Contents
Management
Apply the fundamental principles of planning, management, marketing, and advocacy.
Introduction
Management is defined as “the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a non-profit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business.” Management courses are typically taught as a science, but there truly is an art to management. A successful manager is a leader that engages productively in the arts of planning, managing, marketing, and advocating. Gregory Hunter explains that a leader will empower the archival and library community. The roles of a manager include planning through development of policies and mission statements, developing staff, managing finances and technology, fundraising, and public relations (Hunter, 213-226). Management theory is applicable to library and archival settings where managers must engage with employees, patrons, and collections. Hunter explains that an archivist must address the issues of policies, administrative hierarchy, committees, and facilities. A successful repository creates a policy statement that covers the topics of institutional mission, archivist responsibilities, collecting scope, and deaccessioning rules, plus the important topics of access, use, and records management (Hunter, 43-44).
Planning
Organizational planning is a process that includes generating such documentation as a mission statement, action plan, SWOT analysis, and needs assessment. Long-term planning is essential to efficient project management. Approaching organization as a strategic plan will maintain “a balance between ends, ways, and means” (Rosenblum, 232). A strategic plan will assist in operational improvement. It is beneficial to include internal stakeholders (librarians, management, etc.) and external stakeholders (patrons, donors, etc.) when brainstorming for a strategic plan that defines a common goal. Mission, vision, and value statements should be drafted first, as these will be the foundation of the strategic planning process. An action plan will determine the institution’s goals, which a needs assessment can guide, and a SWOT analysis can shed light on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to achieving these goals (Rosenblum, 233-240).
Management
In every work environment, it is essential to understand that change will always happen, whether the institution expects it or not. Employees will move to new jobs, patrons will move to new communities; new employees and patrons will come into the library instead. Expectations and needs of the user community and employees will also change over time, as will collection and preservation needs. Expecting change and planning for these eventual changes will help organizational flow continue unheeded (Barefoot, 247-248). A great leader will handle change in a professional manner. Managing a library can be efficient with careful planning. Workflow documentation that is frequently updated combats user frustration in new employees. If workflows are not documented, the employee that left might have taken all the processing knowledge with them. This is one example of how documentation and established policies can help guide the management process in libraries.
Marketing
With efficient organization comes productive processes which save time for other tasks. Communication and outreach through marketing and advocacy will provide insight into the needs of the user community. A marketing plan will align with a strategic plan to achieve the goals of the repository. Creative marketing through local community groups, news sources, social media, and word of mouth can reach a wider demographic region for a repository. Starting the process with marketing research into local demographics will help the library discover which demographic groups are not well represented in the library. Needs assessments are excellent opportunities; surveys and interview sessions allow the user community to tell the library how it can do better in collections, programming, and outreach activities (Alman, 339-341).
Advocacy
Marketing helps reach the community; advocacy helps reach stakeholders in the library. Funding is frequently an issue, especially in small repositories. Advocacy is defined as “support for or recommendation of a particular cause or policy.” Advocacy initiatives can bring in funding from donors or grants; advocacy can also influence other major topics. Intellectual freedom and challenges about books may require a librarian to advocate for the freedom to read. A librarian should advocate to integrate digital literacy instruction in classrooms, or they can advocate for more programming or creative spaces for patrons. Diversity initiatives can also strengthen the library community with programming that is attractive to under-represented communities within the geographic region (Stenstrom, 343-344).
Evidence
The following evidence reflects my awareness and achievements towards accomplishing goals related to management, marketing, planning, and advocacy in a library setting.
Evidence A: Organizational Analysis Part II
INFO204 Information Professions
This group project for INFO204 Information Professions was the second step for an organizational analysis of a law library. This portion includes strategic goals and an annotated bibliography that was devised after writing the organizational analysis that included a literature review, vision, mission and value statements, an environmental scan, and a SWOT analysis of the Riverside County Law Library. For this part, the group devised strategic goals, planning for a balanced collection housed in an ADA accessible building that is facilitated by knowledgeable and skilled staff who provide a welcoming space that is an effective conduit between the public and the world of legal research. During this group project, members interacted in Zoom meetings while co-editing documents in Google Suite. Each member researched and drafted a section; I finalized the document with formatting, editing, and proofreading in Microsoft Word.
