On planning and tech….(module 4) OR “I don’t want less one to one. I want more one to one, more participation, deeper engagement, better outcomes, more of everything”

04Oct13

Ah the ‘p’ word. It is kind of my nemesis in a way. Yes I do plan. I plan a lot of things. My father even a town planner. But I don’t know how well I plan to make things happen at work. I think I need to be more strategic in my planning!

My job description involves staying abreast of emerging technologies and implementing them as needed. But the technology is just a tool as Michael Stephens has stated. A tool to meet the mission and goals of our workplace.

My university library mission statement and values statement is on our website. Briefly our mission and vision is to:

The Library’s mission is to enable and enrich the teaching, learning and research endeavours of the University by delivering flexible access to extensive and relevant information resources and by providing quality services and facilities.

Our vision for the library service is to have:

• Resource provision and access that is coordinated and futures-oriented, and that finds integrated and innovative solutions to optimise the effectiveness of a limited resource base.

• Stronger partnerships with the University’s teaching, learning and research community to enable a more direct contribution to the educational mission of ACU.

• Staff members who, by building on their professional expertise, provide an exemplary service that demonstrates a commitment to meeting the individual and collective information needs of clients.

• Management practices and operations that embody a commitment to Quality Assurance principles, and are attuned to the changing needs of the University.

• Technological and physical infrastructure developments that better enable the provision of flexible and responsive access to services and resources into the future.

I don’t think I suffer from any of the techno problems listed in Michael’s lecture, although I can think of people that I work with who suffer from some of them. I have instigated and organised all five learning 2.0/23 Things programs for our Library staff. Getting staff on board, playing, experimenting, thinking about how these tools and technologies can help us meet our goals and help our students and staff has all been a great experience. I JUST DON’T KNOW IF WE DO IT INCREDIBLY WELL AT THE MOMENT.

My capital letters because we have Facebook, Twitter, Flickr for work but I need to plan and think about what we are typing to do there. I used to say to management- “oh the social media stuff is quick, it doesn’t take time”, but I am finding that great engagement, building community does take time and energy and a team! When I get back from leave (yes I am taking a week off to go to Ubud in Bali), I will be coming back to propose a revamped team approach to our blogging and Facebook and Twitter pages.

I need to be a bit more strategic in my work planning, putting a plan forward with some markers so that I know I am on the right track & so that I can better report back to management. I do make a point of emailing retweets, interesting interactions on the blog or Facebook just so that these tools are kept in the minds of my management. But I could do a lot more.

I am required to plan and write proposals for all projects I do….but sometimes I think I get things around the wrong way. I can’s really explain, but I get cranky with all the planning, proposals, hoops that I do have to go through. But I think I need to just accept the management situation and just get on. Too much energy at times wasted feeling annoyed. And I am often able to run pilot projects, which is really experimentation in another word!

We use LibGuides at our Library and I am the administrator for them. I often refer to our LibGuides as living documents as I am very keen that our liaison librarians don’t create a LibGuide and then forget it. Like gardening, they need weeding, pruning, displaying in different ways, as well as water and food. And so our mission, values and our technology plans are also living documents, as Jowaissas states (Stephens, 2004).

I loved Michael Edson’s lecture on scale. What an amazing way to put ideas, both in terms of perspective but also to illustrate the possibilities of what we do! I cannot possibly imagine writing a proposal stating that my deliverables on something would be 10 times that of the last time! The big scale stuff is, well…huge, but the zero to 1 scale is even more interesting, and is often where we are in libraries? I loved how Michael concluded with the …“I don’t want less one to one. I want more one to one, more participation, deeper engagement, better outcomes, more of everything”. I think I’ll write that up and put it on my noticeboard at work! My new mantra. Because in ways, even though there is always new, there is a lot of consolidation I can be doing to do things better. I am not striving for perfect, not at all, just for deeper engagement and community. I know we can do more there.

Interestingly, after this module and some reading and thought I am enthused and excited about techno planning. Our six libraries span three states and one territory in Australia, but we all use Lync to video-meet, share desktops and be part of a learning community. I like the idea of a fortnightly or monthly virtual emerging technology group where we can look at new web tools or apps together. Onwards!

Ethos statue

“Ethos” (1961) by Tom Bass, is a copper statue situated significantly outside the entrance to the ACT Legislative Assembly. Photo by me – http://www.flickr.com/photos/katiett/8123170798/

Bibliography:

Bort, J. (2011, July 15). 10 technologies that will change the world in the next 10 years [Web log post]. Network World. Retrieved from http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/071511-cisco-futurist.html?page=1

Casey, M., &  Stephens, M. (2008, April). Measuring progress. Library Journal, 133(7), 28. Retrieved from http://tametheweb.com/2008/04/15/measuring-progress/

Dowd, N. (2013, May 7). Social media: Libraries are posting, but is anyone listening? [Web log post]. Library Journal. Retrieved from http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2013/05/marketing/social-media-libraries-are-posting-but-is-anyone-listening/

Eckerle, C. (2013, January 31). Social media marketing: How New York Public Library increased card sign-ups by 35% [Web log post]. MarketingSherpa blog. Retrieved from http://sherpablog.marketingsherpa.com/online-marketing/nypl-social-media-marketing/

Green, G. (2012, November 30). The innovative use of technology in libraries [Web log post]. #UKLIBCHAT. Retrieved from http://uklibchat.wordpress.com/2012/11/30/feature-01-innovative-use-of-technology-in-libraries/

Greenhill, K. (2007, March 27). Library emerging technologies group [Web log post]. Librarians Matter. Retrieved from http://librariansmatter.com/blog/2007/03/29/library-emerging-technologies-group/

Hendrix, J. C. (2010, February). Checking out the future: Perspectives from the library community on information technology and 21st century libraries (Policy brief no. 2). Chicago, IL: ALA Office for Information Technology Policy. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/oitp/publications/policybriefs/ala_checking_out_the.pdf

Knobloch, C. (2013, January 1). Tech trends for 2013 that will change the way you live [Web log post]. TODAY Tech. Retrieved from http://www.today.com/tech/tech-trends-2013-will-change-way-you-live-1C7791494?franchiseSlug=todaytechmain

NewMediaConsortium. (2013, February 13). NMC Horizon Report: 2012 higher education edition [Video file]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/NyQK2ZucXJI

Stephens, M. (2008). Taming technolust: Ten steps for planning in a 2.0 world. Reference and User Services Quarterly, 47(4), 314-317. In Tame The Web (TTW). Retrieved from http://tametheweb.com/2012/05/30/taming-technolust-ten-steps-for-planning-in-a-2-0-world-full-text/

Stephens, M. (2004). Technoplans vs. technolust. Library Journal, 129(18), 36-37.

 

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Tags: library, mission, planning, technology, vision