Conference proceeding from the Living the Future 6 Conference, April 5-8, 2006, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / In the pursuit of creating a culture of assessment, Purdue University has been developing organizational structures to encourage teams and units to integrate assessment and evaluation throughout their work projects. We created an Evaluation and Assessment Consultative Team (EACT) five years ago to assist units with their assessments, and for the past few years, the Libraries have explicitly required teams to include measurable outcomes in their annual planning documents. This presentation will describe the planning process that our teams and units go through to integrate assessment into their work, including staff development activities sponsored by EACT that prepare teams for this process. Examples of team-engendered assessments will be shared as well. The brief presentation of the assessment situation at Purdue will be a springboard into a discussion of the challenges teams face when asked to include outcomes in their planning. The audience will be divided into small groups to construct a list of challenges and will report them out. Then, as a group, we'll brainstorm staff development, administrative, or other techniques to address those challenges.

Conference proceeding from the Living the Future 6 Conference, April 5-8, 2006, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / The Association of Research Libraries sponsored program "Making Library Assessment Work" is a two year effort to evaluate assessment efforts in ARL Libraries. Led by Visiting Program Officers Steve Hiller (University of Washington Libraries) and Jim Self (University of Virginia Library) and under the aegis of the Director of the ARL Statistics and Measurement Program, Martha Kyrillidou, twenty-five ARL libraries are participating. Each library does a "self study" of their assessment efforts and needs which is followed by a 2 day site visit and a report containing recommendations and suggestions for an effective, sustainable and practical assessment program. One of the more interesting findings from the 12 libraries visited in 2005 was the relationship of organizational culture(s) and structure to effective library assessment. Each library had a distinctive culture (or cultures) that exerted a powerful influence on the success of assessment efforts. It became clear that sustainable and effective assessment must take into account existing local cultures to be successful. What works in one library won't necessarily work in others. This presentation reviews the range of organizational cultures encountered and discusses the different approaches recommended to make library assessment work in each library.

Conference proceeding from the Living the Future 6 Conference, April 5-8, 2006, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / Traditionally, technical services staff have possessed skills associated with acquisitions, cataloging, collection development, preservation and stacks management responsibilities. However in today’s rapidly changing library, technical services roles and responsibilities have changed. Technical services departments now require advanced technology, academic training, public services, and teaching skills that support innovative, independent, creative, and forward-thinking approaches to the provision of collections and services. How can libraries acquire and cultivate needed skills? What effect can new skill sets have on designing workflow, setting priorities, accomplishing goals, and meeting user expectations? This presentation will focus on the University of Connecticut Libraries process for identifying new and essential skills, recruiting new staff, and the impact new skill sets and experiences have had on changing the dynamics and directions of Technical Services.

Conference proceeding from the Living the Future 6 Conference, April 5-8, 2006, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / The Gelman Library System of George Washington University has made a transition to an organizational model that emphasizes the needs of students and working in groups. We are preparing for future changes in user needs and redefinition of services, including participation in LibQUAL+ in spring of 2006 and small "town meetings" with library staff to develop an understanding of the changing student population. In these meetings, we hope to include focus groups from a local science and technology magnet school to learn more about what future students will expect and need from academic libraries. One of the key services we hope to look at is reference and information services and how this should fit with overall services. We will also need to become "leaner" but more efficient. Some staff positions may disappear, and others may require higher or different skill levels. As we plan for the future, we will need to face the challenges of our own collaborative nature and whether this supports or inhibits change. Some areas of focus include: communication, team structures and breaking down barriers between functions, and challenges working with staff from different generations (are Gen X's ready to be the "older" generation?)

Poster presentation from the Living the Future 6 Conference, April 5-8, 2006, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / This poster session describes building an Integrated Library System (ILS) for Afghanistan academic libraries using open source software. We will present our approaches in software selection, improvements, and modifications such as Persian language support and users interface.

Poster presentation from the Living the Future 6 Conference, April 5-8, 2006, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / Talk to UA Library staff who are involved with a unique outsourcing venture with OCLC. As "outsourcees," UA staff provide catalog records for Middle Eastern language cataloging to OCLC. In return, OCLC provides credits for Chinese language cataloging to the UA.

Poster presentation from the Living the Future 6 Conference, April 5-8, 2006, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / In the past several years, circulation and shelving statistics as well as the usage of print reserves have declined. At the University of Arizona Libraries, we are moving from a traditional mediated service environment towards increased user self-sufficiency, where the basic circulation transactions become unmediated. Come learn how we have implemented open holds, reserves, self check-in, streaming audio and soon streaming video. Learn how we have consolidated services into a single desk, the challenges we faced and competencies required to create a new future for your circulation staff.

Conference proceeding from the Living the Future 6 Conference, April 5-8, 2006, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / A concrete (pun intended) method of team building is managing a new building program from wish list to grand opening. Using Appalachian State University’s experience with its new $30 million, 215,000 square foot building as a starting point, Lynne Lysiak and Mary Reichel will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a library team approach to a building project. At Appalachian State, the Library’s Internal Building Group comprised of 15 faculty and staff was the coordinating group for library decisions related to the building and its furnishings. This experience has helped the presenters think about questions such as how do you shape a building to meet future needs of personnel and users? How do you balance the necessity for keeping the big picture in sight while dealing with thousands of details and individual decisions? How do you have technology which is pervasive, user friendly, and flexible enough to meet today’s and the next decade’s need? How do you weigh the investment of many people’s time in the building project while still running the library? And, overall, was building with a team, a true team building experience? The presenters will share their thoughts and ideas and ask the audience to engage in discussion and participation on building for the future.

Conference proceeding from the Living the Future 6 Conference, April 5-8, 2006, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / In the fall of 2003, a new Director of Libraries at Binghamton University outlined a vision for transforming the University Libraries into a student centered learning community. This required reorganization of the Library public services departments, with an emphasis on improved staff morale and leadership, in order to set public services on a positive, user centered path. Within the first three months of my arrival in January 2005 as the new Associate Director of Public Services, facilities related situations dictated the merging of the Reserves, Circulation and ILL service points. This was to occur while simultaneously planning was under way for the first phase of an Information Commons collaboration between the Libraries and Computing Services. These transitions were in addition to the ongoing process of combining Reference and Access Services in a branch library, and were furthered influenced by a number of pressing matters, some predating the new Library Administration, and some set in motion by the transitions themselves taking place amid the shifting formal and informal organizational changes occurring in the Library. This session will focus on 3 specific examples of change, as described above, in the first year of reorganizing and energizing Public Services at Binghamton University Libraries and will utilize elements from the Three-Phase Transition Model (Endings, Neutral Zone, and New Beginnings) for managing the changes and transitions.

Conference proceeding from the Living the Future 6 Conference, April 5-8, 2006, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / Our users have a new set of expectations for libraries as Internet services such as Amazon and Google offer them simplicity and immediate reward. How must our fragmented bibliographic systems and practices evolve to remain relevant to scholars in the future? In 2005, the University Librarians of the University of California charged a task force to tackle that question, to rethink how we provide bibliographic services and recommend a roadmap for the future. The UC Bibliographic Services Task Force report <http://libraries.universityofcalifornia.edu/sopag/BSTF/Final.pdf> is a call for change and a call to action. The entire University of California library system is currently giving feedback on the recommendations and discussing next steps. In this session, two members of the task force will describe how the report took shape and how the UC Libraries will now move from vision to decision.