Week 11 Reflecting on Reflection

An Aesop

The purpose of this weeks final post is to reflect on what the blogging process has contributed to class learning. Certainly, the process encouraged personal development with the materials. This is shown by the development of my writing voice over the semester from summarising relevant papers towards articulating personal opinions and theoretical concepts shaped by the literature.

Certainly, the idea of personal reflection is hugely difficult as students very often feel that their opinions are “wrong” or unwanted. However, the feedback on the posts has done much to ease my concerns and give the confidence to utilise personal conceptual frameworks to understand otherwise alien theories. This should be strength of any reflective writer to appropriate material and develop a deeper overview and connection through narratives synthesised from the relevant sources. Although storytelling prompts “deliberation of past considerations” to prepare for the future,I found it difficult as I tend to create overly long comprehensive reflection, when a pithy reflective piece would suffice.

When this module began, I believed that it was irrelevant to MLIS students and would be the most difficult content-wise. However, the reflections forced an evaluation of the content and allowed the enjoyable experience of taking ideas and expressing through a personalised format and style. Further aiding this process was the anecdotal style of the Lecturer whose lectures reflected the blogging style and conveyed  relevant information far better than a lecture of straight theory. Moreover, reflective writing changed my opinion about management by allowing me to appreciate the issues confronting libraries and how essential managers are to ensuring their survival. With reflection comes knowledge within and without. Personal and Professional insights would inspire working managers on how best to serve their business. Therefore, I would be encouraged to continue reflective writing in both spheres to enable life-long learning and improvement.

 

 

 

 

Week 10: Digital Preservation: Uncharted waters

Libraries require a lot of little Bismarck’s

(Sincerest apologies for the Length but I find all these points relevant)

This week, the readings focused on the issue of Digital Preservation and the managerial issues there. Certainly, this area alone serves as a microcosm for the changes in the Library world. Shenton’s From Talking to doing: Digital Preservation at the British Library clearly illustrates how themes from blogs such as collaboration, financial management, marketing, and evidence based practice overlap in this area.

Certainly, Digital preservation is a multifaceted area in which old preservation methods and new ( e.g. technology ) skills are required to ensure functionality. Such a change is evidenced by Libraries breaking their traditional institutional isolation by contracting external international and national organisations to digitise materials and encouraging inter-professional  group collaboration. Certainly, this a novel approach as it blurs the traditional professional identity of Librarians with Catalogers, IT professionals, acquisitions and preservation staff all co-operating to develop frameworks, models and guidelines. Underpinning this process are the enormous managerial changes, ingrained traditions of collaboration and evidenced-based practice required to ensure effective inter-institutional collaboration and implementation of recommendations with the dual goals of minimising risk and maximising the collections lifespan and create a body of literature to guide the future development of Libraries.

In some ways Digital Preservation is a paradigmatic shift in the professional identities of Librarians with inter-professional learning and external cooperation now of the utmost importance. Certainly, this change heralds a voyage into uncharted waters a fact that many professionals are aware of as shown by efforts to gradually or evolutionary implement this change. This caution is warranted as the history of preservation is a history of errors requiring future rectification. Metaphorically this is apt for the future of Libraries: as while digital preservation and associated framework policies are the future: experimental decisions in changing times require enormous care and skill to manage; so as to protect rather than destroy the traditional role of the Library as knowledge providers and its inherent integrity.

 

Week 9: Communicaion, Marketing and Advocacy.

Oh Dear….

The readings for this week Chapters 8 and 11 of the textbook addressed the importance of communication and marketing and advocacy. Simply, put the common theme of both was the centrality of correctly conveying and providing information and the mechanisms behind it. More specifically this entails the creation of both internal and external mechanisms by which both staff and the community can be educated on the services, changes and importance of the library.

