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District consultant2011hmmm

by Carrie Cleary on Aug 07, 2011

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District Consultant, a personal perspective.

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District Consultant, a personal perspective.
All about my job.

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http://capitalarealibrarydistrict.org

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Hi there. I’m Carrie Cleary. I’m the “district consultant” for the Capital Area Library District. You can find the details of services and resources that our district works together to provide on a fact sheet called District Promo.
These are the tough questions I was faced with.
Here’s how I understand the role of the district consultant: I ask and try to answer questions. Here are two of my favorites. In answering these questions there’s a push/pull conflict and sometimes the district consultant can feel like a gumby being stretched to everyone’s needs, but I turn to questions, and try to answer them as me and my many bosses define what’s right. I have to answer to many bosses. In my district there are 22 library locations and three counties full of people with needs to serve. Every library employee from executive director to shelver has a different perception of what a district library center is and what the district consultant (or for that matter the state library) should/could/would do for them. Every library user just wants what they want. All the people we work with and all those “systems” and “policies” and “rules” and “standard” really don’t matter at the end of the day. Our role is just to just keep them working together to produce results.
It’s easier to just have a clear job description and forget trying to define it.I have a nice job description you can see it anytime you want. I posted an electronic copy of my job description. We do an evaluation program at DCLS, my boss and I review the job description and set goals together. The role is only words. (wordle) Define your job by your outcomes. (But I do know some reasons we’re talking about it today…)
My task list can be summed up easily:Help people, help libraries.Follow the important rules. And always do the work. And keep doing it.
We all know that budgets are down. In tough times, communication, collaboration and developing strong partnerships and connections with library stakeholders is becoming more and more important. We need to work together more. We need to be especially careful of how we use our limited resources. That pressure can make it hard to focus from time to time.The digital age and e-publishing means that there is MORE information available. With all that “more” that’s happening, it’s harder to make choices as to what to do. I am often guilty of getting caught in indecision traps. On the bright side, we’ll never run out of work; In any district there are thousands of opportunities to do good work. For me, technology has been the biggest “change” factor I can see in my work. It’s important as a tool to improve resource and information sharing whether local, county, district, region, or state. Technology is the tool that allows us to make a bigger broader wider impact. I think that role of technology will only continue to grow in importance in the library industry and in the world around us. Technology started to change the library game a long time ago, and it continues to change--it’s up to libraries to use it to help communities do good things. (Remember to thank your IT staff.)
Sometimes there are crappy days when no one wants to work together, everyone is complaining, people want more or less control than they have, and everything feels like it is going wrong. On those days, I keep remembering that “the role” and being a district consultant isn’t important; it’s the results that matter. Try to stay inspired by the people and the impact.
As I move to answer question #4, you’ll hear about more challenges for me and my libraries and a few more achievements, but the action plan above is my guiding plan. Learn to use what we have and make it better. Implement Many Projects. Be Aware of Customer needs and the changes in our industry. I’m going to communicate with library leaders. Check out a new “District Communication Plan” in draft format only that I presented to the consolidated system director, the federated system director, and to each director of a non-system library in my district.Above all, I’m going to do the work. I’ll do all I can to support the goals of all my “bosses” while I’m at it. (My dog and husband are my bosses too.) http://www.stevenpressfield.com/do-the-work/ When I think about the next 6 months… I wonder why I didn’t put Stay Sane on the action plan above, because I know how often I can get overwhelmed. On the next few slides, here’s a little whirlwind preview of projects I’ve had some “role” in that are moving along in the Capital Area Library District.
This is a custom online workflow application that allows customers to submit to a place where staff can manage the Queue. Staff complete actions by changing status of requests to move them to the workflow or to the customer contact phase. Goal: Implement one method for customers to submit an ILL that eliminates paper filing and wasted time. Ensure that the process allows for good workflow management and serves customers even when the library isn’t open. Challenges: Each library has their own way of doing things. Workflow means having good roles and internal processes. Writing Terms of Use. Deciding where to limit the ILL service. Achievements: Customers have a tracking page for their ILL. I learned about security of data. More staff now understand all of the steps in the process to get an ILL. Resource sharing has increased for the libraries using it. Statistics show who is doing the work internally and reports show how much work is really being done.
This is our digital media collection. Challenges: Overdrive is a challenge, but it meets needs of customers, but what is the difference between “partner” and vendor? Digital content ownership makes resource sharing hard. Customers will never understand why you have to place a hold on an e-book. It’s tricky to make collection management decisions with so many formats. Should we get duplicate copies and multiple formats? It’s a challenge to manage my time: one of the “extra duties” as assigned is that I’m the email customer support. Achievements: I learned patience and figured out that sometimes reading the directions is the only answer. Other Achievements: People use it. They love this stuff. It has intense marketing potential. Others want to join us, so maybe there’s some chance of collaboration further, but it’s still a very small percentage of our customers who are using the service. Goal: Provide downloadable e-books as a marketing tool to attract people to libraries with this tool made possible by technology.
CALD has an electronic resources committee that works together to decide what to buy, knowing we get discounts for collaborative purchases and that we can build on marketing and training together, meaning less duplication of effort and more promotional opportunities.Goal: Work within the committee structure to make the best use of budget funds allocated for purchasing online resources. Promote the use of information that is delivered digitally because it’s always available, even when the library is closed. It’s a challenge to get everyone to agree on what to purchase and to get contracts signed, but it’s an achievement when it’s done. It’s a challenge to get people to use e-resources sometimes.
Goal: Help the four independent libraries in the district work together in the age of technology before their old technology dies. The result (releasing in October) will be expanded access to their collections and “clean data”. It’s also an example of cooperation that can be used in future plans to demonstrate the strength of community, and gets one step closer to being prepared to ask for county level funding so maybe, just maybe, my husband can get a “FREE” library card someday. I’d love to reduce the “unserved” population in Perry County. Everything about this project is a challenge. Dirty data in means dirty data out. There was far more “clean-up” than I imagined. I’ve learned a lot about consistency. This was a necessary project, because what they had was getting old, and I’ve enjoyed learning about Open Source. Working together to implement a shared technology means the achievement is near; it’s really that’s just the proof that sometimes you can do more with less. As another part of that project, I have a goal to: Goal: Design and deploy a shared website space for four independent entities. Encourage staff to use it to strengthen their connection with the community. Help them to focus on providing information from libraries to local government, business, nonprofits and schools. Use the platform as a place to show how organized online content helps communities thrive. This project was made possible by last year’s Verizon grant opportunity and the fact that DCLS gave me permission to work on the project. There are challenges to working together. Cooperation is key, but sometimes you have to let go and trust that your staff is doing it right. The challenge is time management: I’m BUSY. The achievement will be sustainability and an improved reputation for the smaller libraries in my district, which sometimes feel a little “overlooked” or overshadowed by the larger or more well funded systems.
And there’s always more. Physical delivery is one of the most important keys to effective resource sharing. I supervise a great staff of delivery drivers. I wish I had more time and I wish I knew how to do this part of the job better, but my goal is: Goal: Establish ideal transportation logistics for a route, while keeping delivery personal. My current delivery staff are the most amazing bunch of people, and our libraries like the personal service, but we need to keep expenses down in times of rising fuel costs. It’s tough to prioritize which needs to meet quickly, how many “hold requests” each customer should be allowed, and to figure out what gets space in the limited van and schedule. Does anyone in the state work with the Moving Mountains mailing list? The other goal is just to keep up with all of the rest of it. There are minimums and mandatory things that we do because they are out of our control and we have to. There are always special projects or meetings to facilitate. There are board retreats, surveys, and the occasional request from OCL. All of this work is necessary and valuable.
This is my dog, an English Pointer. (he’s English.) This slide is here to remind me to laugh more and enjoy the ride.My dog and my husband keep me laughing when I need it and it always reminds me: Don’t spread yourself too thin. You can work too much. The work of a district consultant is much too important to be taking seriously all the time.
Contact me anytime.  Ask questions. After the regional workshop Capital Region hosted, and Pat Wagner’s presentation, she said to go to conferences and networking events with a list of what you have to offer, a list of what you need, If you have time during a break today, use this Tip of the day: Prepare a list of what you or your business need AND what you and your business offer to others before a conference for better networking and collaboration opportunities.

