Competency D

Core Competency D: apply the fundamental principles of planning, management, marketing, and advocacy.

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Introduction:

Management is a necessity in any type of work. From one-person businesses to hundred-person institutions; and from multi-million dollar corporations to volunteer organizations. All of these require the implementation of management principles. Libraries especially, require strong management to function and survive despite increasing budget cuts. Management, at its most basic, is “the art of getting things done through people” (Follett, 1941, as cited in Haycock & Sheldon, 2008, p. 68). This involves processes that include planning, management (of people), marketing, and advocacy.

Planning:

Before a library embarks on any type of project or implementation of a new service, it is vital that thorough planning has been undertaken. Planning is the process of defining goals or objectives, and identifying the steps needed to accomplish them (Hirsh, 2015, p. 213). Planning can be either short-term or long term, but they nonetheless involve the same actions. Planning usually begins with some form of assessment to identify community/organizational needs or areas in which the library is lacking. This can be accomplished by assessing library user satisfaction through methods such as surveys or face-to-face interactions, and analyzing recorded data and statistics (i.e. circulation of materials). After assessments are completed, the next part in planning is the establishment of objectives or goals. This will help to guide the organization in creating steps to reach the goal/objective and provide a sense of direction for staff to work towards. Finally, methods of evaluation need to be devised beforehand, so that the success or failure of a project can be measured. Planning is probably the most important aspect of management, as a lack of a clear plan will spell disaster for any project or new service and result in wasted time and resources.

Management:

No organization would be able to function for long without managers. While many librarians may not enter the field of librarianship with the intent of becoming managers, librarians are increasingly being asked to manage others as libraries take on more pages, paraprofessional staff, and volunteers (Haycock and Sheldon, 2008, p. 65). Being a manager often involves certain aspects of leadership. People tasked with management should preferably have good communication skills, authority/influence, and control. In this case, “control” is the process of “establishing standards, monitoring results… and correcting deviations” (Hirsh, 2015, p. 210). These are all necessary elements for a manager to successfully lead staff in performing regular duties or meeting organizational goals.

Marketing:

Marketing is a technique companies use to advertise their products. Libraries too, can make use of marketing. Libraries use marketing to advertise their services, collections, and programs to library users, stakeholders, and those within the organization. Some typical marketing strategies used by library organizations are posters/flyers, face-to-face interaction with library users, and (most commonly) social media campaigns. Marketing is vital in libraries because library users will not use services and collections, or participate in programs that they do not know about. In the age of widespread budget cuts, it is also important for libraries to be able to communicate what they offer to their communities in terms that stakeholders will understand. Thus, the quality of a library’s marketing efforts can sometimes tie into the survival of the organization or their services.

Advocacy:

At a glance, marketing and advocacy may appear to be the same concept. However, marketing is more focused on promoting services and collections to the community, while advocacy is more concerned with garnering community support through increased visibility (Hirsh, 2015, p. 216). Advocacy efforts are undertaken by libraries for a multitude of reasons, usually to address issues related to underserved groups. They can be focused on English literacy efforts for newly immigrated children, career-development for unemployed adults, or healthcare materials for homeless individuals, just to name a few. Librarians can advocate through the same marketing strategies listed above (flyers, face-to-face interaction, and social media); or by joining advocacy organizations (such as the Office for Library Advocacy); or by presenting at one of the many library conferences held in the United States throughout the year. When library budgets are tight, advocacy is sometimes the only way of garnering funds for programs aimed at underserved populations.

Coursework/Experience that Prepared Me for this Competency:

In my previous career as an assistant engineer, I was often invited to team meetings. These meetings were often held to lay out long-term projects, or to discuss any perceived weaknesses of the organization. While I was only part of the supporting staff, I did come to understand many of the aspects involved in planning and staff management through these meetings. I was able to further develop my planning and management skills by participating in many group projects during my time in the MLIS program. Several of these projects, such as the ones I detail in my evidence section below, also required me to demonstrate my knowledge of marketing skills. I learned about methods of advocacy (specifically in the library field) through the readings that were assigned to me in various classes, such as Info 204 (Information Professions), Info 261A (Young Adult Services), Info 275 (Library Services for Racially and Ethnically Diverse Communities), and Info 232 (Issues in Public Libraries).

References:

Haycock, K., & Sheldon, B. E. (Eds.) (2008). The portable MLIS: Insights from the experts. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.

Hirsh, S. (Ed.). (2015). Information services today: An introduction. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Evidence:

1. Info 204 Professional Synthesis Assignment

My first piece of evidence to show my mastery of competency D is a professional synthesis assignment from Info 204 (Information Professions). For this assignment, I was tasked with creating a PowerPoint presentation to reflect on what I had learned in Info 204. I decided to use a reference librarian position as a way of framing the topics that I felt were most important to my career development.

Pages 9 through 16 of the presentation specifically address the topic of managing staff and budgets. In this section, I discussed several important aspects involved in the management of staff and budgets. This establishes my understanding of basic management concepts. Additionally, I highlighted several leadership traits that were important in overseeing a team, establishing my understanding of the leadership skills necessary for team management. As a note, this presentation was created at the very start of my time in the MLIS program. I no longer agree with the table on page 10, which presents managers in an extremely negative light compared to leaders. My understanding now is that there is a distinct difference between leaders and managers, but they often share similar characteristics and responsibilities; and both are needed for an organization to function. Despite this, I submit this presentation as evidence towards competency D to demonstrate my understanding of the elements of management theory and how they can be implemented in a library setting.

