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career Library Leadership

Library Budgets

Why a budget article in June when the budget is most likely done for the fiscal year?  I want you to think about all the changes and budget shifts likely to come in the next six months. Covid is still present. Therefore, library budgets must be constantly prioritized. Here are some strategies to consider for your next budget process.

Staffing

Pre-pandemic foot traffic has not come back to libraries. In-person programs are still unsafe in some communities. A library leader must be thinking about utilizing their staff more efficiently, since libraries are in-person services.

You might ramp up virtual storytimes or teen programs. Consider reducing public hours to consolidate your labor budget. The minimum wage has increased in many states, so a shrinking budget is a reality. Get creative to have staff cross train and don’t rehire for vacant positions.

Collection Budget

With Ebooks and streaming movies exploding in use last year, increase your digital collection budget. This means you will most likely need to reduce your physical collection budget. This is a decision not taken lightly, due to access of computers, reading needs, and the demographics of your community. Think this through carefully.

However, taking small steps to increase digital offerings will increase your library team’s efficiency and safety. Ask other like-sized library systems their recommendation to get a feel for what your customers really want and need moving forward.

Rethink Equipment Needs

With the decrease in foot traffic, can replacement equipment be put on hold? Does the automatic sorter really need to be replaced or can it hold out another year or two? Put on your negotiator’s hat and work with your vendor to devise a budget that works for you.

In addition to equipment, think about scaling back on physical book supplies for mending and cataloging. Does the library have an outreach and events team with a budget? Economizing in every area will go a long way to balance the budget for the future.

Extending Library Services

Hear me out on this one. Libraries are unique and every community is little bit different. You need to consider internal partnerships that can share library staff (and salaries) and benefit your town.

This could be homeless services, mobile literacy services or senior care needs. Get creative to devise a plan that will utilize your library and staff and extend the library into the community.

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Librarian & Entrepreneurship Library Leadership

Library Partnerships

Entering the third year of the pandemic, no one saw the library industry changes coming. With in-person programs and events still uncertain, how do library partnerships evolve?  Read on for tips your team can use to thrive with change. During and after Covid, libraries will need to bounce back and be relevant with programs more than ever before.

Virtual meetings

As the pandemic drags on, your library should be in regular contact with your community partners. Zoom and Teams should be your best friend, to connect with leaders and your stakeholders. School Districts, Civic and other organizations have varying levels of safety protocols. Always error on the side of caution and meet up virtually with your partners.

Keep in touch with mutual goals, benchmarks, or patron data that might need analyzing. “Back to normal” might never happen, so keeping abreast of your partners’ new goals and interests is key right now.

Attend annual events safely

If the virus is not a threat in your community and you can safety attend in-person annual events, do it!  Nothing takes the place of “face time” and meeting with your partners. This also applies to new partners your library was cultivating before the pandemic.

Keeping the pipeline full of potential new partners with similar community goals is vital especially now. Think beyond your normal partnerships and look at new bonds you can form.  Is there a new literacy organization or an arm from the American Rescue Plan that would work with your library’s strategic plan? Now is the time to get creative and seek these groups out.

Seek Out New Partners

Like pre-pandemic, your team will still need to reach out and connect with new schools, faith-based organizations, and other partners. With the building quieter and less foot traffic, meet with internal departments in your city or university to find common ground.

Does the city need a new recreation space or social service? This might be the lifeline the library needs to provide a needed service for the community. Libraries are now providing onsite Covid testing and take-home tests. Don’t leave anything off the table if your library can support a needed service now.

Getting a jump start on new partnerships and maintaining current ones should be library leadership’s priority. It’s never too late to have alternative plans ready if your senior leadership needs the library to expand services. Be ready and be prepared, especially during this time of post pandemic usage.

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career Library Jobs Library Leadership

Strategic Plans

SWOT analysis was covered in a previous post as the first step in creating strategic plans. If you are new to library planning or directorship, read on for simple tips to get started in strategic planning.

Six Components of a Strategic Plan

The six components needed for a robust library strategic plan are:

  1. A Vision Statement – usually taken from your organization, university, or city
  2. Core Values – your organization adheres too and embodies for your community
  3. Culture and Behaviors – need to be intertwined in the plan from the overarching values
  4. Themes from Data – need to be addressed from focus groups and surveys
  5. Timeframe Established – with deadlines to gauge results and outcomes of the plan
  6. Metrics – to provide feedback and business results for the effectiveness of the plan

Gain Support

Gaining the support of Human Resources and senior leadership is so important. This will enable your library to further explain the “why” behind the strategic plan. Your library will gain valuable partnerships. Furthermore, your success will determine having the backing of HR and your staff to see your vision behind the objectives. You need to start a year in advance with informational meetings with managers and partners involved.

