1. T HE A GILE L IBRARIAN S G UIDE TO T HRIVING IN A NY I NSTITUTION LASL Midwinter Conference LSU Alexandria January 30, 2010 Michelynn McKnight, PhD, AHIP School of Library and Information Science Louisiana State University mmck@lsu.edu

2. B ASED ON Proving Your Worth: Using Professional, Business, and Marketing Tools to Convince Non-Librarian Decision Makers of the Value of your Essential Services

4. 1. Know your value to your organization 2. Delight your clients 3. Expand your political influence 4. Please your boss 5. Impress decision makers 6. Choose an instantly credible professional image 7. Ensure positive communication 8. Marketing, advertising and public relations 9. Gathering and using evidence to support decisions 10. Behaving ethically 11. Sustaining your green and growing career

5. P ROFESSIONALS Know Show Tell

6. 1. Y OUR VALUE TO YOUR SCHOOL Your specialized expertise Determining needs and desires Knowledge of information sources Connecting needs and sources Your professionalism Professional association, education, theoretical and practical knowledge, code of ethics, service orientation, community recognition Your role in the schools mission Know how the school needs you Show how it needs you Tell the decision makers

7. S EVEN M ARKS OF A P ROFESSION M ICHAEL W INTER Professional Association Licensing or credentialing Ethics Code Formal Training Legitimate monopoly over a body of knowledge Service Orientation Community Recognition

8. 2. D ELIGHT Y OUR C LIENTS Who are your clients? Expand your clientele Take action: the onus is on us What do clients need and want Population information needs Individual information needs Remove barriers to client delight … including old rules Traditions and habits: gateways or barriers? Ambience and attitude

9. 3. E XPANDING YOUR INFLUENCE Effective organizational politics Understand the system Know when to hold and when to fold Believe in Win-Win Situations Play Fair Think first, act later Lessons from the pros in government Get and use good information sources Show up, speak up Come prepared Engage and balance responses Constantly build positive alliances and relationships Building positive political capital Advocacy outside the institution

10. 4. P LEASING YOUR BOSS Allies, mentors and mentees What does the boss want? What does the boss need? Leadership and management styles Training, educating and sharing with the boss Reference and updates services Informing the boss The good The bad The inconvenient truth Understanding roles and perspectives Information services for the boss

11. 5. I MPRESSING D ECISION M AKERS Who are these decision makers? Why are their understanding and experiences of library services important? What are stakeholder concerns? Actions that impress Active and personal direct information services General visibility Stakeholders reports Your reports

12. 6. A N I NSTANTLY C REDIBLE P ROFESSIONAL I MAGE The big study Improving our image to increase our credibility Color attracts Dress for your clients Neatness counts That sounds good! That tastes good! You dont look like a librarian

13. 7. P OSITIVE COMMUNICATION ( SLIDE 1) Welcome Personal welcome Save the clients time Where is it? Negative actions Verbal messages: from negative to positive What to say Scripts and the magic eraser word What to write

14. 7. P OSITIVE COMMUNICATION ( SLIDE 2) Complaints as reference questions in disguise Stages of the complaint interview Stage One – open a communication channel Stage Two – gather information to frame the larger context of the problem Stage Three – work together to define and refine the central problem Stage Four – search for information, answers or solutions Stage Five – communicate, evaluate and invite

15. 7. P OSITIVE COMMUNICATION ( SLIDE 3) Acting professionally when feelings are intense Common ground and innovative, mutually beneficial solutions Resulting promotions and innovations Prioritizing your own complaints When you should complain

16. 8. M ARKETING, ADVERTISING AND PUBLIC RELATIONS The right people Market segmentation Relationship marketing The right product The right promotion The right point in time The right place What evidence would answer the question Gathering and analyzing data Drawing conclusions Taking action Asking another question Real Marketing Marketing research: finding the right P

17. Ask, Study, Act, Ask: Comparing the stages of marketing, QI and EBL with Reference Service (©Michelynn McKnight) ASK Define the Question STUDY Estimate where the answer may be found STUDY Choose a method for finding out STUDY Gather the data STUDY, ACT Analyze the results ACT, ASK Propose questions for further study Reference Service (satisfying one person) Conduct a reference interview to understand the question Consider possible sources for the answer Consult the sources Retrieve documents Choose relevant documents Deliver to client and ask client if this completely answers the question Marketing (satisfying a group of users or potential users) What is the service? What is the population of users or clients for this service? Design a study to find out what the users or clients want and need from the service. Carry out the study Analyze the resultsDesign, promote, implement and evaluate service improvements. Quality Improvement (improving internal processes) Find a process to improve Who should be on the team to improve this process? Gather data on the current process and identify the desired improvement Plan and implement the process change Gather data on the process after the change and compare to the before change data Evaluate the effectiveness of the improvement and suggest the next process to improve Evidence Based Librarianship (searching and applying the results of relevant published research) [1] Formulate a clearly defined, answerable question that addresses an important issue in librarianship Search the published and unpublished literature, plus any other authoritative resources for the best-available evidence with relevance to the posed question. Evaluate the validity (closeness to the truth) and relevance of the evidence Formulate an action plan based on the evidence; Assess the relative value of expected benefits and costs. Implement a plan of action Evaluate the effectiveness of the action plan

18. 9. G ATHERING AND USING EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT DECISIONS Research Librarians and research education Research and professional associations Evidence based librarianship Assessment and measurement of quality and value Standards Benchmarking Evidence of client satisfaction Value evidence for top administrative decision makers

19. 10. B EHAVING ETHICALLY Responsibility for the provision of the best possible information service Respect for others, protection of privacy and preservation of confidentiality Promotion of equitable information access while respecting intellectual property rights and the institutional mission Professional development of the self and others Advocacy for library services and information access in society

20. 11. Y OUR G REEN AND G ROWING C AREER Your own missions Setting priorities Urgency and importance Perfect or good enough Tools Scheduling Make appointments not only with others but also with yourself One list is never enough Risk taking and reward: dare to be proactive Keep starting again

21. M ARTIN L UTHER K ING, J R. (1981) S TRENGTH TO L OVE. (R EPRINT OF 1977 EDITION, C LEVELAND, O HIO : C OLLINS ) P HILADELPHIA : F ORTRESS P RESS, PAGE 93 Some of us, of course, will die without having received the realization of freedom, but we must continue to sail on our charted course. We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope. Only in this way shall we live without the fatigue of bitterness and the drain of resentment.

22. T HE A GILE L IBRARIAN S G UIDE TO T HRIVING IN A NY I NSTITUTION LASL Midwinter Conference LSU Alexandria January 30, 2010 Michelynn McKnight, PhD, AHIP School of Library and Information Science Louisiana State University mmck@lsu.edu