Matthew Revitt,
Maine Shared Collections Strategy
Program Manager
Communication, Project
Management & Decision-Making
www.maineinfonet.net/mscs/

MSCS 101
 Project goals & objectives
 Unique mixture of academics & publics:
www.maineinfonet.org/mscs

Governance Structure: Project
Team
 Overall management of MSCS
 The famous five: Program Manager, Technology
Director & Project PI’s:
 Also Systems Librarian Sara Amato
www.maineinfonet.org/mscs

Governance Structure:
Collection Management
Committee
 Representatives from MSCS partners contribute
to:
 Data pull
 Collections analysis criteria
 Retention & potential withdrawals scenarios
www.maineinfonet.org/mscs

Governance Structure:
Technical Services Committee
 Representatives from MSCS partners
 Contribute to:
 OCLC reclamation project
 Data pulls #1 & #2
 Display of retention commitments in catalogs
 Coordinated by MSCS System Librarian
www.maineinfonet.org/mscs

Governance Structure:
Directors Council
 9 MSCS Directors:
 Review progress
 Q & A
 Commit cost sharing funds
 Approve MSCS policies
www.maineinfonet.org/mscs

Governance Structure: Advisory
Board
 Shared print experts: Bob Kieft, Constance
Malpas & Lizanne Payne
 Provide oversight, review, feedback & guidance
on best practice
 6 month progress reviews and two in-person
visits
www.maineinfonet.org/mscs

MSCS Program Manager role
 Full-time position
 IMLS funded for grant period
 Duties & responsibilities
 Administrative tasks
 Financial management
 Project documentation
 Publicity & promotion
 Contribute to nitty gritty work
 Importance of project management skills
www.maineinfonet.org/mscs

Decision-Making Hierarchy
Project
Team
Directors
Council
Collection
Developme
nt
Technica
l
Services
Systems
Librarian
Advisory
Board
Program
Manager
www.maineinfonet.org/mscs

Barriers to the Decision-making
Process
 Delaying Decisions—losing ground between
meetings
 Lack of focus—keeping the end result in mind
 Some more engaged than others in process
 Meeting distractions
 Librarians’ love of detail
 Technical difficulties getting data
 Large and dispersed group
 People feeling out-of-the-loop
 Lack of information resources
www.maineinfonet.org/mscs

Barriers to the Communications
Process

www.maineinfonet.org/mscs

Third Party Consulting Support
Contract with
 Take a step back—justify what we want and why
 Data Wrangling—being able to see the data in
useful ways
 Focus—working with manageable chunks of the
collection
 Trying out Scenarios—seeing actual outcomes of
possible decisions
www.maineinfonet.org/mscs

Trust in one another
 History of shared collaboration
www.maineinfonet.org/mscs

Organized meetings
 Invite the right people
 Clear agendas & supporting documentation
 Clear meeting leader
 Make decisions
 Action points
www.maineinfonet.org/mscs

Setting Deadlines, Follow-up &
Chase
www.maineinfonet.org/mscs

Project documentation
 Internally
 Detailed summaries with actionable points
 Keeping people in-the-loop
 Tracking progress
 Externally
 IMLS reporting requirement
 Important for legacy of MSCS
 Report on lessons learned
 Useful for articles or presentations
www.maineinfonet.org/mscs

Communication tools
www.maineinfonet.org/mscs

Thank you!
Matthew Revitt
MSCS Program Manger
matthew.revitt@maine.edu
www.maineinfonet.org/mscs/
@MESharedColls
www.maineinfonet.org/mscs