CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
NY3Rs Statewide Project,
Supported in part by the Federal Library Services and Technology Act funds, awarded to The New York State Library by the Federal Institute of Museum and Library Services.
SESSION 6
CA/CI Progress Reports, June
6-7, Albany
Working on tech services, buy-in because team had union president, tech services has VP and treasurer
Chose tech services because small, doesn’t deal with public desk duties,
Found process cumbersome for those not in these meetings, more comfortable with PLA process
Know job duties, weeklong worklog with outputs
One of tech services biggest complainers ironically was one who came on board first, have done it for a week
Have to have front line people working on it; have to depend on them to do it
They’ve been very open
Lost 22 positions in 2003, haven’t gotten them back
Working on ILL process; took a look at flowchart in book; created process master with ILL staff member
Reference librarian leaving, so may offer another opportunity
Had goal this year of finding out about ILL and how it runs, since she is new and staff member has been there 30 years
Only one person here today
Working on building system—physical facility and safety issues
Had surprise OSHA visit. Used COP, worked on system maps, and within 3 days was able to set up training sessions on hazardous chemicals, Goo-Gone
Started to do some mapping (system mapping or process mastering?) with acquisitions, but heard “not my job” from clerical staff
Had conversation with administration, did job audit
When dust settled, started talking about what doing and why doing it, started working as team
Continued mapping acquisitions, while audit going on
Staff saw process as way of getting rid of people, not as way of getting better
Didn’t attend last meeting, so didn’t do process master
Working on marketing library: each unit doing mission/objective statement—discussions useful and advantageous for entire library, revealed misunderstandings and ambiguities
3 community wide programs: exhibit of donor, series of booktalks with local authors, celebration of donor
Haven’t done very much, being carpeted: that’s a team effort
Met with physical plant people, vendor, staff
Migrating to new software, met deadline in mid-May
Working on workflows and procedures for new software
Process mastering: promoting catalog with TV and radio commercials
How will promote to members?
Got grant to get professional video editor, CDs
Massive renovations
Did homework late in week
Did process management continuum and was a “3”
Created charter for ordering materials
Hope that staff members assigned to order material will follow same process
Key step worksheet-little silly on best known way
Plan to have meeting with all 20 who do it
Here by herself, dog ate homework
Did some in different context, migrated in March to new circ system
Pushing to have ILL for entire system because new system will change
Got together with systems person
Did multivoting about what was most important in bringing up new system and ILL
Changing from paper ILL to online reserve, line up with courier service
Are we all going to do this the same?
What are we trying to do?
Experience fit nicely with annual planning process at college, number of techniques worked effectively with 2 staff meetings, used a number of activities
Identified goals for coming year and KSFs and mapped with KPs, developed grid that was quite revealing
She did with David, not whole group, but will flow naturally
Small organization with interesting personalities, opportunity for individuals to take on process mastering
Used reams of postit notes
Process master with small part of ILL-how lend book to another library
I asked a lot of questions, used postits, started with main way
Used back of big piece of paper, then wall, felt good, cleaning crew removed postits
What now? Redocument it
Small staff so getting together hard, plan to work this summer
Still working on system map and COP, have system maps for each major area
Staff members working together, hard because single people doing lots of processes
Did scatter diagram with KSFs and KPs—important processes in good shape—too good to be true—KSFs might be too narrow—e.g. provide color copying to students: broaden it to accommodate users
KPs too broad—e.g. maintain and update online database, might want to break into smaller processes
one of KSFs is provide staff training on ALEPH, but no
process for staff training
Did affinity diagram to get KSFs
Used processes on system map, created KSF/KP matrix to compare KSFs and KPs
Used process mastering
technique to flowchart planning process for introducing virtual reference
service next fall
Done very little: started to do work on reference services, sabbatical starting July 1
Worked with reference staff, learning tools, implementation starting July 1
Look at reference, why we’re doing what we’re doing, get data
All staff meeting at end of semester to introduce CI
Tech services have been part of hands-on work
Did consensogram how well do you think we serve the college population? Came out between medium and excellent
Terry’s group is tech services working on some processes, did process master: how to find book on OCLC next step to test with someone who hasn’t been involved
Working with special collections
They’ve been enthusiastic
Did affinity diagram to determine KSFs
Didn’t work very well, complete disconnect when tried to do scatter diagram
Asked question: what does your department need to be successful?
Did matrix, processes, scatter diagram
Running out of time, very busy
Tried to do process master themselves, found out can’t do it without people who do it
3 participating, all members of library’s policy/strategic planning
engaged in setting strategic goals applying tools learned
here
this year building assessment criteria into goal statement
taking global look at 8 goal areas, develop performance indicators with measures and explicit activities
had 3 2-hour meetings, one more next week
next take it to division level, process mastering
Same position as last time, colleague not here because only one at library this week, very low on staff
Decided to wait because new director coming in August
Didn’t do homework, but visited Hong Kong Public Library and saw mission and values statements on electronic bulletin boards around library: “Aim to provide quality library services… Quality creativity professionalism cost-effectiveness continuous improvement.”