Partners 

The Library Friends, Board and managers need to have all the information and the projected timeline for the plan. Again, you need to gain support before you invite focus groups or engage with the SWOT analysis for staff.

Your first job is to engage your senior leadership, so they understand the importance of your intended road map. Having an objective for EDI, professional development, community goals is important.

Data Mining

After gaining support and hosting focus groups and surveys, you need to develop a committee to mine the data. You will gain valuable knowledge about needs, wants and goals for your plan. Next, develop objectives, timelines, and metrics for the plan objectives. Taking the necessary time to dig into the weeds is important. Data will be different depending upon the goal and result.

However, don’t let personal interests or “sacred cows” drive the strategic plan. Your leadership is most important here, to establish measurable outcomes that impact your community.

Follow Up and Feedback

Finally, after your strategic plan is approved, you need to implement and measure the results. These last steps are as important as the planning stages. You need to measure your objectives.

Questions to consider:

  • How did new software impact our customers?
  • Was the extra expense in personnel provide improved (and improved) access?  Measure it.
  • What was the outcome of the increased Wi-Fi in the building? Include raw data and narratives.

Again, feedback and results will need to be analyzed for success and moving forward. A strategic plan, especially during Covid, is a fluid document. Remaining flexible is my best advice.

Furthermore, a Library Director needs to have the vision and leadership to handle anything. A strategic plan gives you that roadmap to help lead and plan for the future. Best of luck!

Tell me how your strategic planning is moving forward during this challenging time. Please share your successes at: KathyHusserTempe.com

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career Library Leadership

SWOT Analysis

 

S.W.O.T. Analysis in business is an important road map to keep an organization on track to achieve goals. What about nonprofits, like libraries, how do you create a simple S.W.O.T. analysis to help plan? Read on for a framework and effective ideas to get you started.

S.W.O.T. Analysis Provide Gaps

The first step in any project or plan is determining the gaps in where you need to go versus where you are now. Simply stated, performing a gap or S.W.O.T. analysis will help determine the course of your plan. Questions to ask your leadership team are:

  1. What are long term goals needed to achieve?
  2. How will the organization get to the results?
  3. What are the strengths of the organization?
  4. What are the threats to achieving those goals?

Furthermore, these simple questions, asked of your senior managers, stakeholders, and community partners will set the stage for the next step. Interviews and focus groups also help facilitate healthy conversation and generate new ideas from many areas.

Analyze the Feedback

Take the data from your analysis and mine for common themes. Data, along with the feedback from those involved in the plan will form the framework. Having a few key stakeholders or small committee that can enact the plan, should be the data miners.

In addition, these folks know the limitations of the organization and the resources available. Gain political support, if resources are tight. This helps you determine a draft plan to help with potential initiatives and outcomes.  However, no idea is out of the question, so get creative using the feedback.

Write it Down

When the direction of the analysis is determined, then mangers need to decide on objectives and strategies to create a map for the results. Sometimes this looks like a laundry list of items to check off.

And other times, the plan is inspirational and carries work culture themes, morale and development goals. The beauty of a SWOT analysis is that no one, is the same. You determine the course along with your stakeholders.

I’ve worked for libraries and businesses with 32-page plans and others with 2 pages of step-by step-needs. There is no perfect length or format.

Create Deadlines

Finally, the results need to have a timeline. Even inspirational plans will have objectives to meet the goal of increasing morale. For example, by December 2022 the team will have published and approved a “Culture Code” of respectful behaviors for our customers and colleagues. However, defined deadlines and goals are more likely to be achieved if people are held accountable.

Finally, it’s up to you as a leader to determine what needs to happen and what will work for your organization. Start the year off right and start formulating a strategic plan  from your SWOT analysis for your work group. Look for the next published article for more details on an effective library strategic plan.

Check out my personal site for more useful tips on living well at: KathyHusserTempe.com

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Library Leadership

Library Schedules

If you are new to managing employees or unsure how to handle your team’s schedules with pandemic restrictions, read on for some tips to help navigate library scheduling.

Plan Holidays and Vacations

Most organizations will need some notice if extended time away from work is requested by an employee. Some workplaces even have minimum timelines for these requests to be approved.  The farther out schedules are, the easier unexpected situations are to address.   Using a spreadsheet or scheduling software, develop a template. Figure the minimum staff needed to work at customer service positions at the library.

With your minimum staff number in mind, map out six to eight weeks of schedules inputting vacations, programs, and time off. Use remaining staff available to develop your desk schedule to serve the public. Keep in mind your customer foot traffic will be less due to Covid closures.

Rotating Staff

If your library is small or has only one service desk, scheduling can be simpler. If your library has multiple floors or has a spacious floor plan, then two or even more service points are the norm. Does your library have a dedicated phone line or does the entire staff answer the phone as needed? Another service point, in the call center, requires scheduling attention.

