ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries C&RL News ■ July/August 2002 / 511 CONFERENCE CIRCUIT Living the Future4: Collaboratively speaking A library conference on organizational renewal by Raynna Bowlby and Maureen Sullivan The sense o f d a n g er m ust n o t disappear: The w a y is certainly both short a n d steep, How ever g ra d u a l it looks fr o m here; Look i f y o u like, b u t y o u will have to leap) —W. H. Auden W ith th ese w ords, Carla Stoffle, d e a n of libraries a n d Center for Creative P hotogra­ phy at th e University of Arizona (UA), w el­ com ed m ore th an l60 colleagues to “Living the Future4: Collaboratively Speaking, a Li­ b rary C o n fe re n c e o n O rg a n iz a tio n a l Re­ n e w a l.” Sponsored by the UA Library in partner­ ship w ith the Association of Research Librar­ ies Office of Leadership and M anagement Ser­ vices (ARL/OLMS), and ACRL, four full clays of learning to o k place in the beautiful setting of Tucson. Participants from academ ic libraries of all sizes, with staff from larger public libraries a n d from library systems from th e U nited States a n d Canada, gathered in late April for th e fo u rth c o n fe re n c e o n o rg a n iz a tio n a l change. The UA Library took its “lea p ” tow ards the future m ore th an eight years ago a n d now has a national reputation as a leader in orga­ nizational change initiatives. The UA experi­ ence w as related during a day of p resenta­ tions from staff m em bers of various team s in the library. Even a small sam pling of the 18 Arizona sessions dem onstrates that the library is active o n m any fronts: • Strategic Planning and Critical Processes • Perform ance Effectiveness M anagem ent System • The Scholarly Com m unication Project • C ustom er-O riented Library Alignment: Re-reengineering the Organization: Accom­ m odating New Work in a Team-Based Orga­ nization • Librarians as Partners: Seivices to Help Faculty and D epartm ents D evelop and As­ sess Inform ation Literacy Skills. The U A L ib ra ry t o u r A highlight of the conference was the tour of the UA Library and the university’s new In­ formation Com m ons/Integrated Learning Cen­ ter. Built b elow the cam pus m ain green and connected to the library, this center focuses on providing an im proved experience for undergraduates, particularly freshm en, and recognizes the library’s critical role in this e n ­ deavor. Architect Jim Gresham, the conference key­ note speaker, described his inspiration for the center’s below -ground design, w ith its ori­ gins coming from the stepwells of India, which About the authors Raynna B o w lb y is organizational a n d s ta ffd e v e lo p m e n t o ffice r a t Brow n University Library, e-mail: raynna_bowlby@ brown.edu a n d M a u re e n Sullivan is p rin c ip a l f o r M au re e n Sullivan Associates, e-m ail: m sull317@ aol.com mailto:raynna_bowlby@brown.edu mailto:msull317@aol.com 512 / C&RL News ■ July/August 2002 w ere designed and used for w ater storage betw een the 5th and 19th centuries. Water was collected during the m onsoon season; then, to retrieve w ater during the hot sum­ m er months, the stepwells w ere approached by a long flight of steps that becom e cool, quiet subterranean retreats. The university’s sub terran ean Learning Center presents the same inviting graduated entry, while the inner spaces are suffused with natural light. Tours of the interior, proudly led by UA Library staff, demonstrate a space that is responsive to today’s action-oriented learner. Two h undred and fifty workstations are placed to enable students to collaborate. Small group study rooms are abundant and casual seating is w ired for laptops (plus room for the ubiquitous coffee cup). Central to all is a multi-directionally oriented information desk, w hich is staffed by the library 24 hours a day during the w eek and during daylight hours each weekend. Other aspects of the library tour w ere also impressive, but m ore so in their statement about Arizona’s organizational developm ent than in its architecture. A walk around the staff w ork areas gave attendees a real appre­ ciation for the leap that the UA Library staff has m ade in the achievement of customer- centered quality standards. Imagine attaining such success in the or­ ganization and efficiency of library w ork that no item waiting to be processed had been in the building m ore than five days. Imagine a stream lined shelving operation that averages 4.5 hours to return used materials to the shelf. M o r e leaps O ne day of the conference show cased other libraries that have undertaken significant or­ ganizational renew al and redesign efforts. Colleagues from ten libraries shared insights and learnings about their leap towards the future: • Brown University engaged the attend­ e e s in p ro c e s s m a p p in g a n d d e s c rib e d Brow n’s vision for redesigning the organiza­ tion around user-centered processes and out­ comes rather than around library functions. • Emory University discussed its “team start-up,” a com ponent of the library’s reor­ ganization that