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New Workforce Transformation Story: Library Reorganization

image © Tom Sharlot

ARL’s Transforming Research Libraries (TRL) Steering Committee has published the latest entry in its column, Workforce Transformation Stories. Marcy Simons, organizational development librarian at the University of Notre Dame Hesburgh Libraries, contributed the December essay, “Library Reorganization.”

In this piece, Simons describes the organizational analysis and design (OAD) process that the Hesburgh Libraries implemented in 2012, in part to respond to multiple retirements and to a new strategic plan. Simons notes that the libraries’ OAD process included several critical components—such as a “coach” for staff and the OAD management team, a communication plan, and a staff talent survey—and resulted in a transformative reorganization. In a commitment to continual evaluation, the libraries established an OAD assessment team that surveys the staff every six months and makes regular recommendations to library leadership based on input from staff.

ARL’s TRL Steering Committee hopes this monthly column will enable library leaders to point to evidence of trends and general truths, and to support organizational change. Collectively we will build a shared understanding of what it means to work in a research library and what skills and competencies are required.

Potential topics might include:

  • How evolving pressures and priorities in higher education are changing library work
  • The library’s role in promoting new technologies
  • Techniques for the successful on-boarding and mentoring of new library staff
  • Unique staffing models through campus collaborations
  • Innovative ways to provide professional development opportunities
  • Effective annual evaluation and promotion review processes
  • Successful reorganizations and the resulting organizational synergies

If you are interested in contributing a story, contact Judy Ruttenberg at judy@arl.org.

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The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 125 research libraries in the US and Canada. ARL’s mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, facilitating the emergence of new roles for research libraries, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the web at https://www.arl.org/.

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