An interactive workshop on the changing academic library, from endings to new beginnings. Prepared at the invitation of the Associated College Libraries of Central Pennsylvania, the workshop covers how budgets, staffing, and shifts in information-seeking behaviors and preferences are driving change in collections and services. The workshop concludes with a consideration of opportunities for innovation to add value and advance the missions of the colleges and universities that libraries serve.

1. Powering up
FROM IDEAS TO INNOVATION:
for change
Karen Calhoun
AUL for Organizational Development
October 2012
and Assessment
University of Pittsburgh
University Library System
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

2. INTERACTIONS 1
• Look at the corner of your badge:
what letter is there?
• Go to the table with that letter on it.
• Sit down and say hello to the
people sitting at that table.
2

3. MY ROLE AT PITT
• Started late July 2011
• Work for Rush Miller, University Librarian
• FY13 assignments:
• Guide process to collaboratively develop the
library’s FY14 strategic plan
• Guide ULS Leadership Development
Program
• Guide assessment processes (e.g., user
needs, newly introduced user services, ULS
committee structure)
• Change management, project management 3

4. DISCONTINUOUS CHANGE AND THE NEED
FOR TRANSFORMATIONAL THINKING
 Definition and response  Examples
 Non-incremental change  Automobiles and highways
that threatens existing disrupted railroads
structures because it  Netflix disrupted video
drastically alters the way stores
things are currently done or  Google disrupts traditional
have been done for years information services and
(businessdictionary.com) systems
 Displaced service models
and traditional values
don’t/can’t adjust quickly
enough; thinking reflects
what has been, not what is
or will be
Libraries have entered an era of discontinuous change—a time
when the cumulated assets of the past do not guarantee future success.
4

5. BUDGET AND STAFFING IN ACLCP
LIBRARIES
…budget cuts,
personnel losses,
reorganization,
shifting work
patterns, and
innovative ideas
5

6. A STUDY OF BUDGETS, STAFFING,
COLLECTIONS AND USE OF ACLCP LIBRARIES,
2002-2010
 Based on data from biennial surveys of academic
libraries by the National Center for Education
Statistics (NCES)
 NCES Library Statistics Program ―Compare Academic
Libraries‖ service
 Data was consistently available for 17 of the ACLCP
libraries – these are the ―comparison group‖
 Examined NCES data on ACLCP library expenditures,
staffing, collections, and services from 2002, 2004,
2006, 2008, and 2010 data sets
 My investigation completed before I discovered John
J. Regazzi research findings (published September
2012)
6

7. ACLCP FINDINGS: MEDIAN ENROLLMENT
UP
7

8. ACLCP FINDINGS: MEDIAN EXPENDITURES,
ADJUSTED TO 2010 DOLLARS
Average ACLCP libs.: Up 13%
Minimum: Down 21%
Maximum: Up 69%
62.5% had increases
12.5% budgets flat
25% had decreases
Regazzi 2012 findings:
Nationally, academic libraries
up 12% 1998-2008
8

9. ACLCP FINDINGS – MEDIAN
EXPENDITURES PER STUDENT
9

10. ACLCP FINDINGS: MEDIAN STAFFING
Percent Change 2002 to 2010
National median librarian/other prof staffing 12.5%
National median total staffing 2.6%
State median librarian/other prof staffing 37.0% BUT…
State median total staffing 14.8%
ACLCP median librarian/other prof staffing 12.5%
ACLCP median total staffing 18.4%
STAFFING GROWTH
LAGGED
ENROLLMENT
GROWTH
10

11. ACLCP FINDINGS – COLLECTIONS
TRENDS
11

12. ACLCP FINDINGS – CIRCULATIONS PER
STUDENT
12

13. ACLCP FINDINGS – MEDIAN REFERENCE
AND GATE COUNTS PER STUDENT
13

14. ACLCP FINDINGS – PRESENTATIONS AND
INFORMATION LITERACY
Information Literacy in
Institution's Mission?
% ACLCP Libraries
responding yes:
2006: 41.2%
2008: 47.1%
2010: 47.1%
2010 National: 32.7%*
2010 State: 38.8%*
*Data source: Table 13, supplemental tables to NCES academic libraries 2010 report
14