facilitated team effectiveness. • The Gelman Library System of George W ashington University described some of the steps on their journey towards becom ing a Learning Organization. • Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) relayed its experiences working in a team -based organization, focus­ ing on the impact the library has on techno­ logical developm ents and student success. • North Suburban Library System (Illinois) show ed a staff-made video of a learning or­ ganization in action, with vignettes of many of its w orkers describing the tools and tech­ niques that have enhanced their success. • The Tri-College Consortium (Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore) described the design of individual learning plans that e n ­ gage staff in self-assessment and outline a shared (individual and library) responsibility for career developm ent. • The University of Connecticut discussed its use of cross-functional teams as a strategy for improving library comm unication and ef­ fectiveness and outlined the roles and respon­ sibilities of team leaders. • The University of Maryland described the developm ent of a ten-m odule learning curriculum addressing n e ed ed library skills, such as custom er service, leadership, m ea­ surem ent, evaluation a n d c o ntinuous im ­ provem ent • The University of Nevada-Las Vegas dem ­ onstrated the integration of new library pri­ orities— such as the creation of an informa­ tion comm ons, support for multimedia ser­ vices, and the construction of a storage facil­ ity—with existing library services and staff­ ing. • The University of Virginia shared its ex­ periences in flexibly redeploying staff and in implem enting the Balanced Scorecard as an approach to assessm ent within the libraries. To com plem ent specific organizational developm ents, four outstanding pre-confer­ ences launched the event: • “Advanced Facilitation Skills Lab,” fa­ cilitated by Melanie Hawks, ARL. • “Conducting User Surveys in Academic Libraries,” facilitated by Jim Self, University of Virginia; Dan Lee, University of Arizona; and Julia Blixrud, ARL. • “Constructive D ialogue,” facilitated by Michael Ray, University of Arizona. • “Library Project Planning,” facilitated by DeEtta Jones, ARL. (con tin u ed on page 521) C&RL News ■ July/August 2002 / 513 C&RL News ■ July/August 2002 / 521 “hot link” that becam e a key contribution to the usability of the Web. Materials in the col­ lection, w hich include w orking papers, cor­ respondence, manuscripts, and other related items, span his entire career, beginning in 1968 with his graduate studies at SUNY-Stony Brook and continuing to the present. The U.S. Naval Academy's N im itz Library has received a generous gift of two 18th-cen­ tury letters relating to Jo h n Paul Jones from Faith McCurdy of Cold Spring Harbor, New York. O ne letter is from George W ashington to John Paul Jones, dated July 22, 1787, dur­ ing the Constitutional Convention in Phila­ delphia. The other letter is from John Paul Jones to the editor of the Gazette de Leyde, w ritten “O n board the Bonhom m e Richard’s prize the late British Ship of War Serapis Texel N ovem ber 11th, 1779.” McCurdy gave the let­ ters in m em ory of her late h usband Jam es Am,son McCurdy, naval architect and designer of the sail training vessel know n as the Navy 44. Her daughter, Sheila McCurdy, is a m em ­ ber of the Fales committee, w hich advises Sheila McCurdy and Faith McCurdy present Vice Admiral John R. Ryan, superintendent of the Naval Academy, w ith letters from George Washington and John Paul Jones, during a ceremony at the Nimitz Library on April 24, 2002. the Naval Academy about its sailing program. The letters w ere presented during a ceremony in the Nimitz Library’s Special Collections and Archives Division on April 24, attended by faculty, staff, administrators, and other friends of the Academy. ■ ( “Living theFuture4” continuedfrom page 512) T hroughout the full conference, partici­ pants experienced a continuous and active learning process. The format w as p u rp o se­ fully designed to encourage m eaningful dia­ log and collaborative learning, recognizing that all participants contribute to the learning of the w hole community. Even the breaks w ere scheduled to provide participants with am ple time for conversation with colleagues or simply time for the opportunity to reflect. Is the w ay p eople w ork in academ ic li­ braries really changing? Is there a payoff for the effort involved in organizational change? Living the Future confirms that libraries can articulate future-oriented priorities and express am bitious quality standards b ased o n the needs of users and that staff can develop work styles and organizational structures to m eet these goals. These libraries have taken the leap— applause all around!2 N o tes 1. “Leap Before You Look” by W. H. Auden. 2. The LTF4 Conference Web site provides links to both the UA team projects and to o th e r in itia tiv e s at h t t p : / / w w w .lib r a r y . arizona.ed u /co n feren ce/. ■ http://www.library arizona.edu/conference/