with search engines
  than with libraries
• People are not as familiar with online databases
  we subscribe to as they are with search engines
  such as Google
• More students are familiar with the online
  bookstore than the online library!

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OCLC (cont)

• Twice as many students use search engines as use
  the library website for information
• Online reference services are used by fewer
  students than any other identified information
  resource!

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OCLC (cont)

• Google gets higher ratings as a source of
  worthwhile information than does the library Web
  site!
• People believe that search engines are more
  satisfactory in providing information than
  librarians.

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OCLC (cont)

• We are branded as books not IT by 70 of people
  in U.S.
• Users trust search engines as much or more than
  libraries
• Bookstore and libraries both trail search engines
  in terms of lifestyle fit by wide margins

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OCLC (cont)

• Some typical (and disturbing comments about first
  thing you think of with word library.)
• Last place I want to go for info
• A large building with books on all subjects
• Need to be quiet, need to hunt around for what
  you want, lots of leg work.

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Clearly, to me, claiming value is NOT ENOUGH

• Value of libraries and librarians cannot be
  maintained by simply stating it, no matter how
  eloquent we are, but only by demonstrating value
  to the students and faculty of our schools,
  colleges and universities and our communities.

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• the days of the librarys ability to control
  what is important are gone. Serving a public good
  is no longer enough to ensure funding and
  administrative support. To secure support, the
  library must now demonstrate how it serves the
  university mission.
• Beverly P. Lynch, UCLA
• College Research Libraries, 2007

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• Although academic libraries will not disappear
  overnight, if they refuse to change and to
  continuously monitor their respective
  environments, they will condemn themselves to
  marginalization.
• Wood, Miller, Knapp. Beyond Survival Managing
  Academic Libraries in Transition, (2007
  Libraries Unlimited), p. 6.

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Library as Business

• We have fought against this notion, rather
  successfully
• We resist accountability still
• We are not prepared for the future!

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What I know for sure

• We will be held accountable in a business fashion
  for cost/benefits
• We will be forced to create outcomes assessment
  systems (driven by accreditation and general
  public)

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What Else I know?

• We will continue to see competition growing
• We are no longer the center of the campus (if we
  ever were)
• We will find it increasingly difficult to obtain
  incremental increases in support based on
  assumptions and arguments

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Who gets the grease?

• Not the squeaking wheel!!!
• It goes to those who can reinvent themselves and
  create success with what they are given or can
  reallocate.
• In higher education, as in life, the rich get
  richer and the unsuccessful get marginalized!!!

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Where will support come from for our future?

• Must re-invent/reallocate resources
• Prioritize and fund accordingly
• Demonstrate stewardship

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How do we Survive?

• Question is not really surviving, but an issue of
  how do we maintain our central role in the
  educational and research missions of our academic
  institutions and in the life of our communities
  and schools!!
• I believe the key is organizational agility!

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Change in Libraries

• Imperative
• Must be transformative, not incremental
• Requires new leadership at all levels
• Organizational AGILITY
• Change management is the new management!
• Good Leadership is essential

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Session 1 Group Exercise

• In your groups, please answer the following
  questions
• How have my users changed during the past 5-8
  years?
• What is the best thing my library has done to
  cope with this change?
• How do I know if my library is relevant to my
  institution?

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Session 2 Leadership

• A major factor in a successful future for
  libraries is LEADERSHIP
• Within Libraries
• Within the community/campus
• Within Society
• (Not speaking of just directors!!!)

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My View of Good Leaders

• Leaders dont rule, they develop!
• Leaders share authority and credit for results
• Leaders must have vision for future and
  confidence to move toward it
• Leaders must be risk-takers, not risk-averters

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Leaders

• Leaders communicate internally and externally a
  consistent message
• Leaders empower staff
• Leaders support growth and learning in staff
• Leaders dont know everything going on in their
  libraries! (i.e., Micromanage)

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Leaders

• Leaders are Change Agents
• Leaders question assumptions and status quo (not
  How, but WHY)
• Leaders dont lose sight of purpose and mission
  (in context)
• Leaders focus on the future and the big picture
  they plan!