15. SUMMARY ACLCP FINDINGS FOR THE
COMPARISON GROUP -1-
 ENROLLMENT is up at ACLCP institutions
 BUDGET:
 As a group, the ACLCP libraries received a median budget
increase of about 37% above inflation over the period 2002 -
2010 (average budget increase of 13%)
 As a group, median total salary expenditures increased 22%
above inflation
 ACLCP libraries’ median expenditures per student are up,
especially for e-content
 STAFFING:
 As a group, ACLCP median library staf fing is up 18% over the
period 2002-2010, but it has not kept pace with rising
enrollments at ACLCP institutions
 ACLCP total staf fing is trending ahead of national and state
levels 15

16. SUMMARY ACLCP FINDINGS FOR THE
COMPARISON GROUP -2-
 COLLECTIONS:
 Investment in print collections is down
 Holdings of e-books is up 5-fold since 2006; current serials have
more than doubled since 2002
 As a group, ACLCP libraries appear to have embraced e -books,
more so than academic libraries nationally or at the state level
 SERVICES:
 Circulation and reference per student at ACLCP libraries are
down; gate count is up
 The number of presentations given in ACLCP libraries is behind
national and state trends 2006 -2010
 ACLCP libraries appear to be ahead of national and state trends
to include information literacy as a mission of the institution
16

17. WHAT IS THE SOURCE OF THE STRAIN
THAT LIBRARIANS AND STAFF FEEL?
 Per NCES data, in general, the source is not
constrained budgets and staffing…
 More likely it is the hybrid nature (bifurcation) of the
library, moving through a transition between past
and future service models …
―It may well be that managing both the print collections with the
requisite staff, while also investing in the electronic future and
the skills to drive these initiatives, is what is beginning to strain
library resources.‖ (Regazzi 2012, 467)
17

18. INTERACTIONS 2: WRITE
DOWN ONE IDEA 10 minutes
1. Silently, take an index card and write
an answer to the question: What is
one specific external threat OR
internal limitation facing your library
over the next two years?
2. Silently, put your completed card in
the middle of the table. Take
somebody else’s card from the middle
of the table.
3. As a group, read your cards aloud,
then discuss what is written on them. 18

19. ―It’s not the changes that do you
THREE
in, it’s the transitions‖ –William PHASES OF
Bridges TRANSITION
 Change = something in the external
environment changes (e.g., a new
director is hired; a new system is
introduced; a reorganization occurs) It is critical to
m a n a ge
t r a n s i t io ns
 Transition = an internal reorientation i n c l us i v e l y b y
process e n g a gi ng s t a f f
in the
process.
Bridges, William. 1991. Managing transitions: making the most of change.
Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley.
19

20. MORE FROM BRIDGES
• People don’t resist the change; they
resist the transition, particularly its
losses and endings.
• ―Before you can begin something new,
you have to end what used to be. Before
you can learn a new way of doing
things, you have to unlearn the old way.‖
20

21. ENDINGS
What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make an end is to make a beginning
The end is where we start from
--T.S. Eliot
21

22. INTERACTIONS 3: WRITE
DOWN ONE IDEA 10 minutes
1. Silently, take an index card and write
an answer to the question: What is
ending or could end at your library, or
what could be done differently to free
up time for new initiatives?
2. Silently, put your completed card in
the middle of the table. Take
somebody else’s card from the middle
of the table.
3. As a group, read your cards aloud,
then discuss what is written on them. 22

23. OPPORTUNITIES
 Understanding those we serve – faculty and student
behaviors and preferences
 Space – virtual (discoverability; easy off -campus
authentication)
 Space – physical – the library as meeting place
(―come to the place where everyone is getting their
work done!‖)
 Collections – ebooks, PDA, consortia
 Engagement – outreach, partnerships, contributions
to student and faculty success
 Demonstrating value – assessment
23

24. Faculty
• World class collections
• Seamless access on and off campus
• Personalized help when I need it
• More time to focus on my research,
HOW writing and teaching
Undergraduates
DO
THEY • Places to get my work done, day & night
• Places for group work, great wireless, lots
WORK of computers and outlets
•
? •
Quick, friendly help when I need it
Help honing my research skills
WHAT
DO Grad Students & Researchers
THEY
• World class collections
NEED? • Seamless access on and off campus
• Quiet space in library to work
• Research consultations and
workshops
24