In particular chapter 11 Marketing and Advocacy: emphasised the point that as an institution the Library cannot operate in isolation. Indeed, the Ivory Towers perceptions held by the public and some librarians on this topics serves to create moribund leather-bound services which cannot survive in the modern-day. As excellently illustrated by the chapter: the only way for libraries to survive is to both market their services and create partnerships with political and local figures and organisations through advocacy. In other words, a successful marketing and P.R. campaign which incorporates business practices and values such as identifying customer needs, exchange of services, influencing behaviour, social marketing and “advocacy, honesty, expertise, independence, loyalty and fairness” is essential for creating supportive frameworks for libraries. Certainly, marketing is the perfect vehicle through which potential investors may learn of the fact that Libraries have good financial returns, or tell nonusers in a community about the services, role and functions performed by the library in its locality. Furthermore, these features may be aptly conveyed through proper branding: creating a logo which “embodies the essence, of a product, service or organisation”. Moreover, utilising  internal marketing enables staff to understand the rationale behind newly implemented policies.

Although, many new Librarians may react to the idea of “marketing the library” with distant, this contemporary adoption of corporate features is essential as it provides funding and good publicity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 8: Issues of Diversity

Just add animatronic nightmares.

The readings for this weeks class were chapters 13 and 15 from the text book which focused on the issues of leadership and diversity the latter of which will be covered in this post. In an increasingly globalised world; cultural diversity has become an essential responsibility for  managerial practice. While in common parlance the term “diversity” refers to ethnicity or religious difference according to Bewer diversity entails”different styles, disabilities, individuals intelligence, generational, education, economic status, sexual orientation and social class, Immigration, youth and through processes and traits (2011)”.

Undoubtedly, for a Library whose focus is the needs of their client base consideration of these traits are of vital importance.  Central to providing such a service is orientating the organisations internal environment and culture towards diversity by fostering understanding between the various employee types such as different generations. Certainly, the best workplaces are those that create a bespoke situation in which the traits of the  “Veterans” born 1946 such as discipline, stable structure, hierarchical process can cooperate with “Generation Y” traits born in 1990 with their desire for instant gratification, and abilities to multitask especially with technology without  friction.

This bridging process also extends to ethnic employees. Indeed, it is the duty of the manager to balance to treat this group with respect and equality by avoiding practices such as “token recruitment” and using legislation to deter  racist behavior while still incorporating their difference into the planning process such as allowing holidays for different faiths or accounting for different views of communication. Certainly, in an increasingly heterogeneous society diversity is the future of libraries, as not only does it “provide new blood” e.g. the linguistic support needed to develop bilingual collections, but also a connection to minority communities who would traditionally perceive the Library as orientated solely towards traditional society.

 

 

 

 

 

Avoid “Smooze!”

Week 7: UCD LibGuides Review The Second: Chemical and Bioprocessing Engineering.

This week’s blog reviews the Chemical and Bioprocessing Engineering LibGuide. Like last week this is a subject I know nothing about.  In terms of layout and colour scheme the guide mostly repeats the style of the Environmental planning guide, with all the tabs and links clearly identifiable and easy to select while the external websites were accompanied by screen shots of the contents. Accompanying each of these features are jargon-free descriptions in plain English which explain the site contents. However, there is a layout decision in regards to the descriptions that impedes user navigation of the site.

While some sources have an abstract describing the content,the majority of the external databases and sitesrequire the user to hover their cursor over a black information link which reveals the resource information in a separate “speech bubble” effect. This feature is a weakness as the relevant on the resource is notimmediately available for the user. Should patrons be rushing or unsure how to use the links, they may attempt to click the “I” icon with the lack of results causing frustration. As mentioned above notall of the details for the external links are organised in thismanner, with many having a typed description under the link instead. This lack of systematic categorisation makes the guide aesthetically unpleasant and may convince patrons that the guide is difficult to use, or was composed haphazardly using unsound information. The one change to the guide that the Librarian should make ought to be to change the layout of the descriptions back to the typed paragraphs. A format that appears neat on the pages, implies organisation and immediately conveys the relevant details as opposed to the aesthetically unpleasant and confusing information tabs and windows.

Beware the “Black Spot”.

Otherwise, the site is clearly updated regularly with the most recent timestamp marked the 29^th of October 2014. Therefore, the contact details for the Librarian including an included a profile photo, immediate email, function, telephone number and a Twitter feed are up to date. The Twitter feed was the best feature of the guide given the involvement of the Irish Library community on Twitter. By allowing the users to follow the Librarian in charge of the guide or simply scan the feed, the Library offers the opportunity, to network with other librarians and experts in the subject areas along with discovering relevant Institutions and Databases outside of the UCD library.

