As we agreed in the town meetings, I will ask you to consider the plan and make suggestions and comments to me. I'll explain at the end of this document the variety of ways in which you can do that. After considering your comments I will communicate any changes or revisions I have made to the plan and will immediately take action.
The driving force in our planning and efforts must be excellence in support of the academic programs on campus. This will require balancing our programs, services, and collections to meet the increasingly diverse needs and interests of the growing numbers of students and faculty. The same concern for users must be a guiding force for our administrative and managerial efforts. We can best serve the campus by building a quality library that is both effective and efficient, and makes maximum benefit of the resources we have.
Organizational Culture
As I wrote to you in my email on 12 November, there are many exciting changes happening on campus. Especially important are the emphasis on quality, the tremendous growth of the campus, and an increasing understanding of the critical importance of the Libraries. I believe we have before us a unique opportunity to participate in shaping the character and quality of the academic programs, and to help build a first rate campus.
If the Libraries are to fully participate in these opportunities, we must change and grow along with the campus. This includes not only addressing the long-standing issues we have identified, but also creating different approaches to managing and problem solving, and creating a new culture in the Libraries-a new way of thinking and acting. We have already begun doing this in a number of ways, but we need to intensify our efforts.
Most importantly, we must value excellence, innovation, and action. We must share a common set of values and goals; and derive motivation and satisfaction from the collective accomplishments of the Libraries, as well as from individual achievements.
While the campus has high aspirations within the increasingly competitive environment of higher education, neither the campus nor the library has the resources to do everything we need to do. Consequently, we must be able to decide quickly and accurately which things are the most critically important for us to undertake, develop plans for how we will accomplish them, and take action. We must constantly evaluate all we do in order to improve, and so we can identify and cease any activies which we no longer need to do or are of lesser importance. This is necessary so we can reallocate resources and people to the most essential and highest priorities. We must value objective and critical analysis, excellence and innovation, and accept that new initiatives and innovations will sometimes result in mistakes. However, when mistakes do happen we must objectively assess them, learn from our mistakes so we will not repeat them, and quickly move on to make corrections and improvements.
We must take pride in the high performance of individuals and provide the tools and environment that will foster success for everyone. Individuals must accept responsibility not only for their own success but also for the success of their units and the overall success of the library. Our individual and collective efforts are what will build the quality of the library.
The new environment of scholarly communication and higher education is dynamic, exciting, uncertain, and ambiguous. Consequently, we must be agile and flexible, take responsibility to create opportunities, to initiate change and implement new ideas, and to recognize and be responsive to opportunities offered by others' good ideas, new developments, and outside forces.
This is a great deal to accomplish and requires a high level of effort and production from every one of us. It is essential that we all expect and demand this of ourselves and of each other. Only in this way can we build a new library culture, and a dynamic and innovative library that can fully contribute to the success of the campus.
Communication and Organization
The development of a new culture and approach to our work is only possible if we communicate well. We must have the capacity to deal with difficult issues directly and constructively; with civility and respect; and in a collaborative, positive, and supportive atmosphere. I believe that most of the problems and key issues that arose in the survey and in our discussions are those of communication, rather than of organizational structure.
For these reasons, I am proposing that we first focus on issues of communication and good management rather than reorganization. As I said at the town meetings, I do not want to subject the library to the disruption of another major reorganization unless I am confident that the enormous expenditure of time, energy and resources would result in significant improvements in key areas. I find no compelling reason to believe this would be the case. We can achieve the most progress by focusing on communication.
As a secondary consideration, we may find that in our efforts to improve communications and management we may identify modest changes in organization that will facilitate our efforts, and we will certainly consider those as we go along.
Overview of Plan to Improve Communication and Management
Successful, healthy organizations rely on sound management and communication practices that transcend any formal system of organizational transformation or school of management. I believe in the value and importance of direct and honest communication, and management based on effectiveness, fairness, flexibility, and common sense. Every individual in an organization must be treated with dignity and respect and be given the opportunity to contribute to the success of the organization and to achieve personal success.
