Task
As Technology & Technical Services Manager, I launched a series of iterative improvements that transformed how library collections get ordered and cataloged. These improvements fostered interdepartmental collaboration, simplified the ordering process for new collections, and reduced the time it takes to get a book into a patron’s hands.
Timeline: 2014-2021
Team
I led this process, managing a 2-person cataloging team and coordinating closely with other library departments. As we reimagined internal processes, the changes we made were highly collaborative and interdependent on partners in a 30-institution library consortium and library vendors and systems.
Understanding the Problem
When I became manager of Avon Library’s Technical Services department, its workflows and challenges were similar to many public libraries:
- 2 highly skilled catalogers struggled to stay on top of complex, interlocking processes, including processing and receiving orders, cataloging new items, and coordinating the volunteers who processed each item to make it shelf-ready for the public.
- The shelves were full of backlog items, as were rolling carts. The team relied on complex, labor-intensive paper filing and sorting systems, which were easily bottle-necked in a space not set up for the tasks at hand.
- The ordering process was a complicated black box for other departments, which made it difficult to track order statuses and budget expenditures.
- Complicated workflows meant each collection was processed differently, and processes were hard to learn and train, especially for the team of volunteers who carried out the bulk of this essential work.
Before we could improve, I needed to make sense of the existing process. I:
- Observed bottlenecks,
- Gathered feedback from staff throughout the library about pain points and sources of frustration, and
- Identified tools and options available to us. (Because we were part of a shared library system and catalog, we had a limited set of tools to maintain consistency with the rest of the consortium.)
Process
Analyze and tidy up collection data
Some cataloging metadata had become unnecessarily complex. This had led to inconsistencies in data and more time required for cataloging and data cleanup.
I created custom reports to identify redundancies outliers in collection data. My team worked to consolidate settings for collection item types and locations. I worked with our main vendor and the consortium to identify necessary data that could be loaded automatically as we ordered.
Redesign the physical layout of the workroom
The workroom layout did not suit the team’s workflow.
By redesigning the layout to add more wall shelves and both standing and seated workstations, I reduced traffic bottlenecks and created a more flexible space that accommodated the physical mobility needs of the team.
Improve transparency and control in the ordering process
With the consortium, I set up Acquisitions System module as part of the library catalog and linked it with the library’s major vendors in 2015. Because I had spent time observing ordering processes in each department, I was able to eliminate many points of confusion and reduce frequent mistakes right in the initial configuration.
This had several benefits. It:
- Simplified the ordering process for staff in every department. Budget expenditures and order statuses were now accessible to all managers, and the library no longer needed to stop deliveries 1 month before the end of the fiscal year to prevent overspending.
- Allowed the Technical Services team to control the pace of orders to prevent large fluctuations in deliveries.
- Eliminated a time-consuming paper filing system for orders, which saved volunteers time for other tasks.
- Automated process added on-order items to the catalog earlier, so patrons can place holds on new titles as soon as they are ordered.
Each internal department had unique ordering needs to address.
I worked with library staff to understand pain points and reduce the complexity of the ordering process. This service blueprint maps the ordering process across the organization.
Simplify volunteer tasks
With each improvement, my team’s skill in analyzing and simplifying processes grew. The team turned their simplification skills toward 2 important volunteer tasks: unboxing deliveries and processing new items. They:
- Shifted complicated decisions away from volunteers and onto the team. This actually saved staff time by not having to provide detailed instructions to volunteers and check their work. The volunteers, who hated to make mistakes, were happier too.
- Eliminated extra steps that “had always been done that way” to process different collections in a consistent way. This made it easier to teach these tasks to volunteers and also made the collections more visually consistent throughout the library.
Create self-documenting cataloging templates
In earlier data streamlining that started in 2014, we focused on getting as much relevant, automated data from our library vendors as possible. But as we became more efficient in other areas, we hit a limit in how efficient vendor data could be — there would always be a need to check and edit to each record locally while cataloging.
In 2021, we revamped our cataloging process again to build templates for each type of item in the collection. Instead of applying complex data-mapping rules to vendor data, the cataloger selects a template for the item at hand, which contains all of the static settings and prompts catalogers for data to enter individually. This makes the cataloging process faster, less prone to data entry errors, and self-documenting. Since catalogers create and edit these templates themselves, the templates stay up to date as processes change and staff improve their methods.
Leveraging an interdepartmental team to fill volunteer roles
Relying on volunteers to fill essential roles made the organization vulnerable to disruption. The changes my team had made so far already made volunteer roles easier to learn and more efficient, but the pandemic gave us a new reason to make a huge shift.
We collaborated with the Circulation department to cross-train staff in processing tasks during slow times at the public service desk. The organizational knowledge and autonomy that they bring to processing tasks added a new level of efficiency.
In turn, they have a better understanding of the library collections that they can use to address issues at the public service desk. Through these new interdepartmental roles, both departments benefit from an infusion of partnership, skills, and knowledge.
Creating clear training and documentation of the new process
Self-documenting cataloging templates not only helped to make the process more efficient, they create an always up-to-date body of practices that make it easier to train staff. In addition, my team created an outline of essential cataloging functions, which can be used as part of staff orientation and serves as a directory to the team’s instructions, templates, vendors, and resources.
Takeaways
The biggest difference is in my team’s approach. The team used to reactively respond to huge orders, volunteer schedule changes, and other departments’ priorities with inefficient tools. My role at first was mainly to serve as a roadblock to protect my team’s time and attention while filtering requests from other departments.
As we improved our processes, my team took ownership of the complexity and came up their own improvements. Instead of thinking in terms of individual steps in a task, the team approaches each workflow holistically and feels empowered to make suggestions and changes for the next iteration of improvements.
I have brought this mindset to the library consortium by discussing best practices with partner libraries and raising usability and accessibility issues with system vendors as we find them. It has been a positive way to share our service design approach and work within the limitations that shared tools can bring.