District consultant2011hmmm — Presentation Transcript

District Consultant, a personal perspective
District Promo
Outline
1. How do you understand and define, for yourself, the role of the district consultant
2. How has that role changed for you over the years?
3. What have been your most significant challenges and achievements as a district consultant?
4. What are your goals over the next 6 months?
5. What else would you like to say about being a district consultant?
1. How do you understand and define, for yourself, the role of the district consultant The Answer is 42
1. What is in the best interests of the communities you serve as a whole?
How can the district consultant help to make sure that libraries are successful? (given the current resources, negotiated agreement process, and standards.)
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
8 bosses?
These questions are answered in a different way by the many “bosses” and the “stake-holders” of libraries in the district, region, and state.
Do what you can within the role as you see it.
Job description
Advice: Forget the Definitions.
It’s only words. Outcomes matter more.
What Should a Consultant Do? 1. Build networks and relationships. 2. Listen and be aware. 3. Identify “important” needs.4. Improve skills.4. Follow the important rules.5. Make decisions. Respond.6. Do the work.
2. How has that role changed for you over the years?
Pressure is on: There’s more of everything but time and money.
There’s always more to do: More information, more content, more needs to meet.
Technology is more important.
3. What have been your most significant “challenges” and “achievements” as a district consultant?
The challenges? Knowing the right questions to ask, listening fully to the answers, and making the right decisions. Accepting things that are out of your control.
The achievements? Doing the work. Getting it done. Seeing results.
4. What are your goals over the next 6 months?: District Consultant Action Plan: LearnImplement Be awareCommunicateDo the work.
Interlibrary Loan: Online Workflow Application
E-books? E-Audios? OverDriveOh my!Kindle coming soon…
Websites, Databases and Online Content
Technology Cooperation: Library Inventory Control Systems and websites through PeCoInfoToGo
And so much more…
Delivery Options
Some Expertise: http://clicweb.org/moving-mountains/154-moving-mountains-find-a-library-courier-listing
Communications, Workshops, Facilitation, Strategic Planning, Survey Development, Work with Trustees, Board Development, Annual Reports/Paperwork, Distributions, Supporting Youth Services, Helping Office of Commonwealth Libraries.
5. What else would you like to say about being a district consultant?
special pointer: Don’t spread yourself too thin!
Special Pointer
(English Pointer)
Laugh more; whine less.
Reach Out
Carrie Cleary
101 Walnut St. Harrisburg, PA 17101
ccleary@dcls.org
717-234-4961x106
http://capitalarealibrarydistrict.org
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Capital-Area-Library-District/

District consultant2011hmmm

by Carrie Cleary on Aug 07, 2011

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District consultant2011hmmm — Presentation Transcript