1. Los Angeles County
Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Singing the Tune
Management Wants to Hear
Matthew Barrett, Library Administrator
Dorothy Peyton Gray
Transportation Library & Archive
GTRIC - SLA Seattle 2008
2. The Strategic Plan – Are you in it?
• How is your Library supporting the mission of
your organization and is it obvious to your
executives?
• What library products support that mission and
are they widely distributed with the Library’s
name on them? Be consistently branded.
• Are you at the table for critical issues? Show up
anyway – half the people invited don’t even want
to be there – offer solutions not problems.
• What is your library doing to inspire excellence in
others? If they don’t give you credit, take credit.
• Who are your key partners and who is the go-to
person on the staff of your key partners?
3. The Strategic Plan Roll Up
• Your Agency’s Strategic Plan
• Your Library’s Role in that plan
• Your individual annual performance plan
• Your employee’s individual performance plans
– All have to be a foundation that supports the
ultimate mission of the organization
– The documents need to specifically state
HOW your library, your employees and you
are achieving the agency’s strategic goals
– How to tell you’ve been accepted into the
club? One or more of your library’s SMART
goal performance measurements will make it
into the CEO’s annual review
4. Key Partners – Your Key Patrons
• Your Governing Board and your CEO
• Government Relations, Community Relations,
Public Affairs, Press Relations, and contracted
Lobbyists
• Marketing, Communications, Design
• Planning - GIS, Long Range Planners
• Finance – The Chief Financial Officer
• Legal Counsel – The General Counsel
• Inter-departmental Task Forces, Ad-Hoc
Committees, Tiger-Teams, Advisory Groups
• Policy and Procedures writers
• Community Advocates & Activists
• UTCs, Colleges, & Universities – never say no
5. Stand out with…
• Websites that generate traffic & buzz
• Early adoption of new technology
• Annotated Hot-Topic Bibliographies made available
to working teams ASAP
• Historical Research on key subjects
• Current information sent to key stakeholders that
is distributed regularly and dependably
• SMART Goals, Key Performance Indicators, regular
reporting on your libraries accomplishments,
traffic, and value – count everything, report
against goals. Do ROI.
• State your library’s role in meeting your agency’s
mission – Don’t hold anything back, be bold.
• Engage others in your collection development
6. Leverage Historical Resources
• Arcadia Publishing
http://www.arcadiapublis
• Earned over $4,000
in royalties so far
• Sold on Amazon and
local book stores
Contribute items or your time to Your State’s Digital
Archive, the Digital Archives of Historical Societies,
Colleges and Universities. Sign licensing agreements.
8. Bust myths, write history, predict the future
• Environmental scanning of the past, present
and future – cultivate your clairvoyance
– Roger Rabbit was Wrong – GM did not conspire to
dismantle the Red Cars
– LA’s first African American Streetcar operator was
a woman, Mrs. Arcola Philpott
– We can improve meeting our customers digital
information expectations
– Most of the future transit capital in the next Re-
Authorization is likely to go to Chicago during the
Obamanation, the CTA system needs to be rebuilt
in time for the 2016 Olympics
9. Leverage your Budget
• Know the exact sources of funds and the
color of money that is funding your library -
Respect it if its solid ground, work towards
changing it if its not.
• Spend every last dime allocated to you, don’t
leave a single penny on the table by year
end.
• Use other people’s money – it’s like overdraft
protection, only better, it proves you need
additional resources for the following year.
10. Leverage your FTEs
• Your value is tied your classification and to that of your
employees, just as your bosses value is tied to you.
• Use the SLA Salary Survey
• Compare what your librarians do to the work of Senior
and Chief Analysts, Sr. Systems Analysts, Senior
Planners, Programmers, Senior Auditors – none of them
require a Master’s degree
• Know your HR Department’s process for reclassification
and use it to get the maximum title classification and
pay grade you possibly can.
11. What’s being taught in MLIS Schools?
• UCLA School of Information Studies uses
Reframing Organizations: The Leadership
Kaleidoscope by Lee G. Bolman & Terrence E.
Deal
• Examines four frameworks for looking at
organizations:
– Structural
– Human Resources
– Political
– Symbolic
– and ways one might integrate them.
http://www.tnellen.com/ted/tc/bolman.html
12. Get comfortable with politics
• The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene and Joost
Elffers
• Largely ignored by its business school audience
• Embraced by Rap/Hip-Hop artist community
looking for guidance in relating to unfamiliar
corporate power structures
• Summary online:
http://www2.tech.purdue.edu/cg/Courses/cgt411/cov
13. Why cultivate political power?
You can add enduring value in a competitive,
volatile, ever changing environment; preserve
and expand your resources; and serve your
organization and customers more effectively.