Week 6: UCD Subject Libguides: Planning and Enviromental Policy

This week’s post is a review of one of UCD’s subject Libguides. The name of the libguide under review is Planning and Environmental Policy a subject that I am not familiar with and therefore have never used the guide before. Recently while completing another assigned I was directed to the libguide for English and Drama so I knew that such resources existed. Fortunately knowledge of the subject area is not required as the guide is extremely user-friendly. In terms of navigation the layout and organisation of the tabs and simple colour scheme of blue and white allows the user to easily see and identify every feature on the page.

Adding to the user-friendliness of the guide none of the tab titles of the descriptions of the content contained any jargon or technical terms and instead relies on plain English a decision which allows laypeople to  use the resources. Further aiding the ease of navigation was the attention to details of the responsible Librarian who obviously is hugely knowledgeable in the area as evidenced by the decision to subdivide every resource by category and type such as maps, Journal Articles & Databases etc. Which every resource listed alphabetically along with concise summaries a process which makes the wealth of information palpable for the user. The one fault of the guide is the subdivision of  environmental Policy and Studies, a distinction which is not clear in the guides title. While care has been taken to list the key databases for both subjects, first time clients in Environmental Studies may judge the guides by their titles and believe that no resources are available to them instead of opening the guide to notice the distinction. My only suggestion would be to amend the guides title to avoid such misunderstanding. The best feature of the site is the provision of descriptions and links to relevant book and e-book titles in the Library’s holdings which would aid users unfamiliar with the catalogue or in a hurry.

Furthermore, the information in the guide is constantly updated with the last date of revision being the 19th of October 2014. This extents to the extensive contact details provided for the responsible Librarian including a profile picture to allow clients to approach the staff member in the library, an instant email function and a telephone number. Owing to its meticulous composition and layout this Libguide is an excellent Library resource.

 

 

 

 

 

Week 5 Financial Management

 

The outwards shows beleast themselves… Or do they?

Despite its apparent irrelevance the image heading this post is a useful comparison for the development of public libraries in the modern period. Simply put the anime series depicted in here is often considered a deconstruction of a the narrative conventions of a well-known anime genre “Magical Girl”. In reality the series deconstructs these tropes to tell a unique story which preserves and revitalise the core narrative structures and themes of the genre.In a similar vein this weeks readings describe how libraries are assuming the guise of corporate like entities which engage in budgeting and fundraising along with all the bottom line thinking and politics involved. However all the readings stress how these changes and practices are essential in the modern-day to revitalise and preserve the traditional role and values of libraries.

An excellent example is Rader’s article Fundraising in academic libraries: the United States experiencece,which describes the motivations and measures undertaken by American academic libraries to secure funding. Innovations such as creating fundraising task forces to scan environments to locate potential donors or partners, such as local athletes, legislatures, and other libraries, networking with clients and interest groups and playing the political waiting game are depicted as vital to cover the technological and staffing costs accrued by the proliferation of information sources. The corporate-like activities of setting clear goals, forward planning, entering strategic partnerships is the only way to avoid obsoletness in changing times. Certainly, these innovations such as such as contracting services to hospitals, and companies. and charging them for research will benefit libraries. By undertaking budgeting and fundraising activities, Libraries are laying the groundwork for fiscal independence and provisions for a standard of service currently impossible due to the reliance on government funds. Only time will tell however.

 

 

 

Week 4 Strategic Planning and Mission

The readings for this week all concentrated on the importance of strategic planning for organisations in regards to their mission statement and objective. However, the works by Linn, Stephan and Fairhalm weave the thread of collaboration, organisational culture and strategic planning together to describe how an ideal company operates. What struck me while reading Elizabeth Stephan’s Strategic Planning on the Fast Track is the emphasis on the “death of management” the associated hierarchical strategies. If Fairhalm’s assertion that strategic thinking equates to leadership and planning to management then it’s clear that Stephan favours leadership.

 

 

“There’re more guidelines than actual rules.”

