Evaluating Your Technical Services Department
Last Modified: 21 March 2012
How to Begin:
- Get a good working group together.
Emphasis on “working.” Someone not currently involved with the process can often help. Look for a set of “fresh eyes.”
- Document your current workflow step-by-step.
- Establish measures for where you are now.
Backlog, turnaround time, output, number of holds, circulation, etc. How will you measure success?
- Question each step in the workflow.
Can it be eliminated? What would happen if we didn’t do it? Who would care? Is the same work being done more than once in several places? Who should do it? (The further upstream the work is done, the better.) Does the staff know WHY they are doing something? They need to know.
- Can it be automated?
If so, do you have the resources to do that? If not, how can you get them: Ask for vendor help? Do a one-time project? See how other libraries have tackled it?
- Is the work done at the appropriate level?
(Push it down as far as possible. There will always be more work for the higher level person.) Reassign it? Outsource it?
- Involve the staff.
They’ll have great ideas. Ask them how to save time. They know.
- When you reach a milestone, celebrate…and let the rest of the library staff know!
Checklist of Questions for Your Technical Services Department:
- Do you have a backlog? Where is it – ordering, receiving, cataloging, processing?
How many boxes, carts, or shelves? Has the backlog become your comfort zone? Does it prove how overworked you are? Create a chart listing the number of boxes or items each week, and commit to cleaning it out. Update your chart weekly, and post it for all to see. What would it take to eliminate the backlog?
- What’s your average turnaround time for items…from when they arrive at your door, not from when you unpack the boxes!
What’s your goal turnaround time? Pick something realistic and stick to it. This is your commitment to the organization.
- Do you regularly work your holds list?
Check to see how many holds you have and how many copies to fill the holds. Your ILS can likely print a report for you. Use it to identify problem holds and fix them. How many holds do you have and what’s the average wait time? What is your director’s desired ratio of holds to number of copies? Have you met it? Make this someone’s job every week.
- Who selects materials and are they part of the Tech Services department?
If not, figure out how to work with them closely. The trend is for collection development to become part of Technical Services because the new technology has changed where the keystrokes come in the order of things. You need to work across department lines to solve workflow issues like this, and it’s easier if you’re all part of the same division.
- Do you have frequent working meetings with your Tech Services department heads?
Weekly is not too frequent if you’re really working out the details of issues and not merely wasting time in the meeting.
- Fixing errors is not free.
Do consider the staff costs of mistakes . . . both for the people reporting it and for those who have to fix it. But give more emphasis to fixing errors that affect access to the title.
- Does the public service staff know what you’re doing?
Start a blog and let them know. This is a great way to get feedback from them on what they need as well. Make sure everyone understands the jargon you use.
- How often is the Tech Services staff out in the public service departments?
Do they “eat their own dog food?” That means do they experience the same service as the public, or do they get special services so they don’t see what patrons experience?
- What work is not being done that needs to be done (for your patrons).
e.g. Do you have “hidden” uncataloged collections that patrons can’t know about when they check the catalog? Do you have confusing multiple records for the same title?
- Evaluate the cost of any project you do or are considering taking on.
e.g. How much time does staff spend on trying to match “widows and orphans” (mismatched pieces, missing discs, etc.)
- What focus drives you?
Hint: it should ultimately be service to your patrons, but you may have short term goals such as getting rid of a backlog, or closing out the year, etc.
- What is a reasonable amount of daily production for each department? Are there standards?
If not, develop them based on average output.
- Is your Tech Services department involved in evaluating or adopting some of the new trends in libraries?
- Just in time, rather than just in case (Business terms which mean producing the goods quickly after they’re ordered, rather than having a huge inventory just in case someone wants it.)
- 24, door to floor (Getting items onto the shelves within 24 hours of when they hit the branch library door.)
- Floating collections (If there are no holds, the item stays in the branch where it’s returned.)
- Do both your selectors and your acquisitions staff meet with major vendors?
Talking with vendors from both these perspectives can really work.
- Do you have the right people doing the right job?
Often a person who is failing in a particular position can blossom in another job more suited to them.
Selection:
- Are your selectors or other staff keying in ISBNs? Do they circle selections in print journals?
Explore vendor selection and ordering databases as a way to avoid keystrokes.
- Are they taking advantage of other vendor database features?
Powerful searches, multiple reviews attached to each title, etc.
- How do they identify in advance what will be popular?
- Do they use selection profiles that make sense or are they cookie cutter?
e.g., when it’s a romance, this branch gets more, that one gets less, etc. How do they keep these up to date?
- Why do they buy what they buy? What trends do they see in circulation, customer visits, etc.
For example, if Large Print use is up are we purchasing more or devoting more shelf space to it? Are you purchasing less nonfiction due to patrons using Google instead?
- How do you evaluate standing order purchases? Magazine purchases?
Standing orders can be a huge budget sink. Ask your vendor to send the list of what’s coming up the next month ad review and cancel as needed.
- How has the popularity of Google searching changed your database purchases?
- Do you acknowledge planned obsolescence?
Not every item you purchase should be on your shelves forever.
Weed when the demand is over.
Acquisitions:
- Are your Acquisitions staff re-keying what’s already been keyed by selectors?
- Do they have electronic invoicing or are they passing along paper?
- Are you getting the best discounts you can? How do you know?
- Who negotiates your discounts? Doyou negotiate?
Cataloging:
- Is Cataloging staff keying in ISBNs that order staff has already keyed?
- What is “quality” cataloging?
Which parts are crucial, which don’t matter so much? Do you still measure the size of a book?
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This handout was originally presented at PLA and published on Cynthia Orr Consulting. Check there for periodic updates of the information.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License