Organizational Strengths and Current Challenges
It is within this context of challenges and opportunities that CUL must
consciously strive to expand and enhance its support for SMU’s scholarly
activities. This discussion is broken down into four main areas: collections and
services, funding for collections, staffing and internal organization, and
facilities constraints.
• Collections and services
CUL’s collections and services are fundamental to enhancing the quality of the
teaching and learning environments and are worthy of special note. Easy access
to an impressive array of electronic resources, such as specialized journals,
indexes, databases, and full-text initiatives, enables students and faculty to
pursue in-depth research using materials that would have been difficult to use
just ten years ago. The print collections are wide and varied, a testament to
the committed efforts of collection development staff over the years. One of the
other keys to CUL’s ability to provide such excellent service is the dedication
and service orientation of our staff, a quality that is regularly noted by
patrons. This is evident in the high service and satisfaction ratings regularly
given to staff in periodic user surveys. This history of service excellence is a
hallmark of CUL’s enduring commitment to supporting the University’s research,
teaching and learning needs. One example of an area noted for service excellence
is CUL’s robust interlibrary loan service that frequently garners high praise
from users. The staff speedily locate hard-to-find materials from other
libraries worldwide in support of scholarly activities.
CUL staff are responsive to changing user information seeking behavior. Surveys
and focus groups help to identify new and revised expectations and have provided
feedback about the organization’s effectiveness in meeting them. Most units
actively solicit input from users, review comments, and implement suggestions to
strengthen service delivery; recommendations and questions submitted in
suggestion boxes are addressed by library staff, who post responses on bulletin
boards in the lobby and on the web. The Dean regularly meets with the CUL
Student Advisory Council to seek input on planned initiatives and
recommendations for service improvement. The Dean and the Deputy Director also
meet frequently with the Faculty Senate Subcommittee on Libraries. These types
of feedback are useful for assessing current organizational performance, setting
priorities for change, and advocating for library support in various non-library
forums. The Dean encourages innovation and creative problem solving among the
staff through her “Eureka!” Award, given annually to individuals and teams who
exemplify “thinking outside the box.” Innovation is also supported through the
SMU Libraries Award for Technical Innovation.
In the Norwick Center for Digital Services, which brings together the staff and
space necessary to convert non-accessible collections into digital objects, CUL
is working actively to bring these service standards into the digital realm. The
next challenge in the digital arena will be to define and put into place
standardized, documented workflow processes to implement digital projects,
particularly in the area of metadata creation. Experimentation will be necessary
to determine how to execute projects most efficiently. Labor, equipment, and
expertise needs will vary widely from project to project and staff must allot
adequate time for planning and training at the onset of each project. The
digital collection development policy will need refinement as the library moves
forward with its digitization goals. Similarly, staff must create a new
framework to provide for the sound and timely evaluation and selection of other
new strategic technologies. Libraries worldwide are in a transition period of
responding to changes in user information needs and adapting services to meet
those needs. CUL must be prepared to implement new technologies more quickly and
to make internal operations more efficient.
Another example of recent efforts undertaken to improve the quality of service
offered to library users is the ongoing implementation of a library-wide subject
liaison model. This new model of providing combined reference and collection
development service will better support academic research and programs, and
speaks directly to the University goal of improving teaching and learning. To
date, outreach efforts to academic departments have been strong in those areas
where CUL already has subject specialists and liaisons, such as in the Hamon
Arts Library. Current research shows that both student grades and student
retention rates improve when faculty and librarians work together to integrate
information literacy and research methodologies into the curriculum early in a
student’s program of study. These findings would support the creating of an
information literacy requirement for all first-year students.
CUL’s well-honed acquisitions and cataloguing processes enable library staff to
make newly purchased materials available to users quickly and efficiently.