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Leaders

• Leaders are consistent, ethical and honest (model
  behavior)
• Leaders exercise sound, mature judgment
• Leaders listen and learn
• Leaders inspire others

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Leaders

• Are creative and innovative
• Ask the right questions
• Do not allow tradition to trump needs
• Understand ambition of the institution and how to
  position the library to help achieve it

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Relationship between Leading and Following

• Followship is just as important as leadership
  to the library, and is its own kind of leadership
• What is it??

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• What do you think followship is?

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Session 2 Group Exercise

• Answer the following questions
• What are the 3 most important traits of a good
  library director? Why?
• What are the effects of a poor library leader to
  the staff? Users?
• What can we do as a profession to prepare the
  next generation of leaders?

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Session 3 Organizational Cultures

• Organizations have personalities drawn from
  shared tradition, practices, beliefs, etc.
• Organizations can be very dysfunctional and still
  operate (as with people)

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• Organizational culture can easily thwart
  innovation and effectiveness
• Changing management or organizational structures
  may not result in changes to organizational
  culture, and an unhealthy culture can undermine
  any model
• For an organization to be effective, it must have
  a healthy culture

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A Healthy Organizational Culture

• Promotes change as constant and lasting
• Promotes and rewards innovation
• Supports growth and learning
• Embodies a Culture of Assessment
• Focuses on implementing a shared vision of the
  future, not basking in past glories!

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A Healthy Organizational Culture

• Values people/diversity
• Allows for risks, supports new ideas
• Empowers individuals to express, develop and
  implement new ideas even at the risk of honored
  tradition
• Focuses on the Users needs and expectations
  first
• Puts emphasis on LEARNING

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Agility Also A Major Outcome

• Application of business principles to libraries
  (meet needs of our customers in most efficient
  and effective manner).
• Must be able to adapt quickly to changing
  environments and opportunities
• Must align our priorities with those of our
  institutions and constituents
• Must reallocate to create resources for future

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Organizational Culture at Pitt

• In 1994
• Feudal Society
• Focus on Library, not users
• Quality defined internally
• Communication across administrative lines
  discouraged informal workarounds abundant

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Organizational Culture Now

• Focus on planning, users and assessment
• Communication deliberate
• Agile, change oriented culture and organization
• Increased expertise and user satisfaction

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Learning Organization

• We have adapted the Learning Organization Theory
• Libraries must create a learning environment in
  every sense
• Includes infrastructure support for individual
  learning, group learning, active listening to
  users, etc.

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Role of Organizational Structure

• Wide variety from Hierarchical to Flat,
  Autocratic to Democratic exists in libraries
• After study for a long time, I conclude that the
  organizational model is NOT the panacea in
  building our future (no ideal model)
• Any model can be circumvented

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Structure

• Star performers will be productive in any
  environment
• No organizational structure will change negative
  attitude, behavior or work habits
• Each library is different and must implement the
  structure best for its context and culture

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Structure

• Negative behavior can be changed, but generally
  not through restructuring, but by rewarding
  positive accomplishment and NOT rewarding
  negative behaviors

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Structure

• The train has left the station, and we as an
  organization have to concentrate on the people
  on the train.
• Carla Stoffle et al, Team-Based Management in
  the Research Environment. Infomanage 5 (11), p.
  10

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To Team or Not to Team

• Team management can be effective, but has a high
  overhead
• Non-team structures can also be effective in
  implementing change and creating a healthy culture

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Myths of Teams

• Teams are a panacea and good for every
  environment
• Building Teams is an end in itself
• Operational Expertise should be the primary
  criterion for selecting team members

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Myths of Teams

• One strong leader is all that is necessary for a
  successful team
• Teams lead the organization
• The more members, the stronger the team
• Sports teams are a model for work teams

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Myths of Teams

• Teams do the work of the organization
• Teams are more productive than individuals
• Consensus is the only acceptable decision-making
  mode for teams

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Myths of Teams

• Relationships are paramount and maintaining
  harmony most important
• All right-thinking people enjoy working closely
  with others
• Individuals are completely subsumed by the team

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Myths of Teams

• The team has primary responsibility for its own
  success
• Teamwork means more meetings!
• Team-building exercises carry over to the
  workplace
• Personality type is the key to team dynamics and
  results

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Library as Business?