Organizational Analysis Part II: Riverside County Law Library
Evidence B: Site Visit
INFO256 Archives and Manuscripts
This essay for INFO256 Archives and Manuscripts details a visit to a special collections repository, an interview with the director, and an examination of the site with consideration of the functions of the 21st century archival repository. After discussing the director’s educational background and work experience, we spoke for an hour about management of an archive. We discussed staffing and technology, researchers, policies, and volunteers; plus archival functions like accessioning, acquisitions, appraisal, arrangement, standards, preservation, access, and use. All of these topics are part of archival management; they are interrelated functions that keep the organization working fluently.
Interviewing the Director: Understanding Archival Repositories
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Evidence C: Group Assignment Bookmarking Exercise
INFO256 Archives and Manuscripts
This group project for INFO256 Archives and Management began with a bookmarking exercise that explored news articles related to archives and discoveries, impact / use of technology, archives and accountability, archival or information ethics, analog and digital projects, and scholarship. The essay explores the literature that is bookmarked, applying the topics towards the management of libraries in different forms. Recent publications and current events in archives reveal priorities and trends of institutional initiatives to better serve the public. Upon reviewing frequent bookmarks, the tags of news sources reveal trends related to the topics of preservation, access, digitization, local history, archival research, and diversity. For this project, we met on Zoom while coworking on Diigo and Google Docs. The instructor assigned me as the group leader with the task of checking on bookmarking and writing progress. We each drafted a section of the essay. I created the word clouds, plus did the proofreading, editing, and formatting in Microsoft Word.
Bookmarking Exercise
For ten weeks, the group searched for sources and listed them as bookmarks on Diigo.
Bookmarking on Diigo
After bookmarking, the group worked together to analyze the sources listed.
Archives and Public Engagement
[embeddoc url=”https://blogs.uoregon.edu/sarahfisherportfolio/files/2022/03/Group4_INFO-256assign1.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google”]
Evidence D: Managing Student Employees
Folklore Archivist Collection Coordinator, RVMA, UO
As the folklore archivist, my primary responsibilities are collection, archive, and preservation management plus student employee management. Every year, a new cohort of graduate student employees comes into the archive, ready to discover the scholarship stored in the repository. I train the students to accession collections, scan collections per request, and assist visitors. I also guide undergraduate and graduate students in finding sources for their research. For orientation of new employees, I created a PowerPoint that outlines basic information about the archives, training procedures, and tasks that will be accomplished.
Orientation for Archivists
[embeddoc url=”https://blogs.uoregon.edu/sarahfisherportfolio/files/2022/03/Orientation-for-archivists-1.pptx” download=”all” viewer=”microsoft”]
Conclusion
I have learned over the years that efficient management skills are relevant in every work environment. When I earned an Associates in Business Administration, I learned many skills related to management, planning, marketing, and advocacy. Over the years, I have used these skills again and again, at home, at work, and in volunteer situations. Good leadership is more than telling people what to do; it is leading by example, with strength, humility, honesty, and kindness.
References
Alman, S. “Communications, Marketing, and Outreach Strategies.” Information services today, S. Hirsh (Ed.), Rowman & Littlefield, 2nd edition, 2018. 331-342.
Barefoot, R. “Change Management.” Information services today, S. Hirsh (Ed.), Rowman & Littlefield, 2nd edition, 2018. 246-255.
Hunter, G.S. Developing and maintaining practical archives: A how-to-do-it manual, 3rd ed. Neal-Schuman, 2020.
Rosenblum, L. “Strategic Planning.” Information services today, S. Hirsh (Ed.), Rowman & Littlefield, 2nd edition, 2018. 231-245.
Stenstrom, C. “Advocacy.” Information services today, S. Hirsh (Ed.), Rowman & Littlefield, 2nd edition, 2018. 343-353.
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