Pages 17 through 18 of the presentation specifically address the topic of marketing in libraries. In my presentation, I discussed promotion as one part of marketing strategy and also emphasized that librarians needed to market themselves. This is so that library users can be aware of the services that librarians offer. One way in which librarians can market themselves is through social media platforms and IM/chat services. For the reasons I have stated above, I submit this presentation as evidence towards competency D as it also demonstrates my understanding of the methods through which librarians can market themselves and the library.

The entire MS PowerPoint file that I created for this assignment can be found below.

2. Info 204 Organizational Analysis (Group Presentation)

My second piece of evidence comes from a group project, also from Info 204 (Information Professions). This piece of evidence is composed of two documents: our group presentation and a copy of a group email. This was a group project in which we were to collaborate on a PowerPoint presentation which summarized our work from an earlier two-part assignment. The previous two-part assignment involved a literature review on goal-setting theory, as well as an environmental scan and SWOT analysis on a library of our choosing. We chose to study the [redacted] public library system for this assignment. The first document I have provided is the actual PowerPoint presentation, and the second document is a screenshot of an email that establishes my role in the project.

I was personally responsible for the text on page 2 (goal setting theory part 1), page 4 (mission and vision statement), page 5 (values statement), and page 20 (the conclusion) in the PowerPoint presentation. However, I was also the person who was in charge of putting the entire PowerPoint presentation together. This required me to devise objectives: as I was the person responsible for turning the project in, my teammates needed to submit their parts of the project by a certain date. It also required me to coordinate the materials my teammates sent me, which often required image resizing and text editing. I also constantly checked to see that we were meeting the project requirements detailed in the grading rubric. I therefore submit this piece of evidence towards competency D to demonstrate my ability to plan and manage a long-term project.

For privacy purposes, I have removed access to the evidence documents.

3. Info 261A Repertoire Emphasis Project

My third piece of evidence is a repertoire emphasis project (REP) assignment from Info 261A (Young Adult Services). This REP assignment asked us to select a youth group in our area and develop a library program that would celebrate their skills and give them a platform on which they could talk about their talents. The youth group I selected for this assignment was a Youth Symphony group. [In the documents below, I have shortened the group's full name into something more generic for privacy purposes.]

In this assignment, I demonstrated my ability in planning and managing a short-term project in a fictional scenario. I had to carefully consider every aspect of the program, including outcomes and evaluation steps to be taken after the program finished. We were also asked to explain the strategies we would use to promote the program. I chose to advertise mainly via social networking sites. I also decided to invite local government officials and members from local news agencies to this program. The purpose in doing so was to advertise library programs and their value to stakeholders in the community. Furthermore, it was a way of advocating for more youth programs in the community by giving them more publicity. This establishes my ability to market library programs to the wider populace (including those who are not regular library users); and establishes my understanding of how librarians can engage in advocacy efforts for a specific organization (in this case, a youth group). The methods I have devised also demonstrate my understanding of how a library setting affects marketing and advocacy efforts. All of the examples mentioned in this paragraph indicate my mastery of competency D.

The entire completed assignment can be found below. It consists of a program development document and a brief literature review document. In this assignment, the term "young adults" is abbreviated as "YA".

4. Info 232 Library Community Profile (Group Project)

My final piece of evidence is a website I developed with a group of classmates in Info 232 (Issues in Public Libraries). As a group, we were tasked with creating an online community profile presentation for a specific library or library system. The library we chose to focus on was the [redacted] public library, and we co-developed the website through Google Sites. This website was intended to be an informative “presentation” for local government officials or higher management within the library organization.

I was responsible for collecting the demographic statistics and data (which are shown in the tables and charts on several pages) for this library’s population/community. I was also responsible for the Collections and Services page specifically, and the “Build Community Partnerships,” “Increase Access to Services and Resources,” and “Increase Efficiency of Library Processes and Services” sections under the Future Trends page. As a group of three, we started working on this project at beginning of the school term. The final site is a culmination of roughly three months of preparation work, group meetings, and coordination. We all had a hand in editing, revising, and testing the site to ensure that it worked properly. While I was not the team leader for this group project, the completed website nonetheless demonstrates my ability to participate in the planning, development, management, and creation of a long-term project.

The use of a website was our way of marketing the library to vital stakeholders inside and outside of the library organization. The website as a whole is also our way of advocating for the library as information professionals. On the Future Trends page, we discussed possible partnerships that could be formed to benefit the library, and technology that could be implemented to better improve the services at the [redacted] public library. This establishes our understanding of how to apply marketing and advocacy techniques in a library setting. All of the points mentioned in the above two paragraphs demonstrate my mastery of competency D.

There was originally a link to the website in the original e-portfolio. I have removed this link for privacy purposes.

Conclusion:

Planning, managing, marketing, and advocacy are skills that are simply required for librarians of the modern era. As someone who plans to become a public librarian, I am fully aware that I will be expected to eventually handle some aspect of organizational management. The knowledge of planning and management principles that I have acquired during my time in the MLIS program will aid me in successfully creating new programs or services. I also intend to study the elements of marketing and advocacy more closely in the future by attending LIS seminars or workshops. By keeping my skills in marketing and advocacy current, I can better advertise the value of my library and better promote services to underserved groups.