• We have always adapted business management
  systems libraries
• Now are applying business principles to managing
  things like serials budgets, internal operations,
  etc.
• User (aka customer) designed services a product
  of business world as well
• Re-engineering and reallocation is also becoming
  prevalent in libraries

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Session 3 Group Exercise

• In your group, answer the following
• Name 3 ways you know if a library is a healthy
  organization?
• Name 3 ways a library with a negative culture
  affects its success.
• Name 3 ways each of us can contribute to a
  healthy organizational culture.

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Session 4 Change Process at Pitt

• What was changed
• Focus
• Processes and services
• Allocation of effort to create agility
• Our IT Environment
• Our communication system
• Our Organizational Culture

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FOCUS

• Changing the focus from the library perspective
  and orientation to a customer focus is the key to
  change needed for the future
• Must move from User Oriented directly to USER
  DESIGNED services and operations

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To do so, it is time to

• Get over our Google Envy
• Stop judging user behavior and tune in!
• Re-think our services
• Re-think our processes
• Assess, assess, assess

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Focus on Users at Pitt ULS

• Culture of Listening to Users
• LibQual every year since firstyear of pilot
• Track trends over time
• Look for areas of weakness to explore further
• Focus Groups of faculty and students
• Issues from LibQual data
• Led by outside experts
• Incentives to participate

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• Feedback on website and on specific digital
  projects, etc.
• Usability studies of web sites
• Analyze web use data (led us to eliminate subject
  pages)
• Surveys of users on web related to digital
  content
• Ex., Old Schoolbooks discovered unexpected user
  base
• Digital library users are a new constituency,
  often a demanding one!

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New Web Design w/o Jargon!
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The Way we Operate Changed

• At Pitt, we have
• Implemented strategic planning, a culture of
  assessment, and re-engineering efforts in
  technical and public services
• Result is a reallocation of resources toward
  priorities of the future from more traditional
  functions
• AND a different organizational culture

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Our Strategic Plan

• Absence of planning before 1994
• First plan was developed with involvement of
  entire staff, managed by a steering committee
• Resulted in re-thinking mission

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Our Mission

• Is not about books! Never was!
• Also not about information!
• But it IS about people connecting people to
  resources of all kinds needed for learning and
  critical thinking and (hopefully) knowledge.
• No longer just organizing knowledge containers,
  but helping to create them and mold them, host
  them, etc.

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ULS Mission

• Strategic Planning first one ever in 1995
• Had no plan or mission
• Wide disagreement at start of what is the core
  mission, even core values and who are our users
• Need to focus on a vision for future
• Current plan has only 9 goals and is communicated
  in a trifold brochure and all unit goals are
  based on it

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Mission of ULS is to

• provide and promote access to information
  resources necessary for the achievement of the
  Universitys leadership objectives in teaching,
  learning, research, creativity and community
  service, and to collaborate in the development of
  effective information, teaching and learning
  systems.

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This means

• Question assumptions on which processes based
• Example How do we define quality?
• Scrutinize outmoded and outdated functions and
  services
• Re-allocate resources from low priority to higher
  priority activities more bang for the buck!
• Reconfigure space, personnel, budget to match new
  roles and mission
• Use business principles to manage operations

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Re-engineering at Pitt (1995-6)

• Bottom Line
• contracted with book vendors to provide OCLC
  cataloging for all new books
• contracted with OCLC TechPro for backlog
  cataloging (huge!)
• Mapped all processes, redefined positions and
  priorities

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• Eliminated 60 of positions
• Moved affected staff over 2 years to other
  positions
• Saved 1.1 million
• Absorbed two personnel budget cuts without
  affecting staff
• Jump started information technology developments
  at the ULS
• Eliminated all cataloging backlogs

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• Applied same functions to Public Services
• New Initiatives in PS include
• ZOOM!
• Libraries to Go!
• Digital reference service
• Help Hub
• Undergraduate initiatives
• Peer-to-peer library consultants
• Wireless laptop project
• Implementing IR and NextGen
• OPAC now

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Now rethinking SPACE (final frontier)

• Where to put legacy collections
• How do we justify library space in the future?
• What kinds of activities should the library
  support for students
• Policies about Space Use Need to be modified
• Must be appealing to students
• Audiences no longer captive!