However, backlogs of gift materials, ephemera, music scores and archives and
manuscripts remain. These need to be addressed in order to better serve our
users as well as be accountable to our generous donors. As is true for many
libraries, CUL adheres to national cataloging standards, but at the same time
must explore ways to provide more timely access to these largely invisible
collections.
Meanwhile, catalog access to library materials is not nearly as useful as
researchers would like. They find the existing library online catalog interface
dated and difficult to use, often attempting to search as though using Google or
accessing a commercial web site such as Amazon.com. The catalog is not nearly as
powerful as these tools and fails to deliver expected results. Additionally,
library users have increasing expectations for the presence of digital content.
CUL’s digital collections are still few in number and some are currently
embedded within systems that are challenging to use and non-intuitive for most
users. CUL must work with its partner libraries at SMU to explore solutions to
this situation.
• Funding
Given the University’s increasing emphasis on research and graduate studies, CUL
must prepare to support curricular changes and new research endeavors. CUL is
grateful for its healthy acquisitions endowments. The DeGolyer endowment
provides support that enables the DeGolyer Library to maintain its collections
and services, including its distinguished holdings of Western Americana and
railroad history; the very generous Prothro endowment provides a major source of
income for the purchase of books on every subject supported by the University.
Other large endowments include the McManus endowment for bibliographic material,
the Kahn/History endowment for books in history, and the Oost endowment for
classics. Moreover, the continued generous support of the Friends of the SMU
Libraries (FOL) enhances CUL’s ability to acquire specialized materials and
equipment for its collections, and is a valued source of both advocacy and
financial support. The FOL endowment has grown sufficiently for the income to
partially subsidize the salaries of the Director and staff support, while the
annual fundraiser, Tables of Content, has grown to be a star event on SMU’s
social calendar, enhancing CUL’s reputation within the Dallas community and
raising much-needed funds for grants and staff awards.
To optimize scarce resources, CUL is an active participant in various joint
purchasing arrangements that enable the library system to acquire information at
substantial discounts. The most important of these consortia is TexShare,
partially funded by the State of Texas, which provides deep discounts on
electronic materials. This enables CUL to acquire important e-resources for a
fraction of their usual cost. CUL also takes advantage of other purchasing
relationships with groups such as TCAL (a consortium of Texas libraries focused
on products not available through TexShare) and PHOENIX (major North Texas
university libraries) to obtain favorable pricing on other electronic products.
At the same time, CUL must continue to advocate for funding that both maintains
and increases the number of these crucial research tools. The expanded research
agenda will bring expectations for support in both current and new research
areas.
CUL faces significant financial challenges as it looks forward to the next five
years. Chief among these challenges is maintaining the core acquisitions budget
in light of continued inflationary increases. Faculty hired in new Ph.D.
programs and interdisciplinary areas will need both retrospective and current
collection support.
• Staffing and internal organization
Like many other organizations facing rapid change, CUL must modify staffing
patterns and job responsibilities in order to adequately support new and
revamped services. CUL is challenged to critically evaluate, restructure, and
reassign job responsibilities as new priorities and new technologies emerge. CUL
managers need to place greater emphasis on managing job duties and providing
staff with clear job expectations to ensure high levels of productivity. The
groundwork for a new emphasis was laid in 2000 when CUL developed a customized
evaluation instrument for senior managers. Building on this, in 2006, the
Executive Council participated in Advanced Performance Management training
program with its 360 review process. Work must continue, in partnership with
SMU’s HR staff, to coach senior managers and provide them with the tools to
manage their staff in a vastly more complex work environment.
CUL is fortunate to have a large number of staff with significant length of
service at the University. This core group of long-term employees helps sustain
an internal culture that embraces respect for and commitment to the core mission
of the organization – providing high-quality, responsive service, and
maintaining and growing excellent collections. Long-term staff collectively
comprise an important framework of institutional knowledge and experience upon
which to build and expand service capabilities as user needs change. They act as
role models for staff with less experience, and can help mentor and guide less
experienced workers.