25. EVERYWHERE, THE LIBRARY
Library as Place Place as Library
Engagement:
Oakland We’re where
campus
libraries you are Seamless
off-campus
access
Thomas Boulevard
Archives Service Center
Storage Facility 25

26. SOME OF OUR IDEAS FOR SPACE REDESIGN
Knowledge Commons
Service Desk
User-centered— Collaboration
but we still have books! rooms (group study)
Instruction space
Quiet study
space
Sample floor plan
Research Flexible open
Glass offices for staff consultations seating
26

27. COLLECTIONS: THE RIGHT STUFF
27

28.  Add value through high-impact
practices, for example:
 Participation/direct contributions
to first-year seminars and
experiences
 Set up learning communities
 Interventions in writing-intensive
courses, collaborative assignments
and projects
 Establish undergraduate research
programs
 Offer and promote services around
internships, capstone courses and
projects
 Integrate library resources into
course materials on a massive
scale
28

29. HOW DOES YOUR LIBRARY ADVANCE THE
MISSIONS OF YOUR INSTITUTION?
 NOT WHAT YOU DO:
 NOT measures of internal library processes such as input
and output measures, external perceptions of quality, and
satisfaction with library services
 BUT WHY YOU MATTER TO THOSE YOU SERVE! (the “So
what?” question)
 How does the library help student enrollment, student
retention and graduation rates?
 What impact does the library have on student success,
student achievement, student learning, student
engagement?
 What impact does the library have on faculty research
productivity, faculty teaching, service?
 In what ways does the library add to overarching
institutional quality? See Oakleaf 2010 29

30. INTERACTIONS 4: WRITE
DOWN ONE IDEA 10 minutes
1. Silently, take an index card and write
an answer to the question: What is
ONE specific key opportunity for your
library over the next two years?
2. Silently, put your completed card in
the middle of the table. Take
somebody else’s card from the middle
of the table.
3. As a group, read your cards aloud,
then discuss what is written on them.
30

31. A NEW KIND OF LIBRARY
• Build a vision of a new
kind of library
• Be more involved with
research and learning
materials and systems
• Be more engaged with
campus communities
• Make library collections,
services, and librarians
more visible in academic
communities of practice
• Build on and for the web
• Culture of assessment
Image:
By The Opte Project [CC-BY-2.5 ]
The library in the community
via Wikimedia Commons
Internet_map_1024.jpg
(in virtual space) 31

32. THANK YOU!  ksc34@pitt.edu
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mtsofan/6166986907/
By mtsofan
CC-BY-NC-SA
32

33. DATA SOURCES AND DOCUMENTATION
 Phan, Tai, L. Hardesty, J. Hug, and C. Sheckells. 2011 . Academic
Libraries: 2010. Washington DC: National Center for Education
Statistics.
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2012365
 Documentation for the 2010 survey data:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2011367
 See also NCES Academic Libraries biennial reports and
documentation for 2008, 2006, 2004, and 2002 -- Start here:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/getpubcats.asp?sid=041#050
 National Center for Education Statistics. 2012. ―Library Statistics
Program: Compare Academic Libraries.‖ NCES Librar y
Comparison. http://nces.ed.gov/sur veys/libraries/compare/
33

34. ACLCP COMPARISON GROUP FOR THIS
STUDY*
1. Albright College 10. Lebanon Valley
2. Alvernia College College
3. Dickinson College 11. Lycoming College
4. Elizabethtown College 12. Messiah College
5. Franklin and Marshall 13. Millersville University
College 14. Shippensburg
6. Gettysburg College University
7. Harrisburg Area 15. Susquehanna
Community College University
8. Juniata College 16. Wilson College
9. Kutztown University 17. York College
*using NCES data for 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2010 34

35. SOME SUGGESTED READING
 Oakleaf, Megan. 2010. The Value of Academic
Libraries: A Comprehensive Research Review and
Report. American Library Association. Association of
College and Research Libraries.
 Regazzi, John J. 2012. ―Constrained? An Analysis of
US Academic Library Shifts in Spending, Staffing,
and Utilization, 1998–2008.‖ College & Research
Libraries 73 (5): 449–468.
35