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Old Space Plan at Pitt

• 20 libraries all crowded, many in need of major
  renovation
• Plan to add 100,000 sq. ft. to main library and
  an old Masonic Temple for specialized collections
• Would not accommodate storage needs
• Cost was 110 million!

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New Plan!

• Consolidation of Departmental Libraries
• Renovations to Hillman Library
• Added remote facility housing
• Archives
• Preservation Lab
• Digital Research Library
• Information Systems
• Technical Services
• High Density bookstorage (3 million vols)

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Facilities in ULS

• Use of space changing
• Elimination of individual study carrels
• Expanded group study space
• Expansion of computing devices/wireless
• Comfortable casual seating
• Cup and Chaucer Café
• New policies on food/drink

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Cup Chaucer
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First Floor, Hillman Library
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First Floor Grand Opening
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First Floor Entrance and Desk
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Thornburgh Room
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Preservation Lab
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High DensityStorage
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ULS Technology Infrastructure

• Digital Research Library
• 2 IC2 Digibook scanners
• 6 flatbed and stack scanners
• 6 FTE staff dozens of graduate students/interns
  in LIS and History
• Automated processes for OCR process, etc.
• License middleware from U. of Michigan
• Outsource some scanning
• Emphasis on quality vs quantity

• Information Systems
• 70 servers
• Data storage/robotic backup systems
• Generator for server room as backup to UPS
• 12 systems analysts
• Central management of all systems/devices in ULS

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Funding for IT Infrastructure

• Student Computing Fees
• Generates 500,000 per year for Library IT
• Additional staffing, hardware/software
  expenditure from budget
• OPAC expenses centralized as enterprise system
  (purchase, maintenance, management)

• Digital Research Library
• Initially with interest from endowments,
  reallocations of staff from TS re-eng project,
  and grants
• Now fully funded on budget from reallocation from
  lower priority areas
• Some grants, but only for high priority
  activities (ex. Digitizing photos from IMLS)

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Newest Digibook Scanners in DRL
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(No Transcript)
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Digital Publishing Services at the University
Library System (ULS)

• The ULS offers a variety of services and programs
  to help faculty mount digital resources on the
  Web.
• Project idea may call for the digitization of
  physical resources or may begin with
  born-digital material.

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D-Scribe Publishing Categorieswww.library.pitt.ed
u/articles/digpubtype/index.html

• Electronic Theses Dissertations (ETD)
• Electronic Journals
• Pre-Print andGrey-Literature Archives
• Image Collections
• Textual Collections

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Darlington Digital Library Project

• 11,000 books donated by Darlington in 1918
• 500 historic maps
• Manuscript collections (Washington letters, etc)
• Broadsides, atlases, etc.
• Important collection of early Colonial American
  history
• More than 1,000 books digitized, opening in May,
  2007
• Completion in 3 years
• Contributed to OCA Collection on Americana

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Librarys Role in Open Access Publishing Models

• Pitt is developing or contributing to OA models
  for
• Open Access Journals
• Open Access discipline repositories (grey
  literature)
• ETDs
• Mounting content from constituents
• Government Publications (EU)
• OAI Harvesting(statewide effort in PA)

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Latest D-Scribe Project

• University of Pittsburgh Press Digital Editions
• Goal to digitize and mount on open access the
  entire Press backlist, and then open all content
  within 2 years of publication

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ULS Marketing Program

• Began with a Marketing Plan developed by a
  Marketing Firm
• Definition of customers, messages, and styles of
  communication(how, when, what, etc.)
• Use of Branding(logos, consistency of
  communications, etc)

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Communicating Effectively

• Targeted messages (customize format and message
  to audience)
• Consistency
• From Product Orientation to Selling Orientation
  (Users NOT the problem)
• Emphasis on benefit
• Keep it brief and graphical

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Logos
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Logos
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ULS WEBSITE

• www.library.pitt.edu

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Session 4 Group Exercise

• In your group
• Name 2 processes in your library that need to be
  re-designed/eliminated.
• Name 2 areas in your library that should have
  additional resources
• Name 2 ways in which you can communicate the
  librarys message better

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Conclusion

• Although predicting the future is always risky,
  based on the past decade, it will be a time of
  dramatic and accelerating change in the role and
  mission of libraries and the way in which
  libraries operate. New leadership at all levels
  will be essential. But it will be an exciting
  future well worth grasping!