With this approach as our foundation, I have asked Joe Schwab to continue to work with us to develop a specific action plan to improve communications. We will begin by examining our teams. Many of you have spoken and written strongly about the team approach, both positively and negatively. I know that much effort went into establishing the team approach, and it has achieved some success. However, I do not believe that sufficient support and follow through has been provided to afford a fair test of this approach. Consequently, we will first concentrate on refining and improving our teams. We need to better articulate the different types of teams, their charges, memberships, leadership, reporting relationships, and responsibilities. I would like to reduce significantly the number of teams. Currently, there are over 70 active teams. Heidi Speare has complied a list of groups which is located at: http://sun3.lib.uci.edu/~adminweb/ctte_list.html. I would also like to see groups established that address basic library-wide concerns, (e.g. public services, collections, subject areas, bibliographic access, etc.) comprised of broad, inter-divisional membership. Perhaps we need new categories of teams names to help differentiate their various functions and operations. We also need to define the training needed to enable teams to work well.
Joe will begin working with us to define guidelines, a plan of work, and a schedule for self-study of all teams, and to assist the teams and Library Council with the review. While I would like to begin this work soon, the schedule will be determined in large part by the demands of the AULs search. While we will begin our improvements in communications by revitalizing and strengthening the teams, this will not be the exclusive approach that we use. We can then go on to address other issues identified in the survey and our discussions. Regardless of the issues we address, the focus will be on building the excellence of the Libraries and improving our communications.
As I noted, reorganization certainly will remain an option. There are some specific organizational changes we may make in the coming year, and we may identify other essential structural changes as we address communication issues. The AULs search may also identify organizational changes we wish to make to take advantage of skills and experiences of the successful candidates.
AULs Search
We have begun a fast track process that will consider candidates for all three AUL positions simultaneously. My objective is to hire the very best people available and to have them begin here this summer. This is an ambitious schedule, but one I feel is essential if we are to continue to make improvements, take advantage of the opportunities before us, and maintain our momentum.
A short description of the three positions, which Judy Kaufman has shared with lib_all, has been posted nationally in a variety of electronic and print venues. Full descriptions will be completed soon and will be made available on our web site. I've written to the ARL Directors' list serve to ask for nominations and I plan to have discussions at ALA with a variety of knowledgeable people regarding identification of possible candidates. I welcome your suggestions of strong candidates.
I will soon be appointing one screening committee, which I will chair, for all three positions. We will use a streamlined process that will include a full interview schedule with opportunities for everyone to interact with the candidates. The selection of appointees will rely heavily on comments from all categories of library staff. I anticipate that interviews will be conducted from mid-March to mid-April. For this ambitious schedule to work we will have to give priority to the search and adjust Library schedules to accommodate.
Candidates will be fully informed of the transformational process we are engaged in to improve communications, and of my expectation that the successful candidates will actively participate in a continuing process of analysis and examination that may subsequently result in organizational changes that could affect the AUL positions, among others. During the interviews we will discuss with the candidates the possibility that changes in assignments may be made at the time of appointment, based on qualifications and interests of appointees.
This will be an intense period that will be very demanding. It is also an unprecedented opportunity for us to appoint new administrators who will be key to achieving our ambitious plans to build a library of excellence. I will rely on the full participation and cooperation of the entire staff to ensure we make excellent appointments.
Next Steps
First of all, I would like to hear your comments and suggestions on these plans. Feedback from you is essential in determining how we proceed. I will be scheduling a few library-wide meetings for discussion. We will schedule these meetings beginning next week, after ALA. I hope to be able to include Joe Schwab in these meetings. You can also send me comments via email and I will set a deadline for all comments based on the schedule of the meetings.
The AULs search will move forward on our ambitious schedule with efforts to form an outstanding applicant pool. Further details about the interviews and schedule will be provided as they are available.
Subject to the schedule of the AULs search, Joe Schwab will begin working with us to develop plans and take actions to improve communications. Broad participation in this process of all library staff will be essential.
We are at the confluence of a number of events that present us with a unique opportunity to have an extraordinary impact on the quality of the Libraries. I look forward to working with you to meet these demanding but also stimulating and exciting challenges.
Gerry