The recommendation is to rotate professional librarians and paraprofessionals between all service points for seamless customer experiences. Leadership roles should also consider covering public service points, to promote cross training opportunities. In addition, this increases empathy for your team’s interactions with the public too.

Resolving Concerns

Any manager has fielded complaints about the schedule “not being fair.”  This is the time to pull out your negotiating skills and leave policy to provide the best answers for scheduling decisions. Employees may not understand about staffing levels, unexpected sick time or prep for programs. Furthermore, being as consistent as possible with every employee is the best method to address conflicts and accusations of favoritism.

Finally, employees love time off the service desk, and managers need to provide a fair and equitable schedule to assist customers and staff.

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career Library Jobs Library Leadership

Career Mentoring for Success

Being a mentor or getting mentoring advice will help your career success in many ways you might not realize. Here are a few reasons  why putting yourself out there to provide advice to a colleague helps you and your mentee. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a mentee is “one who is being mentored a protégé.”

Job Satisfaction

Studies have shown that sharing your job knowledge and leadership experiences gives you a more satisfied feeling in your  role. Furthermore, we feel good when we have mastered a skill. We feel even better when we can share that with others. Mentors show commitment to their profession and their teams. Sharing  a bit of ourselves and our experience broadens our relationships. A trusting mentor/mentee relationship is invaluable for job satisfaction.

Succession Planning

When you receive mentoring from a leader or another colleague you are learning valuable lessons from a seasoned employee. Someone who has already been through an experience or solved a particular issue. This creates a great learning opportunity to gain knowledge and have exposure to real-world examples. These topics you might never even know existed, if not for your mentor. Like the old saying goes, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” Hearing and learning firsthand from a mentor are valuable ways to expand your toolkit for heading up the career ladder and in turn assisting your organization’s leadership.

Additional Exposure

For men and women mentoring gives an opportunity to show your company what you’ve got to offer and can open additional opportunities for your career growth.  Professional conferences, industry memberships and networking events can all be a form of mentoring or passing on valuable experience to help others in your industry. With travel opening more, considering a more formal platform to share your skills and experience with others.

Not able to travel? How about a more organic platform to mentor colleagues and share your experiences openly. I remember a roundtable of community stakeholders that would assemble once a quarter to discuss current business trends. This group discussed challenges and upcoming concerns others might not be aware of. This was a group method of passing on important information while keeping our networks active. While not as personal as one on one mentoring, connections were made and relationships were forged during our gatherings four times each year and continue today.

If you have an idea on a mentoring strategy let me know. We all should be sharing and learning!

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Librarian & Entrepreneurship Library Leadership

Digital Marketing in Libraries

The internet and digital marketing have advantages for libraries. Read on for a couple of tricks to increase your library’s exposure and customer base. Libraries are here to stay, and social media will help bring customers back into the building.

Social Media

It’s a Facebook/Twitter/Instagram driven world. This means that marketing your library on these social media platforms is essential. That’s true for any business. Post pictures of programs, customers, and be sure to use hashtags every post. Post photos of the building, bookstore, and community events at your library. Keep up with various literary events such as Banned Books Week or National Library Week.

Email Marketing

Set up a mailing list and then blast out newsletters and other information to teachers, legislators, and other local officials. Customers need to be reminded the library is in the community.  Furthermore, reach out to new customers interested in various events at your library. Grow those customers and sign them up for a library card!

Use Videos

A picture is worth a thousand words, and photos sell. We live in a video-saturated world.  Make short videos about the programs at your library.  Storytimes and children’s programs have the biggest audiences at libraries, so publicize the most popular.

When doing this or taking pictures, it is important to use a proper high-quality HD-capable camera. With all the images we encounter in our daily lives now, we are quite good at telling HD from non-HD photos. The latter are now judged as inferior by default. Go for the quality and make an impression.

Event Marketing

What’s the next big event that you’re hosting at your library? Whatever it is, you want to use that to market your library big time. What’s more, you need to make sure that as many people know about it as possible. Use the tools above, employ flyers and banners, advertise to schools, and use other traditional event planning measures to get as much exposure as possible.

All this and more can help you get your library the publicity it needs and deserves

 

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career Librarian & Entrepreneurship Library Leadership

SWOT As A Tool

Do you need a tool to determine next steps for your career or maybe another big decision in your life?  Ever wonder how data can help you make decisions? Read on for the steps in creating your own S.W.O.T. analysis and why it is an important tool.

Strengths and Opportunities

A simple S.W.O.T. analysis uses four metrics, using available information about your project or decision. The four components are: S=Strengths, W=Weaknesses, O=Opportunities and T=Threats.  Strengths and opportunities are seen as the positives for a decision or project.

