Organizational Learning for Library Enhancements: A Collaborative, Research-Driven Analysis of Academic Department Needs

Abstract

This article presents a qualitative evaluation methodology of academic departments for library organizational learning and library enhancement planning. This evaluation used campus units’ academic program review reports as a data source and employed collaborative content analysis by library liaisons to extract departmental strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and priorities. We illustrate how a systematic review of internal planning documents facilitates the understanding of programmatic goals, identification of cross-unit synergies, and prioritization of library services. Our evaluation used a mix of technological, methodological, and analytical activities suitable for implementation in other academic library settings.

The chief learning officer

“…While many calls have been made for libraries to engage in organizational development processes (Phipps, 1993;Hawthorne, 2004;Smith, 2003Smith, , 2004Stephens and Russell, 2004;Sullivan, 2004), few libraries have formalized the process to the degree seen at the University of Maryland libraries (Lowry, 2005), where four full time and four part time staff (out of a total of 300) were, at the time, engaged in organizational development work. More common are one-off, initiative-based approaches aimed at gathering data for developing the organization without the support of dedicated staff, such as that described by librarians at the University of California Berkeley (Loo and Dupuis, 2015), or assessment activities undertaken by an employee responsible for assessment who reports results back to management (Emmons and Oakleaf, 2016). In the latter situation, assessment efforts may not tie back into budget-supported SHRD, but may simply serve as information given to those units assessed, which must then attempt to create needed change as best as they can.…”

C5 model for the consortium management: SWOT analysis

“…Over the years, many studies (Adler, 1999;Sanville, 1999;Bley, 2000;Cox, 2000;Chen, 2000;Scigliano, 2002;Graells, 2005;Bashirullah and Jayaro, 2006) focused on consortium, acquisition and sharing of resources. In a study by Loo and Dupuis (2015), recommendations made for the twenty-first century Harvard Library System are "a shared administrative infrastructure, rationalized and enhanced information technology systems, a revamped financial model, a rationalized collection development and access approach, and collaboration with peer institutions." However, academic and research libraries have long relations with publishers and information providers in terms of its consortial agreements.…”

“…The libraries embrace consortia models to plan and perform functions effectively using SWOT analysis. Very few studies (Ugah, 2007;Loo and Dupuis, 2015;Sahu, 2015;Brennan, 2009) demonstrate the use of SWOT in libraries to quickly analyze and assess various collections, equipment, staff and activities. Strategic decisions will help the organizations in maximizing their strengths and opportunities, and at the same time minimizing their weaknesses and threats to further transformation.…”

“I Fell into Librarianship”: Experiences of Post-Soviet Librarians at the National Academic Library in Astana, Kazakhstan

“…34 Each handwritten respond was typed and translated from Russian and Kazakh into English by our library assistants. 35 To analyze qualitative responses in a way that focused on shared understandings across diverse roles, we adapted qualitative content analysis to code the frequency of key themes in columns in Excel, as outlined by Loo and Dupuis (2015). 36 We supplement this overview of themes with a discussion of the perspectives arising in quotations from these Russian and Kazakh librarians.…”

“…35 To analyze qualitative responses in a way that focused on shared understandings across diverse roles, we adapted qualitative content analysis to code the frequency of key themes in columns in Excel, as outlined by Loo and Dupuis (2015). 36 We supplement this overview of themes with a discussion of the perspectives arising in quotations from these Russian and Kazakh librarians. In sum, this paper shares the experiences of Zhanna and 24 other librarians at the National Academic Library (all names are pseudonyms), in order to highlight the experiences of librarians in one post-Soviet capital city for a western audience.…”