Although the article does decribe the importance of good strategic planning/management, by using the experiences of Western Libraries as a case study, the concept is also subtly undermined . Little details such as noting that Strategic models have also harmed libraries, the way the library interpreted the various models as guidelines rather than established rules, while the inclusion of the staff and customers in the planning process all serve to diminish the concept of management and the perceived negative traits of rigidity and despotism. It would be difficult to imagine an article on strategic thinking/leadership undermining the concept in such a way perhaps betraying romanticized aspirations to be a “Leader.”

 

Despite these flaws Stephan also stresses the benefits of strategic planning if implemented along flat organisation lines. Including both employees and customers in the planning process creates accurate, clear mission statements and plans which ultimately benefit the organisation in the long-run. Such a democratic process does away with rigid hierarchy and creates a sense of community and loyalty among the employees raising morale. Moreover, such flat planning”, allows for clarity of direction and encourages the collaborative traits of  employee trust and flexibility in implementing policy required by modern organisation to survive.

 

 

 

Week 2 Reflection: Organisational Culture and Decision Making

All Hail the Mouse

The readings for this week focused the need for balance in an organisation. Holt in particular encourages the integration of  his “consensual management” into organisational cultures to unconsciously shape employee goals and attitudes towards accepting a balance between commanding and allowing innovation, company and employees interests, leadership and management etc. A balance which is demanded by the increasingly fast paced, external environments. In contrast Van Mannen’s article “The Smile Factory: Work at Disneyland” details a unique functioning yet imbalanced corporate structure and management style.

Disneyland is described as an extreme example of a hierarchical corporate model, where the employees are formally educated in the company’s culture before being thrust into a rigidly controlled work environment where they become a small cog in the “Disney Machine.” Van Maanen utilises anecdotal and testimonial evidence for former park employees to clearly convey the imbalanced nature of the Disney mode i.e. employees denied their  own initiative, disunity is encouraged by stratifying positions and a plethora of rules allowing easy dismissal. Although I feel that the argument may have been undermined by possibly biased evidence which accentuated the negatives of Disney’s practices.

The the rapidly changing external environment of modern business detailed in the literature coupled with the focus on collaborative, innovative and flat business models ought to have made the Disneyland model obsolete. However, I believe that this article describes an exception to this rule and raises an interesting idea, that  because Disney (and possibly other companies) are “feeling business” the public and markets simply expect the company’s mission to be warm and inviting. A perception which undoubtedly allows such companies to permanently operate in a placid external environment preserving the aforementioned imbalances and stymying change in such a way which would be impossible for most organisation..

 

 

 

 

 

Week 1 Reflections on Collaboration “Collaboration in the Workplace” by Sarah Maynard.

Having read several articles this week I will reflect on the Collaborative management model a recent workplace development. An article by Sarah Maynard focuses on the benefits of Collaboration and its absence in the workplace. The article argues that with the increased workload and fast pace of modern businesses necessitates collaboration for innovation and the division of labour needed for productivity Moreover, Maynard offers simple tips to cultivate collaboration in the workplace.This reading along with the others enforces the idea that collaboration is a work model requiring constant work, communication and consolidation to function. Given the increasing volume of information and complicated roles of modern libraries, Librarians need to develop communication skills, exchange ideas and reward teamwork in order to create a friendly relaxed workplace which encourages worker cohesion to ensure the smooth running of the Library.

Although I agree with the article due to the description of the theories of collaboration all appear to be rooted in common sense: “two heads are better than one”and my own experiences of working on a team confirm the need for relaxed, open communication, a major weakness is the failure to produce actual evidence of the validity of collaboration, perhaps relying on the common sense aspect of the theory to convince the reader. This is echoed in the other article, none of which offer a balanced discussion of collaboration instead opting to stress the universal benefits for businesses, employees and customers,providing point by pont guides to normalise it in the workplace.While the pieces convinced me of the benefits of collaboration an acknowledgment of its shortcomings e.g. employees and task unsuited for teamwork and penalizing employees who work better alone etc. would better prepare employers and employees for the problems they could encounter thus providing solutions and improving upon an already innovate workplace model.