At the same time, new staff members bring new ideas and new ways of looking at
library services. CUL recognizes the important contributions of those who
challenge old ways of thinking and who help reframe service paradigms within
CUL. They bring new approaches, often technology-driven, to solve both old and
new problems. These newer staff members represent the next generation of
knowledge workers who see possibilities where none may have existed before, and
who will help grow and sustain excellence within CUL over time. The combination
of well-qualified and well-educated, seasoned staff and newer staff is a
powerful resource within CUL. At the same time, staff salaries and benefits need
boosting in order to become competitive locally and nationwide. CUL faces
particular challenges when looking to hire qualified staff with high-level
technical skills, particularly in middle management.
Growth and change mean that employee competencies must be kept current. Within
CUL, both managers and staff believe that more training is needed to help
employees develop and refine skills and knowledge. Managers are encouraged to
participate in SMU’s varied management training classes; however, we need to go
one step further and provide management training for all first-time managers
before assuming their new duties. As technical expertise becomes more important
than ever in libraries, technology training must keep pace with new demands. CUL
must define the technical competencies required for all staff positions. This
will help identify training needs for current staff as well as clarify technical
requirements for future vacancies.
Closely related to the need for skill development training is the perceived need
for a career advancement path for non-librarian staff. A career ladder for
librarians was formalized in 2002 with the creation of an annual review process
and the setting aside of a promotion fund by the Provost. While CUL has a policy
of promoting from within and creating positions to meet specific needs, there is
as yet no similar promotion process or career ladder for non-librarians.
Additionally, succession planning must be strengthened in order to prepare for a
large number of impending retirements over the next five years. The Executive
Council currently assesses all vacant positions, providing opportunities for
strategic direction of blocks of staff towards newly defined goals, along with
opportunities to begin training staff for anticipated openings. However, CUL
must develop a more conscious strategy for rethinking the organizational
structure in light of the rapidly changing information landscape.
Notwithstanding these challenges, recent innovations by CUL staff have focused
on enhanced service dependability and accessibility for users. For example,
Fondren Reference Services staff are in the process of reorganization, and the
Public Services and Collection Development divisions are working to transition
to a subject liaison model. The Center for Information Processing is reviewing
the charges and make-up of its teams and work groups, and has developed a new
reporting structure; new positions have been created, existing positions have
been modified, and a new Director has been hired. The Norwick Center for Digital
Services (nCDS) grew out of the former Center for Media and Instructional
Technology (CMIT), requiring several staff members to take on new or changed
responsibilities that now support student multimedia needs and digital library
projects. The Systems/CUL Information Support Services department has taken on
responsibility for CUL web development and has restructured to form a Web Team.
These examples speak to the flexibility and adaptability of staff, but reinforce
the need for a revitalized performance management system that will clearly and
succinctly spell out performance expectations across all CUL departments.
• Facilities constraints
A recent space analysis conducted by an outside consultant, at the request of
SMU’s Campus Planning & Plant Operations, documented numerous areas that need
attention in order to resolve dysfunctional traffic flow and obsolete mechanical
systems, particularly in the FLC. Deferred maintenance issues in the three
separate buildings that comprise the FLC are noticeable. Books and patrons alike
suffer from temperature extremes. There are no humidity controls in areas that
house our most precious rare books. The DeGolyer Library is storing collections
in all parts of the FLC building (and on our Plano campus) to the detriment of
efficient staff curation and security. Exhibit space is limited and slowly
erodes due to the continual need to expand shelving. In the Hamon Arts Library,
shelf space is also an issue. The Library will be completely out of shelf space
in two years, and must look at either building up another floor, adding compact
shelving (and reducing study space) or sending collections to offsite storage.
The challenges for CUL are many, but so are our strengths. CUL has established a
reputation for being a proactive, responsive, learning organization and has a
track record to prove it. We welcome the opportunities these challenges bring
and look forward to serving our users to the best of our abilities.
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