Competency D
Management
Management
Apply the fundamental principles of planning, management, marketing, and advocacy.
Introduction
The success of any library or information center requires providing excellent programs and services, but those do not just happen on their own. Competency D tells me that I must understand the roles that planning, management, marketing, and advocacy play in establishing and running those programs and services, and how to go about each of those functions methodically and strategically.
Planning
Libraries and other information organizations must always strive to improve the services and programs they provide to their communities and patrons while practicing sound fiscal policies. Achieving both of these objectives, which can sometimes be at odds with one another, takes careful strategic planning. Planning is primarily a forward-looking activity, but a strategic approach also “requires insight and foresight to interpret past events and present trends to determine future directions” (Corrall, 2003, p. 2742).
In my coursework I learned about different tools that information professionals can use throughout the planning process. Perhaps the most important of these is the mission statement, which provides guidance for any planning project and serves as the standard against which the goals of the project must be measured. Corrall (2003) noted that while the general purpose of libraries might not change much over time, developments such as “the shifts of emphasis from holdings to access, from print to electronic and from mediation to self-service” (p. 2751) can lead librarians to add and emphasize different elements in their institution’s mission statement. These changes to the mission statement can both reflect current planning and guide future planning.
Other vital tools are the literature review, the environmental scan, and the SWOT analysis, and all are useful for informing the planning project’s strategic goals and ensuring those goals align with the overall mission of the organization, whether that's the library or the institution the library is a part of. In order to be able to judge progress against the goals and, ultimately, whether or not they have been achieved, the information professional can break them down into concrete and actionable objectives, which in turn can consist of an action plan and assessment criteria.
Management
There are many different types of management that occur in information organizations, including people management, time management, project management, change management, and risk management, to name some of the most common ones. All information professionals have to perform many of these and other management functions both in ad hoc situations and as part of their everyday duties, especially as they execute their institution’s strategic plans.
Those strategic plans and the information professional’s role are both mostly about programs and services—designing them, evaluating them, establishing them, providing them, etc.—and so most everybody in these roles must engage in project management, even if they do not have the title of “project manager.”
Project management encompasses many other types of management duties, such as time management and people management, and requires information professionals to possess a wide range of both hard skills such as knowledge of software and systems, and softer skills such as self-awareness and diplomacy. For actual project managers, Kinkus (2007) cited a study that listed 18 important characteristics, divided into three groups: human skills, conceptual and organizational skills, and technical skills (p. 354).
Again, these are skills that are also important for information professionals who are not project managers themselves but who still must perform similar management duties. Taken together, these skills and characteristics help information professionals manage the most important aspects of their job, whether that’s projects, their own time and workload, or their relationships with others, in order to keep everything and everyone aligned and moving in unison toward achieving goals in support of strategic plans.
Marketing
Most people might not typically think of librarians as strong marketers. Germano (2010) lamented that “at the overwhelming majority of libraries there is no job function that is exclusively or even predominantly centered on marketing the library” (p. 6). In my coursework I learned that as librarians face increased competition and a greater need to explain the value they provide compared to common online resources, this neglect of marketing is more than a missed opportunity—it is potentially catastrophic. Lucas-Alfieri (2015) wrote that marketing is essential for libraries and librarians because their “existence depends on creating and securing the loyalty of satisfied customers” (p. 31). This is not only an exercise in self-preservation, though; Lucas-Alfieri also noted that good marketing practices also “encourage inspiration and develop life-long learning skills in the patrons” (p. 31).
Minkovsky (2018) wrote that “one of the biggest challenges for libraries today [is] updating people’s perceptions of libraries as merely buildings full of books” (para. 3). Lucas-Alfieri (2015) suggested that marketing is the key to solving this dilemma as well in stating that “marketing affects traditional perceptions and opinions of libraries and librarians,” and also wrote that marketing planning helps librarians “secure organizational commitment for funding current library services and resources, [and] to develop information projects” (p. 31). Marketing can thus not only help librarians connect with and win over current and potential patrons, it can also help with more behind-the-scenes efforts that allow the library to serve those patrons better.
Advocacy
Closely related to marketing is advocacy. Similar to the lack of marketing focus or expertise at libraries, one study showed that librarians saw advocacy less as an opportunity and more as “a challenge that librarians had to overcome” (Hicks, 2016, p. 625). Nevertheless, the librarians also viewed it as “as an obligation, a necessity, and the core of a librarian’s work” (p. 624).
Through my coursework I came to see advocacy as an invaluable skill to develop to help me engage with different audiences in order to raise awareness of and support for my institution’s collections, programs, and services. The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL, 2017) agreed, listing “promotes the use of special collections through a variety of outreach and advocacy methods” (Competencies section, para. 6) as one of its nine fundamental competencies for special collections professionals.
I also learned that an important part of advocacy is getting others to advocate for you. Overholt (2013), also speaking to special collections, wrote that one of the goals for those collections must be to “create satisfied users who can be vocal advocates for our importance to survive in times of budgetary stress” (p. 19). The same can be said of any library or information service and the importance of getting others to communicate the value it adds to its institution. Furthermore, information professionals should seek ally advocates not only among those who use the service but also among key community members as well as internally among other staff and executives.
