Streamlining Library Services

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.

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.

Part 1 List of Figures
Part 2 Preamble
Part 3 Preface
Part 4 Acknowledgments
Part 5 Section One: Looking Backward, Looking Forward
Chapter 6 Chapter 1. The Roots of Scientific Management
Chapter 7 Chapter 2. The Impact of Technology on Environments, Productivity and Staff Roles
Part 8 Section Two: Diagnosing Problems; Preparing for a Study
Chapter 9 Chapter 3. Identifying Targets of Opportunity
Chapter 10 Chapter 4. Preparing for a Study
Chapter 11 Chapter 5. Identifying the Problem: Diagnostic Tools
Part 12 Section Three: What We Do: The Tools
Chapter 13 Chapter 6. Block Diagram
Chapter 14 Chapter 7. Tools for Process Analysis
Chapter 15 Chapter 8. Tools for Special Situations
Chapter 16 Chapter 9. Forms and Templates
Part 17 Section Four: How Much Time it Takes
Chapter 18 Chapter 10. Tracking Systems: Throughput/Delay Analysis
Chapter 19 Chapter 11. Self-Administered Diary Studies
Chapter 20 Chapter 12. Work Sampling
Chapter 21 Chapter 13. Direct Time Study
Part 22 Section Five: How Much it Costs
Chapter 23 Chapter 14. Costs
Part 24 Section Six: Post-Study Activities
Chapter 25 Chapter 15. Assessing the Current Activities
Chapter 26 Chapter 16. Designing Streamlined Activities
Chapter 27 Chapter 17. Implementing New Activities
Chapter 28 Chapter 18. Managing Organizational Change
Part 29 Index