CA/CI Progress Reports, New
York City, June 8-9, 2004
Raised question of information literacy
Chose 3 processes and created process masters for them:
Create an acquisitions record
Check out a book
Sign in a reader in rare book room
Talked about doing some new processes
Collaborative efforts, each done by group of people, can now turn over to new staff
Created process master for annual selection of education software, including complete order of process—team leader, budget, contacting purchasing and IT, parameters, review collection, input from s of e, meet monthly to review, make selection
Focusing on public services, have PS steering committee
Took homework to them
Decided 3 on KSF/KP continuum, 2 in 4 that have done
KSF/KP matrix got a start using 3 Key Success Factors from strategic plan
Have goal to develop programs and services that respond to user needs, with 3 strategic initiatives: continuous user needs assessment, promotion, services to groups
Compared with 4 processes: provide BI, provide range of circ services, answer e-mail questions, maintain physical & virtual collection
Got process master team together
Original process to ID missing items
Great discussion among campuses, no flowchart, used video-conferencing
Uncovered differences
Have first meeting next week
Process: handling items that users and staff report they can’t find
Right now it’s hit or miss
Questions: more student staff in NY, more full-time staff in other campus
Should we make two process masters?
Also other items not available, in transit, etc.
Couldn’t get whole staff together, CI team met
Process master for selector process, flowcharted
Did A-charts to identify key processes, IDed steps not important, not related to mission
Thought budget a control point, but realized that user complaints were limiting factor. Thought about what consequences of not handling complaints, leads to more complaints and loss of funding
Realized that, depending on who you get at the desk, service is different
CA/CI Homework Reports, Rochester, June 15-16, 2004
Work with reference department on answering questions
Met a few times with reference librarians, made a system map, came up with mission and values.
Came to point where didn’t know what to do, met with director, talked about situation, led to reorganization of public services in library, became “information commons”
Sara facilitated group of 30 as they reviewed mission statement, creaed vision, identified KSFs, staff extremely enthusiastic
Put together information commons team, created norms for meetings, listed KSFs and ranked them, started to put together charters, shared them, people starting to ask for charters
#1 KSF is staff development, issued charters, have assessment plan
Went horizontally, really important to do system maps—7 areas-involved whole staff
Created KSFs; involved library advisory committee in this
Genesee Community College
15-16 process masters done
created portfolio
Process mastering “ordering books” led to a lot of little
changes
annoyed at cell phones in library, didn’t want to be rude, made little card “in consideration of other patrons, please take cell phone into lobby”
did affinity diagram at staff meeting—can never find pencils, put pencils out, reorganized drawer to have all needed supplies at hand
reorganized circ desk
formed circulation committee, keep process masters in binder, meeting once a week on Friday morning, trays in front of computer screen with pens and pencils
5
S for Libraries-tools where you need them
had
to bring in ordering staff, professional and paraprofessional
Hobart & William Smith Colleges (no report)
Houghton College (no report)
Ithaca College (no report)
Reread the binder, got buy-in from staff so needed to lead them
Values and mission laid out, just migrated to new system, just opened circulation, realized large gaps in knowledge
Got main campus affiliates to help work on ILL process master
Monroe County Library System (no report)
Main circulation desk is creating process master for “preparing a booktruck for shelving”—very detailed and complicated-revelation how difficult it was
Ended up with parking lot issues, religious discussions
Difficult to get together with partner: process master of borrowing a book through ILL
Very complicated process
Worked on charter: create process master for e-chat reference
Hard to get everybody together, got person from reference to work with us
Used A-charts, used different
words, she took to it quickly, gave us an opportunity to talk about service
at length, especially about control points
Filled out Key Step worksheet, used book
Made chart of key processes, focused on reference interview and answering questions
Made charter, identified lead person, specified products and results, authority for spending and site visits, and limitations and timeline
Looking at circulation department, almost never in building at one time, put everything in binder, fed information back via e-mail
Looking at when circ staff can meet as a group
Read 3-ring binder to review: little systems within big systems, 5-blocks, process master with 5 key processes
Identified KPs: planning,data gathering, reviewing, mailing
Parking lot of things to fix
Doing measures of how much time it took
Only one attending, created summary for staff, handed out 3 charters: statistics collection, working on webpage, write a process master for something in tech services: checking in a serial
Went away for 3-week vacation
Mixed results: statistics and website worked fine, seemed kind of silly, third person unwilling and unable to put together a process master, had procedures already
Worked on KSF and KP matrix,
not sure what to do with raw data
SUNY Fredonia
Insourcing of copy cataloging to another SUNY library—need agreement from both staffs, have been doing for a few months, have stats on number of items, time it takes, and exceptions
Big stumbling block: staff trepidation—feeling that going to get rid of jobs—working on that, delivered presentation on SUNY law conference on how process was developed: how would other SUNY institutions develop service: authority control, etc.
Discussed conference on it—lot of interest—foreign language cataloging—how pass $ back and forth
KP matrix: preparing to teach a class is key process
Director chartered team to create process master, went very well
Worked on flowchart, hard to
figure out how much detail—moved many steps into key
steps worksheet
Most challenging: A charts, once got concept discovered things very interesting that might not have known.
Made portfolio
Did KSF/KP continuum with staff-consensus that we’re at 3
Did a new system map of whole library, needed it to do KSF/KP matrix
Came up with key processes using scatter diagram
Created charter to redesign digital library, gave it to team leader, about to begin
Process master for activating online journals-found it very difficult to do, redid it 3 times, trying to decide how specific the steps should be—made key steps more general and put details in key steps worksheet