If you’re making a career move, a strength of yours would be flexibility in moving for a job. An opportunity would be your strong negotiating skills, to help you find your next job. Anything which will help the cause is your strength and an opportunity to achieve your goal.

Weaknesses and Threats

On the other hand, weaknesses and threats hinder your pursuits. Using a career move as the same example, a weakness is your inability to relocate for a job. A threat might be a poor job market in your desired location. Using a SWOT template, you list the information you’ve gathered. You would then analyze your career needs and the possible steps to move toward your goal. To sum it up, it’s a pros and cons list for situations, decisions, or projects.

Why S.W.O.T.

S.W.O.T. analysis tools are used to develop strategic plans, gain stakeholder feedback, and provide data for decisions.  In the library strategic plans I’ve developed, S.W.O.T. templates, focus groups and surveys were used to create and implement plans.  I’ve also seen interviewees use S.W.O.T. analysis to help “sell” themselves during a recruitment. Again, information that is data-driven will add value to a decision or project. Being knowledgeable in developing a S.W.O.T. analysis for your next project or committee will add value.  You will also have the data to back up decisions.

Take some time to determine if a S.W.O.T. analysis will help you and then check out the various templates to make the job easier.

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career Library Leadership

Productive Meetings

During this time of hybrid and remote work, meetings whether virtual or in person, are vital for healthy team morale. Productive communication from you and senior leadership is so important to share information and gather employee feedback. Keep the following tips in mind when holding your next staff meeting.

Agendas

 Host meetings if there is important information to be distributed that cannot be shared via email or phone. To hold a meeting just because, really is not a sufficient reason. So, be sure employees are aware of the agenda, and send it out 24 hours ahead of your meeting. 

Furthermore, if you’re hosting a guest speaker also include their contact on the email reminder and an agenda. If the meeting is a brainstorming session, be specific of the intended outcomes. Before the meeting begins, provide employees context. Enable the team to prepare their thoughts beforehand. No one likes to waste time. Set the stage for expectations with a meeting agenda for the best results.

Online meetings

While easy to attend, virtual meetings lack the social interaction and networking that in person gatherings provide. If your organization’s meetings are mostly virtual, establish parameters for video and audio use.

For example, will all attendees be expected to have cameras ON but muted audio unless speaking? Be sure staff are aware of the expectations. How should attendees dress? Should audio be muted? It’s difficult to gauge an audience virtually, so ask your questions multiple times for various responses. Be sure to monitor the chat function to ensure no question is unanswered. Also check throughout the meeting for raised hands. 

Note Taking

A short review of what was shared via email is important after the meeting. Some employees might not have attended, or contacts and links were shared that staff need to complete a task. Having information written down is important for effective communication and accuracy. Rotating the note taking responsibility among your team or designating one person each quarter is a solid strategy. It’s also an excellent professional development tool for your team.

Virtual meetings have the option to be recorded, which makes note taking even easier. Whatever method used, be consistent and your communications and meetings will run smoothly every time.

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Library Leadership

Libraries and Programming

We have lived through the last two years in pandemic mode with many changes including library services. We have seen service models change and new programs emerge. The needs of communities are at the forefront of these changes, along with health and safety. So, what do programs look like now, with COVID-19 and health risks still in the foreground for many libraries? Let’s look at some successes.

Programs Outdoors

If you are lucky to live in a climate where in-person library programs can be held outside, patrons can have a new service model outdoors. Customers enjoy storytimes, school-age crafts, or book clubs social distanced for safety. However, programs are very engaging. If your climate is too warm or snowy, then an alternative has been a hybrid format. Producing online programs streamed via Zoom or prerecorded. This has become popular with many libraries.

Prerecorded Library Programs

Other libraries have great success and attendance with recording programs and posting the links. Posting within a Facebook post is also a great way to host a pre-recorded program. The advantage of prerecorded story times is easy editing and a way for the librarian to overcome nerves. Having your program recorded allows the flexibility to fix mistakes before posting. The link is available to update easily as your library changes. Plus the needs of your audience will change too.

Online Library Gatherings

Finally, many public libraries have adapted to all online programs due to funding constraints or public health concerns. Whether prerecorded or live every week at a predetermined time, virtual programs are the safest way to provide literacy and learning to a community. However, the downside is the staff’s reliance of a live audience for immediate feedback.

You also must have a team that has the skills and technology available to produce engaging library programs. Your library staff will need to have a solid handle on the audience they’re serving and the devices available. Have a reliable solution available if technology fails. Furthermore, bandwidth might be an issue and  would be a burden for your library users during online programs. Be sure to have solid solutions in place for every hiccup that could happen.