Evidence
Evidence 1: INFO 284 Archives and Research Management: Digitization and Digital Preservation – Digitization Project Planning
This project serves as evidence of my ability to plan and execute a digitization project from concept to completion. For a subject I chose a collection of photographs that had belonged to my paternal grandmother. The project involved a variety of management and planning skills, including organization, time management, and strategic thinking. Planning especially came into play as I had to think ahead and take into consideration factors such as how comprehensive the digitization would be in relation to the physical collection, any challenges that the condition or nature of the items might pose, possible copyright issues, and any technical limitations of the hardware and software I had available.
Coming up with a metadata scheme for the collection items involved long-term planning and thinking. This project shows that I am able to take into account best practices for metadata and choose fields, entries, and vocabularies that aligned with the project’s goals of preservation, access, and discovery now and into the future.
Evidence 2: INFO 282 Library Management: Project Management – Project Management Strategy
In this paper I demonstrate my knowledge of project management strategy and my ability to apply key project management principles to adapting to change and planning for the future through specific strategic projects. The assignment shows that I understand the principles of and applications for both a project plan and a higher-level strategic plan for setting objectives, and that I can identify tools and software that an information professional can use to execute those plans and make the project a success. Lastly, I discuss the importance of being flexible when it comes to project management, as things inevitably don’t go 100% according to plan. I believe the lessons I learned and explain in this paper are applicable beyond project management and would serve me well in a role in any information organization.
Evidence 3: INFO 204 Information Professions – Library Organizational Analysis Part 1 and Part 2
In a complex and intensive group project in two parts, my teammates and I conducted an extensive organizational analysis of and created a new strategic plan for the Des Moines Public Library. Part 1 covers our literature review; background on the library; the current mission statement, vision statement, and core values; an environmental scan; and a SWOT analysis. Part 2 presents our five goals, each one broken down into three objectives with action plans and assessments, plus an annotated bibliography. We concluded the project with a Prezi presentation summarizing the plan and highlighting the key points and takeaways.
In part 1, my primary sections of responsibility were the Introduction, Foundations, and Motivations section of the literature review. In part 2, I wrote the introduction as well as the content for Goal 4. We each contributed four entries to the annotated bibliography, with mine being Analoui and Karami (2003), Corrall (2003), Fought and Misawa (2018), and Truck (2002).
This project shows that I am able to conduct a thorough analysis of a library’s organization and strategy and to set actionable goals for the library’s future. It demonstrates my ability to take part and play a leading role in a project that uses key organizational planning concepts and tools, including a mission statement, a literature review, an environmental scan, and a SWOT analysis, to provide the insights and context needed for setting strategic goals. Lastly, it shows that I am able to make those goals actionable and measurable by defining the objectives needed to achieve them and the assessments needed to both gauge progress against them and determine if they have been achieved.
Evidence 4: INFO 231 Issues in Special Libraries and Information Centers – Internal Marketing at Special Libraries
In this paper I expound upon my understanding of the importance of marketing specifically in special libraries but with lessons for libraries in general as well—for example, with the quote by Singh (2009) that “a greater degree of market orientation corresponds to a greater level of achievement in the service effectiveness of the library services, the ultimate result being higher customer satisfaction” (p. 127). I conduct a literature review to synthesize the current research and theories on marketing in special libraries, and I elucidate library marketing through topics such as audience, communication, evaluation, and using library services as marketing.
I also write about the importance of advocacy. Advocating to and developing advocates among library staff and users is important, but in the paper, I make the case that for special libraries, it is especially beneficial to have the support of upper management within the library’s parent organization. This is particularly true when it comes time for executive to set organizational budgets.
Conclusion
No information organization can be successful without planning, management, marketing, and advocacy. My coursework taught me how these activities tie into one another, with the management skills being a prerequisite for executing the strategic plan, and marketing and advocacy activities being necessary to support the plan. I came to understand how each impacts the success of the information organization, and how I can put them into practice in an information setting. For the latter, my classes highlighted the skills that will allow me to carry out these activities, and gave me hands-on experience to help me develop those skills.
References
Association of College and Research Libraries. (2017, March 6). Guidelines: Competencies for special collections professionals. http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/comp4specollect
Corrall, S. (2003). Strategic planning in academic libraries. In M. A. Drake (Ed.), Encyclopedia of library and information sciences (2nd ed.). Marcel Dekker.
Germano, M. A. (2010). Narrative-based library marketing: Selling your library's value during tough economic times. The Bottom Line, 23(1), 5–17. http://dx.doi.org.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/10.1108/08880451011049641
Hicks, D. (2016). Advocating for librarianship: The discourses of advocacy and service in the professional identities of librarians. Library Trends, 64(3), 615–640. https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2016.0007
Kinkus, J. (2007). Project management skills: A literature review and content analysis of librarian position announcements. College & Research Libraries, 68(4), 352–363. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.68.4.352
Lucas-Alfieri, D. (2015). Marketing the 21st century library: The time is now. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sjsu/detail.action?docID=2054007
Minkovsky, N. (2018, February 14). For the love of libraries: How libraries use content to tell new stories. Content Marketing Institute. https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2018/02/libraries-content-stories/
Overholt, J. H. (2013). Five theses on the future of special collections. RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage, 14(1), 15–20. https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/10601790/overholt.pdf
Singh, R. (2009). Does your library have a marketing culture? Implications for service providers. Library Management, 30(3), 117–137. https://doi.org/